Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The need for novel strategies to address postoperative pain associated with cardiac surgery: A commentary and introduction to “SMArTVIEW”

ABSTRACT Background: With coronary heart disease affecting over 2.4 million Canadians, annual cardiac and major vascular surgery rates are on the rise. Unrelieved postoperative pain is among the top five causes of hospital readmission following surgery; little is done to address this postoperative complication. Barriers to effective pain assessment and management following cardiac and major vascular surgery have been conceptualized on patient, health care provider, and system levels. Purpose: In this commentary, we review common patient, health care provider, and system-level barriers to effective postoperative pain assessment and management following cardiac and major vascular surgery. We then outline the SMArTVIEW intervention, with particular attention to components designed to optimize postoperative pain assessment and management. Methods: In conceptualizing the SMArTVIEW intervention design, we sought to address a number of these barriers by meeting the following design objectives: (1) orchestrating a structured process for regular postoperative pain assessment and management; (2) ensuring adequate clinician preparation for postoperative pain assessment and management in the context of virtual care; and (3) enfranchising patients to become active self-managers and to work with their health care providers to manage their pain postoperatively. Conclusions: Innovative approaches to address these barriers are a current challenge to health care providers and researchers alike. SMArTVIEW is spearheading this paradigm shift within clinical research to address barriers that impair effective postoperative pain management by actively engaging health care providers and patients in an accessible format (i.e., digital health solution) to give primacy to the need of postoperative pain assessment and management following cardiac and major vascular surgery.
Matrices Associated With the Hitchcock Problem

This paper is concerned with convexity properties of m X n matrices whose entries are non-negative real numbers and whose row and column sums are specified positive numbers. Such matrices make their appearance in an irapor tan t linear programming problem known as the Hitchcock or t ransportat ion problem. The determination of the vertices of such sets of matrices enables one to obtain all solutions of the t ransportat ion problem when the solution is not uniquely determined. Let r~, r2, , r ~ , cl , c~, , c~ be positive numbers such tha t ~ m r, ~ 1 c~ . Call R = ( h , r2, . , rm) and C = (cl, c~, . . , c~) row and column sum vectors. Let ~I(R, C) be the class of all m × n matrices A with non-negative entries such tha t the sums of the entries in the i th row and j t h column of A are r, and ca respectively. The set of matrices ~I(R, C) form a convex set. A matr ix of A of the set ~I(R, C) is called a vertex matrix if there do not exist matrices B a n d C i n ~I(R,C) a n d a n u m b e r a, 0 0 f o r i = 1 , 2 , . , r , ~ : _ ~ M = 1 and A = ~ : = ~ X~Bi. Our main result is an algorithm for expressing a matr ix A of the set ~I(R, C) as an average of vertex matrices, together with an algorithm for the construction of vertex matrices. Some special results are exhibited in the case of generalized doubly stochastic matrices, i.e. matrices for which r~ = r2 = " ' ' = rm and cl = c2 = • . = an. There is an int imate connection between matrices with non-negative entries and bipart i te graphs. By a bipartite graph we mean the following structure. There is a system K consisting of three sets; two vertex sets S and T (whose elements are denoted by s~ and t~ respectively) and a set of edges E which is a subset of the Cartesian product S X T. Each edge of E will be denoted by a pair (s, t) with s in S and t in T. The term rank of a graph K is the largest number p of edges in a set (s~, t~) (s2, t2) (s3, t~) . (sp, tp), no two of which have a vertex in common. Any such set of p edges is called a maximal set of independent edges. In connection with a bipart i te graph K, the concepts of minimal covering, reducibility, connectivity, and cycle play an impor tant role, and we define these as follows: Let A be a subset of S, and B a subset of T. The pair [A, B] is said to cover
Intentions to Donate to a Biobank in a National Sample of African Americans

Background/Aims: Despite the investments being made to develop biobanks, African Americans are under-represented in genomic studies. We identified factors having significant independent associations with intentions to donate personal health information and blood and/or tissue samples to a biobank in a national random sample of African Americans (n = 1,033). Methods: We conducted a national survey from October 2010 through February 2011. Results: Twenty-three percent of respondents reported that it was not at all likely that they would donate to a biobank, 18% reported it was a little likely, 36% reported it was somewhat likely, and 23% reported it was very likely. Respondents who were likely to donate to a biobank had greater positive expectations about participating in cancer genetics research and reported more participation facilitators relative to barriers. Respondents who were distrustful of researchers had a significantly lower likelihood of being willing to donate to a biobank compared to those who were less distrustful. Conclusions: African Americans have diverse attitudes about participating in genetics research, and many are likely to donate to a biobank based on expectations of positive outcomes. It may be important to address attitudes about genetics research as part of recruitment to enhance the quality of informed consent for participation in biobanks among African Americans.
Longterm results of liver transplantation from donation after circulatory death

Donation after circulatory death (DCD) liver transplantation (LT) may imply a risk for decreased graft survival, caused by posttransplantation complications such as primary nonfunction or ischemic‐type biliary lesions. However, similar survival rates for DCD and donation after brain death (DBD) LT have been reported. The objective of this study is to determine the longterm outcome of DCD LT in the Eurotransplant region corrected for the Eurotransplant donor risk index (ET‐DRI). Transplants performed in Belgium and the Netherlands (January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2007) in adult recipients were included. Graft failure was defined as either the date of recipient death or retransplantation whichever occurred first (death‐uncensored graft survival). Mean follow‐up was 7.2 years. In total, 126 DCD and 1264 DBD LTs were performed. Kaplan‐Meier survival analyses showed different graft survival for DBD and DCD at 1 year (77.7% versus 74.8%, respectively; P = 0.71), 5 years (65.6% versus 54.4%, respectively; P = 0.02), and 10 years (47.3% versus 44.2%, respectively; P = 0.55; log‐rank P = 0.038). Although there was an overall significant difference, the survival curves almost reach each other after 10 years, which is most likely caused by other risk factors being less in DCD livers. Patient survival was not significantly different (P = 0.59). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed a hazard ratio of 1.7 (P < 0.001) for DCD (corrected for ET‐DRI and recipient factors). First warm ischemia time (WIT), which is the time from the end of circulation until aortic cold perfusion, over 25 minutes was associated with a lower graft survival in univariate analysis of all DCD transplants (P = 0.002). In conclusion, DCD LT has an increased risk for diminished graft survival compared to DBD. There was no significant difference in patient survival. DCD allografts with a first WIT > 25 minutes have an increased risk for a decrease in graft survival. Liver Transplantation 22 1107–1114 2016 AASLD
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Patients With Thick Primary Cutaneous Melanoma

Background The clinical value of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with thick melanoma is uncertain. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlations between survival and lymph node status in thick melanomas. Methods Of a total of 736 melanoma patients registered between 2000 and 2016, 50 presented with thick melanomas (≥ 4.0 mm) without distant metastatic disease. All patients were examined with a whole-body magnetic resonance imaging, or computed tomography, and positron emission tomography-computed tomography depending on the incorporation of the new technology in our medical institutions. They were studied according to the following procedure: 1) preoperative determination of regional lymph node along with the estimation and localization of sentinel lymph node (SLN) (dynamic isotope lymphography); 2) intraoperative localization and SLNB (lymphatic mapping); and 3) histopathology. Patient and tumor features were collected. Results Mean follow-up was 40 months, and 37% had a follow-up ≥ 5 years. A positive SLN was identified in 28 patients (56%). No significant difference in melanoma-specific overall survival was observed in terms of the primary tumor site. Hazard ratios (HRs) were statistically significant for SLNB-positive group and mitotic rate (MR) > 3 mm2, but not for presence of ulceration. Mortality risk in the SLN-positive group was almost fourfold greater than that in the SLN-negative group at any time of follow-up. Conclusions SLN status, along with MR, can provide valuable prognostic information in patients with thick primary cutaneous melanoma.
Obstacle-Avoiding Algorithm in X-Architecture Based on Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization for VLSI Design

Obstacle-avoiding Steiner minimal tree (OASMT) construction has become a focus problem in the physical design of modern very large-scale integration (VLSI) chips. In this article, an effective algorithm is presented to construct an OASMT based on X-architecturex for a given set of pins and obstacles. First, a kind of special particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed that successfully combines the classic genetic algorithm (GA), and greatly improves its own search capability. Second, a pretreatment strategy is put forward to deal with obstacles and pins, which can provide a fast information inquiry for the whole algorithm by generating a precomputed lookup table. Third, we present an efficient adjustment method, which enables particles to avoid all the obstacles by introducing some corner points of obstacles. Finally, an excellent refinement method is discussed to further enhance the quality of the final routing tree, which can improve the quality of the solution by 7.93% on average. To our best knowledge, this is the first time to specially solve the single-layer obstacle-avoiding problem in X-architecture. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can further shorten wirelength in the presence of obstacles. And it achieves the best solution quality in a reasonable runtime among the existing algorithms.
Adult listeners' processing of indexical versus linguistic differences in a pre-attentive discrimination paradigm

The human ability to comprehend speech regardless of variation across speakers and accents has long puzzled researchers. Human listeners appear to employ separate mechanisms to cope with speaker versus accent variation. The present study uses event-related potentials (ERP) to test whether such different mechanisms exist at a pre-attentive level of speech processing. We assessed Australian English monolinguals’ and bilinguals’ perceptual sensitivity to four types of variation in vowels: namely, variation in speaker identity, gender, accent, and vowel category. Interestingly, listeners showed similar results regardless of their linguistic background. As expected, listeners showed large sensitivity to accent changes. Rather surprisingly, however, they were more sensitive to changes in speaker gender than to changes in vowel category. These results are not in line with those of overt vowel classification but are explained by adults’ sensitivity to large differences in voice quality when discriminating speech sounds.
Great interactions: How binding incorrect partners can teach us about protein recognition and function

Protein–protein interactions play a key part in most biological processes and understanding their mechanism is a fundamental problem leading to numerous practical applications. The prediction of protein binding sites in particular is of paramount importance since proteins now represent a major class of therapeutic targets. Amongst others methods, docking simulations between two proteins known to interact can be a useful tool for the prediction of likely binding patches on a protein surface. From the analysis of the protein interfaces generated by a massive cross‐docking experiment using the 168 proteins of the Docking Benchmark 2.0, where all possible protein pairs, and not only experimental ones, have been docked together, we show that it is also possible to predict a protein's binding residues without having any prior knowledge regarding its potential interaction partners. Evaluating the performance of cross‐docking predictions using the area under the specificity‐sensitivity ROC curve (AUC) leads to an AUC value of 0.77 for the complete benchmark (compared to the 0.5 AUC value obtained for random predictions). Furthermore, a new clustering analysis performed on the binding patches that are scattered on the protein surface show that their distribution and growth will depend on the protein's functional group. Finally, in several cases, the binding‐site predictions resulting from the cross‐docking simulations will lead to the identification of an alternate interface, which corresponds to the interaction with a biomolecular partner that is not included in the original benchmark. Proteins 2016; 84:1408–1421. © 2016 The Authors Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Crime , Malnutrition , and Other Forms of Cerebral Trauma

It is my intention in giving this paper to set the scene for the following papers and discussions. Crime, in the minds of most people, is becoming an increasingly serious problem. Whilst the majority of crimes are on the increase, it is those involving violence which cause us the most concern. However, that increase is not so apparent when we turn from the newspapers to hard statistics. From 1966 actual offences increased from 1,094,889 to 1,809,135 in 1973. The percentage of violent crimes remained relatively constant varying from 6.7 to the low point of 6.3 percent in 1973 (Statistics Canada). The increase in absolute numbers of crimes committed is of course offset to some degree by the increase in population, but the increase must remain as a cause for concern by reason of its cost in human wastage, distress, and the cost to our economy. To attempt to define crime is a difficult if not impossible task. It is a task faced by sociologists for decades in their consid-
Asymmetric Coding of Categorical Spatial Relations in Both Language and Vision

Describing certain types of spatial relationships between a pair of objects requires that the objects are assigned different “roles” in the relation, e.g., “A is above B” is different than “B is above A. ” This asymmetric representation places one object in the “target” or “figure” role and the other in the “reference” or “ground” role. Here we provide evidence that this asymmetry may be present not just in spatial language, but also in perceptual representations. More specifically, we describe a model of visual spatial relationship judgment where the designation of the target object within such a spatial relationship is guided by the location of the “spotlight” of attention. To demonstrate the existence of this perceptual asymmetry, we cued attention to one object within a pair by briefly previewing it, and showed that participants were faster to verify the depicted relation when that object was the linguistic target. Experiment 1 demonstrated this effect for left-right relations, and Experiment 2 for above-below relations. These results join several other types of demonstrations in suggesting that perceptual representations of some spatial relations may be asymmetrically coded, and further suggest that the location of selective attention may serve as the mechanism that guides this asymmetry.
RNase III-Dependent Expression of the rpsO-pnpOperon of Streptomyces coelicolor

ABSTRACT We have examined the expression of the rpsO-pnpoperon in an RNase III (rnc) mutant of Streptomyces coelicolor. Western blotting demonstrated that polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase) levels increased in the rncmutant, JSE1880, compared with the parental strain, M145, and this observation was confirmed by polymerization assays. It was observed that rpsO-pnpmRNA levels increased in the rncmutant by 1.6- to 4-fold compared with M145. This increase was observed in exponential, transition, and stationary phases, and the levels of the readthrough transcript, initiated upstream of rpsOin the rpsO-pnpoperon; the pnptranscript, initiated in the rpsO-pnpintergenic region; and the rpsOtranscript all increased. The increased levels of these transcripts in JSE1880 reflected increased chemical half-lives for each of the three. We demonstrated further that overexpression of the rpsO-pnpoperon led to significantly higher levels of PNPase activity in JSE1880 compared to M145, reflecting the likelihood that PNPase expression is autoregulated in an RNase III-dependent manner in S. coelicolor. To explore further the increase in the level of the pnptranscript initiated in the intergenic region in JSE1880, we utilized that transcript as a substrate in assays employing purified S. coelicolorRNase III. These assays revealed the presence of hitherto-undiscovered sites of RNase III cleavage of the pnptranscript. The position of those sites was determined by primer extension, and they were shown to be situated in the loops of a stem-loop structure.
Enhancement of lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor production in mice by carrageenan pretreatment

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a cytokine which mediates endotoxin shock and causes multiple organ damage. It is thought that macrophage (MP) activation is necessary to increase lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced TNF production and lethality. Carrageenan (CAR) is sulfated polygalactose which destroys MP; it is used as a MP blocker. We found that CAR pretreatment can increase both endotoxin-induced TNF production and the mortality rate in mice. The ddY mice (7 to 8 weeks old) were injected intraperitoneally with CAR (5-mg dose) and challenged intravenously with LPS 24 h later. Without CAR pretreatment, LPS doses of less than 10 micrograms did not induce TNF in sera. After pretreatment, however, about 3 x 10(3) to 4 x 10(4) U of TNF per ml was produced after LPS injection at doses of 0.1 to 10 micrograms, respectively. TNF production was significantly increased by CAR pretreatment at LPS doses of more than 10 micrograms. CAR pretreatment rendered the mice more sensitive to the lethal effect of LPS; 50% lethal doses of LPS in CAR-pretreated mice and nonpretreated mice were 26.9 and 227 micrograms, respectively. The mortality of the two groups was significantly different at doses of 50, 100, and 200 micrograms of LPS. CAR increased LPS-induced TNF production and mortality within 2 h, much earlier than MP activators, which needed at least 4 days. Our results made clear that TNF production is enhanced not only by a MP activator but also by a MP blocker.
On the Temporal and Functional Origin of L2 Disadvantages in Speech Production: A Critical Review

Despite a large amount of psycholinguistic research devoted to the issue of processing differences between a first and a second language, there is no consensus regarding the locus where these emerge or the mechanism behind them. The aim of this article is to briefly examine both the behavioral and neuroscientific evidence in order to critically assess three hypotheses that have been put forward in the literature to explain such differences: the weaker links, executive control, and post-lexical accounts. We conclude that (a) while all stages of processing are likely to be slowed down when speaking in an L2 compared to an L1, the differences seem to originate at a lexical stage; and (b) frequency of use seems to be the variable mainly responsible for these bilingual processing disadvantages.
Th1 Adjuvant N-Acetyl-d-Glucosamine Polymer Up-Regulates Th1 Immunity but Down-Regulates Th2 Immunity against a Mycobacterial Protein (MPB-59) in Interleukin-10-Knockout and Wild-Type Mice

ABSTRACT Treatment of mice with heat-killed (HK) Mycobacterium bovis BCG or 1- to 10-μm chitin particles (nonantigenic N-acetyl-d-glucosamine polymers) is known to induce innate immune responses, including gamma interferon (IFN-γ) production, which plays a Th1 adjuvant role. However, HK BCG further induces prostaglandin E2-releasing spleen macrophages (Mφ) (PGE2-Mφ), which potentially inhibit Th1 adjuvant activities. We found that chitin particles did not induce PGE2-Mφ formation. To further assess whether chitin has Th1 adjuvant effects, interleukin-10 (IL-10)-knockout (KO) mice and their wild-type (WT, C57BL/6) controls were immunized with a 30-kDa MPB-59 mycobacterial protein mixed with chitin. Immunization with MPB-59 alone induced Th2 responses, characterized by increases in total serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) and specific serum IgG1 levels and spleen Th2 cells producing IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10. No IFN-γ-producing spleen Th1 cells, specific serum IgG2a, or delayed-type hypersentivity (DTH) footpad reactions were detected. On the other hand, chitin–MPB-59 immunization significantly increased spleen Th1 responses, DTH reaction, and serum IgG2a levels along with decreases of Th2 responses. The magnitude of these Th1 adjuvant effects was greater in IL-10-KO mice than in WT mice. In contrast, immunization with HK BCG–MPB-59 showed little or no Th1 adjuvant effect. These data indicate that chitin has a unique Th1 adjuvant effect on the development of Th1 immunity against a mycobacterial antigen. IL-10 down-regulates the adjuvant effect of chitin.
Habitual Exercise and the Age-Associated Decline in Large Artery Compliance

SEALS, D. R. Habitual exercise and the age-associated decline in large artery compliance. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev., Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 68–72, 2003. The compliance of the large elastic arteries in the cardiothoracic circulation declines with age, causing a number of adverse effects on cardiovascular function and disease risk. Recent findings indicate that regular aerobic exercise may favorably modulate age-associated decreases in central arterial compliance and the related adverse physiological and pathophysiological consequences.
Laboulbeniales parasitic on American small carrion beetles: new species of Corethromyces, Diphymyces, and Rodaucea

ABSTRACT Ten new species of Laboulbeniales parasitic on small carrion beetles (Coleoptera, Leiodidae, Cholevinae) from the American continent are described: Corethromyces bernardii on Dissochaetus spp. from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and the USA; Diphymyces anthracinus on Ptomaphagus brevior from the USA; D. blackwelliae on Ptomaphagus giaquintoi from Guatemala; D. costaricensis on Adelopsis sp. from Costa Rica; D. dichromus on Adelopsis marinae from Argentina; D. newtonii on Ptomaphagus fumosus from the USA; D. obesus on Ptomaphagus brevior from the USA; Diphymyces perreaui on Ptomaphagus nevadicus from the USA; D. polycarpus on Paulipalpina pillahuata from Peru; and Rodaucea hermanii on Adelopsis sp. from Costa Rica. The hosts for all 10 species have been retrieved from museum collections (1 was collected in the field as well). The following new combination is proposed: Rodaucea bruchii, bringing the number of species in the recently established genus Rodaucea to three.