Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early detection of progressive renal dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND An association between renal hemodynamic dysfunction and coronary artery disease (CAD) has been documented in chronic renal failure; however, no information is available in CAD patients with normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR). This study was aimed at evaluating early abnormalities and outcome of renal function in CAD patients. METHODS In 15 nondiabetic patients with normal renal function and no significant stenoses in renal arteries, and having undergone coronary arteriography, we studied systemic and renal hemodynamics before and after a vasodilating stimulus induced by aminoacid (AA) infusion. A control group (C) consisted of 15 sex- and age-matched kidney donors. The statistical adequacy of the sample size was preliminarily verified. Renal clearances were repeated after two years. RESULTS At baseline, GFR (mL/min/1.73 m2) averaged 81.4 +/- 3.8 in CAD and 83.7 +/- 1.4 in C (P= NS); RPF (mL/min/1.73 m2) was 297 +/- 22 in CAD and 456 +/- 15 in C (P < 0.0001); filtration fraction was higher in CAD (P < 0.001). Plasma renin activity was higher in CAD (P < 0.005). The number of coronary stenoses was inversely correlated with RPF but not with GFR. In CAD, at variance with C, AA did not induce any increment of GFR, while RPF increased without achieving the unstimulated value of C. Blood pressure was comparable in CAD and C at baseline and not modified by AA. After two years, a significant decrease in GFR (-14%, P < 0.001) and RPF (-15%, P < 0.001) occurred only in CAD, and in either group, the response to AA did not differ from that detected at baseline. CONCLUSION In CAD patients with normal GFR, reduction in renal perfusion and absence of renal functional reserve likely represent early markers of progressive renal dysfunction.
Learning Tags from Unsegmented Videos of Multiple Human Actions

Providing methods to support semantic interaction with growing volumes of video data is an increasingly important challenge for data mining. To this end, there has been some success in recognition of simple objects and actions in video, however most of this work requires strongly supervised training data. The supervision cost of these approaches therefore renders them economically non-scalable for real world applications. In this paper we address the problem of learning to annotate and retrieve semantic tags of human actions in realistic video data with sparsely provided tags of semantically salient activities. This is challenging because of (1) the multi-label nature of the learning problem and (2) realistic videos are often dominated by (semantically uninteresting) background activity un-supported by any tags of interest, leading to a strong irrelevant data problem. To address these challenges, we introduce a new topic model based approach to video tag annotation. Our model simultaneously learns a low dimensional representation of the video data, which dimensions are semantically relevant (supported by tags), and how to annotate videos with tags. Experimental evaluation on three different video action/activity datasets demonstrate the challenge of this problem, and value of our contribution.
Three Percent Saline Administration During Pediatric Critical Care Transport

Objectives The purpose of this study was to describe the administration of 3% saline (3%S) during pediatric critical care transport. Methods A retrospective study was performed on pediatric patients who underwent critical transport to Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital from January 1, 2003, to June 30, 2007, and were given 3%S. Patients’ demographics, admission diagnosis, route and amount of 3%S administration, serum electrolytes, vital signs, radiographic data, and Glasgow Coma Scale scores were collected and analyzed. Results A total of 101 children who received 3%S infusions during pediatric critical care transport were identified. Mean patient age was 5.9 years, and mean patient weight was 27.6 kg. The main indications for infusing 3%S were suspected cerebral edema (41%), intracranial bleed with edema (51%), and symptomatic hyponatremia (6%). The amount of 3%S bolus ranged from 1.2 to 24 mL/kg, with a mean of 5.4 mL/kg. Serum electrolytes before and after 3%S infusion demonstrated significant increases in sodium, chloride, and bicarbonate levels (P < 0.05). A significant reduction was also seen in serum urea nitrogen levels and anion gap. Radiographic imaging performed before 3%S infusion demonstrated findings consistent with concerns of increased intracranial pressure such as intracranial bleed and cerebral edema. The route of initial 3%S infusions was mainly through peripheral intravenous lines (96%). No complications related to the 3%S delivery such as local reactions, renal abnormalities, or central pontine myelinolysis were observed. Conclusions It seems 3%S may be administered safely during pediatric critical transport and administration routes can include peripheral lines. With the importance of initiating therapy early to improve patient outcomes, the use of 3%S may benefit transported children with brain injury and suspected intracranial hypertension.
On service differentiation for multimedia traffic in multi-hop wireless networks

This paper addresses service differentiation with interference consideration for traffic with different priorities in multi-hop wireless networks. Specifically, we propose a crosslayer framework which supports different service levels in terms of queuing delays for concurrent sessions of different priorities. The system architecture is composed of two major components: a priority-based flow scheduler and an interference-aware bandwidth allocation unit. The priority-based flow scheduler differentiates the queueing delay for data packets being relayed to the next hop according to their priorities. As a result, the sessions of higher priority are guaranteed to have lower queueing delay at each intermediate node on the path to the receiver while the starvation of the lower priority session can be avoided. To utilize wireless resources optimally, we formulate the bandwidth allocation problem with interference consideration as a convex optimization problem. The problem can be solved by a subgradient algorithm in a distributed fashion. We then develop a distributed protocol for our proposed algorithm. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve different levels of bandwidth allocation efficiently with a limited number of iterations. In addition, our algorithm scales well when the number of sessions and the size of the session increase. Together with the priority-based flow scheduler, the end-to-end throughput and delay can be effectively differentiated based on different levels of bandwidth allocation.
THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MgB2 BULK MATERIALS OBTAINED BY REACTIVE LIQUID Mg INFILTRATION

The Reactive Liquid Infiltration technique (RLI) allows to produce very dense MgB2 bulk material, useful as superconductor in many electro‐technical devices. The resulting MgB2 product presents a composite structure characterized by large grains, reminiscent of the grain size of the precursor Boron powders, embedded in a matrix of the same material but with smaller grains, of the order of a micron size. This composite structure of the product presents peculiar mechanical properties characterized by high flexural strength and fracture toughness, as far as a ceramic material is concerned, and very high hardness. We have measured the room temperature mechanical properties as a function of the main RLI manufacturing parameters of the materials and we attempted a correlation with the grain size of the precursor B powders and the residual content of impurities in the materials. The obtained values compare favourably with that of the same material produced by other manufacturing techniques and with that of the o.
Comparative analysis of different laser systems to study cellular responses to DNA damage in mammalian cells

Proper recognition and repair of DNA damage is critical for the cell to protect its genomic integrity. Laser microirradiation ranging in wavelength from ultraviolet A (UVA) to near-infrared (NIR) can be used to induce damage in a defined region in the cell nucleus, representing an innovative technology to effectively analyze the in vivo DNA double-strand break (DSB) damage recognition process in mammalian cells. However, the damage-inducing characteristics of the different laser systems have not been fully investigated. Here we compare the nanosecond nitrogen 337 nm UVA laser with and without bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), the nanosecond and picosecond 532 nm green second-harmonic Nd:YAG, and the femtosecond NIR 800 nm Ti:sapphire laser with regard to the type(s) of damage and corresponding cellular responses. Crosslinking damage (without significant nucleotide excision repair factor recruitment) and single-strand breaks (with corresponding repair factor recruitment) were common among all three wavelengths. Interestingly, UVA without BrdU uniquely produced base damage and aberrant DSB responses. Furthermore, the total energy required for the threshold H2AX phosphorylation induction was found to vary between the individual laser systems. The results indicate the involvement of different damage mechanisms dictated by wavelength and pulse duration. The advantages and disadvantages of each system are discussed.
Long-term prediction of major coronary or ischaemic stroke event in a low-incidence Southern European population: model development and evaluation of clinical utility

Objective To develop a long-term prediction model of first major cardiovascular event and to assess its clinical utility in a low-incidence European population. Setting Four independent population-based cohorts enrolled between 1986 and 1993 in Northern Italy. Participants and methods N=5247 35-year-old to 69-year-old men and women free of cardiovascular disease at baseline. Absolute 20-year risk of first fatal or non-fatal coronary or ischaemic stroke event (monitoring trends and determinants in cardiovascular disease (MONICA) validated) was estimated from gender-specific Cox models. Main outcome measures Model discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-curve, AUC). ‘High-risk’ subjects were identified based on several threshold values for the 20-year predicted risk. Clinical utility was defined in terms of fraction of missed events (events among those considered at low-risk) and unnecessary treatment (false:true positive ratio). A net benefit curve was also provided. Results Kaplan-Meier 20-year risk was 16.1% in men (315 events) and 6.1% in women (123 events). Model discrimination (AUC=0.737 in men, 0.801 in women) did not change significantly as compared to 10-year prediction time interval. In men, with respect to risk stratification based on the number of risk factors, a 20% predicted risk cut-off would miss less events (36% vs 50%) and reduce unnecessary treatment (false:true positive ratio 2.2 vs 3.0); the net benefit was higher over the whole range of threshold values. Similar considerations hold for women. Conclusions Long-term prediction has good discrimination ability and is clinically useful for risk stratification in primary prevention. A clinical utility analysis is recommended to identify the optimal stratification according to different public health goals.
Revealing Biological Modules via Graph Summarization

The division of a protein interaction network into biologically meaningful modules can aid with automated detection of protein complexes and prediction of biological processes and can uncover the global organization of the cell. We propose the use of a graph summarization (GS) technique, based on graph compression, to cluster protein interaction graphs into biologically relevant modules. The method is motivated by defining a biological module as a set of proteins that have similar sets of interaction partners. We show this definition, put into practice by a GS algorithm, reveals modules that are more biologically enriched than those found by other methods. We also apply GS to predict complex memberships, biological processes, and co-complexed pairs and show that in most settings GS is preferable over existing methods of protein interaction graph clustering.
Lipid Hydroperoxides Activate the Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Mpk1p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae*

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of responding to oxidants, including lipid peroxidation products. We investigate here the role of the mitogen-activated protein kinase Mpk1p in protection against linoleic acid hydroperoxide (LoaOOH), a product of radical attack on an unsaturated lipid. MPK1 was found to be required for resistance to LoaOOH. Furthermore, Mpk1p was rapidly and transiently phosphorylated in response to LoaOOH. This phosphorylation was dose-dependent and stimulated by sublethal concentrations as low as 1 μm in the external medium. Such low doses have been shown to result in resistance to subsequent challenge with a higher dose through the process of adaptation. However MPK1 was not essential for this adaptive response. MPK1 was also not involved in cell cycle modulation and acted independently of the cell cycle-regulating Oca1p. Transcriptional profiling of the mpk1Δ cells during LoaOOH stress indicated that Mpk1p may be important in effecting changes to the cell surface and metabolism during LoaOOH exposure. Furthermore, it revealed that Mpk1p is required for the regulation of 97 LoaOOH-responsive transcripts. Evidence is presented that the activation of Mpk1p may be caused by the activation of protein kinase C by LoaOOH.
Flow-Excited Acoustic Resonance in Industry

The excitation mechanism of acoustic resonances has long been recognized, but the industry continues to be plagued by its undesirable consequences; manifested in severe vibration and noise problems in a wide range of industrial applications. This paper focuses on the nature of the acoustic resonance excitation mechanism for the case of closed side branches because of its relative importance to industrial applications. Design charts are presented for the Strouhal number at the onset of acoustic resonance and for the acoustic source strength representing the integral effect of the shear layer at the mouth of the side branch. Because these design charts are developed from tests of cylindrical pipes conveying turbulent flow at high Reynolds numbers, they can be used in industrial applications to predict the onset flow velocity and the intensity of acoustic resonances in side branches. Two industrial examples involving flow-excited acoustic resonance of closed side branches are presented. The first example deals with acoustic fatigue failure of the steam dryer in a boiling water reactor due to acoustic resonance in the main steam piping system, whereas the second example considers acoustic resonances in the roll posts of the short take-off vertical lift (STOVL) joint strike fighter. In both examples, effective means to alleviate the acoustic resonance mechanism are discussed.
Phonetic-Based Microtext Normalization for Twitter Sentiment Analysis

The proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies and the increasing use of computer-mediated communication resulted in a new form of written text, termed microtext. This poses new challenges to natural language processing tools which are usually designed for well-written text. This paper proposes a phonetic-based framework for normalizing microtext to plain English and, hence, improve the classification accuracy of sentiment analysis. Results demonstrated that there is a high (>0.8) similarity index between tweets normalized by our model and tweets normalized by human annotators in 85.31% of cases, and that there is an accuracy increase of >4% in terms of polarity detection after normalization.
Transcatheter Closure of Large Atrial Septal Defects: Feasibility and Safety in a Large Adult and Pediatric Population

Background—Data are needed on the safety and efficacy of device closure of large atrial septal defects. Methods and Results—Between 1998 and 2013, 336 patients (161 children <15 years) with large, isolated, secundum atrial septal defects (balloon-stretched diameter ≥34 mm in adults or echocardiographic diameter >15 mm/m2 in children) were managed using the Amplatzer device, at the Marie Lannelongue Hospital. Transthoracic echocardiographic guidance was used starting in 2005 (n=219; 65.2%). Balloon-stretched diameter was >40 mm in 36 adults; mean values were 37.6±3.3 mm in other adults and 26.3±6.3 mm/m2 in children. Amplatzer closure was successful in 311 (92.6%; 95% confidence interval, 89%–95%) patients. Superior and posterior rim deficiencies were more common in failed than in successful procedures (superior, 24.0% versus 4.8%; P=0.002; and posterior, 32.0% versus 4.2%; P<0.001). Device migration occurred in 4 adults (2 cases each of surgical and transcatheter retrieval); in the 21 remaining failures, the device was unreleased and withdrawn. After a median follow-up of 10.0 years (2.5–17 years), all patients were alive with no history of late complications. Conclusions—Closure of large atrial septal defects using the Amplatzer device is safe and effective in both adults and children. Superior and posterior rim deficiencies are associated with procedural failure. Closure can be performed under transthoracic echocardiographic guidance in experienced centers. Early device migration is rare and can be safely managed by device extraction. Long-term follow-up showed no deaths or major late complications in our population of 311 patients.
Otostegia persica extraction on healing process of burn wounds.

PURPOSE To investigate if the methanolic extract of the Otostegia persica can accelerating healing process of burn wound because of its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. METHODS Forty eight male Wistar rats were randomized into three study groups of 16 rats each. Burn wounds were created on dorsal part of shaved rats using a metal rod. In group I the burn wound was left without any treatment. Group was treated with topical silver sulfadiazine pomade. In group III, ointment containing the OP extract was administered. Skin biopsies were harvested from burn area on the 3rd, 5th, 14th and 21st days after burn and examined histologically. RESULTS Re-epithelialization in the control group and in group II was lower than in group III. Re-epithelialization in groups II and III was significantly different from that in the control group. On the 5th day of the experiment, we assessed lower inflammation in the burn area compared to control group. This means that the inflammation was suppressed by methanolic extract of OP. From day 5 to 14; the fibroblast proliferation peaked and was associated with increased collagen accumulation. It was obvious that angiogenesis improved more in the groups II and III, which facilitated re-epithelialisation. CONCLUSION Methanolic extract of Otostegia persica exhibited significant healing activity when topically applied on rats. OP is an effective treatment for saving the burn site.
Inappropriate prescribing in older fallers presenting to an Irish emergency department.

BACKGROUND certain medications increase falls risk in older people. OBJECTIVE to assess if prescribing modification occurs in older falls presenting to an emergency department (ED). DESIGN before-and-after design: presentation to ED with a fall as the index event. SUBJECTS over 70's who presented to ED with a fall over a 4-year period. METHODS dispensed medication in the 12 months pre- and post-fall was identified using a primary care reimbursement services pharmacy claims database. Screening Tool of Older Person's PIP (STOPP) and Beers prescribing criteria were applied to identify potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP). Polypharmacy was defined as four or more regular medicines. Psychotropic medication was identified using the WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system. Changes in prescribing were compared using McNemar's test (significance P < 0.05). RESULTS One thousand sixteen patients were eligible for analysis; 53.1% had at least one STOPP criteria pre-fall with no change post-fall (53.7%, P = 0.64). Beers criteria were identified in 44.0% pre-fall, with no change post-fall (41.5%, P = 0.125). The most significant individual indicators to change were neuroleptics, which decreased from 17.5 to 14.7% (P = 0.02) and long-acting benzodiazepines decreased from 10.7 to 8.6% (P = 0.005). Polypharmacy was observed in 63% and was strongly predictive of PIP, OR 4.0 (95% CI 3.0, 5.32). A high prevalence of psychotropic medication was identified pre-fall: anxiolytics (15.7%), antidepressants (26%), hypnosedatives (30%). New initiation of anxiolytics and hypnosedatives occurred in 9-15%, respectively, post-fall. CONCLUSION a significant prevalence of PIP was observed in older fallers presenting to the ED. No substantial improvements in PIP occurred in the 12 months post-fall, suggesting the need for focused intervention studies to be undertaken in this area.
The Employment of Nurses in Publicly Funded Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

AbstractLittle is known about the organizational and environmental factors associated with the employment of nurses in substance abuse treatment programs. Using data collected from the administrators of 250 publicly funded substance abuse treatment programs, this study examined the organizational and environmental correlates of nurse employment in these settings. Negative binomial regression models indicated that the number of nurses employed by treatment programs was positively associated with government ownership, location within a healthcare setting, and the availability of detoxification services. Outpatient-only programs employed fewer nurses than programs with inpatient/residential services. Two environmental factors were associated with nurse employment. Programs that more strongly endorsed a scale of financial barriers employed significantly fewer nurses, whereas programs indicating that funding from state contracts could be used to pay for healthcare providers employed significantly more nurses. These findings suggest that organizational decisions about employing nurses may reflect both the characteristics of the program and the funding environment. Future research should continue to examine the employment of nurses in substance abuse treatment settings, particularly given the shifting environment due to the implementation of healthcare reform.
Test-Pattern Grading and Pattern Selection for Small-Delay Defects

Timing-related defects are becoming increasingly important in nanometer technology designs. Small delay variations induced by crosstalk, process variations, power-supply noise, as well as resistive opens and shorts can potentially cause timing failures in a design, thereby leading to quality and reliability concerns. We present a test-grading technique to leverage the method of output deviations for screening small-delay defects (SDDs). A new gate-delay defect probability measure is defined to model delay variations for nanometer technologies. The proposed technique intelligently selects the best set of patterns for SDD detection from an n-detect pattern set generated using timing-unaware automatic test-pattern generation (ATPG). It offers significantly lower computational complexity and it excites a larger number of long paths compared to previously proposed timing-aware ATPG methods. We show that, for the same pattern count, the selected patterns are more effective than timing-aware ATPG for detecting small delay defects caused by resistive shorts, resistive opens, and process variations.