Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Use of Bioelectric Dressings in Skin Graft Harvest Sites: A Prospective Case Series

Despite advances in wound care treatments for the management of acute and chronic wounds, there remains an unmet need for interventions that accelerate epithelialization. Many authors in the past have advocated the use of electric currents to accelerate wound healing. Novel wound dressings with inherent electric activity are emerging, and studies of these specific modalities are lacking. The principal aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of a bioelectric dressing on acute wound healing. Thirteen patients who underwent skin grafting were enrolled. One half of all skin graft donor sites were treated with the bioelectric dressing and semi-occlusive dressing (SOD) and the other half using solely a SOD. Epithelialization was rated by a blinded burn surgeon attending. Participants also provided a self-assessment of their scar appearance. At week 1 postprocedure, average epithelialization of 71.8% was noted on the bioelectric dressing-treated side, compared with 46.9% on the SOD side, representing an average 34.62% faster wound healing (P = .015). At 1 month, patients rated the bioelectric dressing-treated half as superior in terms of scar color (P = .198), stiffness (P = .088), thickness (P = .038), and overall quality (P = .028). These early data show promise in terms of faster healing, improved scarring, and improved patient subjective outcome with the use of the bioelectric dressing on acute wounds. With fulfillment of an extended study population, the authors hope to provide a solid foundation for extrapolating their data beyond skin graft donor sites to all areas of wound care.
Pediatric Soup Scald Burn Injury: Etiology and Prevention

One of the leading causes of scald burn injury in children is from hot soup, particularly prepackaged instant soups. The purpose of this study was to determine the demographic, socioeconomic, and situational factors that contribute to the incidence of scald burns in children. A 20-item questionnaire was given to the caregiver of children who were treated for scald burn injury at a pediatric burn center from July 2006 to March 2007. Questions included demographics (child age, gender, siblings, ethnicity), socioeconomic status (income, education), factors contributing to the injury (type of soup, child supervision, type of container), and location of injury. The mean age of the 78 children sustaining burn injury and completing the survey was 4.8 ± 0.6 years. The majority of patients were girls (51%), and the most frequently involved ethnic group was Hispanic (44%). Households had a mean of 3.0 ± 0.3 children in residence, and an income of less than $29,000/year (59%). The highest educational level achieved was high school for 73% of the parents. Prepackaged soup (65%) with a narrow base heated directly in the original container (46%) using the microwave (51%) was implicated in the majority of burns. Soup scald burns, especially from prepackaged instant soups, appear to predominate in lower income families with multiple children. The majority of injuries occur when the caregiver heats the soup in the original container using the microwave. Prevention of these types of injuries will require a two-pronged approach: educating families with multiple children and changing the soup packaging.
Beamformer designs for energy-efficient multi-cell physical layer multicasting

In this paper, we address the problem of energy-efficiency for group communications over 5G networks. We consider multicast broadcast multimedia services (MBMS) where Base Stations (BS) cooperate to convey a common information to multiple users. The problem is formulated as the global energy-efficiency (GEE) maximization under power constraints. We invoke the principle of sequential convex approximation to tackle the original non-convex problem by providing a conservative approximation. Closed-form solutions are derived and a centralized scheme is designed to find stationary solutions to the original non-convex problem. A distributed implementation with limited communication overhead among the BSs is then proposed. These theoretical findings are further validated through numerical results.
The contribution of changes in diet, exercise, and stress management to changes in coronary risk in women and men in the Multisite Cardiac Lifestyle Intervention Program

Background: The relative contribution of health behaviors to coronary risk factors in multicomponent secondary coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention programs is largely unknown.Purpose: Our purpose is to evaluate the additive and interactive effects of 3-month changes in health behaviors (dietary fat intake, exercise, and stress management) on 3-month changes in coronary risk and psychosocial factors among 869 nonsmoking CHD patients (34% female) enrolled in the health insurance-based Multisite Cardiac Lifestyle Intervention Program.Methods: Analyses of variance for repeated measures were used to analyze health behaviors, coronary risk factors, and psychosocial factors at baseline and 3 months. Multiple regression analyses evaluated changes in dietary fat intake and hours per week of exercise and stress management as predictors of changes in coronary risk and psychosocial factors.Results: Significant overall improvement in coronary risk was observed. Reductions in dietary fat intake predicted reductions in weight, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and interacted with increased exercise to predict reductions in perceived stress. Increases in exercise predicted improvements in total cholesterol and exercise capacity (for women). Increased stress management was related to reductions in weight, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (for men), triglycerides, hemoglobin A1c (in patients with diabetes), and hostility.Conclusions: Improvements in dietary fat intake, exercise, and stress management were individually, additively and interactively related to coronary risk and psychosocial factors, suggesting that multicomponent programs focusing on diet, exercise, and stress management may benefit patients with CHD.
Flexible electrochemical biosensors based on graphene nanowalls for the real-time measurement of lactate

We demonstrate a flexible biosensor for lactate detection based on l-lactate oxidase immobilized by chitosan film cross-linked with glutaraldehyde on the surface of a graphene nanowall (GNW) electrode. The oxygen-plasma technique was developed to enhance the wettability of the GNWs, and the strength of the sensor’s oxidation response depended on the concentration of lactate. First, in order to eliminate interference from other substances, biosensors were primarily tested in deionized water and displayed good electrochemical reversibility at different scan rates (20–100 mV s−1), a large index range (1.0 μM to 10.0 mM) and a low detection limit (1.0 μM) for lactate. Next, these sensors were further examined in phosphate buffer solution (to mimick human body fluids), and still exhibited high sensitivity, stability and flexibility. These results show that the GNW-based lactate biosensors possess important potential for application in clinical analysis, sports medicine and the food industry.
Blister Fluid Composition in a Pediatric Patient With Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis

Toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) is a rare life-threatening disease mostly related to drug ingestion. Apoptotic keratinocytes lead to separation of the epidermis from dermis and widespread blistering of the skin. This case is a pediatric patient with a seizure disorder who developed TEN after starting carbamezepine. Blister fluid was analyzed for protein, chemical, and mineral content. The TEN blister fluid composition was similar to burn blister, except that the burn blister fluid has a 3-fold increase in albumin and protein. There was a substantial increase in lactate dehydrogenase, calcium, and magnesium in both blister fluid specimens compared with serum levels. To our knowledge, this report is the first in the literature to analyze TEN blister fluid composition and compare it to burn blister fluid.
University of Birmingham Social Support, Social Intimacy, and Cardiovascular Reactions to Acute Psychological Stress

Background: Exaggerated cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress are considered a risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity. Social support may reduce such risk by attenuating cardiovascular reactivity to stress. Purpose: To examine the effects of three independent social support variables and their interaction on cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress. The variables were stranger or friend presence; active supportive or passive presence, and male or female presence. Methods: Cardiovascular reactions to mental arithmetic stress were measured in 112 healthy young women tested in one of eight distinct independent conditions: active supportive male friend; active supportive female friend, passive male friend; passive female friend; active supportive male stranger; active supportive female stranger, passive male stranger; and passive female stranger. Results: Support from a friend rather than a stranger was associated with attenuated blood pressure reactivity, but only when the supporter was a male friend. Support from a male stranger or female friend was associated with augmented blood pressure reactivity. Conclusions: This interaction between the intimacy and sex of the supporter on cardiovascular reactivity extends the findings of previous laboratory studies of social support and can, to an extent, be interpreted in terms of Social Comparison Theory.
Improving the Improved Training of Wasserstein GANs: A Consistency Term and Its Dual Effect

Despite being impactful on a variety of problems and applications, the generative adversarial nets (GANs) are remarkably difficult to train. This issue is formally analyzed by \cite{arjovsky2017towards}, who also propose an alternative direction to avoid the caveats in the minmax two-player training of GANs. The corresponding algorithm, called Wasserstein GAN (WGAN), hinges on the 1-Lipschitz continuity of the discriminator. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to enforcing the Lipschitz continuity in the training procedure of WGANs. Our approach seamlessly connects WGAN with one of the recent semi-supervised learning methods. As a result, it gives rise to not only better photo-realistic samples than the previous methods but also state-of-the-art semi-supervised learning results. In particular, our approach gives rise to the inception score of more than 5.0 with only 1,000 CIFAR-10 images and is the first that exceeds the accuracy of 90% on the CIFAR-10 dataset using only 4,000 labeled images, to the best of our knowledge.
Electron microscopy examination of platelet whole mount preparations to quantitate platelet dense granule numbers: Implications for diagnosing suspected platelet function disorders due to dense granule deficiency

Dense granule (DG) deficiency (DGD) is a feature of some platelet function disorders (PFD) with a prevalence similar to von Willebrand disease. Most laboratories assess for DGD using whole mount platelet preparations and electron microscopy (EM). We evaluated our experiences with this test and associations between DGD and bleeding.
An adapted isolation procedure reveals Photobacterium spp. as common spoilers on modified atmosphere packaged meats

The genus Photobacterium comprises species of marine bacteria, commonly found in open‐ocean and deep‐sea environments. Some species (e.g. Photobacterium phosphoreum) are associated with fish spoilage. Recently, culture‐independent studies have drawn attention to the presence of photobacteria on meat. This study employed a comparative isolation approach of Photobacterium spp. and aimed to develop an adapted isolation procedure for recovery from food samples, as demonstrated for different meats: Marine broth is used for resuspending and dilution of food samples, followed by aerobic cultivation on marine broth agar supplemented with meat extract and vancomycin at 15°C for 72 h. Identification of spoilage‐associated microbiota was carried out via Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry using a database supplemented with additional mass spectrometry profiles of Photobacterium spp. This study provides evidence for the common abundance of multiple Photobacterium species in relevant quantities on various modified atmosphere packaged meats. Photobacterium carnosum was predominant on beef and chicken, while Photobacterium iliopiscarium represented the major species on pork and Photobacterium phosphoreum on salmon, respectively.
“Feeling Disorder” as a Comparative and Contingent Process

We explore the effects of neighborhood social disorder on internalizing symptoms among urban youth by focusing on three questions. First, we ask whether the impact of social disorder on internalizing symptoms results from comparisons with conditions measured locally or across the entire city. Second, we consider whether neighborhood collective efficacy modifies disorder’s effect on internalizing symptoms. Finally, we assess whether these effects vary by gender. Analyses of survey data on 2,367 youth from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods indicate that social disorder is positively associated with girls’ internalizing symptoms when measured as a deviation from a neighborhood cluster (NC - two to three census tracts) mean. High collective efficacy within girls’ NCs attenuates disorder effects on their internalizing symptoms. We find no evidence of disorder or collective efficacy effects on boys’ internalizing symptoms.
On Modular Training of Neural Acoustics-to-Word Model for LVCSR

End-to-end (E2E) automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems directly map acoustics to words using a unified model. Previous works mostly focus on E2E training a single model which integrates acoustic and language model into a whole. Although E2E training benefits from sequence modeling and simplified decoding pipelines, large amount of transcribed acoustic data is usually required, and traditional acoustic and language modelling techniques cannot be utilized. In this paper, a novel modular training framework of E2E ASR is proposed to separately train neural acoustic and language models during training stage, while still performing end-to-end inference in decoding stage. Here, an acoustics-to-phoneme model (A2P) and a phoneme-to-word model (P2W) are trained using acoustic data and text data respectively. A phone synchronous decoding (PSD) module is inserted between A2P and P2W to reduce sequence lengths without precision loss. Finally, modules are integrated into an acoustics-to-word model (A2W) and jointly optimized using acoustic data to retain the advantage of sequence modeling. Experiments on a 300-hour Switchboard task show significant improvement over the direct A2W model. The efficiency in both training and decoding also benefits from the proposed method.
BRCA mutations and outcome in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC): experience in ethnically diverse groups.

BACKGROUND Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients with BRCA mutations have better prognosis than nonhereditary cases matched for histology and stage and age at diagnosis, especially Ashkenazi Jews (AJ). MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively reviewed data on 700 highly ethnically heterogeneous patients diagnosed with stage Ic-IV EOC and evaluated for BRCA status between 1995 and 2009 in American, Israeli, and Italian medical centers. RESULTS The ethnicities of the 190 patients (median age 55.5 years, range 31-83 years) were AJ, Jewish non-Ashkenazi, Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, or unknown. Ninety were BRCA1/2 carriers (71 BRCA1 and 19BRCA2). The most common mutations in AJ and non-AJ origins were 185delAG and 6174delT. Non-Jewish Caucasians exhibited the widest variation (>20 mutation subtypes). BRCA carriers had significantly prolonged median overall survival (93.6 months) compared with noncarriers (66.6 months; 95% confidence interval 44.5-91.7, P = 0.0081). There was no difference in progression-free survival. CONCLUSIONS Our data demonstrate a wide variety of BRCA mutations in a highly ethnically diverse EOC population, and confirm that EOC BRCA mutation carriers have better prognosis with longer median survival than patients with nonhereditary disease. The contribution of unclassified BRCA variants to cancer etiology remains undetermined.
Effect of normal sperm morphology rate (NSMR) on clinical outcomes for rescue-ICSI(R-ICSI) patients

Abstract Purpose: To investigate whether the normal sperm morphology rate (NSMR) can affect the clinical outcomes of rescue-ICSI(R-ICSI) patients. Methods: Based on different NSMR, the patients were divided into two groups as follows: NSMR < 4% and NSMR ≥ 4% group. Main outcomes compared were fertilization, cleavage, normal fertilization, high-quality embryo, transferrable embryo, no transferrable embryo cycles, implantation, clinical pregnancy and abortion rate. Some men’s and women’s basic parameters were compared between pregnancy and non-pregnancy group. Results: The basic parameter such as female age, endometrial thickness, infertility duration, Gn administration, Gn days, basal serum FSH and basal serum E2 found no significant difference between NSMR < 4% and NSMR ≥ 4% group (p > 0.05). There was no significant difference in aspects of the number of retrieved oocytes, the number of transferred embryos, fertilization, cleavage, normal fertilization, high-quality embryo, transferrable embryo, no transferred embryo cycle, implantation, clinical pregnancy and abortion rate between two groups (p > 0.05). Between pregnancy and non-pregnancy group, we observed no significant difference in the female age, the number of retrieved oocytes, the number of high-quality embryo, the number of transferrable embryos, Gn administration, Gn does, endometrial thickness, infertility duration, basal serum FSH, basal serum E2, sperm concentration and progressively motile sperm (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Teratospermia made no effect on clinical outcomes of rescue-ICSI(R-ICSI) patients.
When to engage in interaction — And how? EEG-based enhancement of robot's ability to sense social signals in HRI

Humanoids are to date still limited in reliable interpretation of social cues that humans convey which restricts fluency and naturalness in social human-robot interaction (HRI). We propose a method to read out two important aspects of social engagement directly from the brain of a human interaction partner: (1) the intention to initiate eye contact and (2) the distinction between the observer being initiator or responder of an established gaze contact between human and robot. We suggest that these measures would give humanoids an important means for deciding when (timing) and how (social role) to engage in interaction with a human. We propose an experimental setup using iCub to evoke and capture the respective electrophysiological patterns via electroencephalography (EEG). Data analysis revealed biologically plausible brain activity patterns for both processes of social engagement. By using Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers with RBF kernel we showed that these patterns can be modeled with high within-participant accuracies of avg. 80.4% for (1) and avg. 77.0% for (2).
Studies on Biodegradation of Cellulose Blended Polyvinyl Chloride Films

Wider applications of the plastics in packaging and agriculture, has raised serious issue of plastic waste disposal and its pollution. The synthetic plastics normally resist the microbial degradation and persist in the environment for longer times. The objective of this study was the isolation of the fungal strain having ability to adhere and degrade the cellulose blended polyvinyl chloride films. The films were buried in the soil mixed with municipal sewage sludge for six months. Two fungal strains PV1 and PV2 showed adherence on the surface of the Cellulose blended PVC film. The strain PV1 identified as Phanerochaete chyrosporium, was more efficient then the other in de-grading cellulos blended PVC films and was chosen for further studies. The biodegradability of plastics was determined by visual changes in the polymer, plate assay and Carbon dioxide production. The chemical changes like appearance and shortening of peaks using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) also confirmed the degradability of the polymer.
Wearing graduated compression stockings augments cutaneous vasodilation but not sweating during exercise in the heat

The activation of cutaneous vasodilation and sweating are essential to the regulation of core temperature during exercise in the heat. We assessed the effect of graduated compression induced by wearing stockings on cutaneous vasodilation and sweating during exercise in the heat (30°C). On two separate occasions, nine young males exercised for 45 min or until core temperature reached ~1.5°C above baseline resting while wearing either (1) stockings causing graduated compression (graduate compression stockings, GCS), or (2) loose‐fitting stockings without compression (Control). Forearm vascular conductance was evaluated by forearm blood flow (venous occlusion plethysmography) divided by mean arterial pressure to estimate cutaneous vasodilation. Sweat rate was estimated using the ventilated capsule technique. Core and skin temperatures were measured continuously. Exercise duration was similar between conditions (Control: 42.2 ± 3.6 min vs. GCS: 42.2 ± 3.6 min, P = 1.00). Relative to Control, GCS increased forearm vascular conductance during the late stages (≥30 min) of exercise (e.g., at 40 min, 15.6 ± 5.6 vs. 18.0 ± 6.0 units, P = 0.01). This was paralleled by a greater sensitivity (23.1 ± 9.1 vs. 32.1 ± 15.0 units°C−1, P = 0.043) and peak level (14.1 ± 5.1 vs. 16.3 ± 5.7 units, P = 0.048) of cutaneous vasodilation as evaluated from the relationship between forearm vascular conductance with core temperature. However, the core temperature threshold at which an increase in forearm vascular conductance occurred did not differ between conditions (Control: 36.9 ± 0.2 vs. GCS: 37.0 ± 0.3°C, P = 0.13). In contrast, no effect of GCS on sweating was measured (all P > 0.05). We show that the use of GCS during exercise in the heat enhances cutaneous vasodilation and not sweating.
Genomic characterization of chromosome translocations in patients with T/myeloid mixed-phenotype acute leukemia

Abstract Mixed-phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) is a progenitor type of leukemia with ambiguous expression of lineage markers. The diagnosis of MPAL is based on flow cytometric analysis of immunophenotype, which commonly identifies myeloid lineage markers as well as B- or T- lymphoid lineage markers on leukemic blasts. Due to the rare occurrence of this disease, few studies have delineated the molecular bases of MPAL. Combining conventional karyotyping with whole genomic sequencing (WGS) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), we report here our identification and characterization of chromosome translocations, gene mutations and gene expression profile in four patients with T/Myeloid MPAL, including two t(6;14)(q25;q32) one t(8;14)(q24.2;q32) and one t(7;8)(p14;q24.2). Notably, seven of the eight translocation breakpoints reside in the non-coding regions and their locations appear to be shared by two or more patients. Gene expression analysis of matched diagnostic vs. remission samples provided evidence of transcriptomes alteration involving nucleosome organization and chromatin assembly.