Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants in patients with atrial fibrillation and valvular heart disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

The non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) were approved for non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) but this term may be misnomer. Thus, the term non-mechanical and rheumatic mitral valvular (non-MARM) AF was proposed to exclude patients with valvular heart disease (VHD) without contraindications for NOACs. We aimed to review the efficacy and safety of NOACs in patients with AF and VHD compared to Vitamin K Antagonists (VKA). We performed a systematic review with meta-analysis (PROSPERO CRD42015024837) including data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) retrieved in November 2016. The efficacy and safety data were pooled using random-effects meta-analyses using the hazard ratio (HR) with the 95% confidence interval (95%CI). Trial sequential analysis (TSA) was performed in statistical significant results to evaluate whether cumulative sample size was powered for the obtained effect. In 5 RCTs (with 12 653 VHD AF patients), NOACs significantly reduced the risk of stroke and systemic embolism (HR 0.73, 95%CI:0.60-0.90; TSA showed estimate was robust - O'Brien-Fleming α-spending boundary crossed before reaching the estimated information size) and intracranial hemorrhage (HR 0.45, 95%CI:0.24-0.87) compared with VKA. Major bleeding risk was not significantly different. In patients with bioprosthesis (3 trials-280 patients) the risks of thromboembolism (HR 0.65, 95%CI:0.20-2.08) and major bleeding (HR 0.94, 95%CI:0.28-3.18) with NOACs were similar to VKA. NOACs are efficacious and safe in patients with non-MARM VHD AF, showing significant reduction in the risk of stroke and systemic embolism and intracranial hemorrage compared with VKA.
Impulsive Effects on Quasi-Synchronization of Neural Networks With Parameter Mismatches and Time-Varying Delay

This paper is concerned with the exponential synchronization issue of nonidentically coupled neural networks with time-varying delay. Due to the parameter mismatch phenomena existed in neural networks, the problem of quasi-synchronization is thus discussed by applying some impulsive control strategies. Based on the definition of average impulsive interval and the extended comparison principle for impulsive systems, some criteria for achieving the quasi-synchronization of neural networks are derived. More extensive ranges of impulsive effects are discussed so that impulse could either play an effective role or play an adverse role in the final network synchronization. In addition, according to the extended formula for the variation of parameters with time-varying delay, precisely exponential convergence rates and quasi-synchronization errors are obtained, respectively, in view of different types impulsive effects. Finally, some numerical simulations with different types of impulsive effects are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical analysis.
Public Attitudes on the Ethics of Deceptively Planting False Memories to Motivate Healthy Behavior

Summary Researchers have proposed that planting false memories could have positive behavioral consequences. The idea of deceptively planting ‘beneficial’ false memories outside of the laboratory raises important ethical questions, but how might the general public appraise this moral dilemma? In two studies, participants from the USA and UK read about a fictional ‘false‐memory therapy’ that led people to adopt healthy behaviors. Participants then reported their attitudes toward the acceptability of this therapy, via scale‐rating (both studies) and open‐text (study 2) responses. The data revealed highly divergent responses to this contentious issue, ranging from abject horror to unqualified enthusiasm. Moreover, the responses shed light on conditions that participants believed would make the therapy less or more ethical. Whether or not deceptively planting memories outside the lab could ever be justifiable, these studies add valuable evidence to scientific and societal debates on neuroethics, whose relevance to memory science is increasingly acute. Copyright © 2016 The Authors Applied Cognitive Psychology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
The Prevalence and Characteristics of Patients Diagnosed with Osteogenesis Imperfecta at the Zambia Italian Orthopedics Hospital Community Based Rehabilitation Project

Introduction: Osteogenesis Imperfecta is a rare condition that can be very disabling. It is an inherited disease of the bones, which is characterized by fragility that causes affected individuals to have recurrent fractures that subsequently lead to pain, deformity and disability. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of Osteogenesis Imperfecta and identify the common deformities and treatment methods used in managing affected individuals at the Zambia Italian Orthopedics Hospital. Methods: This was a retrospective cross sectional survey. A data capture sheet was used to collect data from records and descriptive trend analysis was done in excel. Results: We identified 18 patients with Osteogenesis Imperfecta out of 8250. The age range was 1 to 17 years. Eighty-three percent (n=15) of these patients had deformities which included; bowed lower limbs, scoliosis and other related complications. All the patients underwent surgery at one point in time and received physiotherapy. Conclusion: The prevalence of Osteogenesis Imperfecta at the Zambia Italian Orthopaedics Hospital Community Based Rehabilitation Project is low. Surgery is the most commonly used method of treatment coupled with physiotherapy. Though uncommon, the condition is expensive to manage for both the institution and affected individuals’ families. This is as a result of repeated surgeries and prolonged physiotherapy.
Effects of pointing compared with naming and observing during encoding on item and source memory in young and older adults

ABSTRACT Research showed that source memory functioning declines with ageing. Evidence suggests that encoding visual stimuli with manual pointing in addition to visual observation can have a positive effect on spatial memory compared with visual observation only. The present study investigated whether pointing at picture locations during encoding would lead to better spatial source memory than naming (Experiment 1) and visual observation only (Experiment 2) in young and older adults. Experiment 3 investigated whether response modality during the test phase would influence spatial source memory performance. Experiments 1 and 2 supported the hypothesis that pointing during encoding led to better source memory for picture locations than naming or observation only. Young adults outperformed older adults on the source memory but not the item memory task in both Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants manually responded in the test phase. Experiment 3 showed that if participants had to verbally respond in the test phase, the positive effect of pointing compared with naming during encoding disappeared. The results suggest that pointing at picture locations during encoding can enhance spatial source memory in both young and older adults, but only if the response modality is congruent in the test phase.
clinical presentation and Histologic Findings at Ileocolonoscopy in children with Autistic spectrum Disorder and chronic Gastrointestinal symptoms

Background: Children with developmental disorders experience chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. Aims: To examine the nature of these gastrointestinal symptoms and histologic findings in children with autism spectrum/developmental disorders and ileocolonic disease. Methods: Chart review. 143 autism spectrum/developmental disorder patients, with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms, undergoing diagnostic ileocolonoscopy. Results: Diarrhea was present in 78%, abdominal pain in 59% and constipation in 36%. Ileal and/or colonic lymphonodular hyperplasia (LNH), defined as the presence of an increased number of enlarged lymphoid follicles, often with hyperactive germinal centers, was present in 73.2%. Terminal ileum LNH presented visually in 67% and histologically in 73%. Colonic LNH was multifocal and presented histologically in 32%. Ileal and/or colonic inflammation presented in 74%, consisting primarily of active or chronic colitis (69%). Ileal inflammation presented in 35%. Presence of LNH significantly predicted mucosal inflammation. Patients with ileal and/or colonic LNH had lower mean/median age than those without; patients with ileal and/or colonic inflammation had lower mean/median age than those without. There was a significant association between ileo and/or colonic inflammation or LNH, and onset of developmental disorder; plateaued or regressive onset conferred greater risk than early onset. Conclusions: Patients with autism or related disorders exhibiting chronic gastrointestinal symptoms demonstrate ileal or colonic inflam - mation upon light microscopic examination of biopsy tissue. Further work is needed to determine whether resolution of histopathology with appropriate therapy is accompanied by GI symptomatic and cognitive/behavioral improvement.
Epigenetic modifications in hyperhomocysteinemia: potential role in diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration

To study Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy)-induced epigenetic modifications as potential mechanisms of blood retinal barrier (BRB) dysfunction, retinas isolated from three- week-old mice with elevated level of Homocysteine (Hcy) due to lack of the enzyme cystathionine β-synthase (cbs–/–, cbs+/– and cbs+/+), human retinal endothelial cells (HRECs), and human retinal pigmented epithelial cells (ARPE-19) treated with or without Hcy were evaluated for (1) histone deacetylases (HDAC), (2) DNA methylation (DNMT), and (3) miRNA analysis. Differentially expressed miRNAs in mice with HHcy were further compared with miRNA analysis of diabetic mice retinas (STZ) and miRNAs within the exosomes released from Hcy-treated RPEs. Differentially expressed miRNAs were further evaluated for predicted target genes and associated pathways using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. HHcy significantly increased HDAC and DNMT activity in HRECs, ARPE-19, and cbs mice retinas, whereas inhibition of HDAC and DNMT decreased Hcy-induced BRB dysfunction. MiRNA profiling detected 127 miRNAs in cbs+/– and 39 miRNAs in cbs–/– mice retinas, which were significantly differentially expressed compared to cbs+/+. MiRNA pathway analysis showed their involvement in HDAC and DNMT activation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and oxidative stresses, inflammation, hypoxia, and angiogenesis pathways. Hcy-induced epigenetic modifications may be involved in retinopathies associated with HHcy, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
Development of an Ultrasensitive Immunoassay for Detecting Tartrazine

We have developed an ultrasensitive indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the determination of tartrazine. Two carboxylated analogues of tartrazine with different spacer lengths, and one derivative from commercial tartrazine after a little chemical modification, were synthesized as haptens in order to produce antibodies specific to tartrazine. The effect of sulfonic acid groups on the hapten structure of tartrazine was also studied carefully for the first time. A most specific monoclonal antibody against tartrazine was created and exhibited an IC50 value of 0.105 ng/mL and a limit of detection of 0.014 ng/mL, with no cross-reactivity to other structurally-related pigments. The established immunoassay was applied to the determination of tartrazine in fortified samples of orange juice and in real positive samples of carbonated beverages.
Testing Deep Neural Networks

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have a wide range of applications, and software employing them must be thoroughly tested, especially in safety-critical domains. However, traditional software test coverage metrics cannot be applied directly to DNNs. In this paper, inspired by the MC/DC coverage criterion, we propose a family of four novel test criteria that are tailored to structural features of DNNs and their semantics. We validate the criteria by demonstrating that the generated test inputs guided via our proposed coverage criteria are able to capture undesired behaviours in a DNN. Test cases are generated using a symbolic approach and a gradient-based heuristic search. By comparing them with existing methods, we show that our criteria achieve a balance between their ability to find bugs (proxied using adversarial examples) and the computational cost of test case generation. Our experiments are conducted on state-of-the-art DNNs obtained using popular open source datasets, including MNIST, CIFAR-10 and ImageNet.
Predictors of 30-Day Mortality in Hospitalized Patients with Clostridium difficile Infection

Objectives Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and is the most common nosocomial infection in the United States, with associated annual costs of approximately $3 billion. The epidemiology of CDI has changed with the identification of novel risk factors for incident and recurrent CDI. The aim of this study was to identify the predictors of 30-day mortality in hospitalized patients with CDI. Methods We identified all of the patients diagnosed as having CDI from January 2011 to December 2014 at our university-setting hospital. Data were extracted using electronic medical records and chart review. The data of all of the patients who died within 30 days of incident CDI were compared with those who survived beyond 30 days of incident CDI. A multivariable logistic regression model was created for mortality after finding a subset of significant predictor variables by making bivariate comparisons also using logistic regression. Results A total of 893 patients were diagnosed as having CDI during the study period. The mean age was 62 years and 49.5% were women. The mean length of hospital stay was 11.73 days. Of the 893 patients with CDI, 98 (10.97%) died within 30 days of incident CDI. CDI recurrence was noted in 76 patients (8.51%). On multivariate logistic regression analysis, peptic ulcer disease, advanced age, Charlson comorbidity index, and intensive care unit status were found to be significantly associated with 30-day mortality. There was no significant association between acid suppression and CDI mortality. Conclusions Advanced age, Charlson comorbidity index, intensive care unit status, and peptic ulcer disease are predictors of all-cause 30-day mortality in hospitalized patients with CDI.
Multi-Access Edge Computing: The Driver Behind the Wheel of 5G-Connected Cars

The automotive and telco industries have taken an investment bet on the connected car market, pushing for the digital transformation of the sector by exploiting recent information and communications technology (ICT) progress. As ICT developments continue, it is expected that the technology advancements will be able to fulfill the sophisticated requirements for vehicular use cases, such as: low latency and reliable communications for safety; increased computing power to process large amounts of sensed data; and increased bandwidth for onboard infotainment. The aforementioned requirements have received significant focus during the ongoing definition of the 3GPP 5G mobile standards, where there has been a drive to facilitate vertical segments such as automotive, in addition to providing the core aspects of the communication infrastructure. Among the technology enablers for 5G, multi-access edge computing (MEC) can be considered essential. That is, a cloud environment located at the edge of the network, in proximity of the end users and coupled with the service provider's network infrastructure. Even before 5G is rolled out, current mobile networks can already target support for these challenging use cases using MEC technology. This is because MEC is able to fulfill low latency and high bandwidth requirements, and, in addition, lends itself to be deployed at vertical industrial sector premises such as road infrastructure, air/seaports, and smart factories, thus bringing computing power where it is needed most. This work showcases the automotive use cases that are relevant for MEC, providing insights into the technologies specified and investigated by the ETSI Industry Specification Group MEC, who were the pioneers in creating a standardized computing platform for advanced mobile networks with regard to network edge related use cases.
Massive Black Holes in Star Clusters. I. Equal-Mass Clusters

In this paper we report results of collisional N-body simulations of the dynamical evolution of equal-mass star clusters containing a massive central black hole. Each cluster is composed of between 5000 and 180,000 stars together with a central black hole that contains between 0.2% and 10% of the total cluster mass. We find that for large enough black hole masses, the central density follows a power-law distribution with slope ρ ~ r-1.75 inside the radius of influence of the black hole, in agreement with predictions from earlier Fokker-Planck and Monte Carlo models. The tidal disruption rate of stars is within a factor of 2 of that derived in previous studies. It seems impossible to grow an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) from an M ≤ 100 M☉ progenitor in a globular cluster by the tidal disruption of stars, although M = 103 M☉ IMBHs can double their mass within a Hubble time in dense globular clusters. The same is true for the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Black holes in star clusters will feed mainly on stars tightly bound to them, and the repopulation of these stars causes the clusters to expand, reversing core collapse without the need for dynamically active binaries. Close encounters of stars in the central cusp also lead to an increased mass-loss rate in the form of high-velocity stars escaping from the cluster. A companion paper will extend these results to the multimass case.
Immunopositivity for Histone MacroH2A1 Isoforms Marks Steatosis-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Prevention and risk reduction are important and the identification of specific biomarkers for early diagnosis of HCC represents an active field of research. Increasing evidence indicates that fat accumulation in the liver, defined as hepatosteatosis, is an independent and strong risk factor for developing an HCC. MacroH2A1, a histone protein generally associated with the repressed regions of chromosomes, is involved in hepatic lipid metabolism and is present in two alternative spliced isoforms, macroH2A1.1 and macroH2A1.2. These isoforms have been shown to predict lung and colon cancer recurrence but to our knowledge, their role in fatty-liver associated HCC has not been investigated previously. Methods We examined macroH2A1.1 and macroH2A1.2 protein expression levels in the liver of two murine models of fat-associated HCC, the high fat diet/diethylnistrosamine (DEN) and the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) liver specific knock-out (KO) mouse, and in human liver samples of subjects with steatosis or HCC, using immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. Results Protein levels for both macroH2A1 isoforms were massively upregulated in HCC, whereas macroH2A1.2 was specifically upregulated in steatosis. In addition, examination of human liver samples showed a significant difference (p<0.01) in number of positive nuclei in HCC (100% of tumor cells positive for either macroH2A1.1 or macroH2A1.2), when compared to steatosis (<2% of hepatocytes positive for either isoform). The steatotic areas flanking the tumors were highly immunopositive for macroH2A1.1 and macroH2A1.2. Conclusions These data obtained in mice and humans suggest that both macroH2A1 isoforms may play a role in HCC pathogenesis and moreover may be considered as novel diagnostic markers for human HCC.
Finding Markers That Make a Difference: DNA Pooling and SNP-Arrays Identify Population Informative Markers for Genetic Stock Identification

Genetic stock identification (GSI) using molecular markers is an important tool for management of migratory species. Here, we tested a cost-effective alternative to individual genotyping, known as allelotyping, for identification of highly informative SNPs for accurate genetic stock identification. We estimated allele frequencies of 2880 SNPs from DNA pools of 23 Atlantic salmon populations using Illumina SNP-chip. We evaluated the performance of four common strategies (global F ST, pairwise F ST, Delta and outlier approach) for selection of the most informative set of SNPs and tested their effectiveness for GSI compared to random sets of SNP and microsatellite markers. For the majority of cases, SNPs selected using the outlier approach performed best followed by pairwise F ST and Delta methods. Overall, the selection procedure reduced the number of SNPs required for accurate GSI by up to 53% compared with randomly chosen SNPs. However, GSI accuracy was more affected by populations in the ascertainment group rather than the ranking method itself. We demonstrated for the first time the compatibility of different large-scale SNP datasets by compiling the largest population genetic dataset for Atlantic salmon to date. Finally, we showed an excellent performance of our top SNPs on an independent set of populations covering the main European distribution range of Atlantic salmon. Taken together, we demonstrate how combination of DNA pooling and SNP arrays can be applied for conservation and management of salmonids as well as other species.
Gestational weight gain of pregnant African American adolescents affects body mass index 18 years later.

OBJECTIVE To determine if gestational weight gain (GWG) in adolescents is associated with long-term weight increases 12 years and 18 years after delivery of a first child and the differential effects of weight gain during pregnancy that is inadequate, the appropriate amount, and excessive based on the 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations. DESIGN Secondary data analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial. SETTING Memphis, Tennessee. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred ninety-eight (298) primiparous low-income Black women who were adolescents at the time of their first pregnancies. METHOD Linear regression was used to examine the relationship between body mass index (BMI) at 12 and 18 years postdelivery and GWG, parity, prepregnancy BMI, and smoking. RESULTS The total sample experienced a significant BMI increase from prepregnancy to 12 years and 18 years postdelivery. More than 50% of the women had a BMI increase greater than 10 kg/m(2) . By 18 years postdelivery, 85% were overweight or obese. Prepregnancy BMI and GWG had a positive significant effect on BMI 12 and 18 years later, whereas smoking had a negative effect. Those who gained excessive weight based on the IOM recommendations had a significantly higher BMI compared with those who gained appropriately. CONCLUSION Gestational weight gain had long-term effects on BMI in a minority adolescent population. Excessive pregnancy weight gain is likely to contribute to long-term weight retention, especially if adolescents are overweight or obese when they become pregnant with their first children. Intervention during pregnancy to limit GWG has the potential of limiting long-term negative health consequences that result from overweight and obesity in minority women.