Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Localized customized mortality prediction modeling for patients with acute kidney injury admitted to the intensive care unit

Introduction. Models for mortality prediction are traditionally developed from prospective multi-center observational studies involving a heterogeneous group of patients to optimize external validity. We hypothesize that local customized modeling using retrospective data from a homogeneous subset of patients will provide a more accurate prediction than this standard approach. We tested this hypothesis on patients admitted to the ICU with acute kidney injury (AKI), and evaluated variables from the first 72 hours of admission. Methods. The Multi-parameter Intelligent Monitoring for Intensive Care II (MIMIC II) is a database of patients admitted to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center ICU. Using the MIMIC II database, we identified patients who developed acute kidney injury and who survived at least 72 hours in the ICU. 118 variables were extracted from each patient. Second and third level customization of the Simplified Organ Failure Score (SAPS) was performed using logistic regression analysis and the best fitted models were compared in terms of Area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) and Hosmer-Lemeshow Goodness-of-Fit test (HL). The patient cohort was divided into a training and test data with a 70:30 split. Ten-fold cross-validation was performed on the training set for every combination of variables that were evaluated. The best fitted model from the cross-validation was then evaluated using the test set, and the AUC and the HL p value on the test set were reported. Results. A total of 1400 patients were included in the study. Of these, 970 survived and 430 died in the hospital (30.7% mortality). We observed progressive improvement in the performance of SAPS on this subset of patients (AUC=0.6419, HL p=0) with second level (AUC=0.6639, HL p=0.2056), and third level (AUC=0.7419, HL p=0.6738) customization. The best fitted model incorporated variables from the first 3 days of ICU admission. The variables that were most predictive of hospital mortality in the multivariate analysis are the maximum blood urea nitrogen and the minimum systolic blood pressure from the third day. Conclusion. A logistic regression model built using local data for patients with AKI performed better than SAPS, the current standard mortality prediction scoring system. Thesis Supervisor: Peter Szolovits, Ph,D. Title: Professor of Computer Science and Engineering & Health Sciences and Technology
Structure analysis of needle-punched nonwoven fabrics by X-ray computed tomography

Needle-punching conditions determine the structure of nonwoven fabrics and the structure determines their tensile properties. However, the structural parameters of nonwoven fabrics and the relationship between these parameters and tensile properties have not been quantitatively analyzed. Therefore, we analyzed the structure of needle-punched nonwoven fabrics by X-ray computed tomography (XCT). The relationships between the needle-punching conditions, tensile properties, and structural parameters, such as fiber-volume fraction and three-dimensional fiber orientation, were investigated. The fiber-volume fraction in the middle layer of the fabric was clearly larger than that of the bulk above a compression ratio of 1.4. With increasing needle penetration depth, the fibers tended to become oriented both parallel and perpendicular to the normal direction of the fabric plane while avoiding the intermediate direction. A linear relationship was found between the obtained volume fraction of fibers oriented in the normal direction and the tensile strength of the fabric. These results demonstrate that XCT image analysis is effective to evaluate the structure of needle-punched nonwoven fabrics and to design the properties of nonwoven fabrics.
Multimodal Prehabilitation Programs as a Bundle of Care in Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgery: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Prehabilitation reflects a proactive process of preoperative optimization undertaken between cancer diagnosis and definitive surgical treatment, with the intent of improving physiological capacity to withstand the major insult of surgery. Prehabilitation before GI cancer surgery is currently not widely adopted, and most research has focused on unimodal interventions such as exercise therapy, nutritional supplementation, and hematinic optimization. A review of the existing literature was undertaken to investigate the impact of multimodal prehabilitation programs as a “bundle of care. ” DATA SOURCE: A systematic literature search was performed utilizing Medline, PubMed, Embase, Cinahl, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases. STUDY SELECTION: The quality of studies was assessed by using the Cochrane tool for assessing risk of bias (randomized trials) and the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment scale (cohort studies). INTERVENTION: Studies were chosen that involved pre-operative optimization of patients before GI cancer surgery. MAIN OUTCOMES: The primary outcome measured was the impact of prehabilitation programs on preoperative fitness and postoperative outcomes. RESULTS: Of the 544 studies identified, 20 were included in the qualitative analysis. Two trials investigated the impact of multimodal prehabilitation (exercise, nutritional supplementation, anxiety management). Trials exploring prehabilitation with unimodal interventions included impact of exercise therapy (7 trials), impact of preoperative iron replacement (5 trials), nutritional optimization (5 trials), and impact of preoperative smoking cessation (2 trials). Compliance within the identified studies was variable (range: 16%–100%). LIMITATIONS: There is a lack of adequately powered trials that utilize objective risk stratification and uniform end points. As such, a meta-analysis was not performed because of the heterogeneity in study design. CONCLUSION: Although small studies are supportive of multimodal interventions, there are insufficient data to make a conclusion about the integration of prehabilitation in GI cancer surgery as a bundle of care. Larger, prospective trials, utilizing uniform objective risk stratification and structured interventions, with predefined clinical and health economic end points, are required before definitive value can be assigned to prehabilitation programs.
The distinct interaction between cell cycle regulation and the widely conserved morphogenesis-related (MOR) pathway in the fungus Ustilago maydis determines morphology

Summary The morphogenesis-related NDR kinase (MOR) pathway regulates morphogenesis in fungi. In spite of the high conservation of its components, impairing their functions results in highly divergent cellular responses depending on the fungal species. The reasons for such differences are unclear. Here we propose that the species-specific connections between cell cycle regulation and the MOR pathway could be partly responsible for these divergences. We based our conclusion on the characterization of the MOR pathway in the fungus Ustilago maydis. Each gene that encodes proteins of this pathway in U. maydis was deleted. All mutants exhibited a constitutive hyperpolarized growth, contrasting with the loss of polarity observed in other fungi. Using a conditional allele of the central NDR kinase Ukc1, we found that impairing MOR function resulted in a prolonged G2 phase. This cell cycle delay appears to be the consequence of an increase in Cdk1 inhibitory phosphorylation. Strikingly, prevention of the inhibitory Cdk1 phosphorylation abolished the hyperpolarized growth associated with MOR pathway depletion. We found that the prolonged G2 phase resulted in higher levels of expression of crk1, a conserved kinase that promotes polar growth in U. maydis. Deletion of crk1 also abolished the dramatic activation of polar growth in cells lacking the MOR pathway. Taken together, our results suggest that Cdk1 inhibitory phosphorylation may act as an integrator of signaling cascades regulating fungal morphogenesis and that the distinct morphological response observed in U. maydis upon impairment of the MOR pathway could be due to a cell cycle deregulation.
Radiation dose estimation of patients undergoing lumbar spine radiography

Radiation dose to organs of 100 adult patients undergoing lumbar spine (LS) radiography at a University Hospital have been assessed. Free in air kerma measurement using an ionization chamber was used for the patient dosimetry. Organ and effective dose to the patients were estimated using PCXMC (version 1.5) software. The organs that recorded significant dose due to LS radiography were lungs, stomach, liver, adrenals, kidney, pancreas, spleen, galbladder, and the heart. It was observed that the stomach recorded the highest dose (48.2 ± 1.2 μGy) for LS anteroposterior (AP). The spleen also recorded the highest dose (41.2 ± 0.5 μGy) for LS lateral (LAT). The mean entrance surface air kerma (ESAK) of LS LAT (122.2 μGy) was approximately twice that of LS AP (76.3 μGy), but the effective dose for both examinations were approximately the same (LS LAT = 8.6 μSv and LS AP = 10.4 μSv). The overall stochastic health effect of radiation to patients due to LS radiography in the University Hospital is independent of the projection of the examination (AP or LAT).
Requirements for synaptically evoked plateau potentials in relay cells of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the mouse

Non‐technical summary In the developing visual system, spontaneous retinal activity plays an important role in the refinement of retinal ganglion cell projections to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of thalamus. How such changes are implemented remains unknown. Recordings of post‐synaptic dLGN cell activity suggest that plateau‐like, L‐type Ca2+ channel‐mediated depolarizations figure prominently in remodelling. Plateaus are developmentally regulated and their incidence is controlled by the changing patterns of excitatory and inhibitory connections onto dLGN cells. At early ages there is a high degree of retinal convergence, and excitatory post‐synaptic events summate to produce depolarizations sufficient to activate plateaus. As these excitatory inputs are pruned and inhibitory connections emerge, the net excitatory drive is reduced and plateaus wane. Additionally, L‐type channels are highly expressed at young ages, and subunit disruptions resulting in decreased expression also affect the incidence of plateaus. These studies help elucidate the mechanisms underlying activity‐dependent refinement of sensory connections.
On the Spectrum of the Equivariant Cohomology Ring

Abstract If an algebraic torus $T$ acts on a complex projective algebraic variety $X$ , then the affine scheme $\text{Spec}\,H_{T}^{*}\left( X;\,\mathbb{C} \right)$ associated with the equivariant cohomology is often an arrangement of linear subspaces of the vector space $H_{2}^{T}\left( X;\,\mathbb{C} \right)$ . In many situations the ordinary cohomology ring of $X$ can be described in terms of this arrangement.
Use of information feedback and attentional focus of feedback in treating the person with a hemiplegic arm.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Feedback about motor performance can induce either an internal focus of attention (about body movement) or an external focus of attention (about the effects on the environment) in the learner. The main aim of this pilot study was to examine the attentional focus of feedback given by physiotherapists during treatment of the hemiplegic arm. A second aim was to examine the frequency of feedback about motor performance during treatment. METHOD A multi-methods design was used (quantitative and qualitative). Eight physiotherapists and eight patients with stroke were recruited from two hospitals. Data were collected by video recordings of treatment, interviews (both therapists and patients) and questionnaire (therapists). Information feedback, instructions and motivational statements were identified from the video recordings. Feedback and instructions were further grouped into internal focus, external focus or mixed focus of attention. Themes were drawn from the interview transcripts. Triangulation was used to provide corroborating information from the different data sets. RESULTS Two hundred and forty-six of the total 1914 statements identified in the videos were feedback, the rest comprising instructions and statements of motivation. Of the feedback statements, 236 of the total 247 identified had an internal focus. Therapist interviews and questionnaires revealed more external focus communication than actual treatment. CONCLUSIONS Physiotherapists used instructions and statements of motivation more than feedback and directed the patient's attention more to body movement than movement effects. The outcome of this study may prompt clinicians' to examine the amount and the attentional focus of the feedback they use in their clinical practice, and to consider whether it is a most effective approach in light of current evidence.
Residual substance P levels after capsaicin treatment correlate with tendon repair

The aim of the study was to assess healing after capsaicin‐induced substance P (SP) depletion during rat Achilles tendon repair by biomechanical testing. Capsaicin treatment reduced the concentrations of SP by ∼60% and calcitonin gene‐related peptide by ∼40% as compared with the control group, as assessed by radioimmunoassay in the dorsal root ganglia, at 1 and 4 weeks post‐tendon rupture. Also, the peripheral neuronal presence of SP and calcitonin gene‐related peptide, as assessed by immunohistochemistry, was lower at both weeks 1 and 4. The decreased peripheral neuronal presence of SP at week 1 correlated with the corresponding levels in the dorsal root ganglia (r = 0.54, p = 0.018). The reduced presence of SP/calcitonin gene‐related peptide after capsaicin treatment was verified by a decreased sensitivity to painful mechanical and thermal stimuli (p < 0.05). Correlation analyses between individual residual SP levels and biomechanical tissue properties were performed because of differences in failure mode between the groups and high individual variations in the SP levels after capsaicin treatment. Thus, the residual SP levels in the dorsal root ganglia correlated with transverse area, ultimate tensile strength, and stress at failure (r = 0.39, p = 0.036; r = 0.53, p = 0.005; and r = 0.43, p = 0.023, respectively). Furthermore, individual pain sensitivity at week 2 correlated with peripheral occurrence of SP and was correlated with tensile strength and stress at failure (r = 0.89, p = 0.006 and r = 0.78, p = 0.015) at week 4.
[Ventilator weaning].

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Identification of Multiple Rate-limiting Steps during the Human Mitochondrial Transcription Cycle in Vitro*

We have reconstituted human mitochondrial transcription in vitro on DNA oligonucleotide templates representing the light strand and heavy strand-1 promoters using protein components (RNA polymerase and transcription factors A and B2) isolated from Escherichia coli. We show that 1 eq of each transcription factor and polymerase relative to the promoter is required to assemble a functional initiation complex. The light strand promoter is at least 2-fold more efficient than the heavy strand-1 promoter, but this difference cannot be explained solely by the differences in the interaction of the transcription machinery with the different promoters. In both cases, the rate-limiting step for production of the first phosphodiester bond is open complex formation. Open complex formation requires both transcription factors; however, steps immediately thereafter only require transcription factor B2. The concentration of nucleotide required for production of the first dinucleotide product is substantially higher than that required for subsequent cycles of nucleotide addition. In vitro, promoter-specific differences in post-initiation control of transcription exist, as well as a second rate-limiting step that controls conversion of the transcription initiation complex into a transcription elongation complex. Rate-limiting steps of the biochemical pathways are often those that are targeted for regulation. Like the more complex multisubunit transcription systems, multiple steps may exist for control of transcription in human mitochondria. The tools and mechanistic framework presented here will facilitate not only the discovery of mechanisms regulating human mitochondrial transcription but also interrogation of the structure, function, and mechanism of the complexes that are regulated during human mitochondrial transcription.
Carrier-Sense Protocols for Packet-Switched Smart Antenna Basestations

Studies have considered the possible performance improvements when smart antennas are used in packet-switched data networks [1, 2, 3]. This work has included systems which operate using various ALOHA, polling, and reservation-based protocols. Recently however, a single-beam system was described which uses a smart antenna basestation to communicate with a set of stations using a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) protocol [4]. In this system, performance improvements are obtained by having the antenna dynamically point pattern nulls in the direction of interfering stations, thus reducing the effects of channel collisions.In this paper, we consider the performance of CSMA systems where stations access a smart antenna basestation using multibeam SDMA. As in other SDMA networks, the objective is for the basestation to transmit or receive multiple packets simultaneously. A basic CSMA/SDMA protocol is proposed for this purpose. Note that unlike conventional systems, the CSMA objective of isolating a single successful transmission is not desirable. Instead, our protocol uses carrier-sensing to synchronize various smart antenna operations. In this paper we also present a more sophisticated CSMA/SDMA protocol which incorporates novel basestation/portable signalling which mitigates the effects of hidden stations. The proposed mechanism takes into account the transient connectivity of such systems using the coherence time of the channel as an operating parameter. The performance of these systems is characterized and compared using analytical throughput/capacity models and mean delay simulations. It is shown that when hidden station effects are present, the capacity performance of the more sophisticated protocol may be much higher than that of the basic version.
AI techniques for the game of Go

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A Bidirectional Inductive Power Interface for Electric Vehicles in V2G Systems

Demand for supplying contactless or wireless power for various applications, ranging from low-power biomedical implants to high-power battery charging systems, is on the rise. Inductive power transfer (IPT) is a well recognized technique through which power can be transferred from one system to another with no physical contacts. This paper presents a novel bidirectional IPT system, which is particularly suitable for applications such as plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems, where two-way power transfer is advantageous. The proposed IPT system facilitates simultaneous and controlled charging or discharging of multiple EVs through loose magnetic coupling and without any physical connections. A mathematical model is presented to show that both the amount and direction of power flow between EVs or multiple systems can be controlled through either phase or/and magnitude modulation of voltages generated by converters of each system. The validity of the concept is verified by theoretical analysis, simulations, and experimental results of a 1.5-kW prototype bidirectional IPT system with a 4-cm air gap. Results indicate that the proposed system is an ideal power interface for efficient and contactless integration of multiple hybrid or EVs into typical power networks.
Mortality traps and the dynamics of health transitions

An examination of life expectancy in 1963 reveals twin peaks in the empirical distribution across countries: one group of countries clustered around a life expectancy of 40 years and a second group clustered around a life expectancy of 65 years. By 2003, the mode of each cluster had moved up by ≈10 years. Although the two groups are similar in that within each of them, there is progress toward higher life expectancy, a number of countries appear to have made the jump from the high-mortality cluster to the low-mortality cluster. We reject the hypothesis that these changes reflect a simple convergence process. The data instead suggest continuous advances among many countries within clusters, with advances in life expectancy in some nations resulting in a jump from one cluster to the other.
EFFECT OF INHIBITORS ON THE RESPIRATION AND STORAGE OF COTTONSEED.

One of the earliest attempts to apply chemical treatment as a means of inhibiting the heating and lipolysis of cottonseed during storage was made by Barrow (4), who used sodium chloride as the effective chemical agent. The application of 5 per cent, of sodium chloride to moist cottonseed had a twofold effect. First, as a result of the high salt concentration outside the seeds, considerable moisture was withdrawn from within. Secondly, small quantities of the salt which diffused into the seed inhibited the biological processes responsible for heating and lipolysis. Malowan (17) found that sodium chloride likewise decreased the rate of evolution of carbon dioxide from moist cottonseed and that alcohol, acetic acid, sulphuric acid, and formalin inhibited respiration. He found that certain disinfectants, such as copper sulphate and mercuric chloride, had no effect on the rate of respiration and concluded, therefore, that the carbon dioxide evolution observed under his experimental conditions was caused not by the action of micro-organisms but rather by the action of enzyme systems operating in the seed.