Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early Surgical Intervention for Fulminant Pseudomembranous Colitis

The objective of this study of a retrospective case series was to determine factors associated with survival after surgical intervention in pseudomembranous colitis (PMC). The study was conducted at a tertiary care medical center and comprised 36 patients who underwent colectomy for fulminant PMC from 1995 to 2006. Patients including 21 females ranged from 40 to 89 years of age (mean, 70 years). Comorbidities included diabetes (39%), cardiovascular disease (77%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (47%), and intake of immunosuppressive medications (45%). Seventy-two per cent received antibiotics in the previous 2 months. Only patients with a confirmation of PMC on pathology specimens were included in the study. All patients underwent colectomy. Patients were stratified into two groups: survivors and nonsurvivors. Various clinical factors/parameters used in the management of patients with PMC were studied in these two groups. Survival was correlated with mean white blood cell count (23,000 survivors versus 40,000 nonsurvivors, P < 0.01); multisystem organ failure (16 per cent survivors versus 47 per cent nonsurvivors, P < 0.05); and preoperative pressors (16 per cent survivors versus 47 per cent nonsurvivors, P < 0.05). Overall mortality for the study period was 47 per cent. Mortality rate analysis revealed a lower rate for the more recent years (32 per cent for 2000 to 2006 versus 65 per cent for 1995 to 1999, P < 0.05). In the more recent years, the time elapsing before colectomy was also lower (1.4 days versus 2.5 days, nonsignificant), and patients had less preoperative hemodynamic instability (70 per cent versus 31 per cent, P < 0.03). In one institution, survival after surgery for PMC was found to be associated with a mean white blood cell count (<37,000), nondependence on preoperative vasopressors, and surgical intervention before the onset of hemodynamic instability.
A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate Headcoach: An Online Mental Health Training Program for Workplace Managers.

OBJECTIVE Mental ill-health is now the leading cause of sickness absence and occupational incapacity in high-income countries. This study evaluated HeadCoach online manager training, designed to improve confidence and managerial behaviours that create mentally healthy workplaces. METHODS A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted comparing managers who received HeadCoach (N = 87) to waitlist control (N = 123). Managers' confidence and behaviour were investigated at baseline, post-intervention and follow-up. Psychological distress of direct reports was evaluated. RESULTS Confidence significantly increased post-intervention only, however per-protocol analyses indicated a significant improvement for program completers compared to control at both time points. Responsive and preventive behaviours significantly improved. Psychological distress of direct reports remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS HeadCoach online mental health training is an effective and scalable way to improve managers' confidence and workplace practices around mental health. The impact on direct reports remains unknown.
Parent-based therapies for preschool attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a randomized, controlled trial with a community sample.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate two different parent-based therapies for preschool attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a community sample. METHOD Three-year-old children displaying a preschool equivalent of ADHD (n = 78) were randomly assigned to either a parent training (PT; n = 30), a parent counseling and support (PCO&S; n = 28), or a waiting-list control group (n = 20). The PT group received coaching in child management techniques. The PC&S group received nondirective support and counseling. Measures of child symptoms and mothers' well-being were taken before and after intervention and at 15 weeks follow-up. RESULTS ADHD symptoms were reduced (F2,74 = 11.64; p < .0001) and mothers' sense of well-being was increased by PT relative to both other groups (F2,74 = 10.32; p < .005). Fifty-three percent of children in the PT group displayed clinically significant improvement (chi 2 = 4.08; p = .048). CONCLUSIONS PT is a valuable treatment for preschool ADHD. PC&S had little effect on children's behavior. Constructive training in parenting strategies is an important element in the success of parent-based interventions. Psychostimulants are not a necessary component of effective treatment for many children with preschool ADHD.
Fabrication and characterization of novel bacterial cellulose/alginate/gelatin biocomposite film

Abstract Hydrogels from bacterial, algal, and animal cells—bacterial cellulose (BC), alginate, and gelatin, respectively—were combined to fabricate a biocomposite film (BCAGG) via an eco-friendly casting technique. In addition, glycerol was added as a plasticizer to improve the elasticity and water absorption capacity of the film. In this study, BC pellicles were simply deconstructed into fibrils suspension and then reconstructed into films with a supplement of alginate, gelatin and glycerol. The physical appearance of fabricated films resembled native BC but possessed improved ductility, enhanced flexibility, higher water uptake ability and better biocompatibility. The film was found to resist tearing under suture pullout strength in a hydrated state. In vitro cytotoxicity tests showed that the film was cytocompatible. A cell study using a human keratinocyte culture demonstrated enhanced cell adhesion, spreading, and proliferation on the BCAGG film compared with BC/alginate film. The BCAGG film therefore has significant potential for use in biomedical applications, particularly in dermal treatment, skin tissue regeneration, and wound healing.
Measurement of Proliferative Responses of Cultured Lymphocytes

Measurement of proliferative responses of human lymphocytes is a fundamental technique for the assessment of their biological responses to various stimuli. Most simply, this involves measurement of the number of cells present in a culture before and after the addition of a stimulating agent. This unit contains several different prototype protocols to measure the proliferation response of lymphocytes following exposure to mitogens, antigens, allogeneic or autologous cells, or soluble factors. Each of these protocols can be used in conjunction with an accompanying support protocol which contains methods for pulsing cultures with [3H]thymidine and determining incorporation of [3H]thymidine into DNA. The protocols described here provide an estimate of DNA synthesis and cell proliferation in an entire cell population, but do not provide information on the proliferation of individual cells.
Validity Fuzzing and Parametric Generators for Effective Random Testing

Programs expecting structured inputs often consist of both a syntactic analysis stage, in which raw input is parsed into an internal data structure, and a semantic analysis stage, which conducts checks on this data structure and executes the core logic of the program. Existing random testing tools tend to produce inputs that are rejected early in this pipeline. We propose Zest, a random testing methodology for effectively exploring the semantic analysis stages of such programs. Zest combines two key innovations to achieve this. First, we introduce validity fuzzing, which biases coverage-guided fuzzing (CGF) towards generating semantically valid inputs. Second, we introduce parametric generators, which convert input from a simple parameter domain, such as an un-typed sequence of bits, into a more structured domain, such as syntactically valid XML. These generators enable bit-level mutations of the parameters to map to structural mutations in syntactically valid test inputs. In our experiments with Zest on six popular JVM-based projects, we find 18 new bugs, of which 7 are not found by baseline CGF and generator-based techniques.
Comparative analysis of three types of minimally invasive decompressive surgery for lumbar central stenosis: biportal endoscopy, uniportal endoscopy, and microsurgery.

OBJECTIVERecently, minimally invasive unilateral laminotomy with bilateral decompression (ULBD) has been performed for lumbar stenosis using endoscopic approaches. The object of this retrospective study was to compare the clinical and radiological outcomes of three types of minimally invasive decompressive surgery: microsurgery, percutaneous uniportal endoscopic surgery, and percutaneous biportal endoscopic surgery.METHODSIn the period from March 2016 to December 2017, minimally invasive ULBD was performed using microscopy, a uniportal endoscopic approach, or a biportal endoscopic approach to treat lumbar canal stenosis. Patients were classified into three groups based on the surgery they had undergone. The angle of medial facetectomy area and postoperative dural expansion were measured using MR images. The visual analog scale (VAS) score for leg and back pain, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), operation time, and complications were assessed. Clinical and radiological parameters were compared among the three groups.RESULTSThere were 33 patients in the microscopy group, 37 in the biportal endoscopy group, and 27 in the uniportal endoscopy group. Preoperatively stenotic dural areas were significantly expanded in each of the three groups after surgery (p < 0.05). Mean dural expansion in the uniportal endoscopy group was significantly lower than that in the microscopy or biportal endoscopy group (p < 0.05). The mean angle of the facetectomy in the biportal endoscopic group was significantly lower than that in the microscopic group or uniportal endoscopic group (p < 0.05). On the 1st day after surgery, the VAS score for back pain was significantly higher in the microscopic group than in the uniportal or biportal endoscopic group (p < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the VAS score for back pain, VAS score for leg pain, or ODI at the final follow-up among the three groups (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONSAlthough radiological results were different among the three groups of patients, postoperative clinical outcomes were significantly improved after each type of surgery. The percutaneous biportal or uniportal endoscopic approach offers the advantage of reduced immediate postoperative pain. A percutaneous uniportal or biportal endoscopic lumbar approach may be effective for the treatment of lumbar central stenosis and an alternative to conventional microsurgical decompression.
Non‐invasive assessment of superficial and deep layer circuits in human motor cortex

The first indirect (I) corticospinal volley from stimulation of the motor cortex consists of two parts: one that originates from infragranular layer 5 and a subsequent part with a delay of 0.6 ms to which supragranular layers contribute. Non‐invasive probing of these two parts was performed in humans using a refined electrophysiological method involving transcranial magnetic stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation. Activity modulation of these two parts during a sensorimotor discrimination task was consistent with previous results in monkeys obtained with laminar recordings.
Convergent validity of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ): meta-analysis

Abstract Objective The purpose of the present study was to use a meta-analytic approach to examine the convergent validity of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Design Systematic review by meta-analysis. Setting The relevant studies were surveyed from five electronic databases. Primary outcomes of interest were the product-moment correlation coefficients between IPAQ and other instruments. Five separate meta-analyses were performed for each physical activity (PA) category of IPAQ: walking, moderate PA (MPA), total moderate PA (TMPA), vigorous PA (VPA) and total PA (TPA). The corrected mean effect size (ESρ) unaffected by statistical artefacts (i.e. sampling error and reliability) was calculated for each PA category. Selected moderator variables were length of IPAQ (i.e. short and long form), reference period (i.e. last 7 d and usual week), mode of administration (i.e. interviewer and self-reported), language (i.e. English and translated) and instruments (i.e. accelerometer, pedometer and subjective measure). Subjects A total of 152 ESρ across five PA categories were retrieved from twenty-one studies. Results The results showed small- to medium-sized ESρ (0·27–0·49). The highest value was observed in VPA while the lowest value was found in MPA. The ESρ were differentiated by some of the moderator variables across PA categories. Conclusions The study shows the overall convergent validity of IPAQ within each PA category. Some differences in degree of convergent validity across PA categories and moderator variables imply that different research conditions should be taken into account prior to deciding on use of the appropriate type of IPAQ.
Respiratory Health Among Hand Pickers in Primary Coffee-Processing Factories of Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVE To assess chronic respiratory symptoms and lung function among female hand pickers. METHODS A total of 374 hand pickers exposed to coffee dust and 175 female controls from water bottling factories were included. The symptoms were assessed using a standardized questionnaire. Personal total dust exposure and lung-function tests were performed. RESULTS Hand pickers experienced a higher dust exposure, displayed a higher prevalence ratio for cough (PR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.4-6.2) and work-related shortness of breath (PR = 2.5 95% CI: 1.1-5.6) and had a lower FEF25-75 compared with controls. Hand pickers without tables had a significantly higher prevalence ratio of cough with sputum (PR = 3.9, 95% CI: 1.6-9.5) and lower FVC, FEV1 and FEF25-75 compared with hand pickers with tables. CONCLUSIONS Hand pickers show a range of adverse symptoms and lung function impairments that warrant efforts to improve working conditions.
Cardiologists' approach to managing cardiovascular risk in patients with type 2 diabetes

In patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular disease (CVD) has long been the leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Historically, the mainstay of cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with T2D has been controlling CVD risk factors such as hypertension and hypercholesterolemia; this remains strongly indicated in current United States T2D guidelines. Although metformin is safe and effective for glucose lowering, its effect on macrovascular outcomes is modest at best. In fact, tight glycemic control has not been shown to reduce CVD events in patients withT2D and A1C is not an ideal surrogate marker of CVD risk. Other anti-hyperglycemic agents (AHAs), such as sulfonylureas and thiazolidinediones, have raised cardiovascular safety concerns, which led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008 to require that all new T2D drugs demonstrate cardiovascular safety. However, until recently, no specific AHAs had proven CVD outcome benefits. This era has ended, because selected glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) and sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have now been demonstrated to reduce CVD events and mortality (Table 1). In light of these emerging data, the paradigm of CVD risk reduction in patients with T2D, specifically those with prevalent atherosclerotic CVD, must now evolve beyond simple risk factor control to include expanded use of these new agents proven to improve CVD outcomes, and cardiologists are now called on to take a greater role in the care of patients with T2D, partnering with endocrinologists and primary care physicians. 1 | GLUCAGON-LIKE PEPTIDE-1 RECEPTOR AGONISTS
Salvage open partial horizontal laryngectomy after failed radiotherapy: A multicentric study

The primary aim of the present study was to report our multi‐institutional experience in surgical salvage with open partial horizontal laryngectomies (OPHL) after failed radiotherapy (RT) for laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). Secondary aims were to analyze the prognostic meaning of the main clinical and pathological parameters in relation to the oncologic outcome and to compare our results with the available literature.
Automated Machine Learning via ADMM

We study the automated machine learning (AutoML) problem of jointly selecting appropriate algorithms from an algorithm portfolio as well as optimizing their hyper-parameters for certain learning tasks. The main challenges include a) the coupling between algorithm selection and hyper-parameter optimization (HPO), and b) the black-box optimization nature of the problem where the optimizer cannot access the gradients of the loss function but may query function values. To circumvent these difficulties, we propose a new AutoML framework by leveraging the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) scheme. Due to the splitting properties of ADMM, algorithm selection and HPO can be decomposed through the augmented Lagrangian function. As a result, HPO with mixed continuous and integer constraints are efficiently handled through a query-efficient Bayesian optimization approach and Euclidean projection operator that yields a closed-form solution. Algorithm selection in ADMM is naturally interpreted as a combinatorial bandit problem. The effectiveness of our proposed methodology is compared to state-of-the-art AutoML schemes such as TPOT and Auto-sklearn on numerous benchmark data sets.
The relationship between functional capacity and left ventricular strain in patients with uncomplicated type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE We aimed to evaluate the association between functional capacity and left ventricular (LV) mechanics in the patients with uncomplicated type 2 diabetes. METHODS The present cross-sectional study included 80 controls and 70 uncomplicated diabetic patients. These participants underwent laboratory analysis, comprehensive echocardiographic examination and cardiopulmonary exercise testing. RESULTS Global longitudinal (-21.6 ± 2.8 vs. -18.4 ± 2.3%, P < 0.001) and circumferential (-22.0 ± 2.9 vs. -19.5 ± 2.6%, P < 0.001) strains were significantly reduced in diabetic participants. The same was found for longitudinal and circumferential endocardial, mid-myocardial and epicardial strains. Peak oxygen uptake (27.0 ± 4.3 vs. 20.7 ± 4.0 ml/kg/min, P < 0.001) and oxygen pulse (14.1 ± 3.0 vs. 11.6 ± 3.2 ml/beat, P < 0.001) were significantly lower in the diabetic group, while ventilation/carbon dioxide slope was significantly higher in these patients. In the whole study population glycosylated hemoglobin, as well as LV endocardial longitudinal and circumferential strains were independently of other clinical and echocardiographic parameters of LV structure, systolic and diastolic function associated with peak oxygen consumption and oxygen pulse. CONCLUSION Our investigation showed that diabetes equally affected all LV myocardial layers. Endocardial LV longitudinal and circumferential strains, as well as glycosylated hemoglobin - main parameter of glucose regulation, were independently associated with functional capacity in the whole study population. These findings indicate that determination of LV strain and functional capacity could detect subclinical target organ damage and prevent development of further complications in uncomplicated diabetes mellitus patients.
Investigation of F0 conditioning and Fully Convolutional Networks in Variational Autoencoder based Voice Conversion

In this work, we investigate the effectiveness of two techniques for improving variational autoencoder (VAE) based voice conversion (VC). First, we reconsider the relationship between vocoder features extracted using the high quality vocoders adopted in conventional VC systems, and hypothesize that the spectral features are in fact F0 dependent. Such hypothesis implies that during the conversion phase, the latent codes and the converted features in VAE based VC are in fact source F0 dependent. To this end, we propose to utilize the F0 as an additional input of the decoder. The model can learn to disentangle the latent code from the F0 and thus generates converted F0 dependent converted features. Second, to better capture temporal dependencies of the spectral features and the F0 pattern, we replace the frame wise conversion structure in the original VAE based VC framework with a fully convolutional network structure. Our experiments demonstrate that the degree of disentanglement as well as the naturalness of the converted speech are indeed improved.
Dietary intake of fiber, whole grains and risk of colorectal cancer: An updated analysis according to food sources, tumor location and molecular subtypes in two large US cohorts

Epidemiologic evidence relating fiber intake to colorectal cancer (CRC) remains inconclusive and data are limited on different food sources of fiber and heterogeneity by tumor subsite and molecular profile. We prospectively followed for CRC incidence 90,869 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1980–2012) and 47,924 men from the Health Professionals Follow‐up Study (1986–2012), who completed a validated food frequency questionnaire every 4 years. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine the associations with CRC risk for total, cereal, fruit and vegetable fiber and whole grains. We also assessed the associations according to tumor subsites (proximal colon, distal colon and rectum) and molecular markers (microsatellite instability, BRAF mutation, CpG island methylator phenotype and KRAS mutation). We documented 3,178 CRC cases during 3,685,903 person‐years of follow‐up in the NHS and HPFS. Intake of total dietary fiber was not associated with CRC risk after multivariable adjustment in either women (hazard ratio [HR] comparing extreme deciles, 1.17; 95% CI, 0.92–1.48, ptrend = 0.55) or men (HR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.67–1.21, ptrend = 0.47). Higher intake of cereal fiber and whole grains was associated with lower CRC risk in men with an HR of 0.75 (95% CI, 0.57–1.00) and 0.72 (95% CI, 0.54–0.96), respectively. No heterogeneity was detected by tumor subsite or molecular markers (pheterogeneity > 0.05). Higher intake of total dietary fiber within the range of a typical American diet is unlikely to substantially reduce CRC risk. The potential benefit of cereal fiber and whole grains in men warrants further confirmation.
Large-scale CIB maps from Planck

The cosmic infrared background (CIB) is a powerful probe of large-scale structure across a very large redshift range, consisting of unresolved redshifted infrared emission from dusty galaxies. It can be used to study the astrophysics of galaxies, the star formation history of the Universe, and the connection between dark and luminous matter. It can furthermore be used as a tracer of the large-scale structure and thus assist in delensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The major difficulty in its use lies in obtaining accurate and unbiased large-scale CIB images that are cleaned from the contamination by Galactic dust. We used data of neutral atomic hydrogen from the recently-released HI4PI Survey to create template maps of Galactic dust, allowing us to remove this component from the Planck intensity maps from 353 to 857 GHz for approximately $25\%$ of the sky. This allows us to constrain the CIB power spectrum down to $\ell\gtrsim 70$. We present these CIB maps and the various processing and validation steps that we have performed to ensure the quality of these maps, as well as a comparison with previous studies. All our data products are made publicly available at this http URL, thereby enabling the community to investigate a wide range of questions, related to the Universe's large-scale structure.