Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Completeness of Revascularization on Long‐term Outcome of Patients With Three‐Vessel Disease Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A Report From the Coronary Artery Surgery Study (CASS) Registry

BackgroundComplete revascularization after coronary artery bypass surgery is a logical goal and improves symptomatic outcome and survival. However, the impact of complete revascularization in patients with three-vessel coronary disease with varying severities of angina and left ventricular dysfunction has not been clearly defined. Methods and ResultsThe study was performed as a retrospective analysis of 3,372 nonrandomized surgical patients from the Coronary Artery Surgery Study (CASS) Registry who had three-vessel coronary disease. Group 1 (894 patients) had class I or II angina (Canadian Cardiovascular Society criteria) and group 2 (2,478 patients) had class III or IV angina. In group 1, adjusted cumulative 4-year survivals according to the number of vessels bypassed were 85% (one vessel), 94% (two vessels), 96% (three vessels), and 96% (more than three vessels) (log rank, p = 0.022). Adjusted event-free survival (death, myocardial infarction, definite angina, or reoperation) was not influenced by the number of vessels bypassed, nor was the anginal status among patients remaining alive after 5 years. In group 2, adjusted cumulative 5-year survivals were 78% (one vessel), 85% (two vessels), 90% (three vessels), and 87% (more than three vessels) (log rank, p = 0.074). Adjusted event-free survivals after 6 years were 23% (one vessel), 23% (two vessels), 29% (three vessels), and 31% (more than three vessels) (p = 0.025); at 5 years, those with more complete revascularization were more likely to be asymptomatic or free of severe angina. Among group 2 patients with ejection fractions < 0.35, 6-year survival was 69% for those with grafts to three or more vessels versus 45% for those with grafts to two vessels (p = 0.04). Placing grafts to three or more vessels was independently associated with improved survival and event-free survival in group 2 but not group 1 patients. The case–fatality rates among 529 patients experiencing a myocardial infarction during follow-up was significantly higher for patients with less complete revascularization. ConclusionsComplete revascularization (grafts to three or more vessels) in patients with three-vessel coronary disease appears to most benefit those with severe angina and left ventricular dysfunction.
On Hair Recognition in the Wild by Machine

We present an algorithm for identity verification using only information from the hair. Face recognition in the wild (i.e., unconstrained settings) is highly useful in a variety of applications, but performance suffers due to many factors, e.g., obscured face, lighting variation, extreme pose angle, and expression. It is well known that humans utilize hair for identification under many of these scenarios due to either the consistent hair appearance of the same subject or obvious hair discrepancy of different subjects, but little work exists to replicate this intelligence artificially. We propose a learned hair matcher using shape, color, and texture features derived from localized patches through an AdaBoost technique with abstaining weak classifiers when features are not present in the given location. The proposed hair matcher achieves 71.53% accuracy on the LFW View 2 dataset. Hair also reduces the error of a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) face matcher through simple score-level fusion by 5.7%.
Proportion of Patients Treated With Thrombolysis in a Centralized Versus a Decentralized Acute Stroke Care Setting

Background and Purpose— Today, treatment of acute stroke consists of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), admission to a stroke unit, and aspirin. Although tPA treatment is the most effective, there is substantial undertreatment. Centralized care may affect rate, timing, and outcome of thrombolysis compared to decentralized treatment in community hospitals. The present study aimed to assess the impact of organizational models on the proportion of patients undergoing tPA treatment. Methods— A prospective, multicenter, observational study among 13 hospitals in the North of the Netherlands was conducted. In the centralized model, tPA treatment for 4 hospitals was administered in 1 stroke center. The decentralized model comprised 9 community hospitals. Primary outcome was the proportion of patients treated with tPA. Secondary outcome measures were proportion of patients arriving within 4.5 hours, safety, 90-day functional outcome, and onset-to-door, door-to-needle, and onset-to-needle times. Potential confounders were adjusted using logistic regression analysis. Results— Two hundred eighty-three and 801 ischemic stroke patients were enrolled in the centralized and decentralized settings. Numbers of patients treated with tPA were 62 (21.9%) and 113 (14.1%) (OR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.22–2.43). Adjusting for potential confounders did not alter results (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.39–2.96). In the centralized setting, significantly more patients arrived at the hospital within the 4.5-hour time window (P<0.01), and shorter door-to-needle times were reached (35 versus 47 minutes). Other secondary outcome measures did not differ across setting. Conclusions— In a centralized setting, the results demonstrate a 50% increased likelihood of treatment. Prehospital factors seem to contribute to this result.
Nocturnal non-invasive nasal ventilation in stable hypercapnic COPD: a randomised controlled trial

Background: Sleep hypoventilation has been proposed as a cause of progressive hypercapnic respiratory failure and death in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A study was undertaken to determine the effects of nocturnal non-invasive bi-level pressure support ventilation (NIV) on survival, lung function and quality of life in patients with severe hypercapnic COPD. Method: A multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial of NIV plus long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) versus LTOT alone was performed in four Australian University Hospital sleep/respiratory medicine departments in patients with severe stable smoking-related COPD (forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1.0) <1.5 litres or <50% predicted and ratio of FEV1.0 to forced vital capacity (FVC) <60% with awake arterial carbon dioxide tension (Paco2) >46 mm Hg and on LTOT for at least 3 months) and age <80 years. Patients with sleep apnoea (apnoea-hypopnoea index >20/h) or morbid obesity (body mass index >40) were excluded. Outcome measures were survival, spirometry, arterial blood gases, polysomnography, general and disease-specific quality of life and mood. Results: 144 patients were randomised (72 to NIV + LTOT and 72 to LTOT alone). NIV improved sleep quality and sleep-related hypercapnia acutely, and patients complied well with therapy (mean (SD) nightly use 4.5 (3.2) h). Compared with LTOT alone, NIV (mean follow-up 2.21 years, range 0.01–5.59) showed an improvement in survival with the adjusted but not the unadjusted Cox model (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.63, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.99, p = 0.045; unadjusted HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.53 to 1.25, p = NS). FEV1.0 and Paco2 measured at 6 and 12 months were not different between groups. Patients assigned to NIV + LTOT had reduced general and mental health and vigour. Conclusions: Nocturnal NIV in stable oxygen-dependent patients with hypercapnic COPD may improve survival, but this appears to be at the cost of worsening quality of life. Trial registration number: ACTRN12605000205639
Suppression of T-Lymphocyte Activation and Chemotaxis by the Adenylate Cyclase Toxin of Bordetella pertussis

ABSTRACT The adenylate cyclase toxin (CyaA) released by Bordetella pertussis is an essential virulence factor for colonization of the host. This toxin inhibits migration and activation of phagocytes, thereby preventing bacterial killing. In addition, CyaA interferes with the initiation of adaptive immunity by misdirecting dendritic cell differentiation to a suppressive rather than stimulatory phenotype. Here we show that CyaA directly affects adaptive responses by catalyzing cyclic AMP (cAMP) production in peripheral blood lymphocytes. Treatment with CyaA resulted in profound impairment of T-lymphocyte activation and chemotaxis. These effects resulted from inhibition of T-cell antigen receptor and chemokine receptor signaling via a cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent pathway. A comparison of the activities of CyaA on T-cell and macrophage activation and migration revealed that the biological effects of the toxin were paralleled by inhibition of the activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases, highlighting the conclusion that the ubiquitous and evolutionarily conserved MAP kinase modules are common targets of the PKA-mediated immunosuppressant activities of CyaA and underlining the potential of cAMP-elevating toxins as a means of evasion of immunity by bacterial pathogens.
Preliminary Findings on the Experimental Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease Agent of Mule Deer to Cattle

To determine the transmissibility of chronic wasting disease (CWD) to cattle and to provide information about clinical course, lesions, and suitability of currently used diagnostic procedures for detection of CWD in cattle, 13 calves were inoculated intracerebrally with brain suspension from mule deer naturally affected with CWD. Between 24 and 27 months postinoculation, 3 animals became recumbent and were euthanized. Gross necropsies revealed emaciation in 2 animals and a large pulmonary abscess in the third. Brains were examined for protease-resistant prion protein (PrPres) by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting and for scrapie-associated fibrils (SAFs) by negative-stain electron microscopy. Microscopic lesions in the brain were subtle in 2 animals and absent in the third case. However, all 3 animals were positive for PrPres by immunohistochemistry and Western blot, and SAFs were detected in 2 of the animals. An uninoculated control animal euthanized during the same period did not have PrPres in its brain. These are preliminary observations from a currently in-progress experiment. Three years after the CWD challenge, the 10 remaining inoculated cattle are alive and apparently healthy. These preliminary findings demonstrate that diagnostic techniques currently used for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) surveillance would also detect CWD in cattle should it occur naturally.
Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion

We used positron emission tomography to study neural mechanisms underlying intensely pleasant emotional responses to music. Cerebral blood flow changes were measured in response to subject-selected music that elicited the highly pleasurable experience of “shivers-down-the-spine” or “chills. ” Subjective reports of chills were accompanied by changes in heart rate, electromyogram, and respiration. As intensity of these chills increased, cerebral blood flow increases and decreases were observed in brain regions thought to be involved in reward/motivation, emotion, and arousal, including ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex. These brain structures are known to be active in response to other euphoria-inducing stimuli, such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse. This finding links music with biologically relevant, survival-related stimuli via their common recruitment of brain circuitry involved in pleasure and reward.
Investigating the effects of an acute dose of benzylpiperazine (BZP) and trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP) alone and in combination on the human brain using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

i Acknowledgements . ii List of Figures . vii List of Tables . ix Glossary . x Problems and Aims . 1 Thesis Outline . 3 Chapter 1: Introduction . 5 1.1. BZP and TFMPP . 5 1.1.1. What, Where and Who? 5 1.1.2. Benzylpiperazine (BZP): What We Know So Far . 6 1.1. 3. Trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP) . 7 1.1. 4. BZP and TFMPP Combined . 8 1.2. Recreational Drug Use . 9 1.2.
Psychopathology and cognition

Conceptual and Methodological Issues: P C Kendall and K.S. Dobson, On the Nature of Cognition and Its Role in Psychopathology. Z V. Segal and M Cloitre, Methodologies for Studying Cognitive Features of Emotional Disorder. Specific Disorders: M Dombeck and R. Ingram, Cognitive Conceptions of Anxiety. R. Ackennann-Engel and R. DeRubeis, The Role of Cognition in Depression. G. Pancyr and M Genest, Cognition and Pain Expenience. S. Miller and A. O'Leary, Cognition, Stress, and Health. K.B. Vitousek and L. Orimoto, Cognitive-Behavioural Models of Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosal and Obesity. M.S. Goldman and B.C. Rather, Substance Use Disorders: Cognitive Models and Architecture. J.P. Vewman and J.F Wallace, Psychopathy and Cognition. V. Epstein and D.H. Baucom, Cognitive Factors in Marital Disturbance, P.C Kendall and J.P. MacDonald, Cognition in the Psychopathology of Youth and Implications for Treatment. R.A. Steffy, Cognitive Deficits in Schizophrenia. Integration and Future Directions: Future Trends for Research and Theory in Cognition and Psychotherapy.
Identification and Comparative Analysis of Multiple Mammalian Speedy/Ringo Proteins

In addition to their activation via binding to cyclins, cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs)can be activated via binding to a novel cell cycle regulator termed Speedy or Ringo, whichshows no apparent similarity to cyclins. The first Speedy/Ringo protein was found to beessential for Xenopus oocyte maturation and a human homolog (Spy1, herein calledSpeedy/Ringo A1) regulates S-phase entry and cell survival after DNA damage in culturedsomatic cells. We have identified a Speedy/Ringo-like gene in the most primitive branchingclade of chordates (Ciona intestinalis), as well as four mammalian homologs. Of the mammalianproteins, two, Speedy/Ringo A and C, bind to Cdc2 and Cdk2, whereas Speedy/Ringo B bindspreferentially to Cdc2. Despite their distinct CDK-binding preferences, both Speedy/Ringo Aand B can promote the maturation of Xenopus oocytes and all three Speedy/Ringo proteins canbind to and activate CDKs in vivo. These mammalian Speedy/Ringo proteins exhibit distincttissue expression patterns, though all three are enriched in testis, consistent with the initialobservation that Xenopus Speedy/Ringo functions during meiosis. Speedy/Ringo A is widelyexpressed in tissues and cell lines. Speedy/Ringo B expression appears to be testis-specific.Speedy/Ringo C is expressed in diverse tissues, particularly those that undergo polyploidization.All Speedy/Ringo proteins share a highly conserved ~140-aa domain we term the Speedy/Ringobox that is essential for CDK binding. Point mutations in this domain abolish CDK binding.Besides the central Speedy/Ringo box, Speedy/Ringo A contains a C-terminal portion, whichpromotes CDK activation, and an N-terminal portion, which is dispersible for both CDK bindingand activation but that influences protein expression. The existence of this growing family ofCDK activators suggests that Speedy/Ringo proteins may play as complex a role in cell cyclecontrol as the diverse family of cyclins.
Practical Incentive Techniques for Wireless Community Networks

In metropolitan areas, public infrastructures for high-speed wireless networking can be built through the private contributions of individual “micro-operators” who use their Internet-connected Wireless LANs (WLANs) to forward foreign traffic from and to nearby low-mobility clients. We have designed a practical WLAN aggregation scheme that (1) assumes that micro-operators are selfish and do not trust each other and uses a secure incentive technique to encourage their contribution; (2) protects the real-world identities of micro-operators and clients by relying only on disposable opaque identifiers (public keys); (3) is fully distributed, open to all, and does not rely on any authority to resolve disputes or to control membership; (4) is automated, using standard hardware and software we developed for some of the main available platforms (Linux-based WLAN access points and Windows Mobile-based cell phones).
Genetic Algorithms, Noise, and the Sizing of Populations

This paper considers the effect of stochasticity on the quality of convergence of genetic algorithms (GAs). In many problems, the variance of building-block fitness or so-called collateral noise is the major source of variance, and a population-sizing equation is derived to ensure that average signal-to-collateral-noise ratios are favorable to the discrimination of the best building blocks required to solve a problem of bounded deception. The sizing relation is modified to permit the inclusion of other sources of stochasticity, such as the noise of selection, the noise of genetic operators, and the explicit noise or nondeterminism of the objective function. In a test suite of five functions, the sizing relation proves to be a conservative predictor of average correct convergence, as long as all major sources of noise are considered in the sizing calculation. These results suggest how the sizing equation may be viewed as a coarse delineation of a boundary between what a physicist might call two distinct phases of GA behavior. At low population sizes the GA makes many errors of decision, and the quality of convergence is largely left to the vagaries of chance or the serial fixup of flawed results through mutation or other serial injection of diversity. At large population sizes, GAs can reliably discriminate between good and bad building blocks, and parallel processing and recombination of building blocks lead to quick solution of even difficult deceptive problems. Additionally, the paper outlines a number of extensions to this work, including the development of more refined models of the relation between generational average error and ultimate convergence quality, the development of online methods for sizing populations via the estimation of populations via the estimation of population-sizing parameters, and the investigation of populationsizing in the context of niching and other schemes designed for use in problems with high cardinality solution sets. The paper also discusses how these results may one day lead to rigorous proofs of convergence for recombinative G As operating on problems of bounded description.
Afrocentricity, The Theory Of Social Change

Discussed in this cross-disciplinary work is the theory of 'Afrocentricity', which mandates that Africans be viewed as subjects rather than objects and is driven by the question: Is it in the best interest of African people? This book looks at how this philosophy, ethos, and worldview gives Africans a better understanding of how to interpret issues affecting their communities. History, psychology, sociology, literature, economics, and education are explored, including discussions on Washingtonianism, Garveyism, Du Bois, Malcolm X, race and identity, Marxism, and breakthrough strategies.
Antecedents and moderators of brand trust in the context of baby care toiletries

Purpose – This paper aims to empirically examine the distinct antecedents of cognitive and affective brand trust in the context of baby care toiletry brands. Further, the moderating role of the mother’s personality traits on the relationship between brand trust and its antecedents is investigated. Design/methodology/approach – The study methodology involves two phases: exploratory and descriptive. The exploratory phase, with the support of a focused literature review, results in a theoretical framework that is later validated through the survey-based empirical phase. Findings – The study finds that brand predictability and brand innovativeness are antecedents of cognitive brand trust, whereas brand intimacy is a driver of affective brand trust. The study confirms that agreeableness positively moderates the relationship between brand intimacy and affective brand trust, whereas conscientiousness positively moderates the relationship between brand predictability and cognitive brand trust. Practical implicati.
Multilingual discriminative lexicalized phrase structure parsing

We provide a generalization of discriminative lexicalized shift reduce parsing techniques for phrase structure grammar to a wide range of morphologically rich languages. The model is efficient and outperforms recent strong baselines on almost all languages considered. It takes advantage of a dependency based modelling of morphology and a shallow modelling of constituency boundaries.
Chenopodium polyploidy inferences from Salt Overly Sensitive 1 (SOS1) data.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Single-copy nuclear loci can provide powerful insights into polyploid evolution. Chenopodium (Amaranthaceae) is a globally distributed genus composed of approximately 50-75 species. The genus includes several polyploid species, some of which are considered noxious agricultural weeds, and a few are domesticated crops. Very little research has addressed their evolutionary origin to date. We construct a phylogeny for Chenopodium based on two introns of the single-copy nuclear locus Salt Overly Sensitive 1 (SOS1) to clarify the relationships among the genomes of the allotetraploid and allohexaploid species, and to help identify their genome donors. METHODS Diploid species were sequenced directly, whereas homeologous sequences of polyploid genomes were first separated by plasmid-mediated cloning. Data were evaluated in maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses. KEY RESULTS Homeologous sequences of polyploid species were found in four clades, which we designate as A-D. Two distinct polyploid lineages were identified: one composed of American tetraploid species with A and B class homeologs and a second composed of Eastern Hemisphere hexaploid species with B, C, and D class homeologs. CONCLUSIONS We infer that the two polyploid lineages arose independently and that each lineage may have originated only once. The American diploid, C. standleyanum, was identified as the closest living diploid relative of the A genome donor for American tetraploids, including domesticated C. quinoa, and is of potential importance for quinoa breeding. The east Asian diploid species, C. bryoniifolium, groups with American diploid species, which suggests a transoceanic dispersal.