Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Case of Sudden Infant Death Due to Incomplete Kawasaki Disease

Although Kawasaki disease (KD) is a self‐limiting disease, it may cause sudden cardiac death. Diagnosis of KD is principally based on clinical signs; however, some infant cases do not meet the criteria. Such cases are identified as incomplete KD. The sudden death risk in incomplete KD cases is similar to conventional KD. In our 5‐month‐old case, he had been admitted to a hospital for a fever and suppuration at the site of Bacille de Calmette et Guerin (BCG) vaccination. However, after discharge from the hospital, his C‐reactive protein (CRP) levels declined, he got indisposed and died suddenly. A medico‐legal autopsy revealed myocarditis, coronaritis, platelet‐aggregated emboli in coronary arteries, and myocardial degeneration, suggesting that the fatal myocardial infarction was due to thrombus emboli in the coronary arteries. Forensic pathologists therefore should pay attention to the cardiac pathology originated from incomplete KD as a potential cause in cases of sudden infant death.
Association of Radon Background and Total Background Ionizing Radiation with Alzheimer's Disease Deaths in U.S. States.

BACKGROUND Exposure of the brain to ionizing radiation might promote the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). OBJECTIVE Analysis of AD death rates versus radon background radiation and total background radiation in U.S. states. METHODS Total background, radon background, cosmic and terrestrial background radiation measurements are from Assessment of Variations in Radiation Exposure in the United States and Report No. 160 - Ionizing Radiation Exposure of the Population of the United States. 2013 AD death rates by U.S. state are from the Alzheimer's Association. RESULTS Radon background ionizing radiation was significantly correlated with AD death rate in 50 states and the District of Columbia (r = 0.467, p = 0.001). Total background ionizing radiation was also significantly correlated with AD death rate in 50 states and the District of Columbia (r = 0.452, p = 0.001). Multivariate linear regression weighted by state population demonstrated that AD death rate was significantly correlated with radon background (β= 0.169, p < 0.001), age (β= 0.231, p < 0.001), hypertension (β= 0.155, p < 0.001), and diabetes (β= 0.353, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION Our findings, like other studies, suggest that ionizing radiation is a risk factor for AD. Intranasal inhalation of radon gas could subject the rhinencephalon and hippocampus to damaging radiation that initiates AD. The damage would accumulate over time, causing age to be a powerful risk factor.
Serum Albumin Is an Independent Predictor of Clinical Outcomes in Critically Ill Children*

Objectives: Serum albumin is a strong biomarker of disease severity and prognosis in adult patients. In contrast, its value as predictor of outcome in critically ill children has not been established. We aimed to determine whether admission hypoalbuminemia is associated with outcome in a general pediatric population of critically ill patients, taking into account the inflammatory response, disease severity, and nutritional status of the patient. Design: Analysis of prospectively collected database. Setting: PICU of a teaching hospital. Patients: Two hundred seventy-one patients consecutively admitted. Neonates, patients with chronic liver or kidney disease, inborn errors of metabolism, those who received prior administration of albumin solution, and readmissions were excluded. Measurements and Main Results: Outcome variables were 60-day mortality, probability of ICU discharge at 60 days, and ventilator-free days. Potential exposure variables for the outcome were sex, age, nutritional status, albumin, C-reactive protein and serum lactate at admission, and Pediatric Index of Mortality 2 score. Admission hypoalbuminemia was present in 64.2% of patients. After adjustment for confounding factors, only serum lactate, Pediatric Index of Mortality 2 score, and serum albumin were associated with higher mortality: the increase of 1.0 g/dL in serum albumin at admission resulted in a 73% reduction in the hazard of death (hazard ratio, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.14–0.51; p < 0.001). The increase of 1 g/dL in serum albumin was also independently associated with a 33% rise in the probability of ICU discharge (subhazard ratio, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.07–1.64; p = 0.008) and increased ventilator-free-days (odds ratio, 1.86; 95% CI, 0.56–3.16; p = 0.005). Conclusions: Hypoalbuminemia at admission to a PICU is associated with higher 60-day mortality, longer duration of mechanical ventilation, and lower probability of ICU discharge. These associations are independent of the magnitude of inflammatory response, clinical severity, and nutritional status.
Use of a geographic information system to identify differences in automated external defibrillator installation in urban areas with similar incidence of public out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a retrospective registry-based study

Objectives Early defibrillation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is of importance to improve survival. In many countries the number of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) is increasing, but the use is low. Guidelines suggest that AEDs should be installed in densely populated areas and in locations with many visitors. Attempts have been made to identify optimal AED locations based on the incidence of OHCA using geographical information systems (GIS), but often on small datasets and the studies are seldom reproduced. The aim of this paper is to investigate if the distribution of public AEDs follows the incident locations of public OHCAs in urban areas of Stockholm County, Sweden. Method OHCA data were obtained from the Swedish Register for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and AED data were obtained from the Swedish AED Register. Urban areas in Stockholm County were objectively classified according to the pan-European digital mapping tool, Urban Atlas (UA). Furthermore, we reclassified and divided the UA land cover data into three classes (residential, non-residential and other areas). GIS software was used to spatially join and relate public AED and OHCA data and perform computations on relations and distance. Results Between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2014 a total of 804 OHCAs occurred in public locations in Stockholm County and by December 2013 there were 1828 AEDs available. The incidence of public OHCAs was similar in residential (47.3%) and non-residential areas (43.4%). Fewer AEDs were present in residential areas than in non-residential areas (29.4% vs 68.8%). In residential areas the median distance between OHCAs and AEDs was significantly greater than in non-residential areas (288 m vs 188 m, p<0.001). Conclusion The majority of public OHCAs occurred in areas classified in UA as ‘residential areas‘ with limited AED accessibility. These areas need to be targeted for AED installation and international guidelines need to take geographical location into account when suggesting locations for AED installation.
Clinical and laboratory tests for the diagnosis of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia

Summary A rapid diagnostic work-up is required in patients with suspected heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT). However, diagnosis of HIT is challenging due to a number of practical issues and methodological limitations. Many laboratory tests and a few clinical scoring systems are available but the individual characteristics and the diagnostic accuracy of these are hard to appraise. The 4Ts score is a well evaluated clinical assessment tool with the potential to rule out HIT in many patients. Still, it requires experience and is subject to a relevant inter-observer variability. Immunoassays such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays or recently developed rapid assays are able to exclude HIT in a number of patients. But, accuracy of immunoassays differs depending on type of assay, threshold, antibody specificity and even manufacturer. Due to a comparatively low positive predictive value, HIT cannot be confirmed by immunoassays alone. In addition, only some of them are immediately accessible, particularly in small laboratories. While functional assays such as the serotonin release assay (SRA) and the heparin-induced platelet activation assay (HIPA) are considered as gold standard for diagnosis of HIT, they require a highly specialised laboratory. In addition, some of them are not adequately evaluated. In clinical practice, we recommend an integrated diagnostic approach combining not only clinical assessment (the 4Ts score) but immunoassays and functional assays as well. We propose a clear diagnostic algorithm supporting clinical decision-making. Furthermore, we provide an overview of all current laboratory techniques for HIT and discuss diagnostic pathways and strategies to reduce diagnostic errors, and future perspectives.
A Security Framework for SDN-Enabled Smart Power Grids

Emerging software defined networking (SDN) paradigm provides flexibility in controlling, managing, and dynamically reconfiguring smart grid networks. It can be seen in the literature that considerably less attention has been given to provide security in SDN-enabled smart grid networks. Most of the efforts focus on protecting smart grid networks against various forms of outsider attacks only by providing consistent access control, applying efficient and effective security policies, and managing and controlling the network through the use of a centralized SDN controller. Furthermore, centralized SDN controllers are plagued by reliability and security issues. This paper presents a framework with multiple SDN controllers and security controllers that provides a secure and robust smart grid architecture. The proposed framework deploys a local IDS in a substation to collect the measurement data periodically and to monitor the control-commands that are executed on SCADA slaves. A global IDS in control center collects the measurement data from the substations and estimates the state of the smart grid system by utilizing the theory of differential evolution. The global IDS further verifies the consequences of control-commands issued by SDN controller and SCADA master. An alarm is generated upon detection of an attacker or unsteady state of the smart grid system. The framework also deploys light-weight identity based cryptography to protect the smart grid network from outside attacks. Performance comparison and initial simulation result have been presented to show that the proposed framework is effective as compared to existing security frameworks for SDN-enabled smart grids.
Lattices and Rational Points

In this article, we show how to use the first and second Minkowski Theorems and some Diophantine geometry to bound explicitly the height of the points of rank N - 1 on transverse curves in E N , where E is an elliptic curve without Complex Multiplication (CM). We then apply our result to give a method for finding the rational points on such curves, when E has Q -rank ≤ N - 1 . We also give some explicit examples. This result generalises from rank 1 to rank N - 1 previous results of S. Checcoli, F. Veneziano and the author.
Identifying Human Capital Externalities: Theory with an Application to Us Cities

Identification of the strength of human capital externalities at the aggregate level is still not fully understood. The existing method may yield positive or negative externalities even if wages reflect marginal social products. We propose an approach that yields positive average human capital externalities if and only if the marginal social product of workers with aboveaverage human capital exceeds their wage. As an application, we estimate the strength of average-schooling externalities in US cities between 1970 and 1990.
Cdc42 GTPases facilitate TNF‐α‐mediated secretion of CCL2 from peripheral nerve microvascular endoneurial endothelial cells

Trafficking of autoreactive leukocytes across the blood‐nerve barrier and into peripheral nerves is an early pathological hallmark of Guillain‐Barré syndrome (GBS). Tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α), a proinflammatory cytokine, promotes transendothelial migration by upregulating endothelial expression of inflammatory mediators, including CCL2, a chemokine implicated in GBS. We sought to determine the mechanism by which TNF‐α induces expression and secretion of CCL2 from peripheral nerve microvascular endoneurial endothelial cells (PNMECs). Expression of CCL2 mRNA and protein in quiescent PNMEC cultures was minimal. In contrast, cultures treated with TNF‐α exhibited increased CCL2 mRNA and protein content, as well as protein secretion. Simvastatin significantly attenuated TNF‐α‐induced CCL2 secretion without affecting CCL2 mRNA or protein expression. Co‐incubation with geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate, but not farnesyl pyrophosphate, prevented the effect of simvastatin. By comparison, inhibiting protein isoprenylation with GGTI‐298, but not FTI‐277, mimicked the effect of simvastatin and significantly attenuated transendothelial migration in vitro. Inhibition of the monomeric GTPase Cdc42, but not Rac1 or RhoA‐C, attenuated TNF‐α‐mediated CCL2 secretion. TNF‐α‐mediated trafficking of autoreactive leukocytes into peripheral nerves during GBS may proceed by a mechanism that involves Cdc42‐facilitated secretion of CCL2.
The reflexive CHAM and the join-calculus

By adding reflexion to the chemical machine of Berry and Boudol, we obtain a formal model of concurrency that is consistent with mobility and distribution. Our model provides the foundations of a programming language with functional and object-oriented features. It can also be seen as a process calculus, the join-calculus, which we prove equivalent to the ¿-calculus of Milner, Parrow and Walker.
Association between discrimination and obesity in African-American men

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to examine the association between discrimination and obesity among a U.S. nationally representative sample of African-American men. Data from the 2001–2003 National Survey of American Life (NSAL) were used to collect measures of everyday and major discrimination, and body mass index (BMI) taken from self-reports. Poisson regression with robust standard errors was applied to estimate the prevalence ratios of everyday and major discrimination as it relates to obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2), controlling for potential confounders. In the model that included both everyday and major discrimination, men who experienced any major discrimination had a higher likelihood of obesity (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.33, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06, 1.66) than those who did not experience any major discrimination, controlling for age, marital status, income, education, major stressors, two or more chronic conditions, and physical activity. Exposure to any major discrimination was found to be associated with obesity in African-American men. Future studies among this population are needed to examine whether the observed changes in self-reports of major discrimination are associated with obesity, measured by BMI, over time. The health of African-American men must be a priority in reducing excess disparities in disease, disability, and death.
Cough reflex hypersensitivity: A role for neurotrophins

ABSTRACT Cough is one of the most common complaints for which sufferers seek medical assistance. However, currently available drugs are not very effective in treating cough, particularly that which follows an upper respiratory tract infection. Nonetheless, there has been a significant increase in our understanding of the mechanisms and pathways of the defensive cough as well as the hypersensitive/pathophysiological cough, both at airway and central nervous system (CNS) levels. Numerous molecules and signaling pathways have been identified as potential targets for antitussive drugs, including neurotrophins (NTs). NTs belong to a family of trophic factors and are critical for the development and maintenance of neurons in the central and peripheral nervous system including sympathetic efferents, sensory neuron afferents, and immune cells. Nerve growth factor (NGF) was the first member of the NT family to be discovered, with wide ranging actions associated with synapse formation, survival, proliferation, apoptosis, axonal and dendritic outgrowth, expression and activity of functionally important proteins such as ion channels, receptors, and neurotransmitters. In addition, NGF has been implicated in several disease states particularly neuropathic pain and most recently in the sensitization of the cough reflex. This review will briefly address the peripheral and central sensitization mechanisms of airway neurons and will then focus on NGF signaling and its role in cough hypersensitivity.
3D Lattice Analysis of Cement Paste

In this MSc thesis project, an effort was made to predict the mechanical properties (especially the tensile strength and stiffness) and crack propagation of cement paste using 3D lattice fracture model at the micro-level. This project consists of three modules, namely “3D Lattice Generation”, “3D Lattice Analysis” and “Interpretation of results”, the role of which are pre-processing, kernel and post-processing according to Finite Element Method. In the module “3D Lattice Generation”, a lattice of beams is generated from micro particle structure of cement paste which is one of the outcomes of the hydration model HYMOSTRUC. The following module “3D Lattice Analysis” simulates the fracture process of cement paste due to uni-axial tensile load. The last module “Interpretation of results” visualizes the results from previous step, the output of which is given in terms of load-displacement diagram and crack propagation images.
Loudness as a cue for acceptable noise levels.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE The acceptable noise level (ANL) test is the only test that is known to predict success with hearing aids with a high degree of accuracy. A person's ANL is the maximal amount of background noise that he or she is "willing to put up with" while listening to running speech. It is defined as the speech level minus the noise level, in decibels (dB). People who are willing to put up with high levels of background noise are generally successful hearing-aid wearers, whereas people who are not willing to put up with high levels of background noise are generally unsuccessful hearing-aid wearers. If it were known what cues that listeners are using to decide how much background noise they are willing to tolerate, then it might be possible to create technology that reduces these cues and improves listeners' chances of success with hearing aids. As a first step toward this goal, this study investigated whether listeners are using loudness as a cue to determine their ANLs. Research Design and Study Sample: Twenty-one individuals with normal hearing and 21 individuals with sensorineural hearing loss participated in this study. In each group of 21 participants, 7 had a low ANL (<7 dB), 7 had a mid ANL (7-13 dB), and 7 had a high ANL (>13 dB). DATA COLLECTION/ANALYSIS Participants performed a modified version of the ANL in which the speech was fixed at four different levels (50, 63, 75 and 88 dBA), and participants adjusted the background noise (multitalker babble) to the maximal level at which they were willing to listen while following the speech. These results were compared with participants' equal-loudness contours for the multitalker babble in the presence of speech. Equal-loudness contours were measured by having the participants perform a loudness-matching task in which they matched the level of the background noise (multitalker babble), played concurrently with speech, to a reference condition (also multitalker babble). During the test condition, the speech played at 50, 63, 75, or 88 dBA. All testing was performed in a sound booth with the speech and the noise presented from a loudspeaker at a 0° azimuth, 3 feet in front of the participant. Each condition was presented multiple times, and the results were averaged. Presentation order was randomized. Participants were tested unaided. RESULTS Participants' ANLs were compared with their equal-loudness contours for the background noise. ANLs that ran parallel to the equal-loudness contours were considered consistent with a loudness-based listening strategy. This pattern was observed for only two participants - both hearing-impaired. CONCLUSIONS The majority of listeners showed no consistent trend between their ANLs and their loudness-matched data, suggesting that they are using cues other than loudness to determine their ANLs. ANLs were consistent with loudness-matched data for a small subset of listeners, suggesting that they may be using loudness as a cue for determining their ANLs.
Generative Adversarial Networks-Based Semi-Supervised Learning for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Classification of hyperspectral image (HSI) is an important research topic in the remote sensing community. Significant efforts (e.g., deep learning) have been concentrated on this task. However, it is still an open issue to classify the high-dimensional HSI with a limited number of training samples. In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised HSI classification method inspired by the generative adversarial networks (GANs). Unlike the supervised methods, the proposed HSI classification method is semi-supervised, which can make full use of the limited labeled samples as well as the sufficient unlabeled samples. Core ideas of the proposed method are twofold. First, the three-dimensional bilateral filter (3DBF) is adopted to extract the spectral-spatial features by naturally treating the HSI as a volumetric dataset. The spatial information is integrated into the extracted features by 3DBF, which is propitious to the subsequent classification step. Second, GANs are trained on the spectral-spatial features for semi-supervised learning. A GAN contains two neural networks (i.e., generator and discriminator) trained in opposition to one another. The semi-supervised learning is achieved by adding samples from the generator to the features and increasing the dimension of the classifier output. Experimental results obtained on three benchmark HSI datasets have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method , especially with a limited number of labeled samples.
Age and the metabolic syndrome affect salivary Cortisol rhythm: data from a community sample

OBJECTIVEMeasurement of Cortisol levels in saliva is a marker of free hormone. How salivary Cortisol rhythm is affected by age, gender, the metabolic syndrome and estrogen-progestin therapy was evaluated in a community sample of adults.SUBJECTS AND METHODSOne hundred twenty volunteers recruited from the Hospital staff and family members of the Endocrinology Unit were instructed to collect 7 salivary samples: the first on awakening (F0) and 6 more (F1.5, F5, F6, F10, F11.5 and F14) over the next 14 hours. Each volunteer also underwent a complete physical evaluation and a comprehensive medical history was taken. Salivary Cortisol was measured using a radioimmunometric assay. Daily Cortisol secretion was evaluated computing the Area Under the Curve (AUCF0→F14); the F14/F0 ratio was calculated as a marker of Cortisol rhythm.RESULTSMedian F14 levels were higher in the subjects in the third tertile of age than in those falling in the second or in the first age tertile (respectively, 2.09 vs 1.33 vs 1.25 ng/mL, p=0.023 and p=0.006), in the hypertensive volunteers (2.44 vs 1.44 ng/mL, p=0.030) and in those with the metabolic syndrome (2.95 vs 1.4 ng/mL, p=0.002), with an elevated median F14/F0 ratio (0.48 vs 0.19, p=0.006). According to the Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance, the most important factor affecting F14 value was age (p=0.001). AUCF0→F14 was not influenced by gender, age, metabolic syndrome or estrogen-progestin therapy.CONCLUSIONSWhile it did not affect the daily Cortisol rate, late-night salivary cortisol levels were found to be increased in the subjects in the higher age tertile and in those with the metabolic syndrome.