Given a passage classify if the passage has a definite objective/aim/goal or not. Output '1' if the passage has a defininte objective/aim/goal and output '0' if the passage does not have a definite objective/aim/goal.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is prognosti- cally important in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Since PH only weakly correlates with hypoxemia, other factors must play a role.', 'To investigate whether polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter (5HTT), serotonin-2a receptor (5HTR2a) and endothelial nitric oxide synthetase (eNOS) are related to PH in COPD.', 'In 59 COPD patients who underwent right heart catheterization, 6-min walking distance, NYHA functional class, pulmonary function tests, blood gases and 5HTT, 5HTR2a and eNOS (4ab and T298C) polymorphisms were determined.', 'Forty-nine COPD patients in NYHA functional class III-IV were included. Ten were excluded due to comorbid causes of PH (mainly chronic thromboembolic). PH (mPAP > or =25 mm Hg) was present in 55% and usually mild, but out of proportion (mPAP > or =40 mm Hg) in 12%. Patients with PH had significantly higher frequencies of the 5HTT-L-allele (52%) compared to individuals without PH (36%), and LL homozygote patients had more severe PH. In patients with out-of-proportion PH, the L-allelic frequency was even 75%. We found no association of 5HTR2a and eNOS polymorphism with PH in COPD.
1

Imitation, which is impaired in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and critically depends on the integration of visual input with motor output, likely impacts both motor and social skill acquisition in children with ASD; however, it is unclear what brain mechanisms contribute to this impairment. Children with ASD also exhibit what appears to be an ASD-specific bias against using visual feedback during motor learning. Does the temporal congruity of intrinsic activity, or functional connectivity, between motor and visual brain regions contribute to ASD-associated deficits in imitation, motor, and social skills?', 'We acquired resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans from 100 8- to 12-year-old children (50 ASD). Group independent component analysis was used to estimate functional connectivity between visual and motor systems. Brain-behavior relationships were assessed by regressing functional connectivity measures with social deficit severity, imitation, and gesture performance scores.', 'We observed increased intrinsic asynchrony between visual and motor systems in children with ASD and replicated this finding in an independent sample from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange. Moreover, children with more out-of-sync intrinsic visual-motor activity displayed more severe autistic traits, while children with greater intrinsic visual-motor synchrony were better imitators.
0

Nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) identifies the microvascular hallmarks of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and may play a pivotal role in the associated vasculopathy. The aim of the present study was to compare NVC alterations with clinical subsets, internal organ involvement, and serum VEGF levels in a cohort of selected SSc cases.', 'We studied 44 patients with SSc who were evaluated within 3\xa0months from enrollment by NVC, skin score, severity index, pulmonary function tests, carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO), echocardiography, pulmonary high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), gastroesophageal (GE) endoscopy or manometry or X-ray, and serum autoantibodies. Serum VEGF-A levels were determined by ELISA in 72 SSc patients and 31 healthy controls.', 'Giant capillaries were inversely correlated with age (p\xa0=\xa00.034, r\xa0=\xa0-0.34) and to the extent of reticular pattern at HRCT (p\xa0=\xa00.04, r\xa0=\xa0-0.5). Avascular areas were directly correlated with capillaroscopy skin ulcer risk index (CSURI) (p\xa0=\xa00.006, r\xa0=\xa0+0.4) and severity index (p\xa0=\xa00.004, r\xa0=\xa0+0.5). The mean capillary density was directly correlated to the ulcer number (p\xa0=\xa00.02, r\xa0=\xa0+0.4) and to DLCO/alveolar volume (p\xa0=\xa00.02, r\xa0=\xa0+0.4) and inversely correlated with severity index (p\xa0=\xa00.01, r\xa0=\xa0-0.4) and skin score (p\xa0=\xa00.02, r\xa0=\xa0-0.4). Serum VEGF levels were higher in the SSc population vs controls (p\xa0=\xa00.03) and inversely correlated with DLCO (p\xa0=\xa00.01, r\xa0=-0.4) and directly with ground-glass and reticular pattern at HRCT (p\xa0=\xa00.04, r\xa0=\xa0+0.4 for both).

1