Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing Prolongation of the Heart Rate Corrected QT Interval in Users of Tricyclic Antidepressants: Advice to Use Fridericia Rather Than Bazett’s Correction

Abstract A prolonged heart rate corrected QT interval (QTc) increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. Some methods of heart rate correction (notably Bazett) overestimate QTc in people with high heart rates. Studies suggest that tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) can prolong the QTc and increase heart rate. Therefore, we aimed to study whether TCA-induced QTc prolongation is a false-positive observation due to overestimation at high heart rates. For this, we included 12,734 participants from the prospective population-based Rotterdam Study, with a total of 27,068 electrocardiograms (ECGs), of which, 331 during TCA use. Associations between use of TCAs, QTc, and heart rate were studied with linear repeated measurement analyses. QT was corrected for heart rate according to Bazett (QTcBazett), Fridericia (QTcFridericia), or a correction based on regression coefficients obtained from the Rotterdam Study data (QTcStatistical). On ECGs recorded during TCA use, QTcBazett was 6.5 milliseconds (95% confidence interval, 4.0–9.0) longer, and heart rate was 5.8 beats per minute (95% confidence interval, 4.7–6.9) faster than during nonuse. QTcFridericia and QTcStatistical were not statistically significantly longer during TCA use than during nonuse. Furthermore, QTcBazett was similar for ECGs recorded during TCA use and nonuse after statistical adjustment for heart rate. According to our results, TCA use does not seem to be associated with QTc prolongation. Therefore, the current advice of regulatory authorities to restrict the use of these drugs and to do regular checkups of the QTc may need to be revised. Other formulas, like Fridericia’s, might be preferred.
Evolving Scheduling Strategies for Multi-Processor Real-Time Systems

In recent years the multi-core era started to affect embedded systems, changing some of the rules: While on a single processor, Earliest Deadline First has been proven to be the best algorithm to guarantee the correct execution of priorized tasks, Dhall et al. have shown that this approach is not feasible for multi-processor systems anymore. A variety of new scheduling algorithms has been introduced, competing to be the answer to the challenges multi-processor real-time scheduling is imposing. In this paper, we study the solution space of prioritizationbased task scheduling algorithms using genetic programming and state-of-the-art accelerator technologies. We demonstrate that this approach is indeed feasible to generate a wide variety of capable scheduling algorithms with pre-selected characteristics, the best of which outperform many existing approaches. For a static predefined set of tasks, overfitting even allows us to produce optimal algorithms.
Economic evaluation of a community based exercise programme to prevent falls

OBJECTIVE To assess the incremental costs and cost effectiveness of implementing a home based muscle strengthening and balance retraining programme that reduced falls and injuries in older women. DESIGN An economic evaluation carried out within a randomised controlled trial with two years of follow up. Participants were individually prescribed an exercise programme (exercise group, n=116) or received usual care and social visits (control group, n=117). SETTING 17 general practices in Dunedin, New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS Women aged 80 years and older living in the community and invited by their general practitioner to take part. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Number of falls and injuries related to falls, costs of implementing the intervention, healthcare service costs resulting from falls and total healthcare service costs during the trial. Cost effectiveness was measured as the incremental cost of implementing the exercise programme per fall event prevented. MAIN RESULTS 27% of total hospital costs during the trial were related to falls. However, there were no significant differences in health service costs between the two groups. Implementing the exercise programme for one and two years respectively cost $314 and $265 (1995 New Zealand dollars) per fall prevented, and $457 and $426 per fall resulting in a moderate or serious injury prevented. CONCLUSIONS The costs resulting from falls make up a substantial proportion of the hospital costs for older people. Despite a reduction in falls as a result of this home exercise programme there was no significant reduction in healthcare costs. However, the results reported will provide information on the cost effectiveness of the programme for those making decisions on falls prevention strategies.
Unblocking brainstorming through the use of a simple group editor

Earlier studies of computerized brainstorming showed that by restructuring group processes, groups can overcome well known performance deficits that groups suffer relative to nominal groups. These earlier tools are essentially computerized versions of Nominal Group Technique. We examined the ability of a simple, unstructured parallel editor to facilitate idea generation in face to face groups. Our results showed that parallel interacting groups outperformed serial interacting groups, and parallel interacting groups did not differ significantly from nominal, non interacting groups. Thus, an informal tool that allows parallel work is an effective way to increase idea generation in real interacting groups.
Clinical outcomes in patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor‐mutated non‐small‐cell lung cancer in South Western Sydney Local Health District

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)‐mutated non‐small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a subgroup of oncogene addicted lung cancer that predicts response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). However, there is variability in response and survival outcomes in patients with EGFR mutation treated with TKI.
Trends in antimicrobial susceptibility of gram-negative bacteria isolated from blood in Jakarta from 2002 to 2008.

BACKGROUND This study examined the susceptibility of Gram-negative bacteria in the bloodstream to antimicrobials with the aim of providing information relevant to the guidance of therapy. METHODOLOGY Blood specimens received by the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, from 2002 to 2008, were analyzed for the presence of Gram-negative bacteria and their susceptibility to four antibiotic groups frequently administered in hospitals and community settings. RESULTS During the seven-year period leading up to 2008, approximately 68% of Gram-negative bacteria were identified among all positive isolates from blood specimens. The eight most frequent species found were Acinetobacter anitratus (25.8%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19.5%), Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae (14.5%), Enterobacter aerogenes (8%), Salmonella Typhi (7.5%), Escherichia coli (6.2%), Alcaligenes faecalis (5.6%) and Klebsiella oxytoca (3.2%). At 80% susceptibility or greater, Ceftriaxone and Cefotaxime were active only on E. coli and S. Typhi. Cefepime demonstrated activity on all eight species tested except K. pneumonia while Amikacin showed activity against five species, A. faecalis, E. aerogenes, E. coli, K. pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae and S. Typhi. Gentamycin was active against three species: E. aerogenes, K. oxytoca and S. Typhi. Ciprofloxacin and Levofloxacin significantly differed in their spectrum: while Ciprofloxacin was active against four of the eight species tested (E. aerogenes, E. coli, K. oxytoca, and S. Typhi ), Levofloxacin was similar to Cefepime and was active against all eight species except K. pneumoniae subsp. pneumonia. CONCLUSIONS Since antimicrobials are broadly used in Jakarta, it is important that the information captured in this study be disseminated.
Interrelationships between microtubules, a striated fiber, and the gametic mating structure of Chlamydomonas reinhardi

The microtubule system associated with the Chlamydomonas reinhardi flagellar apparatus is shown to differ from previous descriptions; two of the four flagellar "roots" possess only two microtubules and are associated with a finely striated fiber. In gametic cells this fiber underlies the gametic mating structure and makes contact with it. Functional interpretations are offered.
A Bayesian model for joint word alignment and part-of-speech transfer

Current methods for word alignment require considerable amounts of parallel text to deliver accurate results, a requirement which is met only for a small minority of the world’s approximately 7,000 languages. We show that by jointly performing word alignment and annotation transfer in a novel Bayesian model, alignment accuracy can be improved for language pairs where annotations are available for only one of the languages—a finding which could facilitate the study and processing of a vast number of low-resource languages. We also present an evaluation where our method is used to perform single-source and multi-source part-of-speech transfer with 22 translations of the same text in four different languages. This allows us to quantify the considerable variation in accuracy depending on the specific source text(s) used, even with different translations into the same language.
Stellate cell inhibition of Purkinje cells in the turtle cerebellum in vitro.

1. The stellate cell‐mediated inhibition of Purkinje cells was studied by intracellular recordings in an in vitro slice preparation of the turtle cerebellar cortex. A graded inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) was recorded in Purkinje cells upon stimulation of the parallel fibre‐stellate cell pathway. 2. The IPSP was abolished by bicuculline, and had a reversal potential around ‐75 mV, consistent with a GABAA receptor‐operated Cl‐ conductance dominating the response investigated here. 3. Paired recordings from synaptically coupled stellate cells and Purkinje cells demonstrated that the inhibitory input from a single stellate cell is sufficient to reduce the firing in a Purkinje cell. 4. The extracellular‐evoked IPSP interacted with the active postsynaptic membrane properties in the Purkinje cell. Interaction with both the Na+ plateau and the IA prolonged the responses to an IPSP, making the net effect of the inhibitory response dependent on the membrane potential in each postsynaptic neurone. 5. A precisely timed IPSP was particularly efficient in reducing dendritic Ca2+ influx. 6. The voltage‐dependent Ca2+ component of a climbing fibre response (CFR) as well as of a parallel fibre (PF) input was reduced by the IPSP. 7. It is suggested that Ca2+ spike‐mediated reduction in Purkinje cell excitability may be prevented by the stellate cell IPSP‐mediated reduction in Ca2+ influx.
Effect of CaO Addition on the Sintering Behavior and Microstructure of Stoichiometric Spinel

This paper presents a study of the most important factors influencing the sintering process spinel (MgAl2O4) Minutes from the oxides of aluminum (Al2O4) and Magnesium (MgO) percentages by weight (MgO 28wt%, Al2O3 72wt%). The traditional method called solid-state reaction (SSR), single firing stage and the impact of these factors on the physical properties, and thermal as well as the fine structure and morphology of the ceramic product. It formed Spinel models through a steel mold and shed pressure (14 Mpa) using hydraulic piston at temperatures (1200, 1400°C) and soaking time (2 h) with the study of the effect of adding oxide calcium (CaO) by weight (0,2,4,6,8 wt%) spinel on the properties and behavior as sintered the research study of the most important physical characteristics (density, porosity) and (Thermal Conductivity). The results showed that the density increased and porosity decreased with higher temperatures due to the process of sintering, as it reached the highest density at the temperature of burning 1400°C which (1.88 g/cm3), which is porosity (47.48 %). Thermal conductivity was the best value (5.071 K w/cm. °C). As well as the study of (XRD, SEM). The calcined specimens spinel were characterized by XRD, It showed the presence of developed spinel also showed that the best catalyst is CaO, and (SEM). It showed that high temperature sintering temperatures increase the regularity of the Grain Growth and cohesion in the bloc, as well as minutes from the acquisition of the spherical shape of the minutes spinel.
Bidirectional Helmholtz Machines

Efficient unsupervised training and inference in deep generative models remains a challenging problem. One basic approach, called Helmholtz machine, involves training a top-down directed generative model together with a bottom-up auxiliary model used for approximate inference. Recent results indicate that better generative models can be obtained with better approximate inference procedures. Instead of improving the inference procedure, we here propose a new model which guarantees that the top-down and bottom-up distributions can efficiently invert each other. We achieve this by interpreting both the top-down and the bottom-up directed models as approximate inference distributions and by defining the model distribution to be the geometric mean of these two. We present a lower-bound for the likelihood of this model and we show that optimizing this bound regularizes the model so that the Bhattacharyya distance between the bottom-up and top-down approximate distributions is minimized. This approach results in state of the art generative models which prefer significantly deeper architectures while it allows for orders of magnitude more efficient approximate inference.
The role of mRNA E6/E7 HPV high oncogenic risk expression in colposcopy of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).

UNLABELLED The aim of this paper is the evaluation of colposcopy and mRNA E6/E7 HPV detection--as the marker of persistent human papilloma virus (HPV) infection in the triage of abnormal Pap smears and in the assessment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia progression risk. The clinical material consisted of 85 women, participating the national cervical cancer screening in the period of April 2010, and October 2010, reffered to the Outpatient Clinic of Gynecologic Oncology and Female Genital Tract Neoplasms Prophylaxy of the Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow, Poland. All subjects were offered gynecological evaluation, Pap smear, colposcopy, DNA HPV (Hybrid Capture2, Qiagen) and mRNA E6/E7 testing (NulciSens, Biomerieux). In case of positive tests colposcopically directed cervical biopsy with histopathologic evaluation were performed. RESULTS The presence of mRNA E6/E7 HPV transcripts correlated with high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, statistically significantly. There was statistically difference between colposcopic, histologic concordance comparing to mRNA E6/E7 HPV colposcopic histologic concordance (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The presence of mRNA E6/E7 HR HPV may be assumed as specific marker of high grade cervical lesions. The combination of mRNA E6/E7 HR HPV ewith colposcopic evaluation increases the colposcopy concordanece with final histologic findings.
Sex Trafficking Related Knowledge, Awareness, and Attitudes among Adolescent Female Students in Nepal: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Sex trafficking has been a long-standing concern in Nepal. Very little has been achieved, however, in terms of actual reduction in the number of victims despite numerous anti-sex trafficking programs. This situation may be attributable to a lack of empirical evidence upon which to formulate anti-sexual trafficking interventions. This study aimed to assess sex trafficking-related knowledge, awareness and attitudes, and factors associated with sex trafficking awareness and attitudes towards the victims of sex trafficking and/or anti-sex trafficking campaigns among adolescent female students in Nepal. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted between August–September 2013 among 292 adolescent female students (>10 years old) using systematic random sampling from three high schools in Sindhupalchowk district, Nepal. As an initial step, descriptive analyses were employed to characterize the data and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to explore factors associated with sex trafficking awareness and related attitudes. Results Seventy-six percent of sampled students reported that they were aware of sex trafficking and 94.6% indicated media (i.e., radio or television) as the primary sources of their knowledge. Fifty-one percent mentioned relatives/friends as mediators of sex trafficking, 60.4% reported promise for better jobs as the primary attraction behind sex trafficking, and 48.6% mentioned adolescent females as the most vulnerable group for sex trafficking. Over half (56.8%) of the respondents had positive attitudes towards the victims of sex trafficking and/or anti-sex trafficking campaigns. Age (OR = 3.38, 95% CI:2.51–4.55), parents’ occupation (OR = 3.89, 95% CI:1.58–9.58), and having a radio/TV at home (OR = 6.67, 95% CI:3.99–9.54) were significantly associated with awareness, whereas being younger (OR = 0.67, 95% CI:0.55–0.79) and having joint-family (OR = 2.67, 95% CI:1.49–4.80) were significantly associated with having a positive attitudes towards the victims of sex trafficking and/or anti-sex trafficking campaigns. Conclusion Findings presented have important implications for anti-trafficking programs, in particular those designed to educate the adolescent females who are at most-risk of sex trafficking. Educational programs need to include specific interventions to improve knowledge and attitudes towards sex trafficking among adolescent females in Nepal.
Honokiol Induces Calpain-Mediated Glucose-Regulated Protein-94 Cleavage and Apoptosis in Human Gastric Cancer Cells and Reduces Tumor Growth

Background Honokiol, a small molecular weight natural product, has been shown to possess potent anti-neoplastic and anti-angiogenic properties. Its molecular mechanisms and the ability of anti-gastric cancer remain unknown. It has been shown that the anti-apoptotic function of the glucose-regulated proteins (GRPs) predicts that their induction in neoplastic cells can lead to cancer progression and drug resistance. We explored the effects of honokiol on the regulation of GRPs and apoptosis in human gastric cancer cells and tumor growth. Methodology and Principal Findings Treatment of various human gastric cancer cells with honokiol led to the induction of GRP94 cleavage, but did not affect GRP78. Silencing of GRP94 by small interfering RNA (siRNA) could induce cell apoptosis. Treatment of cells with honokiol or chemotherapeutics agent etoposide enhanced the increase in apoptosis and GRP94 degradation. The calpain activity and calpain-II (m-calpain) protein (but not calpain-I (µ-calpain)) level could also be increased by honokiol. Honokiol-induced GRP94 down-regulation and apoptosis in gastric cancer cells could be reversed by siRNA targeting calpain-II and calpain inhibitors. Furthermore, the results of immunofluorescence staining and immunoprecipitation revealed a specific interaction of GRP94 with calpain-II in cells following honokiol treatment. We next observed that tumor GRP94 over-expression and tumor growth in BALB/c nude mice, which were inoculated with human gastric cancer cells MKN45, are markedly decreased by honokiol treatment. Conclusions and Significance These results provide the first evidence that honokiol-induced calpain-II-mediated GRP94 cleavage causes human gastric cancer cell apoptosis. We further suggest that honokiol may be a possible therapeutic agent to improve clinical outcome of gastric cancer.
Dynamic Interaction of HIV‐1 Nef with the Clathrin‐Mediated Endocytic Pathway at the Plasma Membrane

The HIV‐1 Nef protein perturbs the trafficking of membrane proteins such as CD4 by interacting with clathrin–adaptor complexes. We previously reported that Nef alters early/recycling endosomes, but its role at the plasma membrane is poorly documented. Here, we used total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, which restricts the analysis to a ∼100 nm region of the adherent surface of the cells, to focus on the dynamic of Nef at the plasma membrane relative to that of clathrin. Nef colocalized both with clathrin spots (CS) that remained static at the cell surface, corresponding to clathrin‐coated pits (CCPs), and with ∼50% of CS that disappeared from the cell surface, corresponding to forming clathrin‐coated vesicles (CCVs). The colocalization of Nef with clathrin required the di‐leucine motif essential for Nef binding to AP complexes and was independent of CD4 expression. Furthermore, analysis of Nef mutants showed that the capacity of Nef to induce internalization and downregulation of CD4 in T lymphocytes correlated with its localization into CCPs. In conclusion, this analysis shows that Nef is recruited into CCPs and into forming CCVs at the plasma membrane, in agreement with a model in which Nef uses the clathrin‐mediated endocytic pathway to induce internalization of some membrane proteins from the surface of HIV‐1‐infected T cells.
Overweight is Associated with Airflow Obstruction and Poor Disease Control but Not with Exhaled Nitric Oxide Change in an Asthmatic Population

Background: The role of an elevated body mass index (BMI) in asthma remains controversial. Objectives: To investigate the relationship between overweight (BMI >25 and ≤30), lung function, disease control, and airway inflammation in an asthmatic population. Methods: We consecutively studied 348 patients (age 43 ± 16 years; 211 females). In all patients, BMI, spirometry, the Asthma Control Test (ACT), and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO; ppb) were measured. Results: One hundred forty-five patients were overweight and, as compared to those with normal BMI, had lower values of FVC, FEV1, and FEV1/FVC and of FEF25–75 even when normalized for FVC (p < 0.05 for each comparison). The ratio between the number of patients with well-controlled asthma (ACT ≥20) and that of patients with poorly controlled asthma (ACT < 20) was significantly lower in overweight patients (1.07 vs. 1.84; χ2 = 6.030, p < 0.01). In overweight patients, the odds ratio of uncontrolled asthma expressed by logistic regression analysis was 1.632 (95% CI = 1.043–2.553), independently of gender, atopy, smoking habit, and inhaled steroid therapy. No difference was observed in FeNO values between overweight and normal weight patients (27.7 ± 2.3 vs. 27.9 ± 2.2 ppb). Conclusions: Our results show that, in an asthmatic population, overweight is associated with airflow obstruction and poor disease control but not with FeNO change. The findings of the present study support the view that other factors besides airway inflammation alone may explain the relationship between asthma and an elevated BMI.