Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ventricular wall stress.

SUMMARY Quantification of ventricular wall stress is necessary for an understanding of both normal and pathological ventricular mechanics. At present there are no reliable means to measure, directly, wall stresses in the intact ventricle. Thus, we must rely on mathematical models to predict these stresses, knowing that the predictions cannot be validated directly. Since each model employs certain simplifying assumptions, one must be aware of the limitations of stress predictions derived from that model. All of the models currently used to calculate wall stresses were reviewed and the following major conclusions were reached: (1) For most applications, detailed knowledge of the stress distribution across the wall is not essential and cannot be verified by current means. The midwall or stress averaged across the wall is adequate. Hence, the Falsetti et al. (1970) thin-walled or the MJrksy (1969, 1979) thick-walled ellipsoidal formulas derived from a generalized Laplace's law are probably the best compromise in terms of ease of computation, and incorporation of realistic albeit greatly oversimplified geometry. Use of thin-or thick-walled spherical formulas underestimate circumferential stresses by about 20-40% and overestimate longitudinal stresses by about 10-20%, respectively. (2) The wide qualitative and quantitative differences predicted by the various analytical thick-walled formulas make it difficult to judge which gives the most realistic representation of the actual stress distribution across the wall and are, thus, of little practical utility. (3) The finite-element method offers an extremely powerful method for analyzing regional variations in stress. This method can account for variations in material properties , complex geometry, anisotropy, and variations in fiber angle from region to region. However, until faster and better methods of accurate three-dimensional reconstruction of the heart are available and until more data on the multiaxial constitutive properties of myocardium are obtained, this method cannot be utilised to its full capabilities. In addition, the effort and expense involved in using the finite-element method are considerable and will limit its widespread application. (4) Until accurate and reliable methods to measure wall stresses are developed and the predictions of the models are validated, our quantitative knowledge of ventricular wall stress will be incomplete. CARDIOLOGISTS, physiologists, and engineers have long been intensely interested in quantifica-tion of the forces or stresses acting in the wall of the heart. The extent of this interest is evident in the voluminous literature containing references to ventricular wall stress since Woods' publication late in the last century (Woods, 1892). …
Magnetic Resonance Imaging–Derived Renal Oxygenation and Perfusion During Continuous, Steady‐State Angiotensin‐II Infusion in Healthy Humans

Background The role of kidney hypoxia is considered pivotal in the progression of chronic kidney disease. A widely used method to assess kidney oxygenation is blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD)–magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but its interpretation remains problematic. The BOLD‐MRI signal is the result of kidney oxygen consumption (a proxy of glomerular filtration) and supply (ie, glomerular perfusion). Therefore, we hypothesized that with pharmacological modulation of kidney blood flow, renal oxygenation, as assessed by BOLD‐MRI, correlates to filtration fraction (ie, glomerular filtration rate/effective renal plasma flow) in healthy humans. Methods and Results Eight healthy volunteers were subjected to continuous angiotensin‐II infusion at 0.3, 0.9, and 3.0 ng/kg per minute. At each dose, renal oxygenation and blood flow were assessed using BOLD and phase‐contrast MRI. Subsequently, “gold standard” glomerular filtration rate/effective renal plasma flow measurements were performed under the same conditions. Renal plasma flow decreased dose dependently from 660±146 to 467±103 mL/min per 1.73 m2 (F[3, 21]=33.3, P<0.001). Glomerular filtration rate decreased from 121±23 to 110±18 mL/min per 1.73 m2 (F[1.8, 2.4]=6.4, P=0.013). Cortical transverse relaxation rate (R2*; increases in R2* represent decreases in oxygenation) increased by 7.2±3.8% (F[3, 21]=7.37, P=0.001); medullar R2* did not change. Cortical R2* related to filtration fraction (R 2 0.46, P<0.001). Conclusions By direct comparison between “gold standard” kidney function measurements and BOLD MRI, we showed that cortical oxygenation measured by BOLD MRI relates poorly to glomerular filtration rate but is associated with filtration fraction. For future studies, there may be a need to include renal plasma flow measurements when employing renal BOLD‐MRI.
The social brain?

The notion that there is a ‘social brain’ in humans specialized for social interactions has received considerable support from brain imaging and, to a lesser extent, from lesion studies. Specific roles for the various components of the social brain are beginning to emerge. For example, the amygdala attaches emotional value to faces, enabling us to recognize expressions such as fear and trustworthiness, while the posterior superior temporal sulcus predicts the end point of the complex trajectories created when agents act upon the world. It has proved more difficult to assign a role to medial prefrontal cortex, which is consistently activated when people think about mental states. I suggest that this region may have a special role in the second-order representations needed for communicative acts when we have to represent someone else's representation of our own mental state. These cognitive processes are not specifically social, since they can be applied in other domains. However, these cognitive processes have been driven to ever higher levels of sophistication by the complexities of social interaction.
Comparative study of human internal iliac artery based on adachi classification

This study is based upon a dissection of 167 pelvic halves of Caucasian bodies. The distribution of the four major types, as based upon the Adachi classification, corresponds closely to that of the Western populations. The composite group has a distribution almost identical with the Japanese population studied by Adachi. No instances of the rare Type V were encountered. One unusual specimen which we have designated as Type VI is described.
Inhibition of connexin 43 in cardiac muscle during intense physical exercise

Endurance training is accompanied by important adaptations in both cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems. Previous works have shown that the main component of gap junctions in the ventricular myocardium (connexin 43 (Cx43) can be regulated by adrenergic stimulus. On the other hand, training raises vagal and decreases sympathetic tone, while augmenting myocardial sensitivity to sympathetic stimulation during exercise. We therefore evaluated the regulation of Cx43 expression by sympathetic tone during exercise in trained and sedentary mice. Training induced an increase in the protein level of Cx43 by 45–70% under resting conditions. The expression of Cx43 was inhibited in trained but not in untrained mice in response to a 60 min exercise bout. Normal basal expression was restored after 60 min of resting. Cx43 reached a minimum that was not different from basal expression in untrained mice. In accordance, electrocardiography and action potential analysis did not reveal major electrophysiological implications for the drop in Cx43 abundance in trained‐exercise mice. We prevented Cx43 inhibition using propranolol, and observed increased basal mRNA levels of β‐adrenergic receptors without significant changes in the ratio β1 to β2. In conclusion, we showed that Cx43 expression is transiently inhibited by β‐adrenergic stimulus in trained mice during acute exercise.
Track and Segment: An Iterative Unsupervised Approach for Video Object Proposals

We present an unsupervised approach that generates a diverse, ranked set of bounding box and segmentation video object proposals-spatio-temporal tubes that localize the foreground objects-in an unannotated video. In contrast to previous unsupervised methods that either track regions initialized in an arbitrary frame or train a fixed model over a cluster of regions, we instead discover a set of easy-togroup instances of an object and then iteratively update its appearance model to gradually detect harder instances in temporally-adjacent frames. Our method first generates a set of spatio-temporal bounding box proposals, and then refines them to obtain pixel-wise segmentation proposals. We demonstrate state-of-the-art segmentation results on the SegTrack v2 dataset, and bounding box tracking results that perform competitively to state-of-the-art supervised tracking methods.
VARIABLES AFFECTING THE LONG-TERM OUTCOME OF GRAVES ORBITOPATHY FOLLOWING HIGH-DOSE INTRAVENOUS GLUCOCORTICOID PULSE THERAPY IN PATIENTS NOT TREATED WITH ORBITAL RADIOTHERAPY.

OBJECTIVE Intravenous (iv) glucocorticoids (GC) (ivGC) are used for active Graves orbitopathy (GO), but factors affecting GO outcome are poorly understood. We performed a retrospective study to investigate the variables affecting GO after ivGC. METHODS We evaluated 83 consecutive GO patients treated with ivGC but not orbital radiotherapy (ORT) and re-examined them after a median of 47 months. The endpoints were the relationships between GO outcome or additional treatments with age, sex, smoking habits, thyroid volume, thyroid treatment, time since thyroid treatment, antithyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibodies (TRAb), GO duration, GO features, and follow-up time. RESULTS GO features improved after treatment, resulting in moderate and marked amelioration in ~75% and ~41% of patients respectively. By multivariate analysis, a moderate GO improvement correlated with diplopia at first observation, which was more severe in responders. A marked GO improvement correlated with time between first and last observation and time after thyroid treatment, which were longer in responders. This likely reflected the combination of an early effect of GC and a late, spontaneous improvement of GO, as shown by analyses of GO outcome at various time points. Additional treatments after ivGC correlated by multivariate analysis with eyelid aperture, diplopia and NOSPECS score (NOSPECS stands for no GO signs [N], only eyelid sign [O], soft tissue involvement [S], proptosis [P], extraocular motility restriction [E], corneal involvement [C], and sight loss [S]) at first observation, which were more severe in responders. CONCLUSION Our study shows that response to ivGC increases with time, likely reflecting the known tendency of GO to improve spontaneously, and is more pronounced when GO is more severe to begin with, which is associated with more additional treatments. ABBREVIATIONS ANOVA = analysis of variance CAS = clinical activity score GC = glucocorticoids GO = Graves orbitopathy 131I = radioactive iodine iv = intravenous ivGC = high-dose intravenous glucocorticoid pulse therapy MMI = methimazole OD = orbital decompression ORT = orbital radiotherapy TRAb = antithyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibodies.
Size-specific, scanner-independent organ dose estimates in contiguous axial and helical head CT examinations.

PURPOSE AAPM Task Group 204 introduced size-specific dose estimates for pediatric and adult patients undergoing body CT examinations. This investigation extends that work to head CT exams by using Monte Carlo simulations to develop size-specific, scanner-independent CTDIvol-to-organ-dose conversion coefficients. METHODS Using eight patient models from the GSF family of voxelized phantoms, dose to the brain and lens of the eye was estimated using Monte Carlo simulations of contiguous axial and helical scans for 64-slice multidetector CT scanners from four major manufacturers. For each patient model and scan mode, scanner-independent CTDIvol-to-organ-dose conversion coefficients were calculated by normalizing organ dose by scanner-specific 16 cm CTDIvol values and averaging across all scanners. Head size was measured using both geometric and attenuation-based size metrics. Head perimeter and effective diameter (ED), both geometric size metrics, were measured directly from the GSF data at the first slice superior to the eyes. Because the GSF models' pixel data are provided in terms of organ identification numbers instead of CT numbers, an indirect estimate of water equivalent diameter (WED), an attenuation-based size metric, was determined based on the relationships between WED and both ED and perimeter for a sample of patient data. Correlations between CTDIvol-to-organ-dose conversion coefficients and the various patient size metrics were then explored. RESULTS The analysis of the patient data revealed a best-fit linear relationship (R(2) of 0.87) between ED and WED across a wide variety of patient sizes. Using this relationship along with ED determined from the GSF data, WED was estimated for each GSF model. An exponential relationship between CTDIvol normalized organ dose and WED was observed for both contiguous axial and helical scanning. For head perimeter and ED measured directly from the GSF data, an exponential relationship between CTDIvol normalized organ dose and patient size was also observed for each scan mode. For all patient size metrics and scan modes, R(2) of the exponential fits ranged from 0.92 to 0.93 and 0.73 to 0.85 for the brain and lens of the eye, respectively. CONCLUSIONS For all scan modes, strong correlation exists between CTDIvol normalized brain dose and both geometric and attenuation-based patient size metrics. A slightly lower correlation between CTDIvol normalized organ dose and patient size was observed for the lens of the eye. This may be due to the combination of the eye lens being a small peripheral organ and the presence of surface dose variation in both contiguous axial and helical scanning. Results indicate that robust estimates of patient-specific head CT dose may be provided using the size-specific, scanner-independent CTDIvol-to-organ-dose conversion coefficients described in this work.
Prolactin concentrations during aripiprazole treatment in relation to sex, plasma drugs concentrations and genetic polymorphisms of dopamine D2 receptor and cytochrome P450 2D6 in Japanese patients with schizophrenia

The authors investigated the correlation between prolactin concentrations during aripiprazole treatment and various factors, including age, sex, plasma concentrations of aripiprazole and its active metabolite, dehydroaripiprazole, and genetic polymorphisms of dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) and cytochrome P450(CYP)2D6.
Blind adaptive MIMO receivers for space-time block-coded DS-CDMA systems in multipath channels using the constant modulus criterion

We propose blind adaptive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) linear receivers for DS-CDMA systems using multiple transmit antennas and space-time block codes (STBC) in multipath channels. A space-time code-constrained constant modulus (CCM) design criterion based on constrained optimization techniques is considered and recursive least squares (RLS) adaptive algorithms are developed for estimating the parameters of the linear receivers. A blind space-time channel estimation method for MIMO DS-CDMA systems with STBC based on a subspace approach is also proposed along with an efficient RLS algorithm. Simulations for a downlink scenario assess the proposed algorithms in several situations against existing methods.
Differentiation of human-induced pluripotent stem cells into insulin-producing clusters.

OBJECTIVES In diabetes mellitus type 1, beta cells are mostly destroyed; while in diabetes mellitus type 2, beta cells are reduced by 40% to 60%. We hope that soon, stem cells can be used in diabetes therapy via pancreatic beta cell replacement. Induced pluripotent stem cells are a kind of stem cell taken from an adult somatic cell by "stimulating" certain genes. These induced pluripotent stem cells may be a promising source of cell therapy. This study sought to produce isletlike clusters of insulin-producing cells taken from induced pluripotent stem cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS A human-induced pluripotent stem cell line was induced into isletlike clusters via a 4-step protocol, by adding insulin, transferrin, and selenium (ITS), N2, B27, fibroblast growth factor, and nicotinamide. During differentiation, expression of pancreatic β-cell genes was evaluated by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction; the morphologic changes of induced pluripotent stem cells toward isletlike clusters were observed by a light microscope. Dithizone staining was used to stain these isletlike clusters. Insulin produced by these clusters was evaluated by radio immunosorbent assay, and the secretion capacity was analyzed with a glucose challenge test. RESULTS Differentiation was evaluated by analyzing the morphology, dithizone staining, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and immunocytochemistry. Gene expression of insulin, glucagon, PDX1, NGN3, PAX4, PAX6, NKX6.1, KIR6.2, and GLUT2 were documented by analyzing real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Dithizone-stained cellular clusters were observed after 23 days. The isletlike clusters significantly produced insulin. The isletlike clusters could increase insulin secretion after a glucose challenge test. CONCLUSIONS This work provides a model for studying the differentiation of human-induced pluripotent stem cells to insulin-producing cells.
Integrative Oncology Practice Guidelines Primary Authors Society for Integrative Oncology Executive Committee

Primary Authors Gary E. Deng, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY Barrie R. Cassileth, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY Lorenzo Cohen, PhD, MD, Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY Peter A.S. Johnstone, MD, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA Nagi Kumar, PhD, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL Andrew Vickers, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Compressing graphs by grammars

We present a new graph compressor that detects repeating substructures and represents them by grammar rules. We show that for a large number of graphs the compressor obtains smaller representations than other approaches. For RDF graphs and version graphs it outperforms the best known previous methods. Specific queries such as reachability between two nodes, can be evaluated in linear time over the grammar, thus allowing speed-ups proportional to the compression ratio.
Flexible Text Classification for Financial Applications: The Facile System

This paper describes an advanced system for multilingual text classification adaptable to different user needs. The system has been initially developed as an applied research project involving both research centres, industrial bodies and end-user organizations. The project is a considerable success story in the financial field. Three different successful applications were released at the users' sites involved in the project. Moreover the system was adopted by the main Italian financial news agency where it is used to provide classified news for an external pay-to-view service. The system has been running continuously since January 1998. Its architecture integrates modules based on both innovative artificial intelligence methodologies and commercial tools. This shows that state-of-the-art AI techniques are mature enough to provide real world applications.
The rat with oxygen-induced retinopathy is myopic with low retinal dopamine.

PURPOSE Dopamine (DA) is a neurotransmitter implicated both in modulating neural retinal signals and in eye growth. Therefore, it may participate in the pathogenesis of the most common clinical sequelae of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), visual dysfunction and myopia. Paradoxically, in ROP myopia the eye is usually small. The eye of the rat with oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) is characterized by retinal dysfunction and short axial length. There have been several investigations of the early maturation of DA in rat retina, but little at older ages, and not in the OIR rat. Therefore, DA, retinal function, and refractive state were investigated in the OIR rat. METHODS In one set of rats, the development of dopaminergic (DAergic) networks was evaluated in retinal cross-sections from rats aged 14 to 120 days using antibodies against tyrosine hydroxylase (TH, the rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of DA). In another set of rats, retinoscopy was used to evaluate spherical equivalent (SE), electoretinography (ERG) was used to evaluate retinal function, and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to evaluate retinal contents of DA, its precursor levodopamine (DOPA), and its primary metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC). RESULTS The normally rapid postnatal ramification of DAergic neurons was disrupted in OIR rats. Retinoscopy revealed that OIR rats were relatively myopic. In the same eyes, ERG confirmed retinal dysfunction in OIR. HPLC of those eyes' retinae confirmed low DA. Regression analysis indicated that DA metabolism (evaluated by the ratio of DOPAC to DA) was an important additional predictor of myopia beyond OIR. CONCLUSIONS The OIR rat is the first known animal model of myopia in which the eye is smaller than normal. Dopamine may modulate, or fail to modulate, neural activity in the OIR eye, and thus contribute to this peculiar myopia.
Assistive peripheral prosthetic vision aids perception and mobility in outdoor environments: A virtual-reality simulation study

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) causes visual field (VF) constriction due to progressive loss of photoreceptors, typically from the retinal periphery to the fovea. Retinal prostheses offer vision restoration via electrode implantation and stimulation near the fovea, thereby eliciting articifial percepts, so-called phosphenes in the center VF. Although foveal photoreceptors can persist for prolonged periods of time, bionic therapy is usually restricted to stages of RP with complete vision loss. However, persons with RP experience mobility impairment from peripherally restricted VFs much earlier. Consequently, the amount of visual scanning necessary for navigation is increased, and maintaining a steady pace is challenging. Receiving a retinal implant at this early stage might be feasible. We investigated the potential of a peripheral visual prosthesis coexisting with central residual vision to facilitate scene perception and mobility. Simulating prosthetic and residual vision in a virtual mobility environment, we found that assistive phosphene layouts were associated with reductions in visual scanning-related head movements of up to 42.1%, body rotations of up to 30%, and up to 45% lower frequency of stopping when circumventing low-lying obstacles, pedestrians and following a path. Further research on early implantation of retinal prostheses for the peripheral VF is therefore advised.