Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Periodontal disease and bacterial vaginosis increase the risk for adverse pregnancy outcome.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether periodontal disease or bacterial vaginosis (BV) diagnosed before pregnancy increase the risk for adverse pregnancy outcome. METHODS: We enrolled a total of 252 women who had discontinued contraception in order to become pregnant. The first 130 pregnant women were included in the analyses. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis showed a strong association between periodontal disease and adverse pregnancy outcome (OR 5.5, 95% confidence interval 1.4-21.2; p = 0.014), and a borderline association between BV and adverse pregnancy outcome (OR 3.2, 95% confidence interval 0.9-10.7; p = 0.061). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that pre-pregnancy counseling should include both oral and vaginal examinations to rule out periodontal disease and BV. This may ultimately have an impact on antenatal healthcare, and decrease the risk for adverse pregnancy outcome.
Traffic sign classification using K-d trees and Random Forests

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of K-d trees and Random Forests for traffic sign classification using different size Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) descriptors and Distance Transforms. We use the German Traffic Sign Benchmark data set [1] containing 43 classes and more than 50,000 images. The K-d tree is fast to build and search in. We combine the tree classifiers with the HOG descriptors as well as the Distance Transforms and achieve classification rates of up to 97% and 81.8% respectively.
Adolescent impatience decreases with increased frontostriatal connectivity

Significance Compared with children and adults, teens and young adults often exhibit greater impulsivity and corresponding increases in emergency room visits, accidents from drug or alcohol use, and increased mortality risk. However, it remains poorly understood how increased impulsivity during adolescence may be explained in terms of brain and cognitive development. We focused on impatience, a central component of impulsiveness. We relate impatient behavior on a decision-making task to changes in connectivity within the brain’s frontostriatal circuitry. Our results suggest that relative future orientation, not sensitivity to immediate rewards, determines adolescent impatience. These findings may help to design interventions to prevent the detrimental effects of adolescent impulsiveness and serve as a template for understanding neurodevelopmental disorders. Adolescence is a developmental period associated with an increase in impulsivity. Impulsivity is a multidimensional construct, and in this study we focus on one of the underlying components: impatience. Impatience can result from (i) disregard of future outcomes and/or (ii) oversensitivity to immediate rewards, but it is not known which of these evaluative processes underlie developmental changes. To distinguish between these two causes, we investigated developmental changes in the structural and functional connectivity of different frontostriatal tracts. We report that adolescents were more impatient on an intertemporal choice task and reported less future orientation, but not more present hedonism, than young adults. Developmental increases in structural connectivity strength in the right dorsolateral prefrontal tract were related to increased negative functional coupling with the striatum and an age-related decrease in discount rates. Our results suggest that mainly increased control, and the integration of future-oriented thought, drives the reduction in impatience across adolescence.
Salt‐inducible kinase 1 regulates E‐cadherin expression and intercellular junction stability

The protein kinase liver kinase B1 (LKB1) regulates cell polarity and intercellular junction stability. Also, LKB1 controls the activity of salt‐inducible kinase 1 (SIK1). The role and relevance of SIK1 and its downstream effectors in linking the LKB1 signals within these processes are partially understood. We hypothesize that SIK1 may link LKB1 signals to the maintenance of epithelial junction stability by regulating E‐cadherin expression. Results from our studies using a mouse lung alveolar epithelial (MLE‐12) cell line or human renal proximal tubule (HK2) cell line transiently or stably lacking the expression of SIK1 (using SIK1 siRNAs or shRNAs), or with its expression abrogated (sik1+/+ vs. sik1−/− mice), indicate that suppression of SIK1 (∼40%) increases the expression of the transcriptional repressors Snail2 (∼12‐fold), Zeb1 (∼100%), Zeb2 (∼50%), and TWIST (∼20‐fold) by activating cAMP‐response element binding protein. The lack of SIK1 and activation of transcriptional repressors decreases the availability of E‐cadherin (mRNA and protein expression by ∼100 and 80%, respectively) and the stability of intercellular junctions in epithelia (decreases in transepithelial resistance). Furthermore, LKB1‐mediated increases in E‐cadherin expression are impaired in cells where SIK1 has been disabled. We conclude that SIK1 is a key regulator of E‐cadherin expression, and thereby contributes to the stability of intercellular junctions. —Eneling, K. , Brion, L. , Pinto, V. , Pinho, M. J., Sznajder, J. I. , Mochizuki, N. , Emoto, K. , Soares‐da‐Silva, P., Bertorello, A. M. Salt‐inducible kinase 1 regulates E‐cadherin expression and intercellular junction stability. FASEB J. 26, 3230–3239 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Restricted expression of classic cadherins in the spinal cord of the chicken embryo

Classic cadherins belong to the family of cadherin genes and play important roles in neurogenesis, neuron migration, and axon growth. In the present study, we compared the expression patterns of 10 classic cadherins (Cdh2, Cdh4, Cdh6, Cdh7, Cdh8, Cdh9, Cdh11, Cdh12, Cdh18, and Cdh20) in the developing chicken spinal cord (SP) by in situ hybridization. Our results indicate that each of the investigated cadherins exhibits a spatially restricted and temporally regulated pattern of expression. At early developmental stages (E2.5–E3), Cdh2 is expressed throughout the neuroepithelial layer. Cdh6 is strongly positive in the roof plate and later also in the floor plate. Cdh7, Cdh11, Cdh12, and Cdh20 are expressed in restricted regions of the basal plate of the SP. At intermediate stages of development (E4–E10), specific expression profiles are observed for all investigated cadherins in the differentiating mantle layer along the dorsoventral, mediolateral, and rostrocaudal dimensions. Expression profiles are especially diverse for Cdh2, Cdh4, Cdh8, Cdh11, and Cdh20 in the dorsal horn, while different pools of motor neurons exhibit signal for Cdh6, Cdh7, Cdh8, Cdh9, Cdh12, and Cdh20 in the ventral horn. Interestingly, subpopulations of cells in the dorsal root ganglion express combinations of different cadherins. In the surrounding tissues, such as the boundary cap cells and the notochord, the cadherins are also expressed differentially. The highly regulated spatiotemporal expression patterns of the classic cadherins indicate that these genes potentially play multiple and diverse roles during the development of the SP and its surrounding tissues.
Electrical flows, laplacian systems, and faster approximation of maximum flow in undirected graphs

We introduce a new approach to computing an approximately maximum s-t flow in a capacitated, undirected graph. This flow is computed by solving a sequence of electrical flow problems. Each electrical flow is given by the solution of a system of linear equations in a Laplacian matrix, and thus may be approximately computed in nearly-linear time. Using this approach, we develop the fastest known algorithm for computing approximately maximum s-t flows. For a graph having n vertices and m edges, our algorithm computes a (1-ε)-approximately maximum s-t flow in time ~O(mn1/3ε-11/3). A dual version of our approach gives the fastest known algorithm for computing a (1+ε)-approximately minimum s-t cut. It takes ~O(m+n4/3ε-16/3) time. Previously, the best dependence on m and n was achieved by the algorithm of Goldberg and Rao (J. ACM 1998), which can be used to compute approximately maximum s-t flows in time ~O({m√nε-1), and approximately minimum s-t cuts in time ~O(m+n3/2ε-3).
Stimulus Specificity of Phase-Locked and Non-Phase-Locked 40 Hz Visual Responses in Human

Considerable interest has been raised by non-phase-locked episodes of synchronization in the gamma-band (30–60 Hz). One of their putative roles in the visual modality is feature-binding. We tested the stimulus specificity of high-frequency oscillations in humans using three types of visual stimuli: two coherent stimuli (a Kanizsa and a real triangle) and a noncoherent stimulus (“no-triangle stimulus”). The task of the subject was to count the occurrences of a curved illusory triangle. A time–frequency analysis of single-trial EEG data recorded from eight human subjects was performed to characterize phase-locked as well as non-phase-locked high-frequency activities. We found an early phase-locked 40 Hz component, maximal at electrodes Cz–C4, which does not vary with stimulation type. We describe a second 40 Hz component, appearing around 280 msec, that is not phase-locked to stimulus onset. This component is stronger in response to a coherent triangle, whether real or illusory: it could reflect, therefore, a mechanism of feature binding based on high-frequency synchronization. Because both the illusory and the real triangle are more target-like, it could also correspond to an oscillatory mechanism for testing the match between stimulus and target. At the same latencies, the low-frequency evoked response components phase-locked to stimulus onset behave differently, suggesting that low- and high-frequency activities have different functional roles.
Ultrasonographic features differentiating thyroglossal duct cysts from dermoid cysts

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify ultrasonographic features that can be used to differentiate between thyroglossal duct cysts (TGDCs) and dermoid cysts (DCs). Methods We searched surgical pathology reports completed between January 2004 and October 2015 and identified 66 patients with TGDCs or DCs who had undergone preoperative ultrasonography. The ultrasound images were reviewed by two radiologists who were blinded to the pathological diagnosis. They evaluated the following parameters: dimensions, shape, margin, location in relation to the midline, level in relation to the hyoid bone, attachment to the hyoid bone, the depth of the lesion in relation to the strap muscles, internal echogenicity, internal echogenic dots, multilocularity, the presence of a longitudinal extension into the tongue base, posterior acoustic enhancement, the presence of internal septae, and intralesional vascularity. Results There were 50 TGDCs and 16 DCs. TGDCs were significantly more likely than DCs to have an irregular shape, an ill-defined margin, attachment to the hyoid bone, an intramuscular location, heterogeneous internal echogenicity, multilocularity, and longitudinal extension into the tongue base. Conclusion Ultrasound findings may inform the differential diagnosis between TGDCs and DCs.
Immunohistochemical analysis of Ki-67 in dental follicle of asymptomatic impacted third molars

Introduction: Dental follicle (DF) is an ectomesenchymal tissue that surrounds the developing tooth germ and contains precursor cells for cementoblasts, periodontal ligaments and osteoblasts. Radiographically, the DFs are seen as semicircular radiolucencies around unerupted teeth. However, if the DFs are larger than 2.5 mm, they are considered to be a pathological change. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the cell proliferation activity of DF surrounding an asymptomatic impacted third molar teeth using the Ki 67 proliferation marker and to evaluate the variation of cell proliferation depending on the age factor. Materials and Methods: Forty-four specimens of DFs associated with impacted mandibular third molars fully covered by mucosa or bone were surgically removed from 44 patients. The patients were divided into 2 age groups. Twenty of forty-four DFs were between 18 and 29 years (Group 1) and 24 were 30 years and above (Group 2). Ki-67 immunostaining was evaluated in epithelial component of the DFs. Results: Ki 67 expression was found to be 60% in Group 1 and 75% in Group 2. Statistically significant differences were found among the two groups in both the basal layer and the supra-basal layer. Conclusion: This study shows that DFs have more proliferative potential in older people as compared to the young and squamous metaplasia may be an early sign of developing lesions of odontogenic origin. Therefore, clinicians should be aware that histopathological changes could be found in DFs without clinical and radiographic alterations.
Ventriculoperitoneal shunts for treating increased intracranial pressure in cryptococcal meningitis with or without ventriculomegaly.

INTRODUCTION Cryptococcosis is an opportunistic mycosis, especially in patients that are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive, and frequently involves the central nervous system. METHODS We assessed the potential of ventriculoperitoneal shunting (VPS) in preventing mortality due to uncontrollable intracranial hypertension (ICH) in 15 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related cryptococcal meningitis. RESULTS After 2 weeks of antifungal therapy consisting of amphotericin B deoxycholate with or without fluconazole, patients with persistent ICH underwent VPS, despite having persistent Cryptococcus neoformans infection. In 12 patients, the uncontrollable ICH was resolved by VPS. CONCLUSIONS Patients with cryptococcal meningoencephalitis who have ICH must be considered for VPS even with positive cerebrospinal fluid cultures.
Discordance between Framingham Risk Score and atherosclerotic plaque burden.

AIM Clinical predictors are routinely used to identify individuals who may benefit from aggressive risk factor modification. However, clinical predictors cannot account for all genetic and environmental variables. The objective of this study is to investigate the association of Framingham Risk Score (FRS) with computed tomography angiography (CTA) measures of coronary atherosclerosis. METHODS AND RESULTS Consecutive patients who underwent CTA were prospectively enrolled and categorized according to clinical predictors such as FRS and pre-test probability for obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Atherosclerotic calcific and non-calcific plaques were assessed. Of the 1507 patients without a history of diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, and not on statin therapy, coronary atherosclerosis was present in 63.5% of the patients. Of the 1173 patients with low and intermediate FRS, atherosclerotic plaque was visually present in 47.6 and 72.7% of the patients, respectively. A higher proportion of low FRS patients had isolated non-calcific plaque (14.8%) compared with patients in the intermediate (10.1%) or high (7.2%) FRS groups, and 11.7% of high FRS patients had no visual evidence of plaque. The correlation between FRS and plaque was fair (r = 0.48; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Although clinical variables are predictive of CAD events, CTA identified coronary atherosclerosis in a significant proportion of patients with low to intermediate FRS, and a small minority of patients with high FRS had no evidence of atherosclerosis. Prospective studies are required to determine the potential value of identifying coronary atherosclerosis using CTA and to assess whether modifying therapies based on these results are warranted.
VISUALIZATION AND QUANTIFICATION OF OIL AND WATER PHASES IN A SYNTHETIC POROUS MEDIUM USING NMRM AND STEREOLOGY

Abstract Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy (NMRM) images were obtained of a cell of sintered silica (with original grain diameters of 250 to 500 μm) that was initially flooded with water and subsequently with both water and oil. The first acquisition was non-selective and revealed the combined spatial distribution of the water and oil phases. Two subsequent acquisitions, at identical locations, imaged the water and oil phases separately. Each acquisition comprises 16 images with a matrix of 256 by 256 pixels in a square Field of View, FOV, of 1.15 cm, and each image refers to a slice thickness of 100 microns. Volume rendering techniques applied to the image data enable the visualization of the 3D connectivity of the fluid phases in the porous medium. Stereology provides the means by which numerical descriptions of properties of these phases can be efficiently obtained free from model based assumptions, and with known precision. Accordingly, estimates were obtained of the porosity, surface area per uni.
Lowering the threshold for discussions of domestic violence: a randomized controlled trial of computer screening.

BACKGROUND Women experiencing domestic violence (DV) frequent health care settings, but DV is rarely identified. METHODS We conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect of computer screening on health care provider-patient DV communication at 2 socioeconomically diverse emergency departments (EDs). Consenting nonemergent female patients, aged 18 to 65 years, were randomized to self-administered computer-based health risk assessment, with a prompt for the health care provider, or to "usual care"; all visits were audiotaped. Outcome measures were rates of DV discussion, disclosure, and services. RESULTS Of 2169 eligible patients, 1281 (59%) consented; 871 (68%) were successfully audiotaped, and 903 (71%) completed an exit questionnaire. Rates of current DV risk on exit questionnaire were 26% in the urban ED and 21% in the suburban ED. In the urban ED, the computer prompt increased rates of DV discussion (147/262 [56%] vs 123/275 [45%]; P = .004), disclosure (37/262 [14%] vs 23/275 [8%]; P = .07), and services provided (21 [8%] vs 10 [4%]; P = .04). Women at the suburban site and those with private insurance or higher education were much less likely to be asked about experiences with abuse. Only 48% of encounters with a health care provider prompt regarding potential DV risk led to discussions. Both inquiries about and disclosures of abuse were associated with higher patient satisfaction with care. CONCLUSIONS Computer screening for DV increased but did not guarantee that DV would be addressed during ED encounters. Nonetheless, it is likely that low-cost interventions that allow patients the opportunity to self-disclose can be used to improve detection of DV.
EEG-Based Automatic Classification of ‘Awake’ versus ‘Anesthetized’ State in General Anesthesia Using Granger Causality

Background General anesthesia is a reversible state of unconsciousness and depression of reflexes to afferent stimuli induced by administration of a “cocktail” of chemical agents. The multi-component nature of general anesthesia complicates the identification of the precise mechanisms by which anesthetics disrupt consciousness. Devices that monitor the depth of anesthesia are an important aide for the anesthetist. This paper investigates the use of effective connectivity measures from human electrical brain activity as a means of discriminating between ‘awake’ and ‘anesthetized’ state during induction and recovery of consciousness under general anesthesia. Methodology/Principal Findings Granger Causality (GC), a linear measure of effective connectivity, is utilized in automated classification of ‘awake’ versus ‘anesthetized’ state using Linear Discriminant Analysis and Support Vector Machines (with linear and non-linear kernel). Based on our investigations, the most characteristic change of GC observed between the two states is the sharp increase of GC from frontal to posterior regions when the subject was anesthetized, and reversal at recovery of consciousness. Features derived from the GC estimates resulted in classification of ‘awake’ and ‘anesthetized’ states in 21 patients with maximum average accuracies of 0.98 and 0.95, during loss and recovery of consciousness respectively. The differences in linear and non-linear classification are not statistically significant, implying that GC features are linearly separable, eliminating the need for a complex and computationally expensive non-linear classifier. In addition, the observed GC patterns are particularly interesting in terms of a physiological interpretation of the disruption of consciousness by anesthetics. Bidirectional interaction or strong unidirectional interaction in the presence of a common input as captured by GC are most likely related to mechanisms of information flow in cortical circuits. Conclusions/Significance GC-based features could be utilized effectively in a device for monitoring depth of anesthesia during surgery.
Posttransplant malignancies in renal transplant recipients: 22-years experience from a single center in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE To study the incidence, types and distribution pattern of malignant tumors in renal transplant recipients at a single center in Pakistan. MATERIALS AND METHODS This retrospective study was conducted at Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) and included all transplant patients on regular follow-up from November 1986 to December 2008. The original biopsy reports and case files of all patients who developed posttransplant malignancies were reviewed and relevant demographic, clinical, radiological, and histopathological data were retrieved and analyzed. SPSS version 10.0 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Over 22 years of study period, 1816 renal transplants were carried out at our center. Among these, 44 patients developed malignancies constituting an overall incidence rate of 2.4%. All patients in this study were males with a mean age of 34.9±9.5 years (range: 9 to 60 years). The most common type of malignancy was lymphoma (27 patients, 61.4%), followed by Kaposi's sarcoma (11 patients, 25%) and skin malignancies (3 patients, 6.8%). One case each of adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), conjunctival carcinoma-in-situ and seminoma were also diagnosed. CONCLUSION Posttransplant malignancies occurring in our renal transplant recipients show different incidence rates and patterns as compared with western studies.
Incorporating Expert Knowledge into Keyphrase Extraction

Keyphrases that efficiently summarize a document’s content are used in various document processing and retrieval tasks. Current state-of-the-art techniques for keyphrase extraction operate at a phrase-level and involve scoring candidate phrases based on features of their component words.In this paper, we learn keyphrase taggers for research papers using token-based features incorporating linguistic, surface-form, and document-structure information through sequence labeling. We experimentally illustrate that using within document features alone, our tagger trained with ConditionalRandom Fields performs on-par with existing state-of-the-art systems that rely on information from Wikipedia and citation networks. In addition, we are also able to harness recent work on feature labeling to seamlessly incorporate expert knowledge and predictions from existing systems to enhance the extraction performance further. We highlight the modeling advantages of our keyphrase taggers and show significant performance improvements on two recently-compiled datasets of keyphrases from Computer Science research papers.