Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The forced oscillation technique in intubated, mechanically-ventilated patients

In a recent discussion concerning the use of the forced oscillation technique (FOT), PRIDE [ 1] stated that, although anaesthesia and intensive care are among the obvious ar­ eas of application of the method, there is very little in­ formation on these applications. The paper by PEsuN et al. [2] in the present issue of the Journal describes one of the first attempts to apply the FOT to mechanically­ ventilated patients. FOT, first described by DuBozs et al. [3] in 1956, is a technique in which externally produced pressure oscilla­ tions are applied to the respiratory system. The resulting oscillations in airflow, related to the corresponding pres­ sure oscillations, allow a direct measurement of the im­ pedance, i.e. the pressure-flow relationships of the system. Generally, the oscillations are produced by a loudspeaker, and are applied at the mouth of the subject The imped­ ance is calculated from the signals of a pressure trans­ ducer and a pneumotachograph placed close to the subject's mouth. Because of the complex mechanical prop­ erties of the respiratory system, consisting of various structures with capacitive (compliant), resistive and inertive properties, pressure and flow signals are not in phase (except at given frequencies, called resonant fre­ quencies): recorded in X-Y coordinates, the pressure-flow relationships describe a loop. Therefore, the impedance is characterized by a modulus, IZI, the ratio of pressure ver­ sus airflow, and a phase, <p, expressing the shift in time of these two variables. Another, more usual, way of deal­ ing with this time shift is to divide the impedance into a real part or resistance (R), and an imaginary part or re­ actance (X), in which R is IZI cos <p, and X is lZI sin <p. In a simple circuit, consisting of a capacity, a resistance and an inertance, coiUlected in series, R corresponds to the actual resistance of the circuit and X to a combina­ tion of capacity and inertance. Generally, in a complex system, Rand X vary with oscillatory frequency. There­ fore, to define the mechanical properties of the respira­ tory system, R and X are measured at various frequencies. In the original device of DuBms et al. [3], the response of the respiratory system was investigated by applying a succession of oscillations varying in frequency, during voluntary apnoea. This took time, and made the techni­ que very impractical. This is why the FOT did not gain widespread acceptance, until it was modified so that sev
Splanchnic and mammary nitrogen metabolism by dairy cows fed steam-rolled or steam-flaked corn.

Objectives were to determine net release or uptake of a-amino N, ammonia N, and urea N across portal-drained viscera, liver, splanchnic, and mammary tissues of lactating Holstein cows (n = 6; 109 +/- 9 d in milk) fed alfalfa hay-based total mixed rations (TMR) containing 40% steam-rolled or steam-flaked corn grain. The TMR were offered at 12-h intervals in a crossover design. Blood samples were obtained from indwelling catheters in portal, hepatic, and mammary veins and mesenteric or costo abdominal arteries, every 2 h for each cow and diet. Steam-flaked compared with steam-rolled corn greatly increased in vitro starch hydrolysis (56 vs. 34%). Daily intake of dry matter (18.4 +/- 0.4 kg/d), starch, N, and net energy for lactation by cows were not altered by processing corn; neither were daily yield of milk (29.1 +/- 0.7 kg/d), fat-corrected milk, nor fat-corrected milk per dry matter intake. Steam-flaking tended to increase percent milk protein (2.97 vs. 2.82%; P = 0.07), but not yield, and decrease percent lactose (4.83 vs. 4.94) but not yield. Portal and hepatic blood flows were not affected by diet, nor were net absorption of alpha-amino N and ammonia N. Steam-flaking compared with steam-rolling increased urea N cycling to portal-drained viscera (212 vs. 87 g/d) by 140%, estimated mammary uptake and extraction ratio of alpha-amino N. Flaking versus rolling of corn improved N utilization in dairy cows by increasing urea cycling to the gut and uptake of a-amino N by the mammary gland. Higher mammary uptake of alpha-amino N (78 vs. 50 g/d) by dairy cows fed steam-flaked corn tended to increase milk protein content and may explain the previously observed effects of cows fed steam-flaked versus steam-rolled corn.
Anticoagulant Carryover May Influence Clot Formation in Direct Tube Coagulase Tests from Blood Cultures

ABSTRACT The tube coagulase test (TCT) performed directly from positive blood culture bottles has been used to reduce the turnaround time for identifying Staphylococcus aureus. Most reports have shown the test to be specific but often lacking sufficient sensitivity to be useful. In a prospective study of blood culture bottles (BCB) signaling positive, with a Gram-stained smear showing gram-positive cocci resembling staphylococci, the sensitivity of the direct TCT was improved by diluting the BCB broth 1:10 in saline before inoculating 0.1 ml into 1.0 ml of 10% pooled human plasma. It was hypothesized that the improved sensitivity might be explained by reduced carryover of the anticoagulant sodium polyanetholesulfonate (SPS) used in blood culture media. By titrating the inoculum size and the concentration of SPS in an in vitro checkerboard assay, it was shown that concentrations of SPS >0.0008% prevented plasma coagulation. The 1:10 dilution of blood culture broth reduced the amount of residual SPS carried over to the TCT to a level (0.0005%) that did not impair plasma coagulation. The direct TCT inoculated with a 1:10 saline dilution of blood culture broth achieved 100% specificity and sensitivity within 4 h of inoculation without reducing the quality or quantity of coagulum.
Beyond the Binary: Differences in Eating Disorder Prevalence by Gender Identity in a Transgender Sample

Abstract Purpose: To investigate whether the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) differs across diverse gender identity groups in a transgender sample. Methods: Secondary analysis of data from Project VOICE, a cross-sectional study of stress and health among 452 transgender adults (ages 18–75 years) residing in Massachusetts. Age-adjusted logistic regression models were fit to compare the prevalence of self-reported lifetime EDs in female-to-male (FTM), male-to-female (MTF), and gender-nonconforming participants assigned male at birth (MBGNC) to gender-nonconforming participants assigned female at birth (FBGNC; referent). Results: The age-adjusted odds of self-reported ED in MTF participants were 0.14 times the odds of self-reported ED in FBGNC participants (p=0.022). In FTM participants, the age-adjusted odds of self-reported ED were 0.46 times the odds of self-reported ED in FBGNC participants, a marginally significant finding (p=0.068). No statistically significant differences in ED prevalence were found for MBGNC individuals. Conclusions: Gender nonconforming individuals assigned a female sex at birth appear to have heightened lifetime risk of EDs relative to MTF participants. Further research into specific biologic and psychosocial ED risk factors and gender-responsive intervention strategies are urgently needed. Training clinical providers and ensuring competency of treatment services beyond the gender binary will be vital to addressing this disparity.
Parathyroid Hormone-Related Bone Loss in End-Stage Renal Disease: Where to Measure?

Introduction: Low bone mass and elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH) serum levels are frequently found in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Our aim was to correlate serum PTH with bone mineral density (BMD) Tand Z-score measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at different sites in patients with ESRD treated by hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD). Material and Methods: We assessed 31 consecutive patients with ESRD (23 on HD and 8 on PD). Serum parathyroid Corresponding author: Dan Niculescu, MD Department of Endocrinology, “Carol Davila” University, 34-36 Aviatorilor blvd, Bucharest, 011863 e-mail: danniculescu@yahoo.com REZUMAT Pierderea de masã osoasã asociatã parathormonului la pacienåii cu boalã renalã în stadiul final: unde sã mãsurãm? Introducere: Pacienåii cu boalã renalã în stadiul final (BRSF) prezintã adesea masã osoasã scãzutã æi nivele crescute ale parathormonului (PTH). Obiectivul nostru a fost sã corelãm PTH-ul seric cu scorul T æi Z al densitãåii minerale osoase (DMO) mãsurate prin absorbåiometrie dualã cu raze X (DXA) la diferite situsuri osoase la pacienåii cu BRSF sub hemodializã (HD) sau dializã peritonealã (DP). Materiale æi metode: Am evaluat 31 de pacienåi consecutivi cu BRSF (23 sub HD, 8 sub DP). La toåi pacienåii am determinat PTH-ul æi 25OH vitamina D sericã. DMO a fost evaluatã prin DXA la urmãtoarele situsuri: colul femural, femurul proximal total æi radiusul 1/3, ultradistal æi total. DMO radialã a fost determinatã la antebraåul fãrã fistulã arteriovenoasã. Scorurile T æi Z au fost asigurate de producãtor. Variabilele clinice utilizate au fost indicele de masã corporalã (IMC), anii de dializã æi tipul dializei. Au fost excluæi pacienåii trataåi cu derivate de 1,25 dihidroxivitamina D (paricalcitol) sau calcimimetice. Rezultate: PTH-ul seric s-a corelat semnificativ cu scorurile T æi Z ale DMO la nivelul radiusului 1/3 (r=-0.503 æi -0.641) æi total (r=-0.396 æi respectiv -0.558). DMO la nivelul radiusului 1/3 æi total a fost semnificativ mai redusã comparativ cu situsurile femurale odatã cu creæterea nivelului PTH-ului. La niciun situs tipul dializei, anii de dializã, 25OH vitamina D æi IMC nu s-au corelat cu DMO. Concluzii: Am gãsit o corelaåie semnificativã între PTH-ul seric æi DMO mãsuratã prin DXA la pacienåii cu BRSF. Dintre toate situsurile de mãsurare a DMO datele noaste recomandã utilizarea scorului Z la nivelul radiusului 1/3. Cuvinte cheie: parathormon, densitate mineralã osoasã, boalã renalã în stadiul final, dializã Modern Medicine. 2015, Vol. 22, No. 4 : 333-338 Copyright© Celsius
Time trends in cancer risk and pesticide exposure, a long-term follow-up of Danish gardeners.

OBJECTIVES Occupational exposure to petrochemical pesticides was high during the first 10-15 years after their introduction in the late 1940s, and, during these years, many cases of intoxication occurred. In the 1960s, the use and marketing of pesticides was regulated to reduce exposure to these substances, and, since 1970, substantial exposure has been rare in Denmark. The present study aimed at investigating the extent to which these alterations have influenced the cancer risk of gardeners. METHODS A historical cohort of 3156 male gardeners was followed from May 1975 until 2002 with regard to cancer incidence. RESULTS The cancer incidence was significantly below the national average [standardized incidence ratio (SIR) 0.86, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.79-0.94], but an analysis by birth cohort indicated marked differences with a downward tendency for younger birth cohorts. Among the gardeners born prior to 1915, significant increases were found for leukemia (12 cases, SIR 2.33, 95% CI 1.32-4.10) and soft tissue sarcoma (3 cases, SIR 5.87, 95% CI 1.89-18.20). CONCLUSIONS Gardeners constitute a healthy worker group, but an increased risk of soft tissue sarcoma and leukemia is indicated for people born prior to 1915, a finding that may reflect substantial pesticide exposure during the late 1940s and the 1950s. Among the gardeners born in 1915 or later, no excess cancer risk was found. The latter finding suggests a cancer-preventive effect for safety recommendations and improved technical devices with respect to pesticide application, along with legislative control measures to reduce pesticide exposure.
The Fusion of Mental Imagery and Sensation in the Temporal Association Cortex

It is well understood that the brain integrates information that is provided to our different senses to generate a coherent multisensory percept of the world around us (Stein and Stanford, 2008), but how does the brain handle concurrent sensory information from our mind and the external world? Recent behavioral experiments have found that mental imagery—the internal representation of sensory stimuli in one's mind—can also lead to integrated multisensory perception (Berger and Ehrsson, 2013); however, the neural mechanisms of this process have not yet been explored. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging and an adapted version of a well known multisensory illusion (i.e., the ventriloquist illusion; Howard and Templeton, 1966), we investigated the neural basis of mental imagery-induced multisensory perception in humans. We found that simultaneous visual mental imagery and auditory stimulation led to an illusory translocation of auditory stimuli and was associated with increased activity in the left superior temporal sulcus (L. STS), a key site for the integration of real audiovisual stimuli (Beauchamp et al., 2004a, 2010; Driver and Noesselt, 2008; Ghazanfar et al., 2008; Dahl et al., 2009). This imagery-induced ventriloquist illusion was also associated with increased effective connectivity between the L. STS and the auditory cortex. These findings suggest an important role of the temporal association cortex in integrating imagined visual stimuli with real auditory stimuli, and further suggest that connectivity between the STS and auditory cortex plays a modulatory role in spatially localizing auditory stimuli in the presence of imagined visual stimuli.
Therapeutic effect of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) on the protection against Listeria infection in SCID mice.

Anti-listerial activity in SCID mice as well as in control C.B-17 mice was augmented by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). After 1 x 10(3) colony-forming units of Listeria monocytogenes (strain EGD) were intravenously inoculated, mice were intraperitoneally injected with G-CSF at a daily dose of 500 micrograms/kg for 5 days. The numbers of viable bacteria in the liver were significantly lower in G-CSF-treated SCID and C.B-17 mice than in non-treated mice. The surface marker analyses on gamma delta T-cell receptor (TcR), Mac-1 and F4/80, and dichlorofluorescein oxidative activity, showed a possible contribution of activated neutrophils, but not gamma/delta T cells nor activated macrophages, to the augmentation of anti-listerial activity in SCID mice. This study is one of the first reports on the anti-microbial effect of G-CSF in therapeutic use.
Quantized Event-triggered Sampled-data Average Consensus with Guaranteed Rate of Convergence

The paper proposes a novel distributed, sampled-data, event-triggered algorithm with quantized information exchange for average consensus (Q-CEASE) in multi-agent/multi-sensor networks. Q-CEASE communicates quantized information with its neighbouring nodes only if a discretized event-triggering condition is satisfied. Both design and implementation of Q-CEASE are distributed and do not require a fusion center. The design stage determines its operating region in terms of the sampling period and transmission thresholds for the constituent nodes. A minimum exponential rate for consensus convergence is guaranteed using the Lyapunov stability theorem. The performance of the Q-CEASE algorithm is quantified through Monte-Carlo simulations on randomized networks.
Ieee Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence Classification with Noisy Labels by Importance Reweighting

—In this paper, we study a classification problem in which sample labels are randomly corrupted. In this scenario, there is an unobservable sample with noise-free labels. However, before being observed, the true labels are independently flipped with a probability ρ ∈ [0, 0.5), and the random label noise can be class-conditional. Here, we address two fundamental problems raised by this scenario. The first is how to best use the abundant surrogate loss functions designed for the traditional classification problem when there is label noise. We prove that any surrogate loss function can be used for classification with noisy labels by using importance reweighting, with consistency assurance that the label noise does not ultimately hinder the search for the optimal classifier of the noise-free sample. The other is the open problem of how to obtain the noise rate ρ. We show that the rate is upper bounded by the conditional probability P (ˆ Y |X) of the noisy sample. Consequently, the rate can be estimated, because the upper bound can be easily reached in classification problems. Experimental results on synthetic and real datasets confirm the efficiency of our methods.
Automatic Keyphrase Extraction: A Survey of the State of the Art

While automatic keyphrase extraction has been examined extensively, state-of-theart performance on this task is still much lower than that on many core natural language processing tasks. We present a survey of the state of the art in automatic keyphrase extraction, examining the major sources of errors made by existing systems and discussing the challenges ahead.
Cryptanalysis of the COS (2, 128) Stream Ciphers

A new family of very fast stream ciphers called COS (for “crossing over system”) has been proposed by Filiol and Fontaine, and seems to have been adopted for at least one commercial standard. COS(2,128) Mode I and COS(2,128) Mode II are particular members of this family for which the authors proposed a cryptanalysis challenge. The ciphers accept secret keys of 256, 192 or 128 bits. In this note we cryptanalyse both of these ciphers, using a small amount of known keystream — with negligible effort in the case of Mode II, and with effort well below that required for a single DES key search in the case of Mode I.
A Review of DAΦNE Performances During the KLOE-2 Run

DAΦNE, the Frascati electron-positron collider, has completed the last, and more challenging, period of operation for the KLOE-2 detector. In this context the performances of the collider, based on the Crab-Waist collision scheme, are reviewed and the limiting factors discussed.
Assessment of Patients with Neck Pain: The Most Valid Measurement Tools

Several methods are proposed through literature to evaluate cervical pain. As a multi-dimensional phenomenon neck pain is associated to physical and psychological parameters which affect the measurements. A series of methods have been developed to measure pain such as questionnaires, diagnostic tests and devices. These tools are useful to evaluate the grade of pain but also to estimate the result of therapeutic interventions. The aim of this research is to present the most valid methods for the measurement of pain at the cervical area in adult population. Pain assessment includes pain scales, pain questionnaires, disability scales because of pain and pain devices. Because of the multi-dimensional nature of pain more than one method is used to have an integrated evaluation of the pain at the area of neck. The questionnaires, the scales and the devices which are used should be reliable, valid and there must be experience at their use. More research should be provided in order to strengthen the assessment of cervical pain.
Zinc in normal and pathological human prostate gland.

OBJECTIVE This study is conducted to detect quantitatively zinc in the nuclei and cytoplasm of epithelial cells of the prostate from normal, acute prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma. METHODS Prostatic tissues from normal, acute prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma were obtained from patients and processed for zinc detection using x-ray microanalysis technique. The samples were collected over a period of 2-3 years and were processed at Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan. RESULTS Zinc was increased and decreased both in the nuclei and the cytoplasm of the glandular epithelium of benign prostatic hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Although zinc was increased in the nuclei and cytoplasm of epithelial cells of acute prostatitis, it was not significant. CONCLUSION These findings might be caused by factors affecting the zinc metabolic pathway directly or through the zinc bound protein metallothionein. In addition, these findings could be used in diagnosing different prostatic pathological conditions and advancing prostatic tumors and those with similar histopathological profiles.
Indoor Localization and Radio Map Estimation Using Unsupervised Manifold Alignment with Geometry Perturbation

The Received Signal Strength (RSS) based fingerprinting approaches for indoor localization pose a need for updating the fingerprint databases due to dynamic nature of the indoor environment. This process is hectic and time-consuming when the size of the indoor area is large. The semi-supervised approaches reduce this workload and achieve good accuracy around 15 percent of the fingerprinting load but the performance is severely degraded if it is reduced below this level. We propose an indoor localization framework that uses unsupervised manifold alignment. It requires only 1 percent of the fingerprinting load, some crowd sourced readings, and plan coordinates of the indoor area. The 1 percent fingerprinting load is used only in perturbing the local geometries of the plan coordinates. The proposed framework achieves less than 5 m mean localization error, which is considerably better than semi-supervised approaches at very small amount of fingerprinting load. In addition, the few location estimations together with few fingerprints help to estimate the complete radio map of the indoor environment. The estimation of radio map does not demand extra workload rather it employs the already available information from the proposed indoor localization framework. The testing results for radio map estimation show almost 50 percent performance improvement by using this information as compared to using only fingerprints.
Targeting PRMT5 Activity Inhibits the Malignancy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Promoting the Transcription of HNF4α

Background: Liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) are responsible for the initiation, progression and chemoresistance of liver cancer. However, no agent targeting LCSC is available in the clinic to date. Here, we investigated the effects of targeting protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), an epigenetic regulator, on LCSCs and HCC using a novel PRMT5 inhibitor DW14800. Methods: Tumor spheroid formation culture was used to enrich LCSCs and assess their self-renewal capability. Human alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT) ELISA, acetylated low-density lipoprotein (ac-LDL) uptake, periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) reactions and senescence associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) activity assays were performed to examine the differentiation status of HCC cells. The effects of DW14800 on HCC malignancy were assessed in HCC cell lines and on an HCC xenograft model in mice. Chromatin immunoprecipitation was applied to clarify the transcriptional regulation of HNF4α by PRMT5-mediated Histone H4 arginine-3 symmetrical dimethylation (H4R3me2s). Results: Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that the expression of PRMT5 was upregulated in LCSCs. DW14800 specifically decreased the symmetrical dimethylation of arginine residues in HCC cells. Treatment of DW14800 suppressed the self-renewal capacity of LCSCs while re-establishing hepatocyte-specific characteristics in HCC cells. DW14800 displayed antitumor effects in HCC cells in vitro and in xenograft HCC in vivo. Importantly, ChIP assay showed that PRMT5 and H4R3me2s bound to the promoter region of HNF4α gene, and DW14800 increased the expression of HNF4α via reducing the H4R3me2s levels and enhancing the transcription of HNF4α. Conclusions: Our data revealed the significance of targeting PRMT5 activity in LCSC elimination and HCC differentiation, and proposed that DW14800 may represent a promising therapeutic agent for HCC in the clinic.