Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical indications for antibiotic use in Danish general practice: results from a nationwide electronic prescription database

Abstract Objective: To assess the availability and applicability of clinical indications from electronic prescriptions on antibiotic use in Danish general practice. Design: Retrospective cohort register-based study including the Danish National Prescription Register. Setting: Population-based study of routine electronic antibiotic prescriptions from Danish general practice. Subjects: All 975,626 patients who redeemed an antibiotic prescription at outpatient pharmacies during the 1-year study period (July 2012 to June 2013). Main outcome measures: Number of prescriptions per clinical indication. Number of antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 inhabitants by age and gender. Logistic regression analysis estimated the association between patient and provider factors and missing clinical indications on antibiotic prescriptions. Results: A total of 2.381. 083 systemic antibiotic prescriptions were issued by Danish general practitioners in the study period. We identified three main clinical entities: urinary tract infections (n = 506.634), respiratory tract infections (n = 456.354) and unspecified infections (n = 416.354). Women were more exposed to antibiotics than men. Antibiotic use was high in children under 5 years and even higher in elderly people. In 32% of the issued prescriptions, the clinical indication was missing. This was mainly associated with antibiotic types. We found that a prescription for a urinary tract agent without a specific clinical indication was uncommon. Conclusion: Clinical indications from electronic prescriptions are accessible and available to provide an overview of drug use, in casu antibiotic prescriptions, in Danish general practice. These clinical indications may be further explored in detail to assess rational drug use and congruence with guidelines, but validation and optimisation of the system is preferable.
Optimization and validation of automated hippocampal subfield segmentation across the lifespan

Automated segmentation of hippocampal (HC) subfields from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is gaining popularity, but automated procedures that afford high speed and reproducibility have yet to be extensively validated against the standard, manual morphometry. We evaluated the concurrent validity of an automated method for hippocampal subfields segmentation (automated segmentation of hippocampal subfields, ASHS; Yushkevich et al., ) using a customized atlas of the HC body, with manual morphometry as a standard. We built a series of customized atlases comprising the entorhinal cortex (ERC) and subfields of the HC body from manually segmented images, and evaluated the correspondence of automated segmentations with manual morphometry. In samples with age ranges of 6–24 and 62–79 years, 20 participants each, we obtained validity coefficients (intraclass correlations, ICC) and spatial overlap measures (dice similarity coefficient) that varied substantially across subfields. Anterior and posterior HC body evidenced the greatest discrepancies between automated and manual segmentations. Adding anterior and posterior slices for atlas creation and truncating automated output to the ranges manually defined by multiple neuroanatomical landmarks substantially improved the validity of automated segmentation, yielding ICC above 0.90 for all subfields and alleviating systematic bias. We cross‐validated the developed atlas on an independent sample of 30 healthy adults (age 31–84) and obtained good to excellent agreement: ICC (2) = 0.70–0.92. Thus, with described customization steps implemented by experts trained in MRI neuroanatomy, ASHS shows excellent concurrent validity, and can become a promising method for studying age‐related changes in HC subfield volumes.
Nitrogen Removal from an Aerobically Digested Domestic Wastewater using Anoxic/Oxic (A/O) Reactor Packed with Non-woven Filter Materials

This study examined the removal of nitrogen from domestic wastewater through the application of anoxic/oxic (A/O) bio-reactor system. Influent and effluent samples were collected from the system and tested. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), NH 4 +-N and NO 3 - -N were analyzed. Different hydraulic retention time (HRT) and recycle ratios were applied to assess its influence on removal efficiency of the reactor. The temperature was controlled between 20 to 24 o C and pH was 7.7 – 8.2. The result revealed average COD removal efficiencies of 72.1%, average removal of NH4 + -N and NO3 -N was 92% and 54% respectively. The result obtained reflects that, the A/O reactor is suitable and efficient in nitrogen removal.
Long-term outcomes of mitral valve annuloplasty versus subvalvular sparing replacement for severe ischemic mitral regurgitation

Background Although practice guidelines recommend surgery for patients with severe chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation (CIMR), they do not specify whether to repair or replace the mitral valve. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcomes in patients with severe CIMR undergoing mitral valve annuloplasty (MVA) versus subvalvular sparing mitral valve replacement (MVR). Methods 392 consecutive patients who underwent MVA or subvalvular sparing MVR for treatment of severe CIMR were retrospectively reviewed. Results After adjustment for baseline differences with multivariable regression analysis at 53 months follow-up (interquartile range, 34–81 months), there was no significant difference between the two groups for risk of major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events (MACCE), cardiac death, or all-cause death. Propensity score matching extracted 77 pairs. During the follow-up, compared with the MVR group, both the left atrium and left ventricle end-diastolic diameter were markedly larger (p = 0.013 and p = 0.033, respectively), and the incidence of mitral regurgitation recurrence was significantly higher in the MVA group (p < 0.001). No significant difference was observed between the two propensity score-matched groups in composite in-hospital outcomes, overall survival, freedom from cardiac death or MACCE, except subvalvular sparing MVR was associated with a lower incidence of hospitalization for heart failure than MVA (p = 0.015). Conclusions Subvalvular sparing MVR is a suitable management of patients with severe CIMR, it is more favorable to ventricular remodeling and is associated with a lower incidence of hospitalization for heart failure than MVA.
Very High Resolution Object-Based Land Use–Land Cover Urban Classification Using Extreme Gradient Boosting

In this letter, the recently developed extreme gradient boosting (Xgboost) classifier is implemented in a very high resolution (VHR) object-based urban land use–land cover application. In detail, we investigated the sensitivity of Xgboost to various sample sizes, as well as to feature selection (FS) by applying a standard technique, correlation-based FS. We compared Xgboost with benchmark classifiers such as random forest (RF) and support vector machines (SVMs). The methods are applied to VHR imagery of two sub-Saharan cities of Dakar and Ouagadougou and the village of Vaihingen, Germany. The results demonstrate that Xgboost parameterized with a Bayesian procedure, systematically outperformed RF and SVM, mainly in larger sample sizes.
Differential Tissue Fatty Acids Profiling between Colorectal Cancer Patients with and without Synchronous Metastasis

The early detection of colorectal cancer and determination of its metastatic potential are important factors to set up more efficacious therapeutic strategies. In the present study, we hypothesize that fatty acids analysis in colorectal cancer patients can discriminate between metastatic and non-metastatic patients. Fifty-one consecutive patients with histologically proven colorectal cancer were enrolled in the study and the presence of synchronous metastasis was detected in 25 of these 51 patients. Fatty acid profile analysis in red blood cell membranes was not able to discriminate the metastatic colorectal cancer patients from those without metastasis. However, significant differences in the tumor tissue fatty acid profile were found in metastatic cancer patients when compared to patients without metastasis. Metastatic patients showed significantly lower percentages of Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and higher levels of γ-linolenic acid (GLA), a n-3- and n-6-Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), respectively. Our findings, suggesting that membrane lipid rearrangement could influence the cellular function and make the cell more prone to metastasis, offer the opportunity to develop nutritional strategies that may be helpful in the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer.
Waking the neighbours: disruption of H‐NS repression by overlapping transcription

The histone‐like nucleoid structuring (H‐NS) protein and its analogues bind large stretches of horizontally acquired AT‐rich DNA in a broad range of bacterial species. Binding by H‐NS silences the promoters within such DNA that would otherwise deplete the cellular pool of RNA polymerase. Selective de‐repression can occur when sequence‐specific DNA‐binding proteins locally disrupt H‐NS function; this mechanism is important for the regulation of many virulence genes. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Rangarajan and Schnetz show that when transcription from a neighbouring region invades an H‐NS‐bound locus, it can disrupt local H‐NS repression. Moreover, they show that de‐repression occurs in a dose‐dependent manner, and they demonstrate a natural example of this in Escherichia coli. This finding has important implications for H‐NS function and its impact on genome evolution.
Genetic Influences Are Virtually Absent for Trust

Over the past decades, numerous twin studies have revealed moderate to high heritability estimates for individual differences in a wide range of human traits, including cognitive ability, psychiatric disorders, and personality traits. Even factors that are generally believed to be environmental in nature have been shown to be under genetic control, albeit modest. Is such heritability also present in social traits that are conceptualized as causes and consequences of social interactions or in other ways strongly shaped by behavior of other people? Here we examine a population-based sample of 1,012 twins and relatives. We show that the genetic influence on generalized trust in other people (trust-in-others: h2 = 5%, ns), and beliefs regarding other people’s trust in the self (trust-in-self: h2 = 13%, ns), is virtually absent. As test-retest reliability for both scales were found to be moderate or high (r = .76 and r = .53, respectively) in an independent sample, we conclude that all variance in trust is likely to be accounted for by non-shared environmental influences. We show that, relative to cognitive abilities, psychiatric disorders, and classic personality variables, genetic influences are smaller for trust, and propose that experiences with or observations of the behavior of other people shape trust more strongly than other traits.
SOME MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD IMPREGNATED WITH ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY BORON AND COPPER BASED CHEMICALS

The aim of this study was made to determine some mechanical properties such as compression strength parallel to grain (CSPG), modulus of rupture (MOR), and modulus of elasticity (MOE) of wood treated with some boron and copper based wood preservatives. Boric acid (BA), borax (BX), and boric acid and borax mixture were used as boron compounds. Adolith- KD 5 (Ad-KD) and tanalith-e (TN-E) were used as copper based wood preservatives. Also, copper- chromiumboron (CCB) was used as boron and copper containing wood preservative. Wood specimens were prepared from Oriental beech ( Fagus orientalis L.) and Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.). Before tests, wood specimens were treated with aqueous solutions 4 percent of chemicals according to ASTM D 1413-76. Our results showed that CSPG, MOR, and MOE of wood specimens treated with chemicals were lower compared to untreated control specimen. Preservative treatments caused the most decrease in MOR followed by CSPG and MOE of both wood specimens, respectively. While the lowest CSPG and MOR of both wood specimens were obtained impregnated with BA, TN-E gave the best results in terms of CSPG, MOR, and MOE of both wood specimens.
End-to-End Learning of Deformable Mixture of Parts and Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Human Pose Estimation

Recently, Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs) have been applied to the task of human pose estimation, and have shown its potential of learning better feature representations and capturing contextual relationships. However, it is difficult to incorporate domain prior knowledge such as geometric relationships among body parts into DCNNs. In addition, training DCNN-based body part detectors without consideration of global body joint consistency introduces ambiguities, which increases the complexity of training. In this paper, we propose a novel end-to-end framework for human pose estimation that combines DCNNs with the expressive deformable mixture of parts. We explicitly incorporate domain prior knowledge into the framework, which greatly regularizes the learning process and enables the flexibility of our framework for loopy models or tree-structured models. The effectiveness of jointly learning a DCNN with a deformable mixture of parts model is evaluated through intensive experiments on several widely used benchmarks. The proposed approach significantly improves the performance compared with state-of-the-art approaches, especially on benchmarks with challenging articulations.
Perioperative Patient Beliefs Regarding Potential Effectiveness of Marijuana (Cannabinoids) for Treatment of Pain: A Prospective Population Survey

Background and Objectives Cannabinoids have an expanding presence in medicine. Perioperative patients' perceptions of the effectiveness of these compounds, and acceptance if prescribed for pain, have not been previously described. Our primary objective was to describe patients' beliefs regarding the potential effectiveness of cannabinoids for the treatment of acute and chronic pain, as well as gauge patient acceptance of these compounds if prescribed by a physician. In addition, demographic and pain history data were collected to elucidate the predictors of the aforementioned patient attitudes. Secondarily, we sought to characterize the subgroup of patients who reported marijuana use. Predictors of marijuana use, effectiveness, and adverse effects were also reported for this subgroup. Methods An anonymous questionnaire was administered to 501 patients in the preoperative registration area at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York. The questionnaire was designed to collect data on patient demographics, presence of pain, pain severity, use of pain medication, history of illicit-drug use, tobacco use, cannabis use, patient beliefs about the potential effectiveness of marijuana for acute and chronic pain and their willingness to use cannabis for pain, if prescribed by a physician. Normality of distributions for continuous variables was assessed with skewness and kurtosis measures. A logistic regression model was used to assess the demographic and medical characteristics of marijuana users compared with nonusers. The effectiveness of marijuana in dealing with pain and adverse effects associated with its use were examined using exploratory principal component analysis. Results More than 80% of this cohort of preoperative patients believed that marijuana could be at least somewhat effective for the treatment of pain after surgery and would be willing to use cannabinoid compounds if prescribed by their physician. Predictors of positive attitudes toward marijuana included history of marijuana use, pain history, and being a marijuana nonuser of white race. Approximately 27% of the respondents reported a history of marijuana use. Younger patients, those with higher levels of pain in the last 24 hours, and those who found standard therapies to be less effective for their pain were more likely to use marijuana. Conclusions Patients generally believe that marijuana could be at least somewhat effective for the management of pain and are willing to use cannabinoid compounds for this indication, if prescribed by a physician.
Being Selene's guest: Analysis of the lunar environment and its impact on base location selection

In the frame of ESA's Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA) project the German Aerospace Center's Institute of Space Systems Department of System Analysis Space Segment (SARA) conducts an investigation about the concept design of a greenhouse module for space systems and the various possible alternatives to realize such a system. As part of this investigation a review of existing data about the lunar environment has been conducted, along with a trade of selected and likely locations for lunar outposts, e.g. the Whipple crater at the lunar north pole or the Shackleton crater at the lunar south pole. Part of the analysis and trade have been issues regarding lunar illumination and so-called peaks of eternal light, which represent a valuable asset regarding power generation and thermal conditions, radiation, temperature and accessibility of the locations, referring to local topography and latitude position. The results show that the latter favours equatorial regions, which however do not support current scientific interest in the polar regions of the moon. Comparison and trade of candidate sites situated at the pole, reveal the connection ridge between Shackleton and Sverdrup at the south pole to be the most favourable location, due to lenient conditions regarding temperature and temperature history over time as well as illumination (and thus potential for power generation with solar cells). This paper reports in the course of this analysis and the need for more precise data regarding e.g. radiation at the lunar surface and other open issues necessary to be closed for the implementation of any plan for permanently inhabitating the moon or setting up autonomous systems for robotic exploration.
Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Dairy Farmers

The present study was conducted in Jammu district of Jammu and Kashmir state during 2014–15 to know socio-economic and psychological characteristics of the dairy farmers and their relationship with entrepreneurial behaviour. The present investigation included 120 beneficiaries from Bishnah, R.S. Pura, Arnia and Suchetgarh blocks of Jammu district. Results revealed that majority (68.40%) of dairy farmers had medium level entrepreneurial behaviour followed by 18.30 per cent having high level of entrepreneurial behaviour. Out of twelve, eight variables namely viz., education, land holding, innovativeness extension contact, annual income, experience of dairying, economic motivation and information seeking had positive and significant relationship but only age was negatively significant correlated with their entrepreneurial behaviour.
Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 overexpression protects against doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy by multiple mechanisms in rats

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is considered a potential therapeutic target of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to explore the effects of ACE2 overexpression on doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy in rats. Rats were randomly divided into treatment and control groups. The rats of treatment group were injected intraperitoneally with 6 doses of doxorubicin (2.5 mg/kg) within a period of two weeks. Two weeks after the initial injection of doxorubicin, these rats were randomly divided into Mock, Ad-EGFP, Ad-ACE2, and Cilazapril groups. The rats of Ad-EGFP and Ad-ACE2 groups received intramyocardial injection of Ad-EGFP and Ad-ACE2, respectively. The rats of Cilazapril group received cilazapril (10 mg/kg/day) via intragastric intubation. Apoptosis, inflammation, oxidative stress, cardiac function, the extent of myocardial fibrosis, and levels of ACE2, ACE, angiotensin II (AngII), and angiotensin (1–7) were evaluated. Four weeks after ACE2 gene transfer, the Ad-ACE2 group showed not only reduced apoptosis, inflammatory response, oxidative stress, left ventricular (LV) volume, extent of myocardial fibrosis and mortality of rats, but also increased LV ejection fraction and ACE2 expression level compared with the Mock and Ad-EGFP groups. ACE2 overexpression was superior to cilazapril in improving doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. The putative mechanisms may involve activation of the AMPK and PI3K-AKT pathways, inhibition of the ERK pathway, decrease of TGF-β1 expression, and interactions of shifting RAS components, such as decreased myocardium AngII levels, increased myocardium Ang (1–7) levels, and reduced ACE expression. Thus, ACE2 may be a novel therapeutic approach to prevent and treat doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy.
Coal gasification pilot plant for hydrogen production. Part B: syngas conversion and hydrogen separation

Nowadays, the need for a diversification in primary energy sources has raised an increasing interest in coal, which allows a larger price stability and represents a reliable primary source from a strategic point of view. Coal gasification processes, in particular, allow an efficient use of this energy source, with a low environmental impact. These processes, moreover, allow hydrogen (and other environmental-friendly fuels) and electric power co-production. To this effect, Sotacarbo, together with Ansaldo Ricerche, ENEA and the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Cagliari, is developing a pilot plant to test the use of gasification technologies for the combined production of hydrogen and electric power in medium and small scale commercial plants. In particular, the pilot plant is made up of two up-draft fixed-bed gasifiers, respectively 700 and 35 kg/h of coal, the latter equipped with a syngas treatment line, including the depulverization, desulphurization, water-gas shift conversion, CO2 separation and hydrogen purification sections. This paper reports the main results, achieved by a calculator simulation, of a preliminary analysis carried out to assess the main operating parameters of the advanced syngas conversion process for hydrogen production from coal, which will be tested in the Sotacarbo pilot plant. This process includes a hot syngas desulphurization system, an integrated CO-shift and CO2 removal process, and a hydrogen separation section. In particular, the effects of the main process operating parameters on the performance of each section have been analyzed. Key-Words: Coal gasification, Sulcis coal, Pilot plant, Hot gas desulphurization, CO-shift, CO2 removal, Hydrogen production * Corresponding author: Phone: +39 0781 509047 – Fax: +39 0781 508349 E-mail: apettinau@sotacarbo.it