Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preterm infant outcomes in relation to the gestational age of onset and duration of prelabour rupture of membranes: a retrospective cohort study

Objective To determine the hospital outcomes of liveborn infants at 23–31 weeks following prelabour preterm rupture of membranes (PPROM). Method A regional retrospective cohort study of 4454 infants of 23–31 weeks’ gestation admitted to a tertiary neonatal network between 2007 and 2011. Primary outcome was the composite chronic lung disease (CLD) or mortality at discharge. Results 225 (5%) neonates had a history of PPROM occurring prior to 24+0 weeks (Early-PPROM), 829 (19%) had a history of PPROM at or after 24+0 weeks’ gestation (Late-PPROM) and 3400 (76%) had no history of PPROM (No-PPROM). In comparison to No-PPROM, Early-PPROM group had higher CLD/mortality in infants born at 23–27 weeks (OR 1.95; 95% CI 1.34 to 2.85) and 28–31 weeks (OR 4.98; 95% CI 2.99 to 8.28). Within Early-PPROM group, the latency of PPROM >14 days had lower CLD/mortality in comparison to latency ≤14 days (57.6% vs 77%, OR 0.40; 95% CI 0.21 to 0.76). Late-PPROM group had significantly lower CLD/mortality in comparison to No-PPROM group at 23–27 weeks (OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.37 to 0.69) and 28–31 weeks (OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.36 to 0.71). Within Late-PPROM group, latency >14 days was associated with an increased CLD/mortality in 28–31 weeks (14.1% vs 5.4%, OR 2.88; 95% CI 1.31 to 6.38). Conclusions Early-PPROM prior to 24 weeks’ gestation had high incidence of CLD/mortality even after correcting for gestational age. Late-PPROM at or after 24 weeks had lower CLD/mortality compared with No-PPROM. Latency >14 days in Late-PPROM group at 28–31 week group increased the odds of CLD/mortality.
Graphical Generative Adversarial Networks

We propose Graphical Generative Adversarial Networks (Graphical-GAN) to model structured data. Graphical-GAN conjoins the power of Bayesian networks on compactly representing the dependency structures among random variables and that of generative adversarial networks on learning expressive dependency functions. We introduce a structured recognition model to infer the posterior distribution of latent variables given observations. We generalize the Expectation Propagation (EP) algorithm to learn the generative model and recognition model jointly. Finally, we present two important instances of Graphical-GAN, i.e. Gaussian Mixture GAN (GMGAN) and State Space GAN (SSGAN), which can successfully learn the discrete and temporal structures on visual datasets, respectively.
Extreme F-measure Maximization using Sparse Probability Estimates

We consider the problem of (macro) F-measure maximization in the context of extreme multilabel classification (XMLC), i.e., multi-label classification with extremely large label spaces. We investigate several approaches based on recent results on the maximization of complex performance measures in binary classification. According to these results, the F-measure can be maximized by properly thresholding conditional class probability estimates. We show that a naive adaptation of this approach can be very costly for XMLC and propose to solve the problem by classifiers that efficiently deliver sparse probability estimates (SPEs), that is, probability estimates restricted to the most probable labels. Empirical results provide evidence for the strong practical performance of this approach.
A comparative study on pathological features of transgenic rat lines expressing either three or four repeat misfolded tau

Human tauopathies represent a heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by distinct clinical features, typical histopathological structures, and defined ratio(s) of three‐repeat and four‐repeat tau isoforms within pathological aggregates. How the optional microtubule‐binding repeat of tau influences this differentiation of pathologies is understudied. We have previously generated and characterized transgenic rodent models expressing human truncated tau aa151–391 with either three (SHR24) or four microtubule‐binding repeats (SHR72). Here, we compare the behavioral and neuropathological hallmarks of these two transgenic lines using a battery of tests for sensorimotor, cognitive, and neurological functions over the age range of 3.5–15 months. Progression of sensorimotor and neurological deficits was similar in both transgenic lines; however, the lifespan of transgenic line SHR72 expressing truncated four‐repeat tau was markedly shorter than SHR24. Moreover, the expression of three or four‐repeat tau induced distinct neurofibrillary pathology in these lines. Transgenic lines displayed different distribution of tau pathology and different type of neurofibrillary tangles. Our results suggest that three‐ and four‐repeat isoforms of tau may display different modes of action in the diseased brain.
Polysaccharides as drug delivery systems for different administration routes

Polysaccharides are biocompatible and biodegradable long carbohydrate molecules organized in repeated monosaccharide units interconnected with glycosidic bonds. These polymers constitute a large source of biomaterials for drug vehicles, controlled drug delivery, tissue engineering etc. The ionic character and the presence of reactive functional group led them to be good candidates for the development of controlled release formulations. They are well tolerated by living tissues and body cavities due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability. In fact, polysaccharides have been widely proposed as drug delivery devices for many administration routes such as oral, parenteral, ophthalmic, nasal and transdermal route. Furthermore, polysaccharides can be considered appropriate for tissue engineering thanks to their mechanical and biochemical functions and ability to deliver and foster cells. The aim of the present work was the development of polysaccharides based platform formulations as novel and suitable delivery systems of specific drugs into determined anatomical districts.
Transcriptomic characterization of MRI contrast with focus on the T1-w/T2-w ratio in the cerebral cortex

Magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain are of immense clinical and research utility. At the atomic and subatomic levels, the sources of MR signals are well understood. However, at the macromolecular scale, we lack a comprehensive understanding of what determines MR signal contrast. To address this gap, we used genome-wide measurements to correlate gene expression with MR signal intensity across the cortex in the Allen Human Brain Atlas. We focused on the ratio of T1-weighted and T2-weighted intensities (T1-w/T2-w) which is considered to be a useful proxy for myelin content. Positive correlations between myelin-associated genes and the ratio supported its use as a myelin marker. However, stronger correlations were observed for neurofilaments, and genes linked to the production of formaldehyde (which cross-links protein to create larger molecules). There was also an association with protein mass, with genes coding for heavier proteins expressed in regions with high T1-w/T2-w values. Oligodendrocyte gene markers were strongly correlated but this was not driven by myelin-associated genes, suggesting this signal is from non-myelinating satellite oligodendrocytes. We find the strongest support for the previous finding of high aerobic glycolysis in regions with low T1-w/T2-w ratio. Specifically, many mitochondrial genes were negatively correlated with T1-w/T2-w ratio. Genes up-regulated by pH in the brain were also highly correlated with the ratio, suggesting the pH gradient in mitochondria may explain the aerobic glycolysis association. Expression of protease subunit genes was also inversely associated with the ratio, in agreement with the protein mass correlation. While we corroborate associations with myelin and synaptic plasticity, differences in the T1-w/T2-w ratio appear to be more attributable to molecule size, satellite oligodendrocyte proportion, mitochondrial number, alkalinity, and axon caliber. Using disease-associated gene lists, we observed an enrichment of negative T1-w/T2-w ratio correlations with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associated genes. Expanding our analysis to the whole brain results in strong positive T1-w/T2-w associations for immune system, inflammatory disease, and microglial genes. In contrast, neuron markers and synaptic plasticity genes are negatively enriched. Lastly, our results vary little when our analysis is performed on T1-w or inverted T2-w intensities alone, possibly because the noise reduction properties of the ratio are not needed for postmortem brain scans. These results provide a molecular characterization of MR contrast that will aid interpretation of future MR studies of the brain.
Blockchain and Consensus from Proofs of Work without Random Oracles

One of the most impactful applications of proofs of work (POW) currently is in the design of blockchain protocols such as Bitcoin. Yet, despite the wide recognition of POWs as the fundamental cryptographic tool in this context, there is no known cryptographic formulation that implies the security of the Bitcoin blockchain protocol. Indeed, all previous works formally arguing the security of the Bitcoin protocol relied on direct proofs in the random oracle model, thus circumventing the di culty of isolating the required properties of the core POW primitive. In this work we ll this gap by providing a formulation of the POW primitive that implies the security of the Bitcoin blockchain protocol in the standard model. Our primitive entails a number of properties that parallel an e cient non-interactive proof system: completeness and fast veri cation, security against malicious provers (termed hardness against tampering and chosen message attacks ) and e ciency and security for honest provers (the latter captured as almost k-wise independence of the proving algorithm running time). Interestingly, our formulation is incomparable with previous formulations of POWs that applied the primitive to contexts other than the blockchain and highlights the importance of run-time independence as a property for POWs suitable for blockchain protocols. Using our primitive and standard properties of the underlying hash function, we establish the security of the Bitcoin backbone protocol [Eurocrypt 2015] without relying on random oracles. We then tackle the question of constructing a consensus protocol based on POW. We illustrate that previously known solutions essentially relied on the random oracle and propose a new blockchain-based consensus protocol provably secure under the same assumptions as above. This yields the rst consensus protocol for honest majority reducible to a POW primitive without random oracles. *Research partly supported by Horizon 2020 project PANORAMIX, No. 653497.
Sensation of Balance Dysregulation Caused/Aggravated by a Collection of Electromagnetic Waves in a Dental Implant

Cell phone and personal computer users have increased considerably in recent years, particularly in more developed countries. These devices have facilitated communication on a global scale. However, there have been a number of reports of abnormalities occurring in the body due to the electromagnetic waves emitted by such electronic devices. The long lists of both general and severe symptoms, including headaches, fatigue, tinnitus, dizziness, memory loss, irregular heartbeat, and whole-body skin symptoms, have been reported that are apparently associated with the condition of electromagnetic hypersensitivity. In dentistry, titanium dental implants may be commonly associated with antenna-like activity, but the underlying mechanism remains unknown. In the current case studies, balance difficulties were found to occur when the patients had titanium dental implants. These implants seemed to be acting as antennae and collecting harmful electromagnetic waves. Further studies are required to confirm this hypothesis.
Electrostatic Comb-Drive Actuator with High In-Plane Translational Velocity

This work reports the design and opto-mechanical characterization of high velocity comb-drive actuators producing in-plane motion and fabricated using the technology of deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The actuators drive vertical mirrors acting on optical beams propagating in-plane with respect to the substrate. The actuator-mirror device is a fabrication on an SOI wafer with 80 μm etching depth, surface roughness of about 15 nm peak to valley and etching verticality that is better than 0.1 degree. The travel range of the actuators is extracted using an optical method based on optical cavity response and accounting for the diffraction effect. One design achieves a travel range of approximately 9.1 µm at a resonance frequency of approximately 26.1 kHz, while the second design achieves about 2 µm at 93.5 kHz. The two specific designs reported achieve peak velocities of about 1.48 and 1.18 m/s, respectively, which is the highest product of the travel range and frequency for an in-plane microelectromechanical system (MEMS) motion under atmospheric pressure, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. The first design possesses high spring linearity over its travel range with about 350 ppm change in the resonance frequency, while the second design achieves higher resonance frequency on the expense of linearity. The theoretical predications and the experimental results show good agreement.
Ultradian rhythmicity of plasma cortisol is necessary for normal emotional and cognitive responses in man

Significance The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is a critical neurohormonal network regulating homeostasis and coordinating stress responses. Here we demonstrate that an oscillating pattern of plasma cortisol is important for maintenance of healthy brain responses as measured by functional neuroimaging and behavioral testing. Our data highlight the crucial role of glucocorticoid rhythmicity in (i) modulating sleep behavior and working memory performance, and (ii) regulating the human brain’s responses under emotional stimulation. Current optimal cortisol replacement therapies for patients with primary or secondary adrenal insufficiently are associated with poor psychological status, and these results suggest that closer attention to aspects of chronotherapy will benefit these patients and may also have major implications for improved glucocorticoid dynamics in stress and psychiatric disease. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are secreted in an ultradian, pulsatile pattern that emerges from delays in the feedforward-feedback interaction between the anterior pituitary and adrenal glands. Dynamic oscillations of GCs are critical for normal cognitive and metabolic function in the rat and have been shown to modulate the pattern of GC-sensitive gene expression, modify synaptic activity, and maintain stress responsiveness. In man, current cortisol replacement therapy does not reproduce physiological hormone pulses and is associated with psychopathological symptoms, especially apathy and attenuated motivation in engaging with daily activities. In this work, we tested the hypothesis that the pattern of GC dynamics in the brain is of crucial importance for regulating cognitive and behavioral processes. We provide evidence that exactly the same dose of cortisol administered in different patterns alters the neural processing underlying the response to emotional stimulation, the accuracy in recognition and attentional bias toward/away from emotional faces, the quality of sleep, and the working memory performance of healthy male volunteers. These data indicate that the pattern of the GC rhythm differentially impacts human cognition and behavior under physiological, nonstressful conditions and has major implications for the improvement of cortisol replacement therapy.
Notice of RetractionA New Frame for Manager Incentive: Experimental Economics Perspective

To study manager incentive problem, based on set-dependence, this paper incorporates fairness preference into utility function of manager for the first time, constructs a new analytical frame for manager pay incentive, and finds that higher wage leads to higher incentive for manager even in the absence of monitoring. Moreover, the equal fixed wage set by different subjects results in different incentive effect.
Alterations of Metabolic and Lipid Profiles in Polymyxin-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa presents a global medical challenge, and polymyxins are a key last-resort therapeutic option. Unfortunately, polymyxin resistance in P. aeruginosa has been increasingly reported. The present study was designed to define metabolic differences between paired polymyxin-susceptible and -resistant P. aeruginosa strains using untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics analyses. The metabolomes of wild-type P. aeruginosa strain K ([PAK] polymyxin B MIC, 1 mg/liter) and its paired pmrB mutant strains, PAKpmrB6 and PAKpmrB12 (polymyxin B MICs of 16 mg/liter and 64 mg/liter, respectively) were characterized using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and metabolic differences were identified through multivariate and univariate statistics. PAKpmrB6 and PAKpmrB12, which displayed lipid A modifications with 4-amino-4-deoxy-l-arabinose, showed significant perturbations in amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism, particularly the intermediate metabolites from 4-amino-4-deoxy-l-arabinose synthesis and the methionine salvage cycle pathways. The genomics result showed a premature termination (Y275stop) in speE (encoding spermidine synthase) in PAKpmrB6, and metabolomics data revealed a decreased intracellular level of spermidine in PAKpmrB6 compared to that in PAKpmrB12. Our results indicate that spermidine may play an important role in high-level polymyxin resistance in P. aeruginosa. Interestingly, both pmrB mutants had decreased levels of phospholipids, fatty acids, and acyl-coenzyme A compared to those in the wild-type PAK. Moreover, the more resistant PAKpmrB12 mutant exhibited much lower levels of phospholipids than the PAKpmrB6 mutant, suggesting that the decreased phospholipid level was associated with polymyxin resistance. In summary, this study provides novel mechanistic information on polymyxin resistance in P. aeruginosa and highlights its impacts on bacterial metabolism.
An Empirical Evaluation of Generic Convolutional and Recurrent Networks for Sequence Modeling

For most deep learning practitioners, sequence modeling is synonymous with recurrent networks. Yet recent results indicate that convolutional architectures can outperform recurrent networks on tasks such as audio synthesis and machine translation. Given a new sequence modeling task or dataset, which architecture should one use? We conduct a systematic evaluation of generic convolutional and recurrent architectures for sequence modeling. The models are evaluated across a broad range of standard tasks that are commonly used to benchmark recurrent networks. Our results indicate that a simple convolutional architecture outperforms canonical recurrent networks such as LSTMs across a diverse range of tasks and datasets, while demonstrating longer effective memory. We conclude that the common association between sequence modeling and recurrent networks should be reconsidered, and convolutional networks should be regarded as a natural starting point for sequence modeling tasks. To assist related work, we have made code available at this http URL .
Early development of the metabolic syndrome after chemotherapy for testicular cancer.

BACKGROUND The metabolic syndrome (MS) might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in testicular cancer (TC) survivors. We investigated its prevalence, development, vascular implications, and the role of gonadal function. METHODS TC survivors treated with chemotherapy and follow-up ≥3 years (N = 370, study I) were retrospectively evaluated for the development of cardiovascular risk factors. A subgroup followed 3-20 years (N = 173, study II) was compared with controls (N = 1085) for MS prevalence and evaluated for vascular function. RESULTS In TC survivors (study I), 24% developed overweight, 24% hypercholesterolemia, and 30% hypertension, after median follow-up of 1.7, 0.9, and 5.1 years, respectively. At the median follow-up of 5 years (study II), 25% of survivors have the MS {odds ratio (OR) 2.2, [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5-3.3] compared with controls}. Survivors with MS have features of inflammation and prothrombotic state, increased carotid artery intima-media thickness. Survivors with testosterone levels <15 nmol/l (22%) have an increased risk of the MS (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.8-9.3). CONCLUSIONS The current data suggest that the MS occurs at earlier age in TC survivors treated with chemotherapy compared with controls and is accompanied by early signs of atherosclerosis. As low testosterone may have a causal role, it is a target for interventions.
SWAP: Effective Fine-Grain Management of Shared Last-Level Caches with Minimum Hardware Support

Performance isolation is an important goal in server-class environments. Partitioning the last-level cache of a chip multiprocessor (CMP) across co-running applications has proven useful in this regard. Two popular approaches are (a) hardware support for way partitioning, or (b) operating system support for set partitioning through page coloring. Unfortunately, neither approach by itself is scalable beyond a handful of cores without incurring in significant performance overheads. We propose SWAP, a scalable and fine-grained cache management technique that seamlessly combines set and way partitioning. By cooperatively managing cache ways and sets, SWAP ("Set and WAy Partitioning") can successfully provide hundreds of fine-grained cache partitions for the manycore era.SWAP requires no additional hardware beyond way partitioning. In fact, SWAP can be readily implemented in existing commercial servers whose processors do support hardware way partitioning. In this paper, we prototype SWAP on a 48-core Cavium ThunderX platform running Linux, and we show average speedups over no cache partitioning that are twice as large as those attained with ThunderX's hardware way partitioning alone.
Organelle and Cellular Abnormalities Associated with Hippocampal Heterotopia in Neonatal Doublecortin Knockout Mice

Heterotopic or aberrantly positioned cortical neurons are associated with epilepsy and intellectual disability. Various mouse models exist with forms of heterotopia, but the composition and state of cells developing in heterotopic bands has been little studied. Dcx knockout (KO) mice show hippocampal CA3 pyramidal cell lamination abnormalities, appearing from the age of E17.5, and mice suffer from spontaneous epilepsy. The Dcx KO CA3 region is organized in two distinct pyramidal cell layers, resembling a heterotopic situation, and exhibits hyperexcitability. Here, we characterized the abnormally organized cells in postnatal mouse brains. Electron microscopy confirmed that the Dcx KO CA3 layers at postnatal day (P) 0 are distinct and separated by an intermediate layer devoid of neuronal somata. We found that organization and cytoplasm content of pyramidal neurons in each layer were altered compared to wild type (WT) cells. Less regular nuclei and differences in mitochondria and Golgi apparatuses were identified. Each Dcx KO CA3 layer at P0 contained pyramidal neurons but also other closely apposed cells, displaying different morphologies. Quantitative PCR and immunodetections revealed increased numbers of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and interneurons in close proximity to Dcx KO pyramidal cells. Immunohistochemistry experiments also showed that caspase-3 dependent cell death was increased in the CA1 and CA3 regions of Dcx KO hippocampi at P2. Thus, unsuspected ultrastructural abnormalities and cellular heterogeneity may lead to abnormal neuronal function and survival in this model, which together may contribute to the development of hyperexcitability.