Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of Socially Isolated Patients With Coronary Artery Disease Who Are at Elevated Risk for Mortality

Objectives Social isolation has been linked to poor survival in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Few studies have closely examined the psychosocial characteristics of CAD patients who lack social contact. Methods Social isolation was examined as a predictor of mortality in 430 patients with significant CAD. More isolated patients were compared with their less isolated counterparts on factors that might help explain the association between isolation and survival. Results The mortality rate was higher among isolated individuals. Those with three or fewer people in their social support network had a relative risk of 2.43 (p = .001) for cardiac mortality and 2.11 (p = .001) for all-cause mortality, controlling for age and disease severity. Adjustments for income, hostility, and smoking status did not alter the risk due to social isolation. With the exception of lower income, higher hostility ratings, and higher smoking rates, isolated patients did not differ from nonisolated patients on demographic indicators, disease severity, physical functioning, or psychological distress. Isolated patients reported less social support and were less pleased with the way they got along with network members, but they did not report less satisfaction with the amount of social contact received. Conclusions Patients with small social networks had an elevated risk of mortality, but this greater risk was not attributable to confounding with disease severity, demographics, or psychological distress. These findings have implications for mechanisms linking social isolation to mortality and for the application of psychosocial interventions.
The Association between Lifelong Greenspace Exposure and 3-Dimensional Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Barcelona Schoolchildren

Background: Proponents of the biophilia hypothesis believe that contact with nature, including green spaces, has a crucial role in brain development in children. Currently, however, we are not aware of evidence linking such exposure with potential effects on brain structure. Objective: We determined whether lifelong exposure to residential surrounding greenness is associated with regional differences in brain volume based on 3-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (3D MRI) among children attending primary school. Methods: We performed a series of analyses using data from a subcohort of 253 Barcelona schoolchildren from the Brain Development and Air Pollution Ultrafine Particles in School Children (BREATHE) project. We averaged satellite-based normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) across 100-m buffers around all residential addresses since birth to estimate each participant’s lifelong exposure to residential surrounding greenness, and we used high-resolution 3D MRIs of brain anatomy to identify regional differences in voxel-wise brain volume associated with greenness exposure. In addition, we performed a supporting substudy to identify regional differences in brain volume associated with measures of working memory (d′ from computerized n-back tests) and inattentiveness (hit reaction time standard error from the Attentional Network Task instrument) that were repeated four times over one year. We also performed a second supporting substudy to determine whether peak voxel tissue volumes in brain regions associated with residential greenness predicted cognitive function test scores. Results: Lifelong exposure to greenness was positively associated with gray matter volume in the left and right prefrontal cortex and in the left premotor cortex and with white matter volume in the right prefrontal region, in the left premotor region, and in both cerebellar hemispheres. Some of these regions partly overlapped with regions associated with cognitive test scores (prefrontal cortex and cerebellar and premotor white matter), and peak volumes in these regions predicted better working memory and reduced inattentiveness. Conclusion: Our findings from a study population of urban schoolchildren in Barcelona require confirmation, but they suggest that being raised in greener neighborhoods may have beneficial effects on brain development and cognitive function. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1876
[Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes RECORD-3. Characteristics of Patients and Treatment During Initial Hospitalization].

Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) Registries RECORD 1-2 (2007-2001) gave valuable information on management of ACS patients in Russia. RECORD-3 was carried out in March-April, 2015. Here we present characteristics of included patients (pts) and data on their treatment during initial hospitalization. MATERIAL AND METHODS RECORD-3 recruited pts with suspected ACS consecutively hospitalized in participating hospitals (n=47, 55% "invasive") during 1 month. RESULTS Number of included pts was 2370 (39% women, mean age 64.6 years), 72% were admitted to invasive hospitals, 37% had ST-elevation ACS (STEACS). Median "onset of symptoms - first medical contact" time was 3.4 (1.0-16.8) hours, "first medical contact - hospital admission" time - 1.5 (1.0-3.1) hours. Cardiac troponin was determined in 76% of pts. Coronary angiography was carried out in 70 and 46% of pts with STE and non-STE ACS, respectively. (16% of all patients hospitalized in "noninvasive" cetnters were transferred for angiography to invasive ones). Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was performed in 39% of patients with STEACS (in 65% of them with "door to pPCI" time less or equal 90 min). Thrombolytic therapy (TLT) was administered to 32% of pts (in half of them prehospitally). Overall reperfusion therapy received 68% of pts. Among non-STEACS pts rate of PCI was 20% (1/3 of procedures within 2, 1/3 - >2-24hours). Inhospital antiplatelet therapy (APT) included aspirin (88%), clopidogrel (71%), ticagrelor (14%); 86% of pts received dual APT. Other medications were: unfractionated heparin (UFH, 47% [81% subcutaneously]), enoxaparin (13%), fondaparinux (10%), angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/sartans (81%), -adrenoblockers (84%), statins (87%). Mortality during hospitalization (median 10 days) was 10% in STE, and 5% in non-STE ACS. CONCLUSION Inhospital management of RECORD-3 population was characterized by relatively low rates of pPCI, reperfusion therapy in STEACS, urgent PCI in non-STEACS. Preponderance of UFG including its subcutaneous use is of note. Use of other standard therapies appears satisfactory.
Efficacy of Neoadjuvant Carboplatin plus Docetaxel in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Combined Analysis of Two Cohorts

Purpose: Recent studies demonstrate that addition of neoadjuvant (NA) carboplatin to anthracycline/taxane chemotherapy improves pathologic complete response (pCR) in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Effectiveness of anthracycline-free platinum combinations in TNBC is not well known. Here, we report efficacy of NA carboplatin + docetaxel (CbD) in TNBC. Experimental Design: The study population includes 190 patients with stage I–III TNBC treated uniformly on two independent prospective cohorts. All patients were prescribed NA chemotherapy regimen of carboplatin (AUC 6) + docetaxel (75 mg/m2) given every 21 days × 6 cycles. pCR (no evidence of invasive tumor in the breast and axilla) and residual cancer burden (RCB) were evaluated. Results: Among 190 patients, median tumor size was 35 mm, 52% were lymph node positive, and 16% had germline BRCA1/2 mutation. The overall pCR and RCB 0 + 1 rates were 55% and 68%, respectively. pCRs in patients with BRCA-associated and wild-type TNBC were 59% and 56%, respectively (P = 0.83). On multivariable analysis, stage III disease was the only factor associated with a lower likelihood of achieving a pCR. Twenty-one percent and 7% of patients, respectively, experienced at least one grade 3 or 4 adverse event. Conclusions: The CbD regimen was well tolerated and yielded high pCR rates in both BRCA-associated and wild-type TNBC. These results are comparable with pCR achieved with the addition of carboplatin to anthracycline–taxane chemotherapy. Our study adds to the existing data on the efficacy of platinum agents in TNBC and supports further exploration of the CbD regimen in randomized studies. Clin Cancer Res; 23(3); 649–57. ©2016 AACR.
Thermal Cycling Reliability of Nickel added Solder Paste for use in Surface Mount Manufacturing

With the ban on lead (Pb) by the European Union (EU), the electronics industry has sought alternatives to replace the long used Sn-Pb solder. Although Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) alloys with Sn3Ag0.5Cu (SAC 305) have been considered as a replacement option, a clear understanding of the mechanical and reliability aspects of these alloys is very important. With the increasing use of mobile electronics, the reliability of SAC 305 alloys is under question due to its poor drop/shock performance. Even though suggestions to use less silver content to increase the alloy performance are shown in the literature, they suffer from increased failure rates when exposed to higher operational temperatures and thermal cycles. A search for an optimized Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) alloy with good drop performance (SAC 105) and a better thermal cycling reliability (SAC 305) is ongoing to increase reliability. Many lead-free solder pastes with additives such as Mn, Cu, Ni etc are being tested by numerous researchers to determine their drop/shock and thermal cycle reliability. In this work Sn/0.7Cu/0.05Ni/Ge paste, manufactured by Nihon, was used to assembly various SMT packages and its assembly characteristics were studied. On a 60 mil thick board, land grid arrays (LGA), quad flatpack no lead (QFN) and resistors were assembled using SAC 305, SAC 105 and Nihon paste. Boards were also built using Sn-Pb paste to serve as a reference. Assembly characteristics of all the pastes were studied, identifying ideal parameters for successful surface mount technology (SMT) implementation. The assembled boards where subjected to accelerated thermal cycle testing from -55C to 125C, with 10 minutes dwells at high temperature, 5 minutes dwells at low temperature and 30 minutes ramps. The total cycle time was 90 minutes. The thermal cycle results as a function of both alloy and the package type were studied.
Impact of Clinical Trial Results on the Temporal Trends of Carotid Endarterectomy and Stenting From 2002 to 2014

Background and Purpose— Randomized trials provide conflicting data for the efficacy of carotid-artery stenting compared with endarterectomy. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of conflicting clinical trial publications on the utilization rates of carotid revascularization procedures. Methods— We conducted a population-level time-series analysis of all individuals who underwent carotid endarterectomy and stenting in Ontario, Canada (2002–2014). The primary analysis examined temporal changes in the rates of carotid revascularization procedures after publications of major randomized trials. Secondary analyses examined changes in overall and age, sex, carotid-artery symptom, and operator specialty–specific procedure rates. Results— A total of 16 772 patients were studied (14 394 endarterectomy [86%]; 2378 stenting [14%]). The overall rate of carotid revascularization decreased from 6.0 procedures per 100 000 individuals ≥40 years old in April 2002 to 4.3 procedures in the first quarter of 2014 (29% decrease; P<0.001). The rate of endarterectomy decreased by 36% (P<0.001), whereas the rate of carotid-artery stenting increased by 72% (P=0.006). We observed a marked increase (P=0.01) in stenting after publication of the SAPPHIRE trial (Stenting and Angioplasty With Protection in Patients at High Risk for Endarterectomy) in 2004, whereas stenting remained relatively unchanged after subsequent randomized trials published in 2006 (P=0.11) and 2010 (P=0.34). In contrast, endarterectomy decreased after trials published in 2006 (P=0.04) and 2010 (P=0.005). Conclusions— Although the overall rates of carotid revascularization and endarterectomy have fallen since 2002, the rate of carotid-artery stenting has risen since the publication of stenting-favorable SAPPHIRE trial. Subsequent conflicting randomized trials were associated with a decreasing rate of carotid endarterectomy.
Swimming attenuates inflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis in a rat model of dextran sulfate sodium-induced chronic colitis

Increasing evidence suggests that regular physical exercise suppresses chronic inflammation. However, the potential inhibitory effects of swimming on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced chronic colitis, and its underlying mechanisms, remain unclear. In this study, rats were orally administered DSS to induce chronic colitis, and subsequently treated with or without swimming exercise. A 7-week swimming program (1 or 1.5 hours per day, 5 days per week) ameliorated DSS-caused colon shortening, colon barrier disruption, spleen enlargement, serum LDH release, and reduction of body weight gain. Swimming for 1.5 hours per day afforded greater protection than 1 hour per day. Swimming ameliorated DSS-induced decrease in crypt depth, and increases in myeloperoxidase activity, infiltration of Ly6G+ neutrophils and TNF-a- and IFN-? -expressing CD3+ T cells, as well as fecal calprotectin and lactoferrin. Swimming inhibited pro-inflammatory cytokine and chemokine production and decreased the protein expression of phosphorylated nuclear factor-? B p65 and cyclooxygenase 2, whereas it elevated interleukin-10 levels. Swimming impeded the generation of reactive oxygen species, malondialdehyde, and nitric oxide; however, it boosted glutathione levels, total antioxidant capacity, and superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities. Additionally, swimming decreased caspase-3 activity and expression of apoptosis-inducing factor, cytochrome c, Bax, and cleaved-caspase-3, but increased Bcl-2 levels. Overall, these results suggest that swimming exerts beneficial effects on DSS-induced chronic colitis by modulating inflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis.
A social media intervention to improve hypoglycemia management at a multicenter hospital: a quality improvement pilot for clinical nurses*

Background: Hypoglycemia poses significant risk to inpatients. Nursing management of hypoglycemia is a challenge, despite established best practice guidelines. Social media is an effective tool for sharing information and could overcome barriers to clinical education at a multicenter hospital. Aims: The purpose of this quality improvement intervention was to create and disseminate social media posts about best practices in hypoglycemia management. Design: An unmatched pre-and post-survey assessed nursing knowledge of hypoglycemia management. Methods: Social media posts were created to visually outline the steps for hypoglycemia management over 2 weeks, across a nursing social media platform. We assessed the reach of the posts via Facebook and a survey. Results: The posts reached 2962 users during the first week, and 1491 users the second week. Conclusions: A social media intervention can have a substantial reach and distribute information across a multicenter hospital. Additional study is needed to determine what factors could support an increase in nursing knowledge through a social media campaign.
Microglial repopulation resolves inflammation and promotes brain recovery after injury

Microglia mediate chronic neuroinflammation following central nervous system (CNS) disease or injury, and in doing so, damage the local brain environment by impairing recovery and contributing to disease processes. Microglia are critically dependent on signaling through the colony‐stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) and can be eliminated via administration of CSF1R inhibitors. Resolving chronic neuroinflammation represents a universal goal for CNS disorders, but long‐term microglial elimination may not be amenable to clinical use. Notably, withdrawal of CSF1R inhibitors stimulates new microglia to fully repopulate the CNS, affording an opportunity to renew this cellular compartment. To that end, we have explored the effects of acute microglial elimination, followed by microglial repopulation, in a mouse model of extensive neuronal loss. Neuronal loss leads to a prolonged neuroinflammatory response, characterized by the presence of swollen microglia expressing CD68 and CD45, as well as elevated levels of cytokines, chemokines, complement, and other inflammatory signals. These collective responses are largely resolved by microglial repopulation. Furthermore, microglial repopulation promotes functional recovery in mice, with elevated plus maze performance matching that of uninjured mice, despite the loss of 80% of hippocampal neurons. Analyses of synaptic surrogates revealed increases in PSD95 and synaptophysin puncta with microglial repopulation, suggesting that these cells sculpt and regulate the synaptic landscape. Thus, our results show that short‐term microglial elimination followed by repopulation may represent a clinically feasible and novel approach to resolve neuroinflammatory events and promote brain recovery.
WEAKLY SUPERVISED SEGMENTATION-AIDED CLASSIFICATION OF URBAN SCENES FROM 3D LIDAR POINT CLOUDS

Abstract. We consider the problem of the semantic classification of 3D LiDAR point clouds obtained from urban scenes when the training set is limited. We propose a non-parametric segmentation model for urban scenes composed of anthropic objects of simple shapes, partionning the scene into geometrically-homogeneous segments which size is determined by the local complexity. This segmentation can be integrated into a conditional random field classifier (CRF) in order to capture the high-level structure of the scene. For each cluster, this allows us to aggregate the noisy predictions of a weakly-supervised classifier to produce a higher confidence data term. We demonstrate the improvement provided by our method over two publicly-available large-scale data sets.
Sex Disparities in Ischemic Stroke Care: FL-PR CReSD Study (Florida–Puerto Rico Collaboration to Reduce Stroke Disparities)

Background and Purpose— Sex-specific disparities in stroke care including thrombolytic therapy and early hospital admission are reported. In a large registry of Florida and Puerto Rico hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines—Stroke program, we sought to determine sex-specific differences in ischemic stroke performance metrics and overall thrombolytic treatment. Methods— Around 51 317 (49% women) patients were included from 73 sites from 2010 to 2014. Multivariable logistic regression with generalized estimating equations evaluated sex-specific differences in the prespecified Get With The Guidelines—Stroke metrics for defect-free care in ischemic stroke, adjusting for age, race-ethnicity, insurance status, hospital characteristics, individual risk factors, and the presenting stroke severity. Results— As compared with men, women were older (73±15 versus 69±14 years; P<0.0001), more hypertensive (67% versus 63%, P<0.0001), and had more atrial fibrillation (19% versus 16%; P<0.0001). Defect-free care was slightly lower in women than in men (odds ratio, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, 0.93–1.00). Temporal trends in defect-free care improved substantially and similarly for men and women, with a 29% absolute improvement in women (P<0.0001) and 28% in men (P<0.0001), with P value of 0.13 for time-by-sex interaction. Women were less likely to receive thrombolysis (odds ratio, 0.92; 95% confidence interval, 0.86–0.99; P=0.02) and less likely to have a door-to-needle time <1 hour (odds ratio, 0.83; 95% confidence interval, 0.71–0.97; P=0.02) as compared with men. Conclusions— Women received comparable stroke care to men in this registry as measured by prespecified Get With The Guidelines metrics. However, women less likely received thrombolysis and had door-to-needle time <1 hour, an observation that calls for the implementation of interventions to reduce sex disparity in these measures.
Beyond series-parallel concurrent systems: the case of arch processes

In this paper we focus on concurrent processes built on synchronization by means of futures. This concept is an abstraction for processes based on a main execution thread but allowing to delay some computations. The structure of a general concurrent process with futures is more or less a directed acyclic graph. Since the quantitative study of such increasingly labeled graphs (directly related to processes) seems out of reach, we restrict ourselves to the study of arch processes, a simplistic model of processes with futures. They are based on two parameters related to their sizes and their numbers of arches. The increasingly labeled structures seems not to be specifiable in the sense of Analytic Combinatorics, but we manage to derive a recurrence equation for the enumeration. For this model we first exhibit an exact and an asymptotic formula for the number of runs of a given process. The second main contribution is composed of an uniform random sampler algorithm and an unranking one that allow efficient generation and exhaustive enumeration of the runs of a given arch process.
Development of an encapsulated phase change material via emulsion and coaxial electrospinning

This article reports on the encapsulation of a phase change material (PCM) into a hydrophilic polymer, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH), by means of electrospinning. Different strategies were carried out to improve the thermal buffering capacity and the stability of the developed structures when they were exposed to different relative humidity (RH) conditions. On the one hand, the thermal energy storage capacity of PVOH/PCM structures obtained through emulsion electrospinning was optimized by using different amounts of polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaureate (Tween 20). Surfactant addition successfully increased the heat storage capacity of the developed structures, reaching an optimum performance at a concentration of 0.32% in weight with respect to the total emulsion weight. However, the hydrophilic nature of the developed structures made them extremely difficult to handle due to swelling with increasing RH. To avoid this issue an additional shell layer of poly(caprolactone) (PCL), was applied by coaxial electrospinning. In this case, the PVOH/PCM ratio (core) was optimized to reach the highest heat storage capacity per gram of sample and, then, a PCL solution was used as a shell material to hydrophobize the structures. The optimized coaxial electrospun structures were able to encapsulate about 82% of PCM. The use of both emulsion and coaxial electrospinning strategies are introduced here for the first time as advanced strategies to overcome application issues such as unintended migration and performance drop in the previously developed monophase materials. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43903.