Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative evaluation of addition of either fentanyl or clonidine to bupivacaine in spinal anesthesia – a randomized controlled trial

Background: Single dose subarachnoid anesthesia is a commonly used anesthetic technique for pelvic and lower limb surgeries. Various adjuvants, e.g. opioids, alpha 2 agonists, neostigmine, midazolam etc. have been used to counter some of the shortcomings of the technique. Synthetic lipid soluble opioids like fentanyl for hemodynamic stability or clonidine for prolongation of duration have been used. We wanted to compare both the drugs with a control when used in conjunction with local anesthetics in lower abdominal and pelvic surgeries with regard to sensory and motor block with early postoperative analgesia along with their side effect profile. Methodology: One hundred and fifty adult patients of ASA status I and II, posted for lower abdominal and pelvic surgeries, were randomly divided into three groups. Group BC (bupivacaine + clonidine) received 50 µg clonidine while BF (bupivacaine + fentanyl) received 50 µg of fentanyl, the third group received equal volumes of normal saline (Group NS, bupivacaine + normal saline) for subarachnoid block. The duration of anesthesia, analgesia, motor blockade and side effects like sedation, bradycardia and hypotension were noted and subjected to statistical analyses with ANOVA (analysis of variance) and Kruskal-Wallis test as and when appropriate. Results: All of the 150 patients completed the study. The duration of surgical anesthesia was not significantly higher in the experimental groups. But the duration of analgesia was higher in BC than BF which in turn was higher than the Group NS [281.26 ± 97.57, 237.80 ± 58.49 min and 190.48 ± 61.94 min respectively]. The sedation and the intraoperative motor blockade were similar, in Group BC, L1 regression time was 232.76 ± 94 min which was higher compared to Group BF (202.34 ± 60 min) and Group BN (172.28 ± 56 min) but statistically insignificant. The hemodynamic instability with regard to hypotension was more in Group BC than BF. Conclusion: Addition of 50 µg of clonidine to intrathecal bupivacaine produces prolonged duration of analgesia in surgical anesthesia. The onset of hemodynamic imbalance was from forty minutes in Group BC which prompts for an additional monitoring in those cases. There is no excess sedation with the above said dose of clonidine.
Benchmarking in digital circuit design automation

This paper focuses on benchmarking, which is the main experimental approach to the design method and EDA-tool analysis, characterization and evaluation. We discuss the importance and difficulties of benchmarking, as well as the recent research effort related to it. To resolve several serious problems related to quality of benchmarking and use of practical industrial benchmarks, we proposed an adequate benchmarking methodology based on the statistical experimental design approach, and developed corresponding digital circuit benchmark generators. These benchmark generators enable research, evaluation and fine-tuning of circuit synthesis methods and EDA-tools largely independent of the actual industrial benchmarks, and much better than having only some industrial benchmarks. Using the results of extensive experiments that involved large sets of diverse benchmarks generated with our FSM benchmark generator, we discuss several crucial problems of benchmarking and demonstrate how to resolve them.
The Performance Consequences of Board Structure Changes: Evidence from Ghana

This paper analyses the performance consequences of board structure changes in Ghana for the study period 2000 to 2009. We predict that board structure changes prompted by the introduction of the Ghanaian Code in 2003 should lead to better firm performance. The results show that duality decreases firm performance pre-2003, but those firms that separate the two posts in line with the recommendations of the Ghanaian Code did not perform better than those that combined the two post-2003. While we find no relationship between board committees and firm performance pre-2003, the relationship switched to positive and statistically significant post- 2003. The most consistent result we find concerns board size. However, the non-executive director representation on the board appears to have no impact on firm performance. These results show that not all board structure recommendations introduced by the Ghanaian Code are effective in achieving superior performance in Ghana.
On User Pairing in Uplink NOMA

User pairing in non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA) uplink is investigated considering some predefined power allocation schemes. The base station divides the set of users into disjunct pairs and assigns the available resources to these pairs. The combinatorial problem of user pairing to achieve the maximum sum rate is analyzed in the large system limit for various scenarios, and some optimum and sub-optimum algorithms with a polynomial-time complexity are proposed. In the first scenario, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2~M$ </tex-math></inline-formula> users and the base station have a single-antenna and communicate over <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula> subcarriers. The performance of optimum pairing is derived for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M\rightarrow \infty $ </tex-math></inline-formula> and shown to be superior to random pairing and orthogonal multiple access techniques. In the second setting, a novel NOMA scheme for a multi-antenna base station and single carrier communication is proposed. In this case, the users need not be aware of the pairing strategy. Furthermore, the proposed NOMA scheme is generalized to multi-antenna users. It is shown that for the considered power allocation scheme, random and optimum user pairing perform similarly in the large system limit, but optimum pairing is significantly better in finite dimensions. It is shown that NOMA with the proposed user pairing scheme outperforms a previously proposed NOMA with signal alignment.
Dense and Diverse Capsule Networks: Making the Capsules Learn Better

Past few years have witnessed exponential growth of interest in deep learning methodologies with rapidly improving accuracies and reduced computational complexity. In particular, architectures using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have produced state-of-the-art performances for image classification and object recognition tasks. Recently, Capsule Networks (CapsNet) achieved significant increase in performance by addressing an inherent limitation of CNNs in encoding pose and deformation. Inspired by such advancement, we asked ourselves, can we do better? We propose Dense Capsule Networks (DCNet) and Diverse Capsule Networks (DCNet++). The two proposed frameworks customize the CapsNet by replacing the standard convolutional layers with densely connected convolutions. This helps in incorporating feature maps learned by different layers in forming the primary capsules. DCNet, essentially adds a deeper convolution network, which leads to learning of discriminative feature maps. Additionally, DCNet++ uses a hierarchical architecture to learn capsules that represent spatial information in a fine-to-coarser manner, which makes it more efficient for learning complex data. Experiments on image classification task using benchmark datasets demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed architectures. DCNet achieves state-of-the-art performance (99.75%) on MNIST dataset with twenty fold decrease in total training iterations, over the conventional CapsNet. Furthermore, DCNet++ performs better than CapsNet on SVHN dataset (96.90%), and outperforms the ensemble of seven CapsNet models on CIFAR-10 by 0.31% with seven fold decrease in number of parameters.
Capability maturity models towards improved quality of the sustainable development goals indicators data

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demands coping with the data revolution for sustainable development: the integration of new and traditional data to produce high-quality information that is detailed, timely, and relevant for multiple purposes and to a variety of users. The quality of this information, defined by its completeness, uniqueness, timeliness, validity, accuracy, and consistency, is crucial for appropriate decision making; which leads to improvements in advancing national development imperatives for reaching the goals and targets of the sustainable development agenda. In this paper, we posit that the more mature the organizations within the national data ecosystems are, the higher the quality of data that they produce. The paper motivates for the adoption and mainstreaming of organizational Capability Maturity Models within the SGDs activities. It also presents the preliminary formulation of a multidimensional prescriptive Capability Maturity Model to assess and improve the maturity of organizations within national data ecosystems and, therefore, the effective monitoring of the progress on the SDG targets through the production of better quality indicators data. Furthermore, the paper provides recommendation towards addressing the challenges within the increasingly data-driven domain of social indicators monitoring.
Serum levels of vitamin D are not associated with future risk of venous thromboembolism

Summary Previous studies have provided indirect evidence for a possible association between vitamin D status and risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, no study has so far investigated the association between serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), the biomarker of vitamin D status, and risk of VTE. The aim of our study was to investigate whether high levels of 25(OH)D were associated with decreased risk of VTE in a prospective population-based study. Serum levels of 25(OH)D were measured in 6,021 men and women, aged 25–84 years, who participated in the Tromsø Study in 1994–1995. Incident VTE-events were registered from date of inclusion through the end of follow-up, September 1, 2007. Cox-regression models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for VTE. There were 201 incident VTE-events during a median of 10.7 years of follow-up. The risk of VTE did not decrease per one standard deviation (SD) (19.8 nmol/l) increase in serum 25(OH)D (multivariable HR 1.02; 95% CI 0.91–1.22). Moreover, subjects with serum 25(OH)D ≥ 70 nmol/l (upper quartile) did not have decreased risk of VTE compared to those ≤ 44 nmol/l (lower quartile) in age- and sex-adjusted analysis (HR 0.91, 95% CI: 0.60–1.37, p for trend across quartiles 0.9) or multivariable analysis adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, smoking, and physical activity (HR 0.76, 95% CI: 0.45–1.28, p for trend across quartiles 0.9). Subgroup analyses showed no associations between serum levels of 25(OH)D and unprovoked or provoked VTE. In conclusion, in our study, normal serum levels of 25(OH)D were not associated with future risk of VTE, suggesting that vitamin D status does not play an important role in the pathogenesis of VTE. However, our findings did not apply to subjects with vitamin D deficiency (< 30 nmol/l) due to lack of statistical power among these subjects.
WITHIN-POPULATION VARIATION IN CYTOPLASMIC GENES AFFECTS FEMALE LIFE SPAN AND AGING IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Abstract It has been suggested that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) may play an important role in aging. Yet, few empirical studies have tested this hypothesis, partly because the degree of sequence polymorphism in mtDNA is assumed to be low. However, low sequence variation may not necessarily translate into low phenotypic variation. Here, we report an experiment that tests whether there is within-population variation in cytoplasmic genes for female longevity and senescence. To achieve this, we randomly selected 25 “mitochondrial founders” from a single, panmictic population of Drosophila melanogaster and used these founders to generate distinct “mt” lines in which we controlled for the nuclear background by successive backcrossing. Potential confounding effects of cytoplasmically transmitted bacteria were eliminated by tetracycline treatment. The mt lines were then assayed for differences in longevity, Gompertz intercept (frailty), and demographic rate of change in mortality with age (rate-of-senescence) in females. We found significant cytoplasmic effects on all three variables. This provides evidence that genetic variation in cytoplasmic genes, presumably mtDNA, contributes to variation in female mortality and aging.
Cache-Aided Multiuser Cognitive Relay Networks With Outdated Channel State Information

In this paper, we study the impact of cache on the multiuser cognitive relay networks with outdated channel state information (CSI), where the transmission from the multiple secondary sources to the secondary destination is assisted by one decode-and-forward relay. Two user selection criteria in choosing the best secondary source are used to maximize the channel gain of the direct link or the transmit power at the selected secondary source, respectively. For the considered networks with or without cache, we derive the analytical and asymptotic expressions of the outage probability under the two user selection criteria, respectively. From the asymptotic outage probabilities, we conclude that the system with cache outperforms that without cache, due to the reason that the cache-aided system enhances the system performance by reducing half of the transmission time and eradicating the outage event from the first hop of relaying link. Moreover, we see that the multiuser diversity gains are severely degraded by the outdated CSI. Numerical results are demonstrated to verify the proposed analysis and demonstrate the impact of cache and outdated CSI on the system transmission performance.
Automated Sulcal Depth Measurement on Cortical Surface Reflecting Geometrical Properties of Sulci

Sulcal depth that is one of the quantitative measures of cerebral cortex has been widely used as an important marker for brain morphological studies. Several studies have employed Euclidean (EUD) or geodesic (GED) algorithms to measure sulcal depth, which have limitations that ignore sulcal geometry in highly convoluted regions and result in under or overestimated depth. In this study, we proposed an automated measurement for sulcal depth on cortical surface reflecting geometrical properties of sulci, which named the adaptive distance transform (ADT). We first defined the volume region of cerebrospinal fluid between the 3D convex hull and the cortical surface, and constructed local coordinates for that restricted region. Dijkstra’s algorithm was then used to compute the shortest paths from the convex hull to the vertices of the cortical surface based on the local coordinates, which may be the most proper approach for defining sulcal depth. We applied our algorithm to both a clinical dataset including patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 25 normal controls and a simulated dataset whose shape was similar to a single sulcus. The mean sulcal depth in the mild AD group was significantly lower than controls (p = 0.007, normal [mean±SD]: 7.29±0.23 mm, AD: 7.11±0.29) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was relatively high, showing the value of 0.818. Results from clinical dataset that were consistent with former studies using EUD or GED demonstrated that ADT was sensitive to cortical atrophy. The robustness against inter-individual variability of ADT was highlighted through simulation dataset. ADT showed a low and constant normalized difference between the depth of the simulated data and the calculated depth, whereas EUD and GED had high and variable differences. We suggest that ADT is more robust than EUD or GED and might be a useful alternative algorithm for measuring sulcal depth.
Ultrastructural evidence of intercalated disc remodelling in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy: an electron microscopy investigation on endomyocardial biopsies.

AIMS The ultrastructural features of the myocardium in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) have not been systematically investigated so far. The recent discovery of gene mutations encoding intercalated disc proteins prompted us to perform a transmission electron microscopy study on endomyocardial biopsies. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-one ARVC probands who fulfilled the international Task Force diagnostic criteria underwent right ventricular endomyocardial biopsy and screening of desmosome (D) protein encoding genes. Myocyte intercalated discs were analysed by transmission electron microscope and the data were compared with those of 10 controls and 10 patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Extensive fibro-fatty replacement with a residual myocardium of 59+/-23% was found in ARVC biopsy samples. Pathogenic D gene mutations were identified in 10 (48%): desmoglein-2 in four, desmoplakin in three and plakophilin-2 in three. Mean D length and D percent length of intercalated disc were significantly higher, D number was significantly lower and D gap was widened in ARVC. Moreover, abnormally located D in 75%, abnormal small junctions in 52%, and pale internal plaques in 32% of ARVC patients were found in the presence of a normal intercalated disc convolution index. CONCLUSION The ultrastructural evidence of intercalated discs remodelling in ARVC, together with the positive screening of D protein encoding genes in half of probands, are in keeping with an intercellular junction cardiomyopathy.
A paclitaxel-eluting stent for the prevention of coronary restenosis.

BACKGROUND Intimal hyperplasia and resulting restenosis limit the efficacy of coronary stenting. We studied a coronary stent coated with the antiproliferative agent paclitaxel as a means of preventing restenosis. METHODS We conducted a multicenter, randomized, controlled, triple-blind study to evaluate the ability of a paclitaxel-eluting stent to inhibit restenosis. At three centers, 177 patients with discrete coronary lesions (<15 mm in length, 2.25 to 3.5 mm in diameter) underwent implantation of paclitaxel-eluting stents (low dose, 1.3 microg per square millimeter, or high dose, 3.1 microg per square millimeter) or control stents. Antiplatelet therapies included aspirin with ticlopidine (120 patients), clopidogrel (18 patients), or cilostazol (37 patients). Clinical follow-up was performed at one month and four to six months, and angiographic follow-up at four to six months. RESULTS Technical success was achieved in 99 percent of the patients (176 of 177). At follow-up, the high-dose group, as compared with the control group, had significantly better results for the degree of stenosis (mean [+/-SD], 14+/-21 percent vs. 39+/-27 percent; P<0.001), late loss of luminal diameter (0.29+/-0.72 mm vs. 1.04+/-0.83 mm, P<0.001), and restenosis of more than 50 percent (4 percent vs. 27 percent, P<0.001). Intravascular ultrasound analysis demonstrated a dose-dependent reduction in the volume of intimal hyperplasia (31, 18, and 13 mm3, in the high-dose, low-dose, and control groups, respectively). There was a higher rate of major cardiac events in patients receiving cilostazol than in those receiving ticlopidine or clopidogrel. Among patients receiving ticlopidine or clopidogrel, event-free survival was 98 percent and 100 percent in the high-dose and control groups, respectively, at one month, and 96 percent in both at four to six months. CONCLUSIONS Paclitaxel-eluting stents used with conventional antiplatelet therapy effectively inhibit restenosis and neointimal hyperplasia, with a safety profile similar to that of standard stents.
Weekly Chemotherapy with Cisplatin and Paclitaxel and Concurrent Radiation Therapy as Preoperative Treatment in Locally Advanced Esophageal Cancer: A Phase II Study

ABSTRACT We evaluated the association of a weekly cisplatin (35 mg/mq) and paclitaxel (45 mg/mq) regimen with radiotherapy (46 Gy) as primary treatment in locally advanced esophageal cancer (LAEC). The main end point was the activity in terms of pathologic complete response (pathCR) rate. Thirty-three LAEC patients received chemoradiation therapy during weeks 1–6 followed by esophagectomy. A pathCR was observed in 10/33 patients; 20/33 and 3/33 patients showed PR and SD, respectively. The EUS maximal transverse cross sectional area reduction >50% significantly correlated with pathCR. Three-year survival rate was 35%. These results support the activity and mild toxicity of this regimen.
Prognostic Value of p53 Protein Accumulation in Cancer Cell Nuclei in Adenocarcinoma of the Uterine Cervix

Adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix (CxAd) is one of the most distressing malignancies of the female reproductive system because of its tendency to spread aggressively and to be resistant to radiation and systemic therapies. To clarify the prognostic significance of p53 alteration in CxAd, we immunohistochemically examined the incidence of p53 nuclear accumulation, which is considered to be mostly parallel with p53 gene mutation, and its association with clinicopathological parameters in 26 patients with CxAd. The overall incidence of p53 nuclear accumulation was 46% (12 of 26), being higher in groups with clinically advanced disease, higher degrees of cellular atypia, and deeper myometrial invasion, but significantly lower in patients with integration of human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 or 18 DNA. Nuclear p53 immunoreactivity as well as lymph node status, depth of invasion and the absence of HPV‐DNA integration were significant indicators of a poor prognosis. Examination of p53 nuclear accumulation could be applied to biopsy material, and would be of practical assistance in predicting the prognosis of CxAd both preoperatively and postoperatively.
Mechanism of Synergistic Cytotoxic Effect between Tumor Necrosis Factor and Hyperthermia

We previously reported that recombinant human tumor necrosis factor (rhTNF) and hyperthermia had a synergistic effect against tumors, in vitro and in vivo. We have now investigated the mechanism of this synergy by measuring the lysosomal enzyme activity and hydroxyl radical production of L‐M cells treated with rhTNF and/or hyperthermia. A synergistic activation of lysosomal enzyme and the induction of hydroxyl radical production in L‐M cells treated with both rhTNF and hyperthermia was observed. A synergistic cytotoxic effect was observed when rhTNF and hyperthermia were combined, and was inhibited by the addition of a reactive oxygen scavenger, dimethyl sulfoxide or bipyridine. The results show that the augmenting effect of hyperthermia on lysosomal enzyme activation and induction of hydroxyl radical production by rhTNF plays an important role in the synergistic cytotoxic effect.
The Role of Left Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex during Episodic Decisions: Semantic Elaboration or Resolution of Episodic Interference?

Context memory retrieval tasks often implicate the left ventrolateral pFC (LVPFC) during functional imaging. Although this region has been linked to controlled semantic processing of materials, it may also play a more general role in selecting among competing episodic representations during demanding retrieval tasks. Thus, the LVPFC response during context memory retrieval may reflect either semantic processing of memoranda or adjudication of interfering episodic memories evoked by memoranda. To distinguish between these hypotheses, we contrasted context and item memory retrieval tasks for meaningful and nonmeaningful memoranda using fMRI. Increased LVPFC activation during context compared with item memory only occurred for meaningful memory probes. In contrast, even demanding context retrieval for nonmeaningful materials failed to engage LVPFC. These data demonstrate that the activation previously seen during episodic tasks likely reflects semantic processing of the probes during episodic retrieval attempt, not the selection among competing elicited episodic representations. Posterior middle temporal gyrus and the body/head of the caudate demonstrated the same selective response as LVPFC, although resting state functional connectivity analyses suggested that these two regions likely shared separate functional relationships with the LVPFC.