Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discriminative power of the advanced activities of daily living (a-ADL) tool in the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment in an older population

ABSTRACT Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is characterized by subjective and objective memory impairments in the absence of manifest functional decline. Mild changes in activities of daily living (ADL) can be present and probably predict conversion to dementia. A new advanced (a)-ADL tool was developed, evaluating high-level activities and, taking each participant as their own reference, distinguishing a global Disability Index (a-ADL-DI), a Cognitive Disability Index (a-ADL-CDI), and a Physical Disability Index (a-ADL-PDI), based on the number of activities performed and the severity and causes of the functional problem. This study evaluates the discriminative validity of the a-ADL in MCI. Method: Based upon clinical evaluation and a set of global, cognitive, mood, and functional assessments, 150 community-dwelling participants (average age 80.3 years (SD 5; 66–91)) were included and diagnosed as (1) cognitively healthy participants (n = 50); (2) patients with a-MCI (n = 48), or (3) mild to moderate AD (n = 52). The a-ADL tool was not a part of the clinical evaluation. Results: The a-ADL-DI and the a-ADL-CDI showed a sensitivity and specificity ranging from 70% to 94.2%, Positive Predictive Value ranging from 70% till 93.8%, and Negative Predictive Value from 64.4% and 93.8%, an area under the curve (AUC) ranging from 0.791 to 0.960. Functional decline related to physical deficits, as assessed by the a-ADL-PDI, did not discriminate between the different groups. Conclusion: The a-ADL tool has a good ability to distinguish normal and pathological cognitive aging. Its discriminative power for underlying causes of limitations may be an advantage.
Phononic heat transfer across an interface: thermal boundary resistance

We present a general theory of phononic heat transfer between two solids (or a solid and a fluid) in contact at a flat interface. We present simple analytical results which can be used to estimate the heat transfer coefficient (the inverse of which is usually called the ‘thermal boundary resistance’ or ‘Kapitza resistance’). We present numerical results for the heat transfer across solid–solid and solid–liquid He contacts, and between a membrane (graphene) and a solid substrate (amorphous SiO2). The latter system involves the heat transfer between weakly coupled systems, and the calculated value of the heat transfer coefficient is in good agreement with the value deduced from experimental data.
Using Meta-mining to Support Data Mining Workflow Planning and Optimization

Knowledge Discovery in Databases is a complex process that involves many different data processing and learning operators. Today's Knowledge Discovery Support Systems can contain several hundred operators. A major challenge is to assist the user in designing workflows which are not only valid but also - ideally - optimize some performance measure associated with the user goal. In this paper we present such a system. The system relies on a meta-mining module which analyses past data mining experiments and extracts meta-mining models which associate dataset characteristics with workflow descriptors in view of workflow performance optimization. The meta-mining model is used within a data mining workflow planner, to guide the planner during the workflow planning. We learn the meta-mining models using a similarity learning approach, and extract the workflow descriptors by mining the workflows for generalized relational patterns accounting also for domain knowledge provided by a data mining ontology. We evaluate the quality of the data mining workflows that the system produces on a collection of real world datasets coming from biology and show that it produces workflows that are significantly better than alternative methods that can only do workflow selection and not planning.
Cardiovascular and renal effects of low dose brain natriuretic peptide infusion in man.

We evaluated the effects of pathophysiological levels of human brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), a recently identified cardiac hormone with natriuretic activity, by determining the hemodynamic and renal responses to low dose infusion (4 pmol/kg.min for 1 h, from 1500-1600 h) of human synthetic BNP in five healthy volunteers in a randomized placebo-controlled crossover study. Compared to placebo, BNP induced significant increases in effective renal plasma flow (para-aminohippurate clearance), glomerular filtration rate (creatinine clearance), urine flow rate, and sodium excretion without affecting blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output (echocardiographic method), peripheral vascular resistance, PRA, plasma aldosterone, or plasma norepinephrine to any significant extent. Exploration of segmental sodium handling by the lithium clearance technique showed that the natriuretic effect of BNP was due to both an increase in filtered sodium load and a reduced distal sodium reabsorption. These results indicate that the high plasma BNP levels observed in disease states, such as heart failure, may contribute to the regulation of renal hemodynamics and sodium excretion.
Report of two cases of rasburicase-induced methemoglobinemia

Rasburicase, a recombinant form of urate oxidase, in 2002 received FDA approval in the prevention of hyperuricemia precipitating acute renal failure in tumor lysis syndrome among the pediatric population. Correction of the hyperuricemia is important as the acute renal failure in tumor lysis syndrome is thought to be due to an acute uric acid nephropathy secondary to uric acid precipitation in the renal tubules. Urate oxidase catalyses the oxidation of uric acid to allantoin, which is shown to be 5 – 10-times more soluble in urine than uric acid [1]. Previously, Uricozyme, a non-recombinant urate oxidase purified from Aspergillus flavus, was available and used in Europe for over two decades. However, it was associated with high rates (4.5%) of acute hypersensitivity reactions. With the development of rasburicase from a genetically modified strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using cDNA coding cloned from Aspergillus flavus, the side effect profile was thought to be much improved. Two large multicenter trials have since been published examining the safety and efficacy of the drug and have shown a decrease in adverse events while still maintaining equivalent efficacy [2,3]. Such a development is extremely valuable as tumor lysis syndrome is considered a life threatening metabolic complication associated with high rates of acute renal failure, seizures and cardiac arrhythmias. Despite the more favorable side effect profile of rasburicase, the FDA did issue a boxed warning regarding the potential for methemoglobinemia. Rasburicase can cause hemolytic anemia and methemoglobinemia secondary to oxidative stress created by the metabolic byproduct, hydrogen peroxide, produced during the breakdown of urate to allantoin. The three clinical trials performed prior to FDA approval reported only two cases of methemoglobinemia out of 265 patients (51%). It was not noted if either patient had glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency or a cytochrome b5 reductase deficiency. Both did experience severe hypoxemia that responded to appropriate medical support measures. After FDA approval of rasburicase, there has been only one published case report of methemoglobinemia with hemolysis in a G6PD deficient patient [4]. Patients with G6PD deficiency are at an increased risk secondary to their inability to reduce nicotinamide adenine dincucleotide phosphate (NADP) to NADPH which is an essential cofactor in the detoxification of oxygen radicals. It has been recommended to screen patients for this deficiency prior to implementing rasburicase therapy in cancer patients. Additionally, there has been one prior case report describing methemoglobinemia induced by routine Uricozyme administration in a non-G6PD deficient patient [5]. However, there have been no reports of rasburicase-induced methemoglobinemia in non-G6PD deficient patients. Here we report two cases of methemoglobinemia in response to rasburicase in two patients without a history of G6PD deficiency.
Crossover property of the nonperiodic autocorrelation of quaternary sequences

Sequences with identical nonperiodic autocorrelation functions have recently been used to construct Golay sequences different than the Davis-Jedwab construction. In this thesis, we construct infinite families of quaternary sequences with identical nonperiodic autocorrelation functions. These results demonstrate that current constructions for quaternary families are not all encompassing and need further study.
Cytosolic phospholipase A2 alpha modulates NMDA neurotoxicity in mouse hippocampal cultures

The arachidonic acid‐specific cytosolic phospholipase A2 alpha (cPLA2α) has been implicated in the generation of neurological injuries. cPLA2α‐dependent neurological injury has been postulated to be mediated through inflammatory and eicosanoid pathways. We determined if cPLA2α amplifies the injury of a non‐inflammatory, excitotoxic stimulus by modifying a well‐described toxicity assay to measure the toxicity of N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) in the CA1 region of organotypic, mouse hippocampal cultures. Hippocampal cultures from wild‐type and cPLA2α knockout mice were exposed to 5, 7.5 or 10 µm NMDA for 1 h. Toxicity was measured 23 h later. Cultures derived from cPLA2α–/– mice and cultures treated with the selective inhibitor AACOCF3 were significantly protected from NMDA toxicity, as compared with wild‐type cultures. To determine if cPLA2α‐dependent toxicity is cyclooxygenase (COX)‐2 dependent, COX‐2 and PGE2 levels were measured 7 and 25 h after NMDA treatment. NMDA treatment failed to induce COX‐2 protein or increase PGE2 in the culture media in either genotype at either time. In contrast, phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate and ionophore treatment caused robust induction of COX‐2 and PGE2 in both genotypes. We conclude that cPLA2α may have a hitherto unrecognized direct effect on excitatory neurotoxicity, suggesting that cPLA2α inhibition is a therapeutic candidate for treatment of the early, excitotoxic injury observed in stroke.
Infrared thermography: A potential noninvasive tool to monitor udder health status in dairy cows

The animal husbandry and livestock sectors play a major role in the rural economy, especially for the small and marginal farmers. India has the largest livestock population in the world and ranks first in the milk production. Mastitis is the most common and expensive infectious disease in dairy cattle. The global economic losses per year due to mastitis amounts to USD 35 billion and for Indian dairy industry ₹6000 crores per year. Early detection of mastitis is very important to reduce the economic loss to the dairy farmers and dairy industry. Automated methods for early and reliable detection of mastitis are currently in focus under precision dairying. Skin surface temperature is an important indicator for the diagnosis of cow’s illnesses and for the estimation of their physiological status. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a simple, effective, on-site, and noninvasive method that detects surface heat, which is emitted as infrared radiation and generates pictorial images without causing radiation exposure. In human and bovine medicine, IRT is used as a diagnostic tool for assessment of normal and physiological status.
Prophylaxis with enoxaparin for prevention of venous thromboembolism after lung transplantation: a retrospective study

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a frequent complication after solid organ transplantation (SOT) and, specifically, after lung transplantation (LT). The objectives of this study were to evaluate prophylaxis with enoxaparin and to describe risk factors for VTE after LT. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 333 patients who underwent LT in our institution between 2009 and 2014. We compared two consecutive cohorts: one that received enoxaparin only during post‐transplant hospital admissions and a second cohort that received 90‐day extended prophylaxis with enoxaparin. Cumulative incidence function for competing risk analysis was used to determine incidence of VTE during the first year after transplantation. Risk factors were analyzed using a Cox proportional hazards regression model. The cumulative incidence of VTE was 15.3% (95% CI: 11.6–19.4). Median time from transplant to the event was 40 (p25–p75, 14–112) days. Ninety‐day extended prophylaxis did not reduce the incidence of VTE. In this study, the risk factors associated with VTE were male gender and interstitial lung disease. VTE is a major complication after LT, and 90‐day extended prophylaxis was not able to prevent it. Large, multicenter, randomized clinical trials should be performed to define the best strategy for preventing VTE.
N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate antagonists: Ready for clinical trial in brain ischemia?

Antagonists of the N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) subclass of glutamate receptors may offer a new approach for the treatment of ischemic brain injury. This strategy is supported by a well‐developed scientific foundation and encouraging results in a variety of in vivo and in vitro experimental models. Several specific antagonists, including MK‐801, dextrorphan, dextromethorphan, and ketamine, have already been used at low doses in humans for other indications and are potential candidates for Phase I clinical trials.
Decoupling Polarization of the Golgi Apparatus and GM1 in the Plasma Membrane

Cell polarization is a process of coordinated cellular rearrangements that prepare the cell for migration. GM1 is synthesized in the Golgi apparatus and localized in membrane microdomains that appear at the leading edge of polarized cells, but the mechanism by which GM1 accumulates asymmetrically is unknown. The Golgi apparatus itself becomes oriented toward the leading edge during cell polarization, which is thought to contribute to plasma membrane asymmetry. Using quantitative image analysis techniques, we measure the extent of polarization of the Golgi apparatus and GM1 in the plasma membrane simultaneously in individual cells subject to a wound assay. We find that GM1 polarization starts just 10 min after stimulation with growth factors, while Golgi apparatus polarization takes 30 min. Drugs that block Golgi polarization or function have no effect on GM1 polarization, and, conversely, inhibiting GM1 polarization does not affect Golgi apparatus polarization. Evaluation of Golgi apparatus and GM1 polarization in single cells reveals no correlation between the two events. Our results indicate that Golgi apparatus and GM1 polarization are controlled by distinct intracellular cascades involving the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK and the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways, respectively. Analysis of cell migration and invasion suggest that MEK/ERK activation is crucial for two dimensional migration, while PI3K activation drives three dimensional invasion, and no cumulative effect is observed from blocking both simultaneously. The independent biochemical control of GM1 polarity by PI3K and Golgi apparatus polarity by MEK/ERK may act synergistically to regulate and reinforce directional selection in cell migration.
Data-driven generalized minimum variance regulatory control with unknown disturbance

This paper provides a new generalized minimum variance (GMV) strategy based on input-output measurements. The proposed method can perform with no need for plant characteristics nor disturbance ones. The paper shows that the optimization of the proposed criterion results in the control parameters which achieve the GMV control. The application to datasets obtained from a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed method.
Insulin-like growth factor-1 and binding protein-3 in a 2-year soya intervention among premenopausal women

Soya foods may protect against the development of breast cancer. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 is under investigation as a possible link between nutrition and cancer. We examined the effect of soya foods on circulating IGF-1 and IGF binding protein (BP)-3 levels among 196 healthy premenopausal women in a 2-year randomised nutritional trial. The intervention group consumed two daily servings of soya foods including tofu, soya milk, soya nuts and soya protein powder (equivalent to 50 mg isoflavones and 5–22 g soya protein per serving); the controls maintained their regular diet. Five serum samples at baseline, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months were collected in the morning during the luteal phase and analysed for IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 by double-antibody ELISA. We applied mixed models to investigate the intervention effect and predictors of serum levels while considering the repeated measurement design. Adherence with the study regimen was high and dropout rates were acceptable. Randomisation resulted in similar mean IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 levels by group. We did not observe a significant intervention effect on IGF-1, IGFBP-3, and their molar ratio during the entire study period. However, urinary isoflavone excretion during the study period was positively associated with IGF-1 (P=0·04) and the IGF-1:IGFBP-3 ratio (P=0·06). The effect was consistent over time. Adding soya foods to the diet of premenopausal women does not appear to lower serum levels of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3; if anything, the greater protein intake from soya may lead to a small increase in IGF-1 serum levels.
12 Depot : Cloud Storage with Minimal Trust

This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of Depot, a cloud storage system that minimizes trust assumptions. Depot tolerates buggy or malicious behavior by any number of clients or servers, yet it provides safety and liveness guarantees to correct clients. Depot provides these guarantees using a two-layer architecture. First, Depot ensures that the updates observed by correct nodes are consistently ordered under Fork-Join-Causal consistency (FJC). FJC is a slight weakening of causal consistency that can be both safe and live despite faulty nodes. Second, Depot implements protocols that use this consistent ordering of updates to provide other desirable consistency, staleness, durability, and recovery properties. Our evaluation suggests that the costs of these guarantees are modest and that Depot can tolerate faults and maintain good availability, latency, overhead, and staleness even when significant faults occur.
Redshift distribution of gamma-ray bursts and star formation rate

Aims. The redshift distribution of gamma-ray bursts collected in the BATSE Catalog is compared with the star formation rate.We aim to clarify the accordance between them. We also study the case of comoving number density of bursts monotonously increasing up to redshift \simeq �(6−20). Methods. A method independent of the models of the gamma-ray bursts is used. The short and the long subgroups are studied separately. Results. The redshift distribution of the long bursts may be proportional to the star formation rate. For the short bursts this can also happen, but the proportionality is less evident. For the long bursts the monotonously increasing scenario is also less probable but still can occur. For the short bursts this alternative seems to be excluded.
Chronic mesenteric ischemia: open surgery versus percutaneous angioplasty and stenting.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of percutaneous angioplasty and stenting (PAS) in comparison with traditional open surgical (OS) revascularization for the treatment of chronic mesenteric ischemia. METHODS Over a 3.5-year period, 28 patients (32 vessels) underwent PAS (balloon angioplasty alone, 5 [18%] of 28; angioplasty and stenting, 23 [82%] of 28) for symptoms of chronic mesenteric ischemia. These patients were compared with a previously published series of 85 patients (130 vessels) treated with OS (bypass grafting, 60 [71%] of 85; transaortic endarterectomy, 19 [22%] of 85; or patch angioplasty, 6 [7%] of 85). RESULTS The PAS and OS groups were similar with respect to baseline comorbidities, duration of symptoms (median: 6.7 vs 10.5 months, P =.52), and the number of vessels involved, but the patients differed in their age at presentation (median: 72 vs 65 years, P =.005). Fewer vessels were revascularized per patient in the PAS group (1.1 +/- 0.4) compared with the OS group (1.5 +/- 0.6, P =.001). Overall, 85.7% (24/28) had one vessel and 14.3% (4/28) had two vessels revascularized in the PAS group versus 48.2% (41/85) with one-vessel and 47.1% (40/85) with two-vessel revascularization in the OS group. No difference was noted in the early in-hospital complications (median: 17.9% [PAS] vs 32.9% [OS], P =.12) or mortality rate (10.7% [PAS] vs 8.2% [OS], P =.71). A reduced length of hospital stay in the PAS patients did not attain statistical significance (median: 5 days [PAS] vs 13 days [OS], P =.08). Although the 3-year cumulative recurrent stenosis (P =.62) and mortality rate (P =.99) did not differ, the PAS treatment group had a higher incidence of recurrent symptoms (P =.001). CONCLUSION Although the results of PAS and OS were similar with respect to morbidity, death, and recurrent stenosis, PAS was associated with a significantly higher incidence of recurrent symptoms. These findings suggest that OS should be preferentially offered to patients deemed fit for open revascularization.
Multi-object tracking using hybrid observation in PHD filter

In this paper, we propose a novel multi-object tracking method to track unknown number of objects with a single camera system. We design the tracking method via probability hypothesis density (PHD) filtering which considers multiple object states and their observations as random finite sets (RFSs). The PHD filter is capable of rejecting clutters, handling object appearances and disappearances, and estimating the trajectories of multiple objects in a unified framework. Although the PHD filter is robust to cluttered environment, it is vulnerable to missed detections. For this reason, we include local observations in an RFS of observation model. Local observations are locally generated near the individual tracks by using on-line trained local detector. The main purpose of the local observation is to handle the missed detections and to provide identity (label information) to each object in filtering procedure. The experimental results show that the proposed method robustly tracks multiple objects under practical situations.
Influences of autonomic changes on the sinus node recovery time in patients with sick sinus syndrome.

To assess the relative contribution of sympathetic and vagal influences on diurnal variation of sinus node recovery time (SNRT) in sick sinus syndrome (SSS), the diurnal changes of SNRT and the effects of propranolol and subsequent atropine on SNRT were examined in 39 patients with SSS. SNRT was measured before and after intravenous propranolol (0.1 mg/kg), and after subsequent intravenous atropine (0.02 mg/kg) in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. After completion of the electrophysiologic studies in the laboratory, SNRT was measured at 0 a.m. (midnight), 6 a.m. and 12 noon on the following day in the ward. After propranolol, SNRT was prolonged in 22 of 26 patients and shortened in 4 patients. After subsequent atropine, SNRT was prolonged in 5 of 26 patients and shortened in 21 patients. The patients with SNRT longer than 3 sec had a tendency to have greater diurnal variation of SNRT than those with SNRT less than 3 sec. A strong correlation (r = 0.98) was found between SNRT after propranolol and the longest SNRT in a 24-hour period. A difference of SNRT between after propranolol and after subsequent atropine was significantly correlated (r = 0.88) with a difference between the longest and the shortest SNRT in a 24-hour period. These results suggest that the diurnal changes in SNRT are regulated by the autonomic nervous system in SSS. SNRT after propranolol may be useful in estimating the longest SNRT in a day.