Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integration of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies into Primary-Care Pain Management for Opiate Reduction in a Rural Setting.

BACKGROUND Opiates are no longer considered the best strategy for the long-term management of chronic pain. Yet, physicians have made many patients dependent on them, and these patients still request treatment. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies have been shown to be effective, but are not widely available and are not often covered by insurance or available to the medically underserved. METHODS Group medical visits (GMVs) provided education about non-pharmacological methods for pain management and taught mindfulness techniques, movement, guided imagery, relaxation training, yoga, qigong, and t'ai chi. Forty-two patients attending GMVs for at least six months were matched prospectively with patients receiving conventional care. RESULTS No one increased their dose of opiates. Seventeen people reduced their dose, and seven people stopped opiates. On a 10-point scale of pain intensity, reductions in pain ratings achieved statistical significance (p = 0.001). The average reduction was 0.19 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.12-0.60; p = 0.01). The primary symptom improved on average by -0.42 (95% CI -0.31 to -0.93; p = 0.02) on the My Medical Outcome Profile, 2nd version. Improvement in the quality-of-life rating was statistically significant (p = 0.007) with a change of -1.42 (95% CI = -0.59 to -1.62). In conventional care, no patients reduced their opiate use, and 48.5% increased their dose over the two years of the project. CONCLUSIONS GMVs that incorporated CAM therapies helped patients reduce opiate use. While some patients found other physicians to give them the opiates they desired, those who persisted in an environment of respect and acceptance significantly reduced opiate consumption compared with patients in conventional care. While resistant to CAM therapies initially, the majority of patients came to accept and to appreciate their usefulness. GMVs were useful for incorporating non-reimbursed CAM therapies into primary medical care.
Abstract Clocks for the DSE of Data-Intensive Applications on MPSoCs

This paper presents an approach advocating abstract clocks to represent data-intensive applications executed on multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoCs) for facilitating the exploration of large design spaces. By using abstract clocks, the advocated method characterizes applications defined by multiple loop nests, as well as, useful loop transformations that contribute to an efficient application execution. It combines the advantages of optimizations provided by loop transformations and the precision of information on scheduling captured by the abstract clocks. As a result, it favors a rapid, and yet accurate design space exploration (DSE) of data-intensive systems.
Impact of Tumor Histology on Resectability and Neurological Outcome in Primary Intramedullary Spinal Cord Tumors: A Single-Center Experience With 102 Patients

BACKGROUND:Surgical outcomes for intramedullary spinal cord tumors are affected by many variables including tumor histology and preoperative neurological function. OBJECTIVE:To analyze the impact of tumor histology on neurological outcome in primary intramedullary spinal cord tumors. METHODS:A retrospective review of 102 consecutive patients with intramedullary spinal cord tumors treated at a single institution between January 1998 and March 2009. RESULTS:Ependymomas were the most common tumors with 55 (53.9%), followed by 21 astrocytomas (20.6%), 12 hemangioblastomas (11.8%), and 14 miscellaneous tumors (13.7%). Gross total resection was achieved in 50 ependymomas (90.9%), 3 astrocytomas (14.3%), 11 hemangioblastomas (91.7%), and 12 miscellaneous tumors (85.7%). At a mean follow-up of 41.8 months (range, 1-132 months), we observed recurrences in 4 ependymoma cases (7.3%), 10 astrocytoma cases (47.6%), 1 miscellaneous tumor case (7.1%), and no recurrence in hemangioblastoma cases. When analyzed by tumor location, there was no difference in neurological outcomes (P = .66). At the time of their last follow-up visit, 11 patients (20%) with an ependymoma improved, 38 (69%) remained the same, and 6 (10.9%) worsened. In patients with an astrocytoma, 1 (4.8%) improved, 10 (47.6%) remained the same, and 10 (47.6%) worsened. One patient (8.3%) with a hemangioblastoma improved and 11 (91.7%) remained the same. No patient with a hemangioblastoma worsened. In the miscellaneous tumor group, 2 (14.3%) improved, 10 (71.4%) remained the same, and 2 (14.3%) worsened. Preoperative neurological status (P = .02), tumor histology (P = .005), and extent of resection (P < .0001) were all predictive of functional neurological outcomes. CONCLUSION:Tumor histology is the most important predictor of neurological outcome after surgical resection because it predicts resectability and recurrence.
Inhibition of Cytochrome P 450 2 C 9 Improves Endothelium-Dependent , Nitric Oxide – Mediated Vasodilatation in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

Background—Nitric oxide (NO)– and prostacyclin-independent vasodilatation in several vascular beds has been linked to the activation of cytochrome P450 (CYP) epoxygenases expressed in endothelial cells. However, these enzymes, which generate vasodilator epoxyeicosatrienoic acids, may also produce oxygen-derived free radicals, which attenuate the bioavailability of NO. Here, we studied the involvement of CYP 2C9 in modulating endothelium-dependent and -independent changes in forearm blood flow (FBF) in healthy volunteers and in patients with manifest coronary artery disease. Methods and Results—The effects of sulfaphenazole, a selective inhibitor of CYP 2C9, on endothelium-dependent (acetylcholine) and endothelium-independent (sodium nitroprusside, SNP) FBF responses were measured by venous occlusion plethysmography in 5 healthy subjects and in 16 patients with angiographically documented stable coronary artery disease. Sulfaphenazole did not modify FBF responses to acetylcholine or SNP in healthy subjects. In contrast, sulfaphenazole markedly and dose-dependently enhanced the FBF response to acetylcholine without affecting the response to SNP. Vitamin C also increased the FBF response to acetylcholine, but this effect was further potentiated by sulfaphenazole. In the presence of N -monomethyl-L-arginine, sulfaphenazole failed to significantly improve acetylcholine-induced vasodilatation. The oxidation of serum proteins was enhanced in patients with coronary artery disease, and this effect was significantly attenuated by sulfaphenazole. Conclusions—The CYP 2C9 inhibitor sulfaphenazole enhances endothelium-dependent vasodilator responses in patients with manifest coronary artery disease. This effect seems to be related to an increase in the bioavailability of NO, probably as a consequence of an attenuated generation of reactive oxygen species by CYP 2C9 in endothelial cells. (Circulation. 2004;109:178-183.)
Unmixing Incoherent Structures of Big Data by Randomized or Greedy Decomposition

Learning big data by matrix decomposition always suffers from expensive computation, mixing of complicated structures and noise. In this paper, we study more adaptive models and efficient algorithms that decompose a data matrix as the sum of semantic components with incoherent structures. We firstly introduce "GO decomposition (GoDec)", an alternating projection method estimating the low-rank part $L$ and the sparse part $S$ from data matrix $X=L+S+G$ corrupted by noise $G$. Two acceleration strategies are proposed to obtain scalable unmixing algorithm on big data: 1) Bilateral random projection (BRP) is developed to speed up the update of $L$ in GoDec by a closed-form built from left and right random projections of $X-S$ in lower dimensions; 2) Greedy bilateral (GreB) paradigm updates the left and right factors of $L$ in a mutually adaptive and greedy incremental manner, and achieve significant improvement in both time and sample complexities. Then we proposes three nontrivial variants of GoDec that generalizes GoDec to more general data type and whose fast algorithms can be derived from the two strategies.
Renin Gene Transfer Restores Angiogenesis and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression in Dahl S Rats

In a previous study, we demonstrated that Dahl S rats (SS group) have low plasma renin activity, whereas transfer of a region of chromosome 13 containing the renin gene from Dahl R onto a congenic strain of Dahl SS/Jr/Hsd/MCW rats (S/renRR group) restores renin secretory responses. In the present study, we compared the angiogenic responses to electrical stimulation in the SS and S/renRR groups to explore the hypotheses that the renin-angiotensin system is involved in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and angiogenesis in skeletal muscle. Congenic SS and S/renRR rats fed a 0.4% or 4% salt diet were surgically prepared by chronic implantation of an electrical stimulator. Another group of S/renRR rats was treated with lisinopril 2 days before the surgery and throughout the stimulation protocol. The right tibialis anterior (TA) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) were stimulated for 8 hours per day for 7 days. The contralateral muscles served as controls. Western blot analysis was performed to identify VEGF protein expression in these muscles. Electrical stimulation produced no change in vessel density of the SS group fed a 0.4% salt diet (change 5.50% and 8.14% for EDL and TA, respectively). Transfer of a region containing the renin gene restored the angiogenic response (change 16% and 30% for EDL and TA, respectively) despite a significantly higher blood pressure. Blockade of the renin-angiotensin system by lisinopril or high salt restored the responses observed in the SS group fed a low salt diet. In addition, increases in VEGF expression to electrical stimulation were observed only in the S/renRR group fed a low salt diet. These results suggest that renin gene transfer restores angiogenesis and VEGF expression in the skeletal muscle of Dahl S rats.
Studies of fullerenes and carbon nanotubes by an extended bond order potential

We present a novel approach to combine bond order potentials with long-range nonbond interactions. This extended bond order potential consistently takes into account bond terms and nonbond terms. It not only captures the advantages of the bond order potentials (i.e. simulating bond forming and breaking), but also systematically includes the nonbond contributions to energy and forces in studying the structure and dynamics of covalently bonded systems such as graphite, diamond, nanotubes, fullerenes and hydrocarbons, in their crystal and melt forms. Using this modified bond order potential, we studied the structure and thermal properties (including thermal conductivity) of C60 crystal, and the elastic properties and plastic deformation processes of the single-walled and double-walled nanotubes. This extended bond order potential enables us to simulate large deformations of a nanotube under tensile and compressive loads. The basic formulation in this paper is transferable to other bond order potentials and traditional valence force fields.
Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA): The Prevalent Form of Adult-Onset Autoimmune Diabetes in a Region of India

Aims: We undertook a study to investigate the prevalence and general characteristics of patients with Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA). Methods: This was a cross-sectional investigation conducted in the National Capital Region of India. Total of 139 subjects were recruited in the study. All subjects were screened for Glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody (GADA). GADA was analysed using ELISA kits with 98% specificity and 92% sensitivity. Results: The prevalence of LADA was 6.5% (6.3% in men and 6.8% in women); 95% Confidence interval (CI): 3.29 12.0% among adult-onset diabetic patients. Prevalence of LADA seemed to gradually decline with increasing age. LADA (n=9) and DM2 (n=130) patients were compared. LADA patients were younger (p = 0.045), had lower age at onset of diabetes (p = 0.025), waist circumference (p = 0.021). LADA patients had also longer duration of diabetes (p = 0.045). There was no significant difference in BMI between two groups. Conclusions: Our results indicate that LADA represents 6.5 % of cases among adult-onset diabetes in a region of north India. LADA is a prevalent form of adult-onset autoimmune diabetes and not rare. This study shows different phenotypic features of LADA patients compared to DM2 patients. In the developing world, sometimes routine antibody testing may be considered not to be cost-effective. Thus, clinical and phenotypic features of LADA may help clinicians recognize patients for potential antibody screening.
μ-Opioid Receptors Often Colocalize with the Substance P Receptor (NK1) in the Trigeminal Dorsal Horn

Substance P (SP) is a peptide that is present in unmyelinated primary afferents to the dorsal horn and is released in response to painful or noxious stimuli. Opiates active at the μ-opiate receptor (MOR) produce antinociception, in part, through modulation of responses to SP. MOR ligands may either inhibit the release of SP or reduce the excitatory responses of second-order neurons to SP. We examined potential functional sites for interactions between SP and MOR with dual electron microscopic immmunocytochemical localization of the SP receptor (NK1) and MOR in rat trigeminal dorsal horn. We also examined the relationship between SP-containing profiles and NK1-bearing profiles. We found that 56% of SP-immunoreactive terminals contact NK1 dendrites, whereas 34% of NK1-immunoreactive dendrites receive SP afferents. This result indicates that there is not a significant mismatch between sites of SP release and available NK1 receptors, although receptive neurons may contain receptors at sites distant from the peptide release site. With regard to opioid receptors, we found that many MOR-immunoreactive dendrites also contain NK1 (32%), whereas a smaller proportion of NK1-immunoreactive dendrites contain MOR (17%). Few NK1 dendrites (2%) were contacted by MOR-immunoreactive afferents. These results provide the first direct evidence that MORs are on the same neurons as NK1 receptors, suggesting that MOR ligands directly modulate SP-induced nociceptive responses primarily at postsynaptic sites, rather than through inhibition of SP release from primary afferents. This colocalization of NK1 and MORs has significant implications for the development of pain therapies targeted at these nociceptive neurons.
Type IV collagen modulates angiogenesis and neovessel survival in the rat aorta model

SummaryType IV collagen is a major basement membrane component that has been implicated in the regulation of angiogenesis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of type IV collagen on the angiogenic response of native endothelial cells in three-dimensional vascular organ culture. Rings of rat aorta were cultured under serum-free conditions in gels of type I collagen with or without type IV collagen. In the absence of type IV collagen, aortic rings generated neovessels, which proliferated until day 9 and gradually regressed during the second and third weeks of culture. Type IV collagen promoted neovessel elongation and survival in a dose-dependent manner. Microvascular length increased by 43, 57, and 119% over control values in cultures treated with 3, 30, and 300 μg/ml type IV collagen, respectively. When used at high concentrations (300 μg/ml) type IV collagen stabilized the neovascular outgrowths and prevented vascular regression. Type IV collagen also promoted the formation of neovessels, but significant stimulatory effects were observed only at an intermediate concentration (30 μg/ml) and were no longer significant at the high concentration (300 μg/ml). The observation that type IV collagen has dose-dependent effects on vascular elongation, proliferation, and stabilization, supports the concept that the developing basement membrane of neovessles acts as a solid-phase regulator of angiogenesis, whose function varies depending on the concentration of its molecular components.
Sex Differences in Nonculprit Coronary Plaque Microstructures on Frequency-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography in Acute Coronary Syndromes and Stable Coronary Artery Disease

Background—Numerous reports suggest sex-related differences in atherosclerosis. Frequency-domain optical coherence tomography has enabled visualization of plaque microstructures associated with disease instability. The prevalence of plaque microstructures between sexes has not been characterized. We investigated sex differences in plaque features in patients with coronary artery disease. Methods and Results—Nonculprit plaques on frequency-domain optical coherence tomography imaging were compared between men and women with either stable coronary artery disease (n=320) or acute coronary syndromes (n=115). A greater prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors was observed in women. Nonculprit plaques in women with stable coronary artery disease were more likely to exhibit plaque erosion (8.6% versus 0.3%; P=0.03) and a smaller lipid arc (163.1±71.4° versus 211.2±71.2°; P=0.03), and less likely to harbor cholesterol crystals (17.2% versus 27.5%; P=0.01) and calcification (15.4% versus 34.4%; P=0.008), whereas fibrous cap thickness (105.2±62.1 versus 96.1±40.4 µm; P=0.57), the prevalence of thin-cap fibroatheroma (26.5% versus 25.2%; P=0.85), and microchannels (19.2% versus 20.5%; P=0.95) were comparable. In women with acute coronary syndrome, a smaller lipid arc (171.6±53.2° versus 235.8±86.4°; P=0.03), a higher frequency of plaque erosion (11.4% versus 0.6%; P=0.04), and a lower prevalence of cholesterol crystal (28.6% versus 38.2%; P=0.03) and calcification (10.0% versus 23.7%; P=0.01) were observed. These differences persisted after adjusting clinical demographics. Although thin-cap fibroatheromas in men clustered within proximal arterial segments, thin-cap fibroatheromas were evenly distributed in women. Conclusions—Despite more comorbid risk factors in women, their nonculprit plaques exhibited more plaque erosion, and less cholesterol and calcium content. This distinct phenotype suggests sex-related differences in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis.
On the limits of dictatorial classification

In the strategyproof classification setting, a set of labeled examples is partitioned among multiple agents. Given the reported labels, an optimal classification mechanism returns a classifier that minimizes the number of mislabeled examples. However, each agent is interested in the accuracy of the returned classifier on its own examples, and may misreport its labels in order to achieve a better classifier, thus contaminating the dataset. The goal is to design strategyproof mechanisms that correctly label as many examples as possible. Previous work has investigated the foregoing setting under limiting assumptions, or with respect to very restricted classes of classifiers. In this paper, we study the strategyproof classification setting with respect to prominent classes of classifiers---boolean conjunctions and linear separators---and without any assumptions on the input. On the negative side, we show that strategyproof mechanisms cannot achieve a constant approximation ratio, by showing that such mechanisms must be dictatorial on a subdomain, in the sense that the outcome is selected according to the preferences of a single agent. On the positive side, we present a randomized mechanism---Iterative Random Dictator---and demonstrate both that it is strategyproof and that its approximation ratio does not increase with the number of agents. Interestingly, the notion of dictatorship is prominently featured in all our results, helping to establish both upper and lower bounds.
Comprehensive screening of CREB‐binding protein gene mutations among patients with Rubinstein‐Taybi syndrome using denaturing high‐performance liquid chromatography

ABSTRACT Mutations in the CREBBP (CREB‐binding protein gene) cause Rubinstein‐Taybi syndrome (RSTS). At present, however, genetic testing of CREBBP is not commonly applied in clinical settings because the currently available assays are technically and financially demanding, mainly because of the size of the gene. In the present study, we took advantage of a highly sensitive and specific, automated denaturing high‐performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) technique. First, we developed a DHPLC‐based protocol to analyze the entire coding region of CREBBP. Second, we analyzed genetic samples from 21 RSTS patients using DHPLC. The coding region was amplified by 41 primer pairs, all of which have the same cycling conditions, aliquoted on a 96‐well format PCR plate. In this manner, all the exons were simultaneously amplified using a single block in a PCR machine. We then wrote a computer script to analyze all the PCR amplicons generated from various portions of the CREBBP gene in a serial manner at optimized conditions determined individually for each amplicon. Heterozygous CREBBP mutations were identified in 12 of the 21 patients: five frameshift mutations, three nonsense mutations, two splice‐site mutations, and two missense mutations. The resulting detection rate of 57% was comparable to the outcome of previous studies. The relatively high detection rate in the present study demonstrates the enhanced sensitivity of the DHPLC‐based mutation analysis, as exemplified by mutation analyses of other genes. The implementation of similar methodologies for other dysmorphic syndromes will help medical geneticists to confirm their clinical impressions and to provide accurate genetic counseling for patients and their families.
Embedding 2D standalone educational simulation games in 3D multi-user environments: the case of C-VIBE

This paper presents insights gained in the design and evaluation of C-VIBE, a 3D multi-user simulation game developed within VERDI (virtual environment for real time distributed applications over the Internet), a project exploring advanced applications running over a satellite network infrastructure, and in particular innovative solutions for management education. The paper concentrates on factors to be taken into account when developing 3D multi-user versions of existing, standalone 2D simulation games.
Malaysian day-type load forecasting

Time series analysis has been applied intensively and sophisticatedly to model and forecast many problems in the biological, physical and environmental phenomena of interest. This fact accounts for the basic engineering problem in forecasting the daily peak system load to use time series analysis. ARMA and REgARMA models are among the times series models considered. ANFIS, a hybrid model from neural network is also discussed as for comparison purposes. The main interest of the forecasts consists of three days up to five days ahead predictions for daily data. The pure autoregressive model with an order 2, or AR (2) with a MAPE value of 1.27% is found to be an appropriate model for forecasting the Malaysian peak daily load for the 3 days ahead prediction. ANFIS model gives a better MAPE value when weekends' data were excluded. Regression models with ARMA errors are found to be good models for forecasting different day types. The selection of these models is depended on the smallest value of AIC statistic and the forecasting accuracy criteria.