Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gene Expression Profile of Persistent Postoperative Hypertension Patients with Aldosterone-producing Adenomas

Background:Hypertension often persists after adrenalectomy for primary aldosteronism (PA). Many studies have analyzed the outcomes of adrenalectomy for aldosterone-producing adenomas (APA) to identify predictive factors for persistent hypertension. However, differentially expressed genes in persistent postoperative hypertension remain unknown. Our aim was to describe gene expression profile of persistent postoperative hypertension patients with APA. Methods:In this study, we described and compared gene expression profiles in persistent postoperative hypertension and postoperative normotension in Chinese patients with APA using microarray analysis. Confirmation was performed with quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction analysis. Bioinformatic analysis (gene ontology analysis, pathway analysis and network analysis) was used for further research. Results:Microarray analysis identified a total of 99 differentially expressed genes, including 18 up-regulated and 81 down-regulated genes. Among the dysregulated genes were fat atypical cadherin 1 as well as fatty acid binding protein 4 and other genes that have not been previously studied in persistent postoperative hypertension with APA. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that differentially expressed genes were associated with lipid metabolic process, metal ion binding, and cell differentiation. Pathway analysis determined that five pathways corresponded to the dysregulated transcripts. The mRNAs-ncRNAs co-expression network was composed of 49 network nodes and 72 connections between 18 coding genes and 31 noncoding genes. Conclusions:This study revealed differentially expressed genes in persistent postoperative hypertension with APA and provided a resource of candidate genes for exploration of possible drug targets and prognostic markers.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF TEACHING PRACTICES ON CONSTRUCTION OF THE PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF FUTURE PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS

Purpose: the present study examined how teaching practices fostered PCK knowledge components in future physical education teachers with different levels of training. Methods: participants consisted of four pairs of future teachers with different levels of training in a physical education licensure program. Interview and questionnaire data were collected during 3 academic semesters. The data were qualitatively analysed into units of meaning, which were coded for 4 knowledge components (student knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and context knowledge). Results: findings indicated that study participants’ PCK primarily drew on the student and content knowledge components. Discussion/Conclusion: comparisons between knowledge components and between pairs found that participants’ PCK primarily employed the student and content knowledge components and that the pedagogy and context knowledge components of participants’ PCK were less well developed.
Tensor-product approach to global time-space-parametric discretization of chemical master equation

We study the application of the novel tensor formats (TT, QTT, QTTTucker) to the solution of d-dimensional chemical master equations, applied mostly to gene regulating networks (signaling cascades, toggle switches, phage-λ). For some important cases, e.g. signaling cascade models, we prove good separability properties of the system operator. The time is treated as an additional variable, with the Quantized tensor representations (QTT, QTT-Tucker) employed, leading to the log-complexity in the system size. This global space-time (d + 1)-dimensional system, approximated in the QTT or QTT-Tucker formats, is solved in the block-diagonal form by the ALStype iterations. Another issue considered is the quantification of uncertainty, which means that some model parameters are not known exactly, but only their ranges can be estimated. It occurs frequently in real-life systems. In this case, we introduce the unknown parameters as auxiliary variables discretized on the corresponding grids, and solve the global space-parametric system at once in the tensor formats.
Association between myocardial infarction and the mast cells in the adventitia of the infarct-related coronary artery.

BACKGROUND Histamine, a product of mast cells, is an effective vasoconstrictor of atherosclerotic coronary arteries. Because it has been suggested that coronary spasm plays a role in acute coronary syndromes such as myocardial infarction (MI), we quantified and characterized the mast cells in the adventitia of infarct-related coronary arteries. METHODS AND RESULTS In a series of 17 autopsied MI patients, we identified the segment of the left coronary artery with ruptured plaque responsible for the infarction. More distal segments from the infarct-related coronary artery, either with nonruptured plaques or with normal intima, were also studied. Corresponding segments taken from left coronary arteries obtained from 17 patients who had died of noncardiac causes served as controls. Adventitial mast cells in the infarct-related and the control coronary arteries were identified immunohistochemically by staining for tryptase. In the infarct-related coronary arteries, we also stained for chymase and histamine. Moreover, T lymphocytes and macrophages were identified immunohistochemically and counted. In the infarct-related coronary arteries, significantly larger numbers of mast cells were present in the adventitia backing ruptured plaques (98+/-40 mast cells/mm2, mean+/-SD) than in the adventitia backing nonruptured plaques (41+/-12 mast cells/mm2; P<0.001) or backing normal intima (19+/-8 mast cells/mm2; P<0.001). No such difference was found among the 3 different segments in the control coronary arteries. The majority of mast cells contained not only tryptase but also chymase. Mast cells were the only cells in the coronary adventitia that contained histamine. The proportion of adventitial mast cells that were degranulated was highest in the segments with ruptured plaques. The numbers of adventitial macrophages and T lymphocytes were also increased in the segments with plaque rupture. CONCLUSIONS In infarct-related coronary arteries, the number of degranulated mast cells in the adventitia backing ruptured plaques is increased. Histamine released from the degranulated mast cells may reach the media, where it may locally provoke coronary spasm and thus contribute to the onset of MI.
Direct mechanical thrombectomy in tPA-ineligible and -eligible patients versus the bridging approach: a meta-analysis

Background Whether pretreatment with intravenous thrombolysis prior to mechanical thrombectomy (IVT+MTE) adds additional benefit over direct mechanical thrombectomy (dMTE) in patients with large vessel occlusions (LVO) is a matter of debate. Methods This study-level meta-analysis was presented in accord with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Pooled effect sizes were calculated using the inverse variance heterogeneity model and displayed as summary Odds Ratio (sOR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Sensitivity analysis was performed by distinguishing between studies including dMTE patients eligible for IVT (IVT-E) or ineligible for IVT (IVT-IN). Primary outcome measures were functional independence (modified Rankin Scale≤2) and mortality at day 90, successful reperfusion, and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. Results Twenty studies, incorporating 5279 patients, were included. There was no evidence that rates of successful reperfusion differed in dMTE and IVT+MTE patients (sOR 0.93, 95% CI 0.68 to 1.28). In studies including IVT-IN dMTE patients, patients undergoing dMTE tended to have lower rates of functional independence and had higher odds for a fatal outcome as compared with IVT+MTE patients (sOR 0.78, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.01 and sOR 1.45, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.73). However, no such treatment group effect was found when analyses were confined to cohorts with a lower risk of selection bias (including IVT-E dMTE patients). Conclusion The quality of evidence regarding the relative merits of IVT+MTE versus dMTE is low. When considering studies with lower selection bias, the data suggest that dMTE may offer comparable safety and efficacy as compared with IVT+MTE. The conduct of randomized-controlled clinical trials seems justified.
Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks Using an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) Router Chip

Wireless Sensor Networks consisting of nodes with limited power are deployed to gather useful information from the field. In WSNs it is critical to collect the information in an energy efficient manner. Ant Colony Optimization, a swarm intelligence based optimization technique, is widely used in network routing. A novel routing approach using an Ant Colony Optimization algorithm is proposed for Wireless Sensor Networks consisting of stable nodes. Illustrative examples, detailed descriptions and comparative performance test results of the proposed approach are included. The approach is also implemented to a small sized hardware component as a router chip. Simulation results show that proposed algorithm provides promising solutions allowing node designers to efficiently operate routing tasks.
Circadian Rhythms in Mfective Disorders

The affective or mood disorders are among the most common psychiatric conditions. They cause considerable morbidity and mortality, and therefore have received a great deal of research attention. For reasons which will be described below, researchers with an interest in circadian rhythms have been among those working to understand the pathophysiology and etiology of mood disorders. In this chapter, we will review their work, along with the conceptual and methodological issues that have complicated it. Following a brief, general description of the affective syndromes, we will describe the clinical features that have led researchers to suspect that circadian rhythm dysregulation may playa role in their pathogenesis. Next, we will discuss the methodological and conceptual challenges confronting workers in this field. Finally, we will describe the various hypotheses that have been suggested concerning a possible role for circadian rhythm dysregulation in the pathogenesis of mood disorders and the data that support or refute these hypotheses.
Distributed Computation of Large-scale Graph Problems

Motivated by the increasing need for fast distributed processing of large-scale graphs such as the Web graph and various social networks, we study a number of fundamental graph problems in the message-passing model, where we have k machines that jointly perform computation on an arbitrary n-node (typically, n G k) input graph. The graph is assumed to be randomly partitioned among the k ≥ 2 machines (a common implementation in many real world systems). The communication is point-to-point, and the goal is to minimize the time complexity i.e., the number of communication rounds, of solving various fundamental graph problems. We present lower bounds that quantify the fundamental time limitations of distributively solving graph problems. We first show a lower bound of Ω(n/k) rounds for computing a spanning tree (ST) of the input graph. This result also implies the same bound for other fundamental problems such as computing a minimum spanning tree (MST), breadth-first tree (BFS), and shortest paths tree (SPT). We also show an Ω(n/k2) lower bound for connectivity ST verification and other related problems. Our lower bounds develop and use new bounds in random-partition communication complexity. To complement our lower bounds, we also give algorithms for various fundamental graph problems, e.g., PageRank, MST, connectivity, ST verification, shortest paths, cuts, spanners, covering problems, densest subgraph, subgraph isomorphism, finding triangles, etc. We show that problems such as PageRank, MST, connectivity, and graph covering can be solved in O(n/k) time (the notation O hides polylog(n) factors and an additive polylog(n) term); this shows that one can achieve almost linear (in k) speedup, whereas for shortest paths, we present algorithms that run in O(n/Ok) time (for (1 + e)-factor approximation) and in O(n/k) time (for O(log n)-factor approximation) respectively. Our results are a step towards understanding the complexity of distributively solving large-scale graph problems.
Genetic approaches for graph partitioning: a survey

The graph partitioning problem occurs in numerous applications such as circuit placement, matrix factorization, load balancing, and community detection. For this problem, genetic algorithm is a representative approach with competitive performance with many related papers being published. Although there are a number of surveys on graph partitioning, none of them deals with genetic algorithms in much detail. In this survey, a number of problem-specific issues in applying genetic algorithms to the graph partitioning problem are discussed; the issues include encoding, crossover, normalization, and balancing.
Modeling the fluid dynamics of electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD)

This paper discusses the modeling and simulation of a parallel-plate Electrowetting On Dielectric (EWOD) device that moves fluid droplets through surface tension effects. We model the fluid dynamics by using Hele-Shaw type equations with a focus on including the relevant boundary phenomena. Specifically, we show that contact angle saturation and hysteresis are needed to predict the correct shape and time scale of droplet motion. We demonstrate this by comparing our simulation to experimental data for a splitting droplet. Without these boundary effects, the simulation shows the droplet splitting into three pieces instead of two and the motion is over 15 times faster than the experiment. We then show how including the saturation characteristics of the device, and a simple model of contact angle hysteresis, allows the simulation to better predict the splitting experiment. The match is not perfect and suffers mainly because contact line pinning is not included. This is followed by a comparison between our simulation, whose parameters are now frozen, and a new experiment involving bulk droplet motion. Our numerical implementation uses the level set method, is fast, and is being used to design algorithms for the precise control of microdroplet motion, mixing, and splitting
Demarcating Social Practices: The Case of Weight Management

The concept of weight management has gained currency in present political and social discourses on weight and health, organizing the various efforts to fight obesity and to assist individuals in controlling their weight. In this paper, we ask whether weight management is becoming rooted also in the everyday life of individuals. Adopting a practice-theoretical approach we study whether weight management constitutes an intelligible and distinct entity to people problematizing their weight. By analysing data generated by focus group discussions with Finnish consumers we investigate the ways in which people understand the concept of weight management, what kinds of techniques they use in order to manage their weight, and what kind of emotional and normative positions they take with respect to weight management. We analyse weight management in relation to eating, but acknowledge the role of another practices, such as exercising. We conclude that weight management is not a clearly defined entity, but located at the intersection of more established practices, healthy eating and slimming. We end our article by discussing the policy-implications of our findings.
How Important are Earnings Announcements as an Information Source?

In a competitive information market, a single information source can only dominate other sources individually, not collectively. We explore whether earnings announcements constitute such a dominant source using Ball and Shivakumar's (2008) [How much new information is there in earnings? , Journal of Accounting Research, 2008, 46(5), pp. 975–1016] R 2 metric: the proportion of the variation in annual returns explained by the four quarterly earnings announcement returns. We find that the earnings announcement days' R 2 is 11% – higher than the corresponding R 2 of days with dividend announcements, management forecasts, preannouncements, and 10-K and 10-Q filings and their amendments, and comparable to that of the four days with the largest realised absolute returns in a year. Additional analysis reveals that earnings announcements convey extreme bad news as often as management forecasts and preannouncements; for any other type of news, earnings announcements are much more frequent. We conclude that earnings announcements are an important source of new information in the equity market.
Do Unto Others . . . ? Methodological Advance and Self- Versus Other-Attentive Resistance in Milgram’s “Obedience” Experiments

We introduce conversation analysis (CA) as a methodological innovation that contributes to studies of the classic Milgram experiment, one allowing for substantive advances in the social psychological “obedience to authority” paradigm. Data are 117 audio recordings of Milgram’s original experimental sessions. We discuss methodological features of CA and then show how CA allows for methodological advances in understanding the Milgramesque situation by treating it as a three-party interactional scene, explicating an interactional dilemma for the “Teacher” subjects, and decomposing categorical outcomes (obedience vs. defiance) into their concrete interactional routes. Substantively, we analyze two kinds of resistance to directives enacted by both obedient and defiant participants, who may orient to how continuation would be troublesome primarily for themselves (self-attentive resistance) or for the person receiving shocks (other-attentive resistance). Additionally, we find that defiant participants mobilize two other-attentive practices almost never used by obedient ones: Golden Rule accounts and “letting the Learner decide. ”
Helicobacter pylori associated with breastfeeding, nutritional status and recurrent abdominal pain in healthy Nigerian children.

INTRODUCTION There is limited knowledge about the associations of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections in developing countries. This study aimed to determine the current prevalence and associations of H. pylori infection with breastfeeding practices, nutritional status, and recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) in a group of apparently healthy children and adolescents in Lagos, Nigeria. METHODOLOGY This was a prospective hospital-based study conducted at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital that involved 118 children who came to the hospital for routine pediatric care. Seroprevalence status of the children was determined by measuring immunoglobulin G antibodies against H. pylori using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS Seventy-five (63.6%) children were seropositive for H. pylori. The prevalence of H. pylori infection increased significantly from 40.4% in children less than five years of age to 85.1% at six to ten years of age (χ(2) = 20.9, p < 0.001). H. pylori infection was associated with low social class (OR = 3.24; 95% CI = 1.20-8.23, p = 0.016) and with RAP (OR = 3.47; 95% CI = 1.55-7.79, p = 0.002), but no association was observed with exclusive breastfeeding, duration of breastfeeding, and under-nutrition. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of H. pylori infection is high, particularly among children from low socioeconomic backgrounds in Lagos, Nigeria. It is associated with RAP. The effect of this infection on children's health requires further studies.
Ergodic mirror descent

We generalize stochastic subgradient methods to situations in which we do not receive independent samples from the distribution over which we optimize, but instead receive samples that are coupled over time. We show that as long as the source of randomness is suitably ergodic — it converges quickly enough to a stationary distribution — the method enjoys strong convergence guarantees, both in expectation and with high probability. This result has implications for high-dimensional stochastic optimization, peer-to-peer distributed optimization schemes, and stochastic optimization problems over combinatorial spaces.
The Danger of Deconsolidation: How Much Should We Worry?

Abstract: In this issue of the Journal of Democracy, Roberto Foa and Yascha Mounk write that the citizens of many countries are becoming dissatisfied with democracy and increasingly open to nondemocratic alternatives. Although I agree with Foa and Mounk’s central claim that public faith in democracy has eroded during the past two decades while support for nondemocratic alternatives has risen, their data suggest that this phenomenon is, in large part, a specifically American period effect. The United States is distinctive because in recent years U.S. democracy has become appallingly dysfunctional. In fact, evidence from some key indicators suggests that the mass basis of support for democracy is growing stronger.
Development of Prescription Drug Information Leaflets: Impact of Cognitive Effort and Patient Involvement on Prescription Medication Information Processing

Objective The objective of this study was to develop a one-page (1-page) prescription drug information leaflet (PILs) and assess their impact on the information processing variables, across 2 levels of patient involvement. Methods One-page PILs were developed using cognitive principles to lower mental effort and improve comprehension. An experimental, 3 × 2 repeated measures study was conducted to determine the impact of cognitive effort, manipulated using leaflet type on comprehension across 2 levels (high/low) of patient involvement. Adults (≥18 years) in a university setting in Houston were recruited for the study. Each participant was exposed to 3 different types of prescription drug information leaflet (the current practice, preexisting 1-page text-only, and 1-page PILs) for the 3 drugs (Celebrex, Ventolin HFA, Prezista) for a given involvement scenario. A prevalidated survey instrument was used to measure product knowledge, attitude toward leaflet, and intention to read. Results Multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant positive effect of cognitive effort, involvement, and their interaction effect across all measured variables. Mean scores for product knowledge, attitude toward leaflet, and intention to read were highest for PILs ( P <.001), indicating that PILs exerted lowest cognitive effort. Univariate and post hoc analysis indicate that product knowledge significantly increases with high involvement. Conclusion Patients reading PILs have higher comprehension compared with the current practice and text-only prototype leaflets evaluated. Higher levels of involvement further improve participant knowledge about the drug, increase their intention to read the leaflet, and change their attitude toward the leaflet. Implementation of PILs would improve information processing for consumers by reducing their cognitive effort.