Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of contact force technology on reducing the recurrence and major complications of atrial fibrillation ablation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Contact force (CF) monitoring can be useful in accomplishing circumferential pulmonary vein (PV) isolation for atrial fibrillation (AF). This meta-analysis aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of a CF-sensing catheter in treating AF. Randomized controlled trials or non-randomized observational studies comparing AF ablation using CF-sensing or standard non-CF (NCF)-sensing catheters were identified from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Wanfang Data, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (January 1, 1998–2016). A total of 19 studies were included. The primary efficacy endpoint was AF recurrence within 12 months, which significantly improved using CF-sensing catheters compared with using NCF-sensing catheters [31.1% vs. 40.5%; risk ratio (RR)=0.82; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.73–0.93; p<0.05]. Further, the acute PV reconnection (10.1% vs. 24.2%; RR=0.45; 95% CI, 0.32–0.63; p<0.05) and incidence of major complications (1.8% vs. 3.1%; OR=0.59; 95% CI, 0.37–0.95; p<0.05) significantly improved using CF-sensing catheters compared with using NCF-sensing catheters. Procedure parameters such as procedure duration [mean difference (MD)=-28.35; 95% CI, -39.54 to -17.16; p<0.05], ablation time (MD=-3.8; 95% CI, -6.6 to -1.0; p<0.05), fluoroscopy duration (MD=-8.18; 95% CI, -14.11 to -2.24; p<0.05), and radiation dose (standard MD=-0.75; 95% CI, -1.32 to -0.18; p<0.05] significantly reduced using CF-sensing catheters. CF-sensing catheter ablation of AF can reduce the incidence of major complications and generate better outcomes compared with NCF-sensing catheters during the 12-month follow-up period.
Early contribution of phonological awareness and later influence of phonological memory throughout reading acquisition

The acquisition of reading skills is known to rely on early phonological abilities, but only a few studies have investigated the independent contribution of the different steps involved in phonological processing. This 1-year longitudinal study, spanning the initial year of reading instruction, aimed at specifying the development of phonological discrimination, awareness and various aspects of phonological memory and at assessing their respective contributions to early reading acquisition. Our results show an increase in performance at each phonological processing step, but also suggest a qualitative evolution in their relative importance. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that reading skills are mainly predicted by phonological awareness measured at the kindergarten stage and, subsequently, by phonological memory abilities measured at the end of first grade. More precisely short-term memory for serial-order information seems to contribute to the development of decoding abilities, while phonological knowledge stored in long-term memory seems to influence word recognition. © 2011 UKLA.
Tight Binding of the Phosphorylated α Subunit of Initiation Factor 2 (eIF2α) to the Regulatory Subunits of Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor eIF2B Is Required for Inhibition of Translation Initiation

ABSTRACT Translation initiation factor 2 (eIF2) is a heterotrimeric protein that transfers methionyl-initiator tRNAMet to the small ribosomal subunit in a ternary complex with GTP. The eIF2 phosphorylated on serine 51 of its α subunit [eIF2(αP)] acts as competitive inhibitor of its guanine nucleotide exchange factor, eIF2B, impairing formation of the ternary complex and thereby inhibiting translation initiation. eIF2B is comprised of catalytic and regulatory subcomplexes harboring independent eIF2 binding sites; however, it was unknown whether the α subunit of eIF2 directly contacts any eIF2B subunits or whether this interaction is modulated by phosphorylation. We found that recombinant eIF2α (glutathioneS-transferase [GST]–SUI2) bound to the eIF2B regulatory subcomplex in vitro, in a manner stimulated by Ser-51 phosphorylation. Genetic data suggest that this direct interaction also occurred in vivo, allowing overexpressed SUI2 to compete with eIF2(αP) holoprotein for binding to the eIF2B regulatory subcomplex. Mutations in SUI2 and in the eIF2B regulatory subunit GCD7 that eliminated inhibition of eIF2B by eIF2(αP) also impaired binding of phosphorylated GST-SUI2 to the eIF2B regulatory subunits. These findings provide strong evidence that tight binding of phosphorylated SUI2 to the eIF2B regulatory subcomplex is crucial for the inhibition of eIF2B and attendant downregulation of protein synthesis exerted by eIF2(αP). We propose that this regulatory interaction prevents association of the eIF2B catalytic subcomplex with the β and γ subunits of eIF2 in the manner required for GDP-GTP exchange.
Striatal cholinergic interneuron regulation and circuit effects

The striatum plays a central role in motor control and motor learning. Appropriate responses to environmental stimuli, including pursuit of reward or avoidance of aversive experience all require functional striatal circuits. These pathways integrate synaptic inputs from limbic and cortical regions including sensory, motor and motivational information to ultimately connect intention to action. Although many neurotransmitters participate in striatal circuitry, one critically important player is acetylcholine (ACh). Relative to other brain areas, the striatum contains exceptionally high levels of ACh, the enzymes that catalyze its synthesis and breakdown, as well as both nicotinic and muscarinic receptor types that mediate its postsynaptic effects. The principal source of striatal ACh is the cholinergic interneuron (ChI), which comprises only about 1–2% of all striatal cells yet sends dense arbors of projections throughout the striatum. This review summarizes recent advances in our understanding of the factors affecting the excitability of these neurons through acute effects and long term changes in their synaptic inputs. In addition, we discuss the physiological effects of ACh in the striatum, and how changes in ACh levels may contribute to disease states during striatal dysfunction.
Estimating Diffusion Networks: Recovery Conditions, Sample Complexity and Soft-thresholding Algorithm

Information spreads across social and technological networks, but often the network structures are hidden from us and we only observe the traces left by the diffusion processes, called cascades. Can we recover the hidden network structures from these observed cascades? What kind of cascades and how many cascades do we need? Are there some network structures which are more difficult than others to recover? Can we design efficient inference algorithms with provable guarantees? Despite the increasing availability of cascade data and methods for inferring networks from these data, a thorough theoretical understanding of the above questions remains largely unexplored in the literature. In this paper, we investigate the network structure inference problem for a general family of continuous-time diffusion models using an l1- regularized likelihood maximization framework. We show that, as long as the cascade sampling process satisfies a natural incoherence condition, our framework can recover the correct network structure with high probability if we observe O(d3logN) cascades, where d is the maximum number of parents of a node and N is the total number of nodes. Moreover, we develop a simple and efficient soft-thresholding network inference algorithm which demonstrate the match between our theoretical prediction and empirical results. In practice, this new algorithm also outperforms other alternatives in terms of the accuracy of recovering hidden diffusion networks.
Motivational Differences Between Black and White Volunteers

Several studies have suggested that both altruistic and egoistic motiva tions help to explain why people choose to volunteer. These theories have been applied universally without regard to cultural differences among volunteer groups. To refine these theories, comparisons were performed between black and white volunteers of a Big Brothers/Big Sisters agency in a southwestern city. The black volunteers were significantly more likely to report altruistic reasons for volunteering than their white counterparts.
The Evolution of Plasticity in Female-Female Desire

Abstract Previous psychological and anthropological research suggests that female-female desires show greater variability and plasticity than do male-male desires. I argue that plasticity in female-female desire has its origins in the evolved independence between female proceptivity (i.e., motivation to initiate sexual activity) and female arousability (i.e., capacity to become aroused to sexual stimuli), which evolved in concert with the loss of a circumscribed and observable period of estrus in higher primates. Proceptivity is an intrinsically cyclical system, peaking during ovulationwhen estrogen levels are highest, whereas arousability is continuous and hormone-independent. Because female proceptivity peaks only a few days per month, a relatively greater proportion of women's day-to-day desires is governed by arousability. The opposite is true for males, who experience continuously high proceptivity mediated by their continuously high androgen levels. Moreover, because arousability is a responsive rather than an initiatory system, there would have been little evolutionary benefit to “orienting” this system exclusively toward other-sex partners. Therefore, arousability likely permits sexual desires for both sexes. Women will consequently have more opportunities than men to experience situationally-triggered same-sex desires, regardless of their underlying sexual orientation. The implications of this perspective for understanding different manifestations of same-sex sexuality are discussed. doi:10.1300/J056v18n04_01
Efficacy of levofloxacin-based rescue therapy for Helicobacter pylori infection after standard triple therapy: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES This prospective study was designed to determine the efficacy of a levofloxacin-based rescue therapy for Helicobacter pylori infection after failure of standard triple therapies. We also surveyed the predictors of this rescue therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS From June 2005 to March 2007, 1036 patients infected with H. pylori received standard triple regimens (proton pump inhibitor, clarithromycin and amoxicillin). H. pylori eradication was achieved in 855 (82.5%) subjects. One hundred and sixty-six eradication-failure patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive a 7 day eradication therapy with esomeprazole, bismuth subcitrate, tetracycline and metronidazole (EBTM) or esomeprazole, amoxicillin and levofloxacin (EAL). Follow-up endoscopy was done 16 weeks later to assess the treatment response. Patients' response, CYP2C19 genotypes and antibiotic resistances were also examined. RESULTS Intention-to-treat analysis revealed that both groups showed similar eradication rates [EBTM 63.9%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 53.6-74.2 and EAL 69.9%; 95% CI: 60.1-79.7] (P = 0.89). Per-protocol results were EBTM = 84.1% (95% CI: 75.1-93.1) and EAL = 75.3% (95% CI: 65.8-84.8) (P = 0.82). Both regimens had similar compliance (P = 0.32), but the EBTM group had more adverse events (P = 0.27). Logistic regression analysis showed that poor compliance, CYP2C19 homozygous extensive metabolizer genotype and levofloxacin resistance were important predictors for eradication failure. CONCLUSIONS The EAL regimen can achieve an efficacy similar to that of the standard EBTM therapy. It may be very useful in countries where bismuth salts are not available. Compliance, CYP2C19 genotype and resistances to antibiotics may influence the outcome of levofloxacin-based rescue therapy. It seems advisable to reserve levofloxacin for rescue treatment to avoid an increase in the resistance phenomenon.
Missing feature theory with soft spectral subtraction for speaker verification

This paper considers the problem of training/testing mismatch in the context of speaker verification and, in particular, explores the application of missing feature theory in the case of additive white Gaussian noise corruption in testing. Missing feature theory allows for corrupted features to be removed from scoring, the initial step of which is the detection of these features. One method of detection, employing spectral subtraction, is studied in a controlled manner and it is shown that with missing feature compensation the resulting verification performance is improved as long as a minimum number of features remain. Finally, a blending of “soft” spectral subtraction for noise mitigation and missing feature compensation is presented. The resulting performance improves on the constituent techniques alone, reducing the equal error rate by about 15% over an SNR range of 5-2 5 dB. Index Terms: speaker verification, GMM, spectral subtraction, missing features.
Performance Bounds for Look-Ahead Power System Dispatch Using Generalized Multistage Policies

We present a combined look-ahead dispatch and reserve optimization formulation, which extends our recent work on time-coupled reserve policies and employs the recent notion of generalized decision rules from the robust optimization literature. This aims to improve the performance of traditional linear decision rules when applied to short-term electrical reserve operation. We derive a primal problem whose solution is a time-coupled rule for up- and down-regulating the power injections of each controllable device, such as a generator or energy storage unit, in response to discovered values of prediction errors. This rule depends on the “bin” into which measured prediction errors fall, so that, for example, up-regulation follows a different rule to down-regulation. We also derive an associated dual problem, whose solution provides a lower-bound on the best possible primal cost. This allows the suboptimality of a candidate solution based on a particular decision rule parameterization to be bounded. The primal and dual solutions are also compared to the so-called prescient case, in which the values of the uncertainty are known in advance. We demonstrate the method using numerical case studies, including the standard IEEE-118 bus network, in which a minimum possible reserve cost is identified using the dual lower-bounding approach.
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 5-2-2012 THE SAME ASSETS , BUT NEW IMPACTS : IT-ENABLED COORDINATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

In this paper we analyze the effect of information technologies (IT) on the environmental performance of firms. In particular, we study the moderating effect of IT on the relationship between a firm’s environmental practices and its environmental performance. The paper considers two moderating effects –namely, IT-enabled coordination and IT-enabled control. IT-enabled coordination refers to the integration of processes and the sharing of information between a firm and its suppliers in design and manufacturing. IT-enabled control refers to the use of IT to monitor the environmental practices that a firm implements in production and logistics. The data used were obtained from the fifth (2009) round of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) which includes responses from manufacturing plants within the assembly industry. Our findings suggest that IT-enabled coordination strengthens the impact of the implementation of environmental practices on the environmental performance of firms. A relevant contribution for practice is derived from this study: firms can use the same technologies (ERP, shared databases) that they once implemented to improve their operational performance to improve the environmental performance.
Intraoperative Biomechanical Evaluation of Anatomic Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Using a Navigation System

Background Recently, more anatomic anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions have been developed to improve knee laxity. Purpose The objective of this study is to assess knee kinematics after double-bundle reconstruction with hamstring tendon and after anatomically oriented reconstruction with a patellar tendon using navigation during surgery. Study Design Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods Eighty knees received double-bundle reconstruction with a hamstring tendon graft, and 45 knees received anatomically oriented reconstruction with a patellar tendon graft. Before reconstruction, knee laxity was measured using a navigation system. After the posterolateral bundle or anteromedial bundle was temporarily fixed during double-bundle reconstruction, knee laxity was measured to assess the function of each bundle. After double-bundle reconstruction or anatomically oriented reconstruction with patellar tendon, knee laxity was measured in the same manner. Results Both double-bundle reconstruction and anatomically oriented reconstruction similarly improved knee laxity compared With before reconstruction in all knee flexion angles. Regarding the function of the anteromedial and posterolateral bundles in double-bundle reconstruction, the 2 grafts showed contrasting behavior. The posterolateral bundle restrained tibial displacement mainly in knee extension, whereas the anteromedial bundle restrained it more in the knee flexion position. The posterolateral bundle has a more important role in controlling rotation of the tibia than the anteromedial bundle. Conclusion Although the posterolateral bundle has an important role in the extension position, the anteromedial bundle is more important in the flexion position. Therefore, both bundles should be reconstructed to improve knee laxity throughout knee range of motion. Even with single-bundle reconstruction using a patellar tendon, anatomic reconstruction might improve knee laxity similar to double-bundle reconstruction.
Peeling the onion: NMDA dysfunction as a unifying model in schizophrenia

Abstract N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) dysfunction plays a crucial role in schizophrenia, leading to impairments in cognitive coordination. NMDAR agonists (e.g., glycine) ameliorate negative and cognitive symptoms, consistent with NMDAR models. However, not all types of cognitive coordination use NMDAR. Further, not all aspects of cognitive coordination are impaired in schizophrenia, suggesting the need for specificity in applying the cognitive coordination construct.
Effect of “Aerobics” on Self-Concepts of College Women

The purpose of the 10-wk. study was to assess the effect of “aerobics” on self-concepts of college women. 116 college women enrolled in aerobics classes and 177 in 7 nonphysical education classes were given the Tennessee Self-concept Scale in a pretest-posttest design. Using analysis of covariance, with the pretest score as a covariant, significant differences were noted in mean self-concepts between the control group and the aerobics group. The aerobics group scored higher on 7 of the 9 subscales and on the total positive or global self-concept score. No significant difference in mean scores was found for the self-criticism and moral-ethical subscales.
Clopidogrel loading dose versus maintenance dose to treat patients with acute ischaemic stroke in China (CLASS-China): results from a prospective double-blind randomised clinical trial

Aim The role of clopidogrel in treating patients with acute ischaemic stroke is unclear. We have conducted the clinical trial in order to evaluate the efficacy and safety of clopidogrel with a loading dose in treating patients with non-cardiogenic acute ischaemic stroke. Method Clopidogrel loading dose versus maintenance dose to treat patients with acute ischaemic stroke in China (CLASS-China) was a prospective, randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trial in China. Patients with acute ischaemic stroke of non-cardiogenic origin within 48 hours of onset were enrolled and those received thrombolysis were excluded. Enrolled patients were divided into two treatment groups: loading dose and routine dose. The primary outcome was the incidence of stroke recurrence or progression within 7 days. Primary safety outcome was measured by life-threatening haemorrhage. An intent-to-treat analysis was used for the statistical analysis. Results From March 2008 to March 2010, a total of 303 patients from 16 centres were recruited into this study; six were excluded because of lack of basic information. Since the enrolment was slow and the study drug expired in March 2010, this clinical trial was stopped earlier than planned. No significant baseline and demographic differences were seen between the two groups. There was no difference in primary outcome between the loading dosage group 16.1% (24/149) and control group 14.9% (22/148), respectively (p=0.782). The mortality and disability rate within 90 days in loading dose group (19.6%) was slightly lower than that in controlled group (23.4%), p=0.444. Loading dose group had two (1.3%) cases of fatal haemorrhage and control group had four (2.7%) within 90 days, p=0.674. No significant difference was detected in other adverse events between the groups. Conclusion In our study stopped early due to slow enrolment, loading dose of clopidogrel does not reduce the risk of recurrent stroke. Future trials with sufficient number of patients enrolled are needed to re-examine this hypothesis.
Participation in Leisure Activities after the Death of a Spouse

Abstract The main purpose of this exploratory study was to establish whether frequent participation in leisure activities helped widows and widowers adapt to widowhood. The study also examined whether more frequent participation in leisure activities by widows and widowers helped them maintain higher morale. A small sample of 60 recently bereaved widows and widowers who were living independently in a state capital in Australia was selected for the study. Each widow or widower was interviewed and provided responses to three scales measuring participation in leisure activities, adaptation to widowhood, and morale. Quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used to interpret the data. The leisure activities most frequently participated in by widows and widowers were found to be home‐based activities and mainly involved social activities with family and friends. Greater participation in leisure activities, especially with family and friends, was found to be significantly related to increased morale.
Modeling user interlanguage in a second language tutoring system for deaf users of american sign language

The ICICLE project is an effort to create an adaptive tutoring system for deaf users of American Sign Language who are attempting to improve their proficiency in written English. Its primary objective is to syntactically analyze samples of user-produced English text and construct appropriate tutorial instruction for the errors found in that text. One of the challenges faced by the analytic component of the system is the need to discriminate between multiple competing syntactic analyses of ambiguous sentences. This problem is particularly relevant to this application because the different choices may represent different sources of a perceived error, and the system needs to be as accurate as possible when identifying user errors and delivering instruction. This dissertation describes the development of a user modeling component to address the intelligent parse disambiguation problem in ICICLE. The user model hybridizes two approaches to user modeling, the individualized overlay approach and the population-based stereotype approach. It tracks user language usage in order to best represent current language proficiency, and supplements direct observations with general knowledge about stereotypical second language acquisition sequences. Through this work, we have enabled the ICICLE system to adapt its parse selection process to the individual, selecting those syntactic interpretations which are the closest match to the user's expected performance levels. The user model adapts to the individual over time, following the user dynamically across the learning journey. As part of this work, we have also established a methodology for empirically deriving stereotypic information about a user population.