Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paclitaxel and quercetin nanoparticles co-loaded in microspheres to prolong retention time for pulmonary drug delivery

High drug resistance, poor water solubility, short half-life, and low local drug concentration are obstacles for successful delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs for lung cancer. A new method involving the use of nanoparticles (NPs) for pulmonary delivery is proposed. However, use of NPs is limited by the particle size range for pulmonary drug delivery considering that NPs cannot be deposited directly into the lungs. NPs polymerized into microspheres (polymeric microspheres, PMs) will result in suitable particle sizes and retain the advantages of nanodrugs after redispersion when applied in pulmonary delivery. We report the development of novel NPs in the form of PMs loaded with paclitaxel (PTX) and quercetin (QUE) double drugs based on the synthesis of oleic acid-conjugated chitosan (OA-CTS) for pulmonary delivery. This approach is aimed toward prolonging PTX retention time in the presence of QUE and bypassing P-glycoprotein drug efflux pumps. NPs loaded with PTX or QUE were prepared with 11% substitution degree using OA-CTS as the carrier by ionic cross-linking method, which NPs loaded with PTX or QUE were used in the preparation of PMs by spray-drying. The diameters of the PMs ranged from 1 to 5 μm which had uniform size range. Scanning electron microscopy showed that PMs were polymers formed by a large number of NPs and readily redispersed (after redispersion, size of NPs ranged between 250 and 350 nm) in water within 1 h. PMs displayed slow-release characteristics at pH 4.5 and 7.4. The in vivo pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies suggested that PMs exhibit prolonged circulation time and a markedly high accumulation in the lung. The obtained results indicate that PMs can serve as a promising pulmonary delivery system for combined pharmacotherapy using hydrophobic anticancer drugs.
Histological Changes in Autoimmune Hepatitis with Graves' Disease: A Child Case Report

We herein report a child case of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) accompanied with Graves' disease. Elevated aminotransferase levels were found in a 12-year-old Japanese girl with Graves' disease. In her first liver biopsy, necrosis and inflammation was limited to the centrilobular area, while the second biopsy showed different findings. Namely, portal injury newly appeared, including interface hepatitis, which represents the histological characteristics of AIH. As the histological findings at the onset of AIH do not always show typical findings, a re-biopsy is considered to be important in individuals suspected to have AIH. AIH should be included in the differential diagnosis of liver dysfunction in Graves' disease, even in children.
Virologic outcome among patients receiving antiretroviral therapy at five hospitals in Haiti

Introduction Viral load (VL) assessment is the preferred method for diagnosing and confirming virologic failure for patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART). We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study to evaluate the virologic suppression rate among patients on ART for ≥6 months in five hospitals around Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Methods Plasma VL was measured and patients with VL <1,000 copies/mL were defined as virologically suppressed. A second VL test was performed within at least six months of the first test. Factors associated with virologic suppression were analyzed using logistic regression models accounting for site-level clustering using complex survey procedures. Results Data were analyzed for 2,313 patients on ART for six months or longer between July 2013 and February 2015. Among them, 1,563 (67.6%) achieved virologic suppression at the first VL test. A second VL test was performed within at least six months for 718 (31.0%) of the patients. Of the 459 patients with an initial HIV-1 RNA <1,000 copies/mL who had a second VL performed, 394 (85.8%) maintained virologic suppression. Virologic suppression was negatively associated with male gender (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.74–0.0.86), 23 to 35 months on ART (aOR:0.72[0.54–0.96]), baseline CD4 counts of 201–500 cells/mm3 and 200 cells/mm3 or lower (aORs: 0.77 [0.62–0.95] and 0.80 [0.66–0.98], respectively), poor adherence (aOR: 0.69 [0.59–0.81]), and TB co-infection (aOR: 0.73 [0.55–0.97]). Conclusions This study showed that over two-thirds of the patients in this evaluation achieved virologic suppression after ≥ six months on ART and the majority of them remained suppressed. These results reinforce the importance of expanding access to HIV-1 viral load testing in Haiti for monitoring ART outcomes.
Isolated, relative aproverbia without focal lesion

ABSTRACT We have seen a patient with a profound, isolated, and quite selective deficit in proverb interpretation—aproverbia. The patient presented to us after an anoxic brain injury with aproverbia. Interestingly, the aproverbia appeared to be premorbid to the presenting event. Furthermore, the patient had no brain lesion that has been associated or even proposed as a cause of deficit in proverb or metaphor interpretation. The patient did have acute bilateral hippocampi lesions and associated severe anterograde amnesia, but he retained good retrograde memory with which he is able to give good, logical but concrete explanations for proverbs. This case highlights the need, importance, and interest in further neuropsychologic, imaging and functional studies of proverb and interpretation in patients and normal subjects populations.
Efficacy and survival rate of intensity-modulated radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy for elderly patients with locally advanced oropharyngeal cancer

The efficacy of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of elderly patients with locally advanced oropharyngeal cancer and its effect on survival rate were studied. Elderly patients (n=150) diagnosed with locally advanced oropharyngeal cancer by histopathology were selected and randomly divided into the observation group (n=75) and the control group (n=75). Patients in the observation group were treated with IMRT combined with chemotherapy, while those in the control group were treated with conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The two groups were treated with docetaxel + cisplatin (TP regimen). All patients received 1 to 2 cycles of docetaxel + cisplatin-induced chemotherapy, and after the radiotherapy began, the chemotherapy with docetaxel was synchronously conducted. The recent efficacy (tumor regression condition was observed at 3 months after the treatment), 1-year, 3-year and 5-year overall survival (OS), local-regional control (LRC), progression-free survival (PFS), disease-free survival (DFS) and the incidence rate of adverse reactions of patients in the two groups were compared. In the observation group, 73 patients completed the radiotherapy and chemotherapy, while all the patients in the control group completed the treatments. The 1-year OS of the observation group and the control group was 97.3 and 85.3%, respectively. In the observation group, the 3-year LRC, OS, PFS and DFS of the observation group was 94.5, 91.8, 90.4 and 87.7%, respectively; the 5-year LRC, OS, PFS and DFS was 64.4, 56.2, 56.2 and 54.8%, respectively. In the control group, the 3-year LRC, OS, PFS and DFS was 86.7, 73.3, 82.7 and 68.0%, respectively; the 5-year LRC, OS, PFS and DFS were 54.7, 45.3, 44.0 and 56.7%, respectively. The differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). In the observation group, the number of leukocytes was decreased, and the incidence rates of acute oropharyngeal mucosa reaction and radiation dermatitis were significantly lower than those in the control group. The differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). In conclusion, IMRT combined with chemotherapy can improve the OS and the 3-year and 5-year LRC, PFS and DFS of elderly patients with locally advanced oropharyngeal cancer, reduce toxic and side effects, and improve patients' quality of life.
Limiting Factors in Walking Performance of Subjects With COPD

INTRODUCTION: Exercise intolerance is the most predominant symptom in patients with COPD. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether walking economy and gait variability are altered in these patients. Thus, our main objective was to compare the cost of transport and gait variability as a function of speed, including the self-selected walking speed, in subjects with COPD relative to healthy subjects. METHODS: 22 subjects, 11 with COPD (FEV1 = 45 ± 17% of predicted) and 11 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects undertook an evaluation that involved walking on a treadmill at 6 speeds (at 3.2 km/h, at a self-selected walking speed, and at 2 speeds below and 2 speeds above the self-selected walking speed) and measuring the cost of transport (the oxygen consumption normalized by mass and distance), gait variability, perceived dyspnea, and leg fatigue. RESULTS: In subjects with COPD, the cost of transport decreased with increasing walking speed, contrary to healthy subjects, who presented a minimum at the self-selected walking speed. No difference was found in cost of transport between the experimental groups at the same absolute velocity (P = .62). In subjects with COPD, dyspnea sensation rose above the self-selected walking speed, doubling at the maximal walking velocity (P = .03), and gait variability was higher at low speeds. CONCLUSION: Subjects with COPD choose their walking speed so as to keep the dyspnea sensation tolerable and to keep gait variability and cost of transport at an acceptable level. These outcomes suggest that interventions acting on dyspnea and gait pattern may increase patients' self-selected walking speed and improve their quality of life
Understanding and Enhancing the Transferability of Adversarial Examples

State-of-the-art deep neural networks are known to be vulnerable to adversarial examples, formed by applying small but malicious perturbations to the original inputs. Moreover, the perturbations can \textit{transfer across models}: adversarial examples generated for a specific model will often mislead other unseen models. Consequently the adversary can leverage it to attack deployed systems without any query, which severely hinder the application of deep learning, especially in the areas where security is crucial. In this work, we systematically study how two classes of factors that might influence the transferability of adversarial examples. One is about model-specific factors, including network architecture, model capacity and test accuracy. The other is the local smoothness of loss function for constructing adversarial examples. Based on these understanding, a simple but effective strategy is proposed to enhance transferability. We call it variance-reduced attack, since it utilizes the variance-reduced gradient to generate adversarial example. The effectiveness is confirmed by a variety of experiments on both CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets.
Waist‐to‐height ratio is independently related to whole and central body fat, regardless of the waist circumference measurement protocol, in non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease patients

BACKGROUND Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) has been reported as a preferable risk related body fat (BF) marker, although no standardised waist circumference measurement protocol (WCmp) has been proposed. The present study aimed to investigate whether the use of a different WCmp affects the strength of relationship between WHtR and both whole and central BF in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients. METHODS BF was assessed with dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in 28 NAFLD patients [19 males, mean (SD) 51 (13) years and nine females, 47 (13) years]. All subjects also underwent anthropometric evaluation including height and waist circumference (WC) measurement using four different WCmp (WC1, minimal waist; WC2, iliac crest; WC3, mid-distance between iliac crest and lowest rib; WC4, at the umbilicus) and WHtR was calculated using each WC measurements (WHtR1, WHtR2, WHtR3 and WHtR4, respectively). Partial correlations were conducted to assess the relation of WHtR and DXA assessed BF. RESULTS All WHtR were particularly correlated with central BF, including abdominal BF (r = 0.80, r = 0.84, r = 0.84 and r = 0.78, respectively, for WHtR1, WHtR2, WHtR3 and WHtR4) and central abdominal BF (r = 0.72, r = 0.77, r = 0.76 and r = 0.71, respectively, for WHtR1, WHtR2, WHtR3 and WHtR4), after controlling for age, sex and body mass index. There were no differences between the correlation coefficients obtained between all studied WHtR and each whole and central BF variable. CONCLUSIONS Waist-to-height ratio was found a suitable BF marker in the present sample of NAFLD patients and the strength of the relationship between WHtR and both whole and central BF was not altered by using different WCmp in the present sample of NAFLD patients.
Age and cellular context influence rectal prolapse formation in mice with caecal wall colorectal cancer xenografts

In patients with rectal prolapse is the prevalence of colorectal cancer increased, suggesting that a colorectal tumor may induce rectal prolapse. Establishment of tumor xenografts in immunodeficient mice after orthotopic inoculations of human colorectal cancer cells into the caecal wall is a widely used approach for the study of human colorectal cancer progression and preclinical evaluation of therapeutics. Remarkably, 70% of young mice carrying a COLO320DM caecal tumor showed symptoms of intussusception of the large bowel associated with intestinal lumen obstruction and rectal prolapse. The quantity of the COLO320DM bioluminescent signal of the first three weeks post-inoculation predicts prolapse in young mice. Rectal prolapse was not observed in adult mice carrying a COLO320DM caecal tumor or young mice carrying a HT29 caecal tumor. In contrast to HT29 tumors, which showed local invasion and metastasis, COLO320DM tumors demonstrated a non-invasive tumor with pushing borders without presence of metastasis. In conclusion, rectal prolapse can be linked to a non-invasive, space-occupying COLO320DM tumor in the gastrointestinal tract of young immunodeficient mice. These data reveal a model that can clarify the association of patients showing rectal prolapse with colorectal cancer.
Systematic Review of Health Economic Evaluation Studies Developed in Brazil from 1980 to 2013

Background Brazil has sought to use economic evaluation to support healthcare decision-making processes. While a number of health economic evaluations (HEEs) have been conducted, no study has systematically reviewed the quality of Brazilian HEE. The objective of this systematic review was to provide an overview regarding the state of HEE research and to evaluate the number, characteristics, and quality of reporting of published HEE studies conducted in a Brazilian setting. Methods We systematically searched electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Latin American, and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences Database, Scientific Electronic Library Online, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, health technology assessment Database, Bireme, and Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde Economia da Saúde); citation indexes (SCOPUS, Web of Science), and Sistema de Informação da Rede Brasileira de Avaliação de Tecnologia em Saúde. Partial and full HEEs published between 1980 and 2013 that referred to a Brazilian setting were considered for inclusion. Results In total, 535 studies were included in the review, 36.8% of these were considered to be full HEE. The category of healthcare technologies more frequently assessed were procedures (34.8%) and drugs (28.8%) which main objective was treatment (72.1%). Forty-four percent of the studies reported their funding source and 36% reported a conflict of interest. Overall, the full HEE quality of reporting was satisfactory. But some items were generally poorly reported and significant improvement is required: (1) methods used to estimate healthcare resource use quantities and unit costs, (2) methods used to estimate utility values, (3) sources of funding, and (4) conflicts of interest. Conclusion A steady number of HEE have been published in Brazil since 1980. To improve their contribution to inform national healthcare policy efforts need to be made to enhance the quality of reporting of HEEs and promote improvements in the way HEEs are designed, implemented (i.e., using sound methods for HEEs) and reported.
A Structured Methodology for Pattern based Adaptive Scheduling in Embedded Control

Software implementation of multiple embedded control loops often share compute resources. The control performance of such implementations have been shown to improve if the sharing of bandwidth between control loops can be dynamically regulated in response to input disturbances. In the absence of a structured methodology for planning such measures, the scheduler may spend too much time in deciding the optimal scheduling pattern. Our work leverages well known results in the domain of network control systems and applies them in the context of bandwidth sharing among controllers. We provide techniques that may be used a priori for computing co-schedulable execution patterns for a given set of control loops such that stability is guaranteed under all possible disturbance scenarios. Additionally, the design of the control loops optimize the average case control performance by adaptive sharing of bandwidth under time varying input disturbances.
Pinhole Zone Plate Lens for Ultrasound Focusing

The focusing capabilities of a pinhole zone plate lens are presented and compared with those of a conventional Fresnel zone plate lens. The focusing properties are examined both experimentally and numerically. The results confirm that a pinhole zone plate lens can be an alternative to a Fresnel lens. A smooth filtering effect is created in pinhole zone plate lenses, giving rise to a reduction of the side lobes around the principal focus associated with the conventional Fresnel zone plate lens. The manufacturing technique of the pinhole zone plate lens allows the designing and constructing of lenses for different focal lengths quickly and economically and without the need to drill new plates.
Whole Exome Sequencing in Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a morbid and heritable arrhythmia. Over 35 genes have been reported to underlie AF, most of which were described in small candidate gene association studies. Replication remains lacking for most, and therefore the contribution of coding variation to AF susceptibility remains poorly understood. We examined whole exome sequencing data in a large community-based sample of 1,734 individuals with and 9,423 without AF from the Framingham Heart Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, and NHLBI-GO Exome Sequencing Project and meta-analyzed the results. We also examined whether genetic variation was enriched in suspected AF genes (N = 37) in AF cases versus controls. The mean age ranged from 59 to 73 years; 8,656 (78%) were of European ancestry. None of the 99,404 common variants evaluated was significantly associated after adjusting for multiple testing. Among the most significantly associated variants was a common (allele frequency = 86%) missense variant in SYNPO2L (rs3812629, p.Pro707Leu, [odds ratio 1.27, 95% confidence interval 1.13–1.43, P = 6.6x10-5]) which lies at a known AF susceptibility locus and is in linkage disequilibrium with a top marker from prior analyses at the locus. We did not observe significant associations between rare variants and AF in gene-based tests. Individuals with AF did not display any statistically significant enrichment for common or rare coding variation in previously implicated AF genes. In conclusion, we did not observe associations between coding genetic variants and AF, suggesting that large-effect coding variation is not the predominant mechanism underlying AF. A coding variant in SYNPO2L requires further evaluation to determine whether it is causally related to AF. Efforts to identify biologically meaningful coding variation underlying AF may require large sample sizes or populations enriched for large genetic effects.
Physicochemical properties of carbon blacks from vacuum pyrolysis of used tires

Vacuum pyrolysis is a promising way to recover useful products from used tires. The two main products from this thermal decomposition process are oil and carbon black. In this work the pyrolytic carbon black obtained under different temperature and pressure conditions was characterized. The carbon black samples were obtained from pyrolysis of used tires in a batch reactor at temperatures from 350 to 700 o C and total pressures from 0.3 to 20.0 kPa. The objective is to ultimately recover scrap tires-derived pyrolytic carbon blacks with good mechanical properties of the final vulcanizates
Publication fate of abstracts presented at British association of clinical anatomists annual meetings

Dissemination of research is an integral part of the scientific process. Failure to disseminate research limits the scope for critical appraisal and potentially wastes valuable resources. The gold standard for dissemination of research is peer‐reviewed publication following presentation at a national meeting. The primary objective of this study was quantitative assessment of the abstracts presented at British Association of Clinical Anatomists (BACA) summer and winter meetings with regards to the rates of subsequent publication and comparison to other medical specialties. Published abstracts from the summer and winter meetings of BACA between the years of 2000 and 2014 were analyzed. MEDLINE was searched to identify peer‐reviewed publications arising from each presented abstract. In total, 1,807 abstracts were presented between the years of 2000 and 2014. The mean number of abstracts presented each year was 60.2, (range 26–157). In total, 20.4% of abstracts were subsequently published in MEDLINE‐indexed journals with a median publication time of 19 months. The mean number of cadaveric prosections was 45.2 ± 78.8, (range 1–960). Analysis of abstracts focusing on radiographic imaging found the mean number of scans was 224.4 ± 807.1, (range 1–6,439). Biannual meetings of BACA are a forum for the presentation of high‐quality anatomical research. BACA meeting abstracts have generally reduced publication rates compared to some surgical specialty meetings; however, there is no analysis available for an equivalent anatomical meeting. Further work should try to identify reasons that may hinder or limit subsequent publication of the anatomy abstracts presented at BACA. Clin. Anat. 30:133–139, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.