Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Googling Stroke ASPECTS to Determine Disability: Exploratory Analysis from VISTA-Acute Collaboration

The summed Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) is useful for predicting stroke outcome. The anatomical information in the CT template is rarely used for this purpose because traditional regression methods are not adept at handling collinearity (relatedness) among brain regions. While penalized logistic regression (PLR) can handle collinearity, it does not provide an intuitive understanding of the interaction among network structures in a way that eigenvector method such as PageRank can (used in Google search engine). In this exploratory analysis we applied graph theoretical analysis to explore the relationship among ASPECTS regions with respect to disability outcome. The Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive (VISTA) was searched for patients who had infarct in at least one ASPECTS region (ASPECTS ≤9, ASPECTS=10 were excluded), and disability (modified Rankin score/mRS). A directed graph was created from a cross correlation matrix (thresholded at false discovery rate of 0.01) of the ASPECTS regions and demographic variables and disability (mRS>2). We estimated the network-based importance of each ASPECTS region by comparing PageRank and node strength measures. These results were compared with those from PLR. There were 185 subjects, average age 67.5± 12.8 years (55% Males). Model 1: demographic variables having no direct connection with disability, the highest PageRank was M2 (0.225, bootstrap 95% CI 0.215-0.347). Model 2: demographic variables having direct connection with disability, the highest PageRank were M2 (0.205, bootstrap 95% CI 0.194-0.367) and M5 (0.125, bootstrap 95% CI 0.096-0.204). Both models illustrate the importance of M2 region to disability. The PageRank method reveals complex interaction among ASPECTS regions with respects to disability. This approach may help to understand the infarcted brain network involved in stroke disability.
Typing Candida albicans oral isolates from healthy brazilian schoolchildren using multilocus enzyme electrophoresis reveals two highly polymorphic taxa

The genetic diversity of C. albicans oral isolates from 75 healthy schoolchildren from eight schools located in different geographic areas of Piracicaba city, São Paulo state, Brazil, was established using isoenzymes marker (Multilocus Enzyme Electrophoresis – MLEE) and cluster analysis. Patterns of monoclonal and polyclonal oral colonization by C. albicans within and between groups of schoolchildren were identified. However, significant divergence between the observed and the expected genotypic frequencies (Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium test) was not detected in the geographically adjacent groups, suggesting the hypothesis that populations of healthy schoolchildren do not correspond to the selection factor (differential survival) of strains. Two highly polymorphic and distantly genetically related taxa (A and B) were identified within the total population of yeasts, each contained subgroups (A1, A2, A3, A4, B1 and B2) and clusters of moderately related strains (from I to X), suggesting the existence of strains restricted or not to certain groups of geographically limited, healthy students. However, the coexistence of identical strains in healthy schoolchildren from the same school (geographically related) reinforces the hypothesis of oral transmission, where the sources of propagation could be explored. Furthermore, this could also be used in current and retrospective analyses of C. albicans isolated from immunocompetent and immunocompromised people, in order to detect commensal or potentially pathogenic yeast groups, predominantly in candidiasis, and in the development of strategies to prevent transmission or human propagation.
‘Homemade’: the phenotypic diversity of coral reef damselfish populations is driven by the local environment

1Laboratoire d’Océanologie, FOCUS, Université de Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium 2Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia 3Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, E Pugin, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile 4Laboratoire de Morphologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, FOCUS, Université de Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Should C-Reactive Protein Be a Target of Therapy?

Multiple studies have demonstrated that elevated levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) are associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) risk. Newer CV risk stratification strategies incorporating hs-CRP (e.g., Reynolds Risk Score) have also been shown to improve risk stratification better than algorithms incorporating only traditional risk factors. There is also evidence from several landmark statin trials that on-treatment hs-CRP levels predict the likelihood of CV events. Although there is increasing evidence that CRP may be directly involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, the question of whether reduction in CRP levels and/or its associated downstream effects will provide novel therapeutic avenues to reduce CV risk requires further investigation. CV diseases are the number one cause of mortality worldwide (1). Recent efforts directed at primary prevention of atherosclerosis have significantly reduced the incidence of initial clinical presentation of atherosclerosis. It is well established that patients with known diabetes or other traditional CV risk factors have an increased risk of atherosclerosis. Nonetheless, 15–20% of major CV events occur in patients with no major traditional CV risk factors (2). As a result, recent preventive efforts have been directed at finding newer, nontraditional, biomarkers to improve risk stratification, particularly in otherwise apparently low-risk individuals. hs-CRP, previously considered to be an indicator of systemic inflammation, has recently received much attention in the scientific literature, not only as a potential marker of increased atherosclerotic risk, but also as a potential target of therapy for the prevention of atherosclerotic CV disease. In this review, we discuss whether hs-CRP should indeed be a target for therapy in the prevention of CV disease as well as other potential clinical implications related to hs-CRP. Multiple studies have demonstrated that elevated levels of hs-CRP are clearly associated with increased CV risk (3,4). However, considerable controversy exists on whether CRP itself is …
Cost-Effectiveness of Telemonitoring and Self-Monitoring of Blood Pressure for Antihypertensive Titration in Primary Care (TASMINH4)

The use of self-monitoring of blood pressure, with or without telemonitoring, to guide therapy decisions by physicians for patients with hypertension has been recently demonstrated to reduce blood pressure compared with using clinic monitoring (usual care). However, both the cost-effectiveness of these strategies compared with usual care, and whether the additional benefit of telemonitoring compared with self-monitoring alone could be considered value for money, are unknown. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of physician titration of antihypertensive medication using self-monitored blood pressure, with or without telemonitoring, to make hypertension treatment decisions in primary care compared with usual care. A Markov patient-level simulation model was developed taking a UK Health Service/Personal Social Services perspective. The model adopted a lifetime time horizon with 6-month time cycles. At a willingness to pay of £20 000 per quality-adjusted life year, self-monitoring plus telemonitoring was the most cost-effective strategy (£17 424 per quality-adjusted life year gained) compared with usual care or self-monitoring alone (posting the results to the physician). However, deterministic sensitivity analysis showed that self-monitoring alone became the most cost-effective option when changing key assumptions around long-term effectiveness and time horizon. Overall, probabilistic sensitivity analysis suggested that self-monitoring regardless of transmission modality was likely to be cost-effective compared with usual care (89% probability of cost-effectiveness at £20 000/quality-adjusted life year), with high uncertainty as to whether telemonitoring or self-monitoring alone was the most cost-effective option. Self-monitoring in clinical practice is cost-effective and likely to lead to reduced cardiovascular mortality and morbidity.
Microsurgical keyhole approach for middle fossa arachnoid cyst fenestration.

To the Editor: We read with great interest the recently published article by Levy et al. (2). Regardless of the original description of this innovative keyhole approach to arachnoid cyst fenestration as a safe and effective method for treating middle fossa cysts, we had the impression that during the decision-making process, the authors focused their attention on the arachnoid cysts, placing important associated pathological findings in second place, specifically in the case of children with hydrocephalus. Arachnoid cysts presumably result from an aberration in the embryological development of the subarachnoid space (4). This hypothesis seems to be the reason for the actual disorder in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation and why subarachnoid cysts are frequently associated with hydrocephalus. Whether the cyst is the cause of the ventriculomegaly is a clinical and therapeutic dilemma. In some patients, the location of the cyst interferes with the normal CSF circulation (i.e., those compressing the sylvian aqueduct or those obstructing the outlet foramina in the fourth ventricle); however, in some cases, there is no evident relationship between the cysts and the ventricular enlargement. In those situations, some authors support the idea that the hydrocephalus is communicating and the actual problem is in the subarachnoid space, similar to their subarachnoid cyst counterparts (5). This could be the reason for the low incidence of hydrocephalus (15–18%) in children with middle fossa arachnoid cysts (1, 3). In this article, Levy et al. (2) use the microsurgical keyhole approach as the initial procedure for treatment of middle fossa arachnoid cysts, including those in three moderately hydrocephalic patients. It is about those patients that we have some concerns. Were their complaints secondary to hydrocephalus or to the cysts? Why does the ventricular size remain stable after the surgical procedure? In this situation, it is advisable to determine whether these stable patients were functioning at their full potential or whether their neurological function could be improved after surgical diversion. In these patients, it is also necessary to define whether they had arrested or compensated hydrocephalus. Because this procedure provides communication between the cyst and the basal cisterns, we agree with the authors that the proposed technique is useful for arachnoid cysts without hydrocephalus. In patients harboring middle fossa arachnoid cysts and hydrocephalus, the diversion of the cyst could not be effective; thus, the ventricular enlargement should be approached independently, as suggested by Raffel and McComb (3).
Fulfilling the promise of primary care spirometry

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the simplest and most reliable way of assessing the function of the lungs is to make a spirometric measurement. Well, perhaps not universally acknowledged, but there is an increasing acceptance that the diagnosis of many lung diseases should involve a measurement of the functional capacity of the respiratory system and although this does not always tell us the whole truth 1, 2, it represents a substantial improvement on diagnostic criteria based solely on history examination and plain chest radiography. This is particularly true for diseases associated with airflow obstruction, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and those involving restriction of the lungs or chest wall, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis or kyphoscoliosis. For doctors in primary care, the former is much more likely to be seen than the latter, and COPD along with bronchial asthma constitute the most frequent chronic respiratory diseases in this setting. While the importance of making an accurate diagnosis is not in doubt for patients with diabetes or chronic renal failure, we have been slow to adopt a similarly rigorous approach to respiratory conditions, especially COPD. Thanks to the efforts of many organisations, especially the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 3, and also the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) programme 4, there is now a much wider appreciation of the need for objective diagnosis in common conditions such as COPD. As recent data from the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease initiative has shown 5, this is a frequent and underappreciated problem, not only in developed European countries but particularly in many developing countries. One of our major tasks for the next decade will be to produce clear and consistent guidance as to how the relatively …
An Unsupervised Learning Approach to Neural-net-supported Wpe Dereverberation

Reverberation degrades signal quality and increases word error rates in automatic speech recognition (ASR). Reverberation suppression is, thus, a key component in listening enhancement devices and ASR front end. The weighted prediction error (WPE) is a prominent and effective method that gained popularity in recent ASR challenges. The need for iterative optimization in WPE leads to high computational cost and instabilities for short signals. Neural net (NN) supported WPE was proposed to alleviate these issues. However, NN training requires parallel data, i.e., reverberant and "clean" (direct sound plus early reflections) speech, which is not available in general. We show that the supporting network can be trained efficiently, without any supervision, using reverberant speech only. Consequently, adaptation to unseen environments is largely simplified. Network training involves the complete de-reverberation system and relies on complex-valued back propagation. The experimental validation confirms that, the proposed approach matches the performance of the method with parallel training data both in terms of perceptual quality and ASR word error rates.
Stagnation point flow and heat transfer past a permeable stretching/shrinking Riga plate with velocity slip and radiation effects

This paper concerns the stagnation point flow and heat transfer of a viscous and incompressible fluid passing through a flat Riga plate with the effects of velocity slip and radiation. An appropriate similarity transformation is chosen to reduce the governing partial differential equations to a system of ordinary differential equations. The numerical results are verified by comparison with existing results from the literature for a special case of the present study. The computed results are analyzed and given in the form of tables and graphs. The behaviors of the skin friction coefficient and the heat transfer rate for various physical parameters are analyzed and discussed. Dual solutions exist for both stretching and shrinking cases. Stability analysis reveals that the solution with lower boundary layer thickness is stable while the other solution is unstable. It is also observed that for the stable solution, the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number increase as the suction effect is increased. For the shrinking case, a solution exists only for a certain range of the shrinking strength and this range increases with increasing value of the suction effect. 摘要目的1. 通过分析Riga 板的抽吸效应来控制流体运动和减少摩擦力和压力阻力;2. 利用磁场的速度滑移效应来控制流体的流速;3. 基于辐射原理控制热传导并减小阻力。 创新点1. 本研究可应用于核电厂、飞机、潜艇以及卫星等设施中推进装置的设计;2. 本研究可用于防止边界层分离以减少湍流的产生。 方法1. 构建基于偏微分方程的数理模型;2. 利用相似变换法将偏微分方程简化为常微分方程;3. 利用Matlab 内置求解器bvp4c 对常微分方程组进行数值求解;4. 基于求解结果讨论稳定性。 结论1. 对于拉伸/收缩两种情形的Riga 板问题都存在对偶解;2. 数值求解结果显示表面摩擦系数和表面传热率均会随着吸力的增大而增大,而随拉伸/收缩参数λ的增大而减小;3. 上支解的努塞尔数增大而下支解减小;4. 辐射会提高边界层内的温度,而增强滑移效应则会提高流速同时降低边界层温度;5. 只有上支解是长期稳定的。
Evaluating Intracranial Atherosclerosis Rather Than Intracranial Stenosis

Intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS) is an important cause of ischemic stroke throughout the world, accounting for ≈30% to 50% and 10% of ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack in Asians and whites, respectively.1 Several imaging modalities, such as transcranial Doppler (TCD), magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), computed tomographic angiography (CTA), and digital subtraction angiography (DSA), are used commonly in routine clinical practice to detect and assess ICAS, as well as in selection criteria of clinical trials.2–4 Although some of these imaging modalities yield flow information, such as TCD revealing velocity data or waveform turbulence and time-of-flight MRA (TOF-MRA) depicting arterial patterns based on blood flow, most attention has been drawn to the maximal percent stenosis of the arterial lumen. The focus on severity of stenosis has been reinforced because severe (70%–99%) atherosclerotic stenosis was demonstrated as an independent predictor for stroke recurrence in the territory of the stenotic artery, with the risk of ≈20% at 1 year, in the Warfarin versus Aspirin for Symptomatic Intracranial Disease (WASID) trial.5 However, those patients with a traditionally considered moderate (50%–69%) atherosclerotic stenosis were also at considerable risk of recurrent stroke, ≈10% at 1 year in the WASID study.5,6 In more recent studies, the role of percent stenosis in predicting subsequent stroke risk has been superseded by collateral flow and hemodynamics in the same patient cohort.7,8 Characterization of the atherosclerotic lesion is also represented poorly by percentage of stenosis measured at the narrowest vessel diameter alone. Beyond the maximal luminal stenosis, many other features may reflect the characteristics of ICAS, such as plaque morphology and components, which might also be promising markers in risk stratification of patients with symptomatic ICAS.9 However, from the view of intracranial stenosis, it could also be attributed to causes …
ZIP4 in homologous chromosome synapsis and crossover formation in rice meiosis

In budding yeast, the ZMM complex is closely associated with class I crossovers and synaptonemal complex (SC) formation. However, the relationship between the ZMM genes remains unclear in most higher eukaryotes. Here, we identify the rice ZIP4 homolog, a member of the ZMM gene group, and explore its relationship with two other characterized ZMM genes, MER3 and ZEP1. Our results show that in the rice zip4 mutant, the chiasma frequency is greatly reduced, although synapsis proceeds with only mild defects. Immunocytological analyses of wild-type rice reveal that ZIP4 presents as punctuate foci and colocalizes with MER3 in prophase I meiocytes. Additionally, ZIP4 is essential for the loading of MER3 onto chromosomes, but not vice versa. Double-mutant analyses show that zip4 mer3 displays a greater decrease in the mean number of chiasmata than either of the zip4 or mer3 single mutants, suggesting that ZIP4 and MER3 work cooperatively to promote CO formation but their individual contributions are not completely identical in rice. Although zep1 alone gives an increased chiasma number, both zip4 zep1 and mer3 zep1 show a much lower chiasma number than the zip4 or mer3 single mutants. These results imply that the normal functions of ZIP4 and MER3 are required for the regulation of COs by ZEP1.
Accurate Equivalent-Circuit Descriptions of Thin Glide-Symmetric Corrugated Metasurfaces

Thin artificial surfaces that act as high frequency bandgap structures have been recently studied for the design of gap waveguides, hard surfaces, and planar lenses. Here, we propose a circuit-based method to analyze glide-symmetric corrugated metasurfaces that are embedded in a thin parallel plate waveguide. Our closed-form solution is based on rigorous analytical derivations. It achieves remarkable agreement with full-wave solvers, even when the waveguide thickness is extremely thin. In contrast, classical homogenization approaches are shown to be inaccurate for thin waveguides due to the interaction of higher order Floquet modes between the surfaces. Numerical results validate our theoretical analysis and show the utility of the proposed method.
Novel mechanism of miRNA‐365‐regulated trophoblast apoptosis in recurrent miscarriage

Clinical pregnancies increasingly end in recurrent miscarriage (RM) during the first trimester, with genetic factors shouldering the main responsibility. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression in a wide array of important biological processes. We examined the potential role of dysregulated miRNAs in RM pathogenesis and trophoblast development as an approach to elucidate the molecular mechanism behind RM. miRNA profiles from clinical specimens of RM and induced abortion (IA) were compared, and several miRNAs were found to be aberrantly expressed in RM samples. Among the miRNAs, miR‐365 was significantly differentially expressed in RM decidual tissues. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that miR‐365 functions as an upstream regulator of MDM2/p53 expression, cell cycle progression and apoptosis in trophoblasts. Bioinformatic prediction and experimental validation assays identified SGK1 as a direct target of miR‐365; consistently, its protein levels were low in decidual tissues. Additionally, functional studies revealed that SGK1 silencing elicits cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in trophoblasts and that SGK1 overexpression attenuates the effects of miR‐365 on apoptosis and MDM2/p53 expression. Collectively, our data provide evidence that the up‐regulation of miR‐365 may contribute to RM by decreasing SGK1 expression, which suggests its potential utility as a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for RM.
The fundamental plane of spiral galaxies: theoretical expectations

Current theory of disc galaxy formation is used to study fundamental-plane (FP) type of relations for disc galaxies. We examine how the changes in model parameters affect these relations and explore the possibility of using such relations to constrain theoretical models. The distribution of galaxy discs in the space of their fundamental properties are predicted to be concentrated in a plane, with the Tully-Fisher (TF) relation (a relation between luminosity L and maximum rotation velocity V-m) being an almost edge-on view. Using rotation velocities at larger radii generally leads to larger TF scatter. In searching for a third parameter, we find that both the disc scalelength R-d (or surface brightness) and the rotation-curve shape are correlated with the TF scatter. The FP relation in the (log L, log V-m, log R-d)-space obtained from the theory is L proportional to R-d(alpha') V-m(beta'), with alpha' similar to 0.50 and beta' similar to 2.60, consistent with the preliminary result we obtain from observational data. Using the isophotal radius instead of R-d leads to higher alpha', lower beta' and smaller scatter. Among the model parameters we probe, variation in any of them can generate significant scatter in the TF relation, but the effects of the spin parameter and halo concentration can be reduced significantly by introducing R-d While the scatter caused by varying m(d) (the ratio between disc mass and halo mass) is most effectively reduced by introducing the parameters which describe the rotation-curve shape. The TF and FP relations combined should therefore provide useful constraints on models of galaxy formation.