Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-Term Functional and Clinical Follow-Up of Patients With Heart Failure With Recovered Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction After &bgr;-Blocker Therapy

Background—Some patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) have a dramatic improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) after &bgr;-blockade. No study has analyzed the long-term echocardiographic and clinical follow-up of this subgroup of patients. Methods and Results—We included in this analysis 174 consecutive patients with LVSD who had an LVEF≥45% after &bgr;-blockade. We performed a long-term echocardiographic follow-up (median 7.7 [4–9.9] years) and clinical follow-up (median 9.2 [7.2–10.8] years). LVEF improved from 33±8% to 54±6% after &bgr;-blockade (P<0.0001). At the last echocardiographic evaluation, 26% of the patients had an LVEF<45% (mean±SD: 34±6%), whereas 74% still had an LVEF≥45% (mean±SD: 54±6%). Independent predictors of LVEF deterioration were a low LVEF, a high left ventricular end-diastolic diameter and a low heart rate after &bgr;-blockade, and the presence of a complete left bundle–branch block. In the overall study population, survival rates were 90% at 5 years and 75% at 10 years. Cardiovascular death rate was 9%, noncardiovascular death rate was 11%, and unknown death rate was 3%. Patients with subsequent LVEF deterioration had a higher cardiovascular mortality compared with patients with sustained recovered LVEF (22% versus 4%). Conclusions—The long-term survival of patients with LVSD and with near-normal LVEF after &bgr;-blockade is good. However, a quarter of these patients may experience a subsequent degradation of LVEF. These patients are at higher risk of cardiovascular mortality.
Large Scale Online Learning of Image Similarity Through Ranking

Learning a measure of similarity between pairs of objects is an important generic problem in machine learning. It is particularly useful in large scale applications like searching for an image that is similar to a given image or finding videos that are relevant to a given video. In these tasks, users look for objects that are not only visually similar but also semantically related to a given object. Unfortunately, the approaches that exist today for learning such semantic similarity do not scale to large data sets. This is both because typically their CPU and storage requirements grow quadratically with the sample size, and because many methods impose complex positivity constraints on the space of learned similarity functions. The current paper presents OASIS, an Online Algorithm for Scalable Image Similarity learning that learns a bilinear similarity measure over sparse representations. OASIS is an online dual approach using the passive-aggressive family of learning algorithms with a large margin criterion and an efficient hinge loss cost. Our experiments show that OASIS is both fast and accurate at a wide range of scales: for a data set with thousands of images, it achieves better results than existing state-of-the-art methods, while being an order of magnitude faster. For large, web scale, data sets, OASIS can be trained on more than two million images from 150K text queries within 3 days on a single CPU. On this large scale data set, human evaluations showed that 35% of the ten nearest neighbors of a given test image, as found by OASIS, were semantically relevant to that image. This suggests that query independent similarity could be accurately learned even for large scale data sets that could not be handled before.
Comparative study of two local anesthetics in the surgical extraction of mandibular third molars: bupivacaine and articaine.

OBJECTIVE The third molar extraction is one of the most common surgical procedures in oral surgery and is usually accompanied by postoperative discomfort. It has been suggested that the longer duration of action of bupivacaine associated with the residual analgesia and the gradual onset of pain, could decrease the need for analgesics during the postoperative period. This study aims to compare the efficacy and safety of bupivacaine and articaine as local anesthetics for the extraction of mandibular third molars and to check whether bupivacaine produced residual analgesia. STUDY DESIGN We compared bupivacaine 0.5% and articaine 4% with an epinephrine concentration of 1:200 000 in a crossover design model of extraction of bilaterally symmetrical mandibular third molars. RESULTS Regarding efficacy, patients experienced less postoperative pain at 6 and 12 hours and shorter duration of soft tissue anesthesia with articaine. With respect to safety, no differences were found between the anesthetics compared, showing a similar local and systemic toxicity. With regard to the preference of patients, it was higher for articaine, the main reasons being the greater postoperative pain and swelling with bupivacaine. CONCLUSION It can be concluded that articaine seems to be a more appropriate anesthetic for the extraction of mandibular third molars due to the shorter duration of the anesthetic effect in the soft tissues, lower pain reported by patients during the immediate postoperative period and the personal preference of patients for this drug.
The Flux-Anomaly-Forced Model Intercomparison Project (FAFMIP) contribution to CMIP6: investigation of sea-level and ocean climate change in response to CO₂ forcing

The Flux-Anomaly-Forced Model Intercomparison Project (FAFMIP) aims to investigate the spread in simulations of sea-level and ocean climate change in response to CO 2 forcing by atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs). It is particularly motivated by the uncertainties in projections of ocean heat uptake, global-mean sea-level rise due to thermal expansion and the
In situ fabrication of TiC–TiB_2 precipitates in Mn-steel using thermal explosion (TE) casting

The Mn-steel matrix composite locally reinforced with in situ TiC–TiB_2 ceramic particulate was successfully fabricated using a thermal explosion-casting route in a Cu–Ti–B_4C system with various B_4C particle sizes. With the increase of B_4C particle size, the ignition temperature increased, the combustion temperature decreased, and the size of the TiC and TiB_2 ceramic particulates became smaller. The hardness, friction coefficient, and wear resistance of the composite were higher than those of the Mn-steel matrix. With the increase of B_4C particle size, the size of the TiC and TiB_2 ceramic particulates fabricated in the local reinforcing region decreased, the interface bonding between reinforcing region and matrix became poor, and the number of pores in the local reinforcing region increased. Moreover, the composite with ∼3.5 μm B_4C showed the best antiwear property. At a low load of 20 N, the dominant wear mechanisms of the Mn-steel matrix composite were microcutting and abrasive wear. While, at a high load of 80 N, the dominant wear mechanisms were microcutting and adhesion wear associated with the formation of delamination layer.
Social tagging revamped: supporting the users' need of self-promotion through persuasive techniques

People share pictures online to increase their social presence. However, recent studies have shown that most of the content shared in social networks is not looked at by peers. Proper metadata can be generated and used to improve the retrieval of this content. In spite of this, we still lack solutions for collecting valid descriptors of content that can be used effectively in the context of social information navigation. In this paper, we propose a mechanism based on persuasive techniques to support peers in providing metadata for multimedia content that can be used for a person's self-promotion. Through an iterative design and experimentation process, we demonstrate how this methodology can be used effectively to increase one's social presence thus building more enjoyable, rich, and creative content that is shared in the social network. In addition, we highlight implications that inform the design of social games with a purpose.
A Comparative Study of Antimicrobial Activity of Proroot MTA, Root MTA, and Portland Cement on Actinobacillus Actinomycetemcomitans

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of our study was to evaluate the antibacterial effect of ProRoot MTA (PRMTA), Root MTA (RMTA) and Portland cement (PC) at their clinical concentration (70 mg/25 µL) against Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) one of the prominent periodontal (pocket) microorganisms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Agar diffusion test on Blood Agar with Hemin and Vitamin K (BAHV) was employed in this study. The microorganisms were seeded on the BAHV by spreaders. Small holes, 6 mm in diameter, were made in the BAHV by removing agar. PRMTA, RMTA and PC were placed into the wells immediately after manipulation. The plates were incubated in anaerobic atmosphere at 37°C for 72 h and the zones of inhibition were measured. RESULTS: In the agar diffusion test PRMTA, RMTA and PC against Aa showed zones of inhibition. Analyzing the antimicrobial activity of PRMTA, RMTA and PC according to paired one-way ANOVA and Post Hoc Test (Turkey's test) analysis showed a statistically significant difference (P<0.05) between PRMTA, RMTA and PC. RMTA showed the largest zone of inhibition (29 mm) against Aa. There was no difference in the zones of inhibition between the 48 and 72 h time periods. CONCLUSION: In this in vitro study PRMTA and RMTA presented similar antimicrobial activity against Aa.
Effect of Alkali and Silane Treatments on Mechanical and Interfacial Bonding Strength of Sugar Palm Fibers with Thermoplastic Polyurethane

ABSTRACT Sugar palm fibers (SPF) are one of valuable natural fibers which are abundantly available in Malaysia as agricultural biomass. The aim of this study to investigate on the effects of alkali, silane, and combination between alkali (6%) and silane (2%) on physical and mechanical properties of SPF to improve interfacial bonding of SPF with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) matrices. Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to observe the effectiveness of the alkali and saline treatments in the removal of impurities. Silane treated SPF exhibits better tensile strength than those of alkali, alkali-silane treated and untreated SPF. Droplet test indicates that the interfacial stress strength (IFSS) of alkali and silane treated SPF are enhanced whereas silane treated fibers exhibit highest IFSS. It is assumed that fiber treatments will help to develop high performance SPF reinforced polymer composites for industrial applications.
Vitamin B12 treatment normalizes metabolic markers but has limited clinical effect: a randomized placebo-controlled study.

BACKGROUND The clinical significance of increased plasma methylmalonic acid (P-MMA) is unclear. We assessed the efficacy of vitamin B12 treatment in reducing P-MMA and plasma total homocysteine compared with the clinical benefits of treatment. METHODS We studied 140 individuals with mildly to modestly increased P-MMA (0.40-2.00 micromol/L), not previously treated with vitamin B12, in a randomized, placebo-controlled study. A detailed medical history was obtained, and laboratory tests as well as an objective neurologic disability score were performed at baseline and 3 months after the start of intervention. RESULTS P-MMA (P <0.001) or plasma total homocysteine (P <0.001) decreased in the treatment group vs the placebo group, but no significant difference was found in the change of blood hemoglobin (P = 0.18) and mean cell volume (P = 0.71). Changes in symptom scores did not differ between the groups for symptoms of anemia (P = 0.63), neurologic symptoms (P = 0.21), gastroenterologic symptoms (P = 0.32), or the Neurological Disability Score (P = 0.85). CONCLUSIONS Treatment with vitamin B12 reduces P-MMA and plasma total homocysteine, but individuals with a mild to modest increase in P-MMA may have only limited clinical benefit from vitamin B12 treatment, at least in the short term.
Genetic Analysis of FAM46A in Spanish Families with Autosomal Recessive Retinitis Pigmentosa: Characterisation of Novel VNTRs

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of retinal dystrophies characterised primarily by rod photoreceptor cell degeneration. Exhibiting great clinical and genetic heterogeneity, RP be inherited as an autosomal dominant (ad) and recessive (ar), X‐linked (xl) and digenic disorder. RP25, a locus for arRP, was mapped to chromosome 6p12.1‐q14.1 where several retinal dystrophy loci are located. A gene expressed in the retina, FAM46A, mapped within the RP25 locus, and computational data revealed its involvement in retinal signalling pathways. Therefore, we chose to perform molecular evaluation of this gene as a good candidate in arRP families linked to the RP25 interval. A comprehensive bioinformatic and retinal tissue expression characterisation of FAM46A was performed, together with mutation screening of seven RP25 families.
Binding of Escherichia coli adhesin AfaE to CD55 triggers cell-surface expression of the MHC class I-related molecule MICA

MICA are distant homologs of MHC class I molecules expressed in the normal intestinal epithelium. They are ligands of the NKG2D activating receptor expressed on most γδ T cells, CD8+ αβ T cells, and natural killer cells and therefore play a critical role in innate immune responses. We investigated MICA cell-surface expression on infection of epithelial cell lines by enteric bacteria and show here that MICA expression can be markedly increased by bacteria of the diffusely adherent Escherichia coli diarrheagenic group. This effect is mediated by the specific interaction between bacterial adhesin AfaE and its cellular receptor, CD55, or decay-accelerating factor. It is extremely rapid after AfaE binding, consistent with a stress-induced signal. MICA induction on epithelial cells triggered IFN-γ release by the NKG2D expressing natural killer cell line NKL. This host–bacteria interaction pathway could play a role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease, a condition that implicates a bacterial trigger in genetically susceptible individuals. This was supported by the increased MICA expression at the surface of epithelial cells in colonic biopsies from Crohn's disease-affected patients compared with controls.
Clinical Characteristics and Longitudinal Changes of Informal Cost of Alzheimer's Disease in the Community

Most estimates of the cost of informal caregiving in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) remain cross‐sectional. Longitudinal estimates of informal caregiving hours and costs are less frequent and are from assessments covering only short periods of time. The objectives of this study were to estimate long‐term trajectories of the use and cost of informal caregiving for patients with AD and the effects of patient characteristics on the use and cost of informal caregiving. The sample is drawn from the Predictors Study, a large, multicenter cohort of patients with probable AD, prospectively followed annually for up to 7 years in three university‐based AD centers in the United States (n=170). Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate the effects of patient characteristics on use and cost of informal caregiving. Patients' clinical characteristics included cognitive status (Mini‐Mental State Examination), functional capacity (Blessed Dementia Rating Scale (BDRS)), comorbidities, psychotic symptoms, behavioral problems, depressive symptoms, and extrapyramidal signs. Results show that rates of informal care use and caregiving hours (and costs) increased substantially over time but were related differently to patients' characteristics. Use of informal care was significantly associated with worse cognition, worse function, and higher comorbidities. Conditional on receiving informal care, informal caregiving hours (and costs) were mainly associated with worse function. Each additional point on the BDRS increased informal caregiving costs 5.4%. Average annual informal cost was estimated at $25,381 per patient, increasing from $20,589 at baseline to $43,030 in Year 4.
Evaluation of midlatitude cloud properties in a weather and a climate model: Dependence on dynamic regime and spatial resolution

[1] In this study, the midlatitude cloud fields produced by a climate (GISS) and a weather (ECMWF) model are evaluated against satellite observations. Monthly ensembles of model cloud property distributions for the four seasons are compared with similar ensembles from satellite retrievals. The weather model is run in both forecast and “climate” mode in order to evaluate the importance of the exact representation of the atmospheric conditions in these ensemble comparisons. The weather and climate models are evaluated at different resolutions that cover the range used in today's climate and weather prediction simulations. Cloud property evaluations are separated into broadly defined dynamic regimes that cover the range of large-scale midlatitude motions. Quantitative evaluation tables are produced that rank the performance of the different model versions used in the study. The evaluation analysis reveals several common features between the two models. Those are the overestimation of cloud optical depth in all dynamic regimes, the underestimation of cloud cover in the large-scale descent regime and the underestimation of cloud top height in the large-scale descent regime. It is also shown that, in the radiative balance calculations, the models compensate for the overestimation of cloud optical depth through the underprediction of cloud cover. The comparison of the forecast and “climate” runs of the ECMWF model shows remarkably similar statistical properties of the clouds in the two runs. The analysis of runs with different resolutions reveals large improvement when going from a 4° × 5° 9-layer to a 2° × 2.5° 32-layer run with the GISS GCM, much of which is caused by the increase in vertical resolution. A comparison of a T42 and a T106 run of the same vertical resolution with the ECMWF GCM does not show considerable differences between the two model versions.
Posttraumatic Brain Injury Cognitive Performance Is Moderated by Variation Within ANKK1 and DRD2 Genes

Objective:As dopamine neurotransmission impacts cognition, we hypothesized that variants in the linked dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) and ankyrin repeat and kinase domain (ANKK1) genes might account for some individual variability in cognitive recovery following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Participants:Prospective cohort of 108 survivors of severe TBI, recruited consecutively from a level 1 trauma center. Design:We examined relationships between DRD2 genetic variation and functional recovery at 6 and 12 months post-TBI. Main Measures:Cognitive performance was evaluated using 8 neuropsychological tests targeting different cognitive domains. An overall cognitive composite was developed using normative data. We also assessed functional cognition, depression status, and global outcome. Subjects were genotyped for 6 DRD2 tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms and Taq1A within ANKK1. Results:ANKK1 Taq1A heterozygotes performed better than homozygotes across several cognitive domains at both time points postinjury. When adjusting for age, Glasgow Coma Scale score, and education, the Taq1A (ANKK1) and rs6279 (DRD2) variants were associated with overall composite scores at 6 months post-TBI (P = .0453 and P = .0452, respectively). At 12 months, only Taq1A remained a significant genetic predictor of cognition (P = .0128). Following multiple-comparisons correction, there were no significant associations between examined genetic variants and functional cognition, depression status, and global outcome. Conclusion:These data suggest that genetic variation within DRD2 influences cognitive recovery post-TBI. Understanding genetic influences on dopaminergic systems post-TBI may impact current treatment paradigms.
Investigation of Binary Solvents Performance for Regeneration of Iraqi 15W- 40 Waste Lubricant

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of binary solvent for regeneration of spent lubricating oil by extraction-flocculation process. The regeneration was investigated by bench scale experiments by using locally provided solvents (Heavy Naphtha, n-Butanol, and iso-Butanol). Solvents to used oil, mixing time, mixing speed and temperatures were studied as operating parameters. The performance on three estimated depended key parameters, namely the percentage of base oil recovered (Yield), percent of oil loss (POL), and the percent of sludge removal (PSR) were used to evaluate the efficiency of the employed binary solvent on extraction process. The best solvent to solvent ratio for binary system were 30:70 for Heavy Naphtha : n-Butanol (N:n-But) and Heavy Naphtha : iso-Butanol (N:iso-But). The optimum solvent to oil ratio or critical clarifying ratio (CCR) were 3.4, and 3.8 for N : n-But, and N : iso-But respectively. The optimized operating mixing time, mixing speed, and temperature which result in, maximum recovered base oil (87.75% and 88.88%), minimum oil losses (8.46% and 3.62%), and maximum sludge removal (5.63% and 6.12%), were (45 min, 700 rpm, 35 oC), and (30 min, 700 rpm, 35 oC ) for N:n-But, and N:Iso-But respectively.
Schizophrenia: The Quest for a Minimum Sense of Identity to Ward off Delusional Disorder

Objective: This study was designed to analyze the language of patients with schizophrenia exhibiting negative symptoms during a 3-month period. Method: The computer-assisted ALCESTE method was used to simultaneously analyze the subjects' oral behaviour and speech patterns at various levels. Results: The tested subjects had very specific speech patterns. Most significantly, analysis of the underlying syntactic processes showed that the patients exhibited a sense of identity, however minimum, based on their own pathologies and on the surrounding world. In our previous study, no such characteristics were observed in the discourse of schizophrenia patients with delusions (exhibiting positive symptoms). This suggests that the minimum sense of identity that develops in patients with schizophrenia allows them to avoid positive symptoms. Conclusion: In studies of language production by subjects suffering from schizophrenia, it is necessary to distinguish between patients with positive symptoms and those with negative symptoms. The speech patterns of these 2 groups have to be analyzed separately, which has not been done previously, since the groups differ in too many respects.
Diverse Splicing Patterns of Exonized Alu Elements in Human Tissues

Exonization of Alu elements is a major mechanism for birth of new exons in primate genomes. Prior analyses of expressed sequence tags show that almost all Alu‐derived exons are alternatively spliced, and the vast majority of these exons have low transcript inclusion levels. In this work, we provide genomic and experimental evidence for diverse splicing patterns of exonized Alu elements in human tissues. Using Exon array data of 330 Alu‐derived exons in 11 human tissues, and detailed RT‐PCR analyses of 38 exons, we show that some Alu‐derived exons are constitutively spliced in a broad range of human tissues, and some display strong tissue‐specific switch in their transcript inclusion levels. Most of such exons are derived from ancient Alu elements in the genome. In SEPN1, mutations of which are linked to a form of congenital muscular dystrophy, the muscle‐specific inclusion of an Alu‐derived exon may be important for regulating SEPN1 activity in muscle. Realtime qPCR analysis of this SEPN1 exon in macaque and chimpanzee tissues indicates human‐specific increase in its transcript inclusion level and muscle‐specificity after the divergence of humans and chimpanzees. Our results imply that some Alu exonization events may have acquired adaptive benefits during the evolution of primate transcriptomes.