Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Continuous Interscalene Brachial Plexus Block for Postoperative Pain Control at Home: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Study

In this study, we investigated the efficacy of patient-controlled regional analgesia for outpatients undergoing moderately painful orthopedic surgery of the shoulder. Preoperatively, patients (n = 20) received an interscalene nerve block and perineural catheter. Postoperatively, patients were discharged home with both oral opioids and a portable infusion pump delivering either 0.2% ropivacaine or 0.9% saline, determined randomly in a double-blinded manner. Daily end points included pain scores, opioid use and side effects, sleep quality, and technique complications. Ropivacaine (n = 10) infusion significantly reduced pain compared with saline (n = 10) infusion. The average pain at rest (scale: 0–10) on postoperative day 1 (median, 25th–75th percentiles) was 4.8 (4.0–5.0) for the saline group, versus 0.0 (0.0–2.0) for the ropivacaine group (P < 0.001). Oral opioid use and related side effects were also significantly decreased in the ropivacaine group. On postoperative day 1, median tablet consumption was 8.0 (6.5–9.5) and 0.5 (0.0–1.0) for the saline and ropivacaine groups, respectively (P < 0.001). Sleep disturbance scores were nearly threefold greater on the first postoperative night for patients receiving saline (P = 0.013). We conclude that after moderately painful orthopedic surgery of the shoulder, ropivacaine infusion using a portable infusion pump and an interscalene perineural catheter at home decreased pain, opioid use and related side effects, and sleep disturbances.
A Model of Genetic Variation in Human Social Networks

Social networks exhibit strikingly systematic patterns across a wide range of human contexts. While genetic variation accounts for a significant portion of the variation in many complex social behaviors, the heritability of egocentric social network attributes is unknown. Here we show that three of these attributes (in-degree, transitivity, and centrality) are heritable. We then develop a “mirror network” method to test extant network models and show that none account for observed genetic variation in human social networks. We propose an alternative “Attract and Introduce” model with two simple forms of heterogeneity that generates significant heritability as well as other important network features. We show that the model is well suited to real social networks in humans. These results suggest that natural selection may have played a role in the evolution of social networks. They also suggest that modeling intrinsic variation in network attributes may be important for understanding the way genes affect human behaviors and the way these behaviors spread from person to person.
On the Ginzburg‐Landau critical field in three dimensions

We study the three‐dimensional Ginzburg‐Landau model of superconductivity. Several “natural” definitions of the (third) critical field, H C 3 , governing the transition from the superconducting state to the normal state, are considered. We analyze the relation between these fields and give conditions as to when they coincide. An interesting part of the analysis is the study of the monotonicity of the ground state energy of the Laplacian with constant magnetic field and with Neumann (magnetic) boundary condition in a domain Ω. It is proved that the ground state energy is a strictly increasing function of the field strength for sufficiently large fields. As a consequence of our analysis, we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture by Pan. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Clinically Isolated Neurosarcoidosis: A Recommended Diagnostic Path

The involvement of the central nervous system in sarcoidosis can manifest with a variety of neurological symptoms, most of them nonspecific. We identified 13 patients with neurosarcoidosis diagnosed at our clinic. Six of 13 patients presented with clinically isolated neurosarcoidosis (CINS) without signs or symptoms of systemic disease. CINS patients were not different with respect to age, as well as imaging and spinal fluid findings, or disease course. However, we found spinal cord involvement in neurosarcoidosis patients much more common than previously described (in 8 out of 13 patients). Spinal cord affection was associated with older age at diagnosis and a less favorable response to therapy. Based on our findings, we propose a diagnostic path for neurosarcoidosis, including spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a mandatory and early step during diagnostic workup. i 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel
Alternative Splicing of the Cardiac Sodium Channel Creates Multiple Variants of Mutant T1620K Channels

Alternative splicing creates several Nav1.5 transcripts in the mammalian myocardium and in various other tissues including brain, dorsal root ganglia, breast cancer cells as well as neuronal stem cell lines. In total nine Nav1.5 splice variants have been discovered. Four of them, namely Nav1.5a, Nav1.5c, Nav1.5d, and Nav1.5e, generate functional channels in heterologous expression systems. The significance of alternatively spliced transcripts for cardiac excitation, in particular their role in SCN5A channelopathies, is less well understood. In the present study, we systematically investigated electrophysiological properties of mutant T1620K channels in the background of all known functional Nav1.5 splice variants in HEK293 cells. This mutation has been previously associated with two distinct cardiac excitation disorders: with long QT syndrome type 3 (LQT3) and isolated cardiac conduction disease (CCD). When investigating the effect of the T1620K mutation, we noticed similar channel defects in the background of hNav1.5, hNav1.5a, and hNav1.5c. In contrast, the hNav1.5d background produced differential effects: In the mutant channel, some gain-of-function features did not emerge, whereas loss-of-function became more pronounced. In case of hNav1.5e, the neonatal variant of hNav1.5, both the splice variant itself as well as the corresponding mutant channel showed electrophysiological properties that were distinct from the wild-type and mutant reference channels, hNav1.5 and T1620K, respectively. In conclusion, our data show that alternative splicing is a mechanism capable of generating a variety of functionally distinct wild-type and mutant hNav1.5 channels. Thus, the cellular splicing machinery is a potential player affecting genotype-phenotype correlations in SCN5A channelopathies.
A two-phase approach to stability of networks given in iISS framework: Utilization of a matrix-like criterion

This article is concerned with global asymptotic stability (GAS) of dynamical networks. The case when subsystems are integral input-to-state stable (iISS) has been recognized as notoriously difficult to deal with in the literature. In fact, the lack of energy dissipation for large input denies direct application of the small-gain argument for input-to-state stable (ISS) subsystems. Here for networks consisting of iISS subsystems it is demonstrated that a two-phase approach allows us to make use of the ISS small-gain argument by separating a trajectory into a transient and a subsequent ISS-like phase. In contrast to the previous iISS results, the two-phase approach immediately leads to a sufficiency criterion for GAS of general nonlinear networks, which is given in a matrix-like form (order condition).
On MMSE properties and I-MMSE implications in parallel MIMO Gaussian channels

This paper extends the “single crossing point” property of the scalar MMSE function, derived by Guo, Shamai and Verdú (first presented in ISIT 2008), to the parallel degraded MIMO scenario. It is shown that the matrix Q(t), which is the difference between the MMSE assuming a Gaussian input and the MMSE assuming an arbitrary input, has, at most, a single crossing point for each of its eigenvalues. Together with the I-MMSE relationship, a fundamental connection between Information Theory and Estimation Theory, this new property is employed to derive results in Information Theory. As a simple application of this property we provide an alternative converse proof for the broadcast channel (BC) capacity region under covariance constraint in this specific setting.
Triple-class antiretroviral drug resistance: risk and predictors among HIV-1-infected patients

Background:HIV-1 triple-class antiretroviral drug resistance (TC-DR) may substantially limit therapeutic options and compromise clinical outcomes. Objective:To estimate TC-DR prevalence and incidence, and identify risk factors for TC-DR acquisition. Methods:We identified patients in the University of North Carolina HIV Cohort Study with TC-DR HIV-1 variants. Nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), and major protease inhibitor (PI) mutations, were based on the International AIDS Society – USA guidelines. Prevalence was estimated with the exact binomial distribution, incidence with the exact Poisson distribution, and multivariable analyses were performed using logistic regression. Results:Of 1587 patients, half initiated therapy with HAART (N = 789), 20% (N = 320) with non-HAART combination therapy, and 30% (N = 478) with one NRTI. The median time on therapy was 5.7 years [interquartile range (IQR) 2.9, 8.6], the median number of previous antiretroviral agents was six (IQR 4, 8), and 47% (N = 752) were exposed to at least one NRTI, NNRTI and PI. Assuming patients without genotypes did not harbor TC-DR virus, the prevalence of TC-DR among all antiretroviral-experienced patients was 8% [95% confidence interval (CI) 6%, 9%]. The prevalence was 3% (95% CI 2%, 4%) and 12% (95% CI 10%, 15%) among patients treated initially with HAART and non-HAART, respectively. The number of antiretroviral agents received and initiating therapy with non-HAART or an unboosted PI, increased TC-DR risk in multivariable analyses. Conclusion:The majority of patients with TC-DR have extensive antiretroviral exposure, particularly to non-HAART regimens, whereas HAART initiators are at low risk of acquiring TC-DR during a median of 4 years of follow-up.
Promising immunotherapy against fungal diseases

ABSTRACT Introduction: Despite the relatively high efficacy of antifungal drugs, invasive fungal infections (IFIs) are still associated with tremendous morbidity and mortality, since late diagnosis makes an antifungal drug therapy inefficient. Therefore, antifungal immunotherapies to specifically strengthen the host´s own immune mechanisms constitute an additional promising strategy in taking action against fungal pathogens. Areas covered: The authors summarize efforts in research and clinical trials to provide safe and efficient immunotherapeutic options against invasive fungal diseases. Treatment of IFIs is challenging as the number of available antifungals is limited and further complications include: toxicity, drug interactions and the emergence of drug resistance. Susceptibility is determined by the impaired immune status of the host. Hence, augmenting immunity by immunotherapeutic interventions may offer future directions to treat IFI. Expert opinion: A much better understanding of fungus and host cell interactions is essential for the development of safe and successful immunotherapeutic strategies. Indeed, there is encouraging preliminary data available that such approaches are possible; however, current data is too limited to allow solid conclusions on the risks and benefits in the clinical setting. Clinical trials focusing on the role of adjuvant immunotherapeutics with or without a combination of antifungals are highly needed for further evaluation.
A Systematic Review of Acquired Left Ventricle to Right Atrium Shunts (Gerbode Defects).

T he left ventricle-right atrium (LVRA) shunt, a rare and special type of ventricular septal defect (VSD), was first reported by Gerbode et al1 in 1958, and was thus termed “Gerbode defect”, after the first author. In 1967, Riemenschneider and Moss2 classified Gerbode defects into two types: direct (or true) and indirect (or false). The direct type is a direct shunt between the left ventricle and right atrium across the membranous septum, while the indirect type is a VSD with a left-to-right shunt at the ventricular level associated with tricuspid regurgitation, with the high-velocity shunt being directed into the right atrium. Later, Sakakibara and Konno3 termed the above two types as supravalvular and infravalvular types. In addition, they added a Type III (valvular type), an intermediate type (or a combination) of types I and II, to the categories. In the early years, it was estimated that the incidences of the three types were 32%, 62% and 6%, respectively,4 and that type II accounted for an overwhelming majority.5 More recently, Sinisalo et al6 stated that the incidences of the three types had changed dramatically, accounting for 76%, 16% and 8%, respectively. The LV-RA shunt can be either congenital or acquired in nature. The congenital Gerbode defect is rare, and its clinical features have been well described.4 By contrast, the acquired LVRA shunts have actually outnumbered the congenital, as there have been more predisposing risk factors, including infective endocarditis (IE), trauma, cardiac surgical procedures, and myocardial infarction, responsible for the development of the acquired shunt in the current era.7 The acquired LV-RA shunts have been reported individually case by case in recent years. A review of acquired LV-RA shunts was published recently; however, it included incomplete patient information, most probably based on abstracts without referring to the full texts of the articles, and also improper inclusion of duplicate publications.8 Therefore, the clinical characteristics and mechanisms remain to be sufficiently elaborated.
Fitness Inheritance In Multi-objective Optimization

In real-world multi-objective problems, the evaluation of objective functions usually requires a large amount of computation time. Moreover, due to the curse of dimensionality, solving multi-objective problems often requires much longer computation time than solving single-objective problems. Therefore, it is essential to develop efficiency enhancement techniques for solving multi-objective problems. This paper investigates fitness inheritance as a way to speed up multi-objective genetic and evolutionary algorithms. Convergence and population-sizing models are derived and compared with experimental results in two cases: fitness inheritance without fitness sharing and fitness inheritance with fitness sharing. Results show that the number of function evaluations can be reduced with the use of fitness inheritance.
Is L2 a Good Loss Function for Neural Networks for Image Processing

Neural networks are becoming central in several areas of computer vision and image processing. Different architectures have been proposed to solve specific problems. The impact of the loss layer of neural networks, however, has not received much attention by the research community: the default and most common choice is L2. This can be particularly limiting in the context of image processing, since L2 correlates poorly with perceived image quality. In this paper we bring attention to alternative choices. We study the performance of several losses, including perceptually-motivated losses, and propose a novel, differentiable error function. We show that the quality of the results improves significantly with better loss functions, even for the same network architecture.
The immunology of human hookworm infections

Hookworms are one of the most prevalent parasites of humans in developing countries, but we know relatively little about the immune response generated to hookworm infection. This can be attributed to a lack of permissive animal models and a relatively small research community compared with those of the more high‐profile parasitic diseases. However, recently, research has emerged on the development of vaccines to control hookworm infection and the use of hookworm to treat autoimmune and allergic disorders, contributing to a greater understanding of the strategies used by hookworms to modulate the host’s immune response. A substantial body of research on the immunobiology of hookworms originates from Australia, so this review will summarize the current status of the field with a particular emphasis on research carried out ‘down under’.
Structured Training for Large-Vocabulary Chord Recognition

Automatic chord recognition systems operating in the large-vocabulary regime must overcome data scarcity: certain classes occur much less frequently than others, and this presents a significant challenge when estimating model parameters. While most systems model the chord recognition task as a (multi-class) classification problem, few attempts have been made to directly exploit the intrinsic structural similarities between chord classes. In this work, we develop a deep convolutional-recurrent model for automatic chord recognition over a vocabulary of 170 classes. To exploit structural relationships between chord classes, the model is trained to produce both the time-varying chord label sequence as well as binary encodings of chord roots and qualities. This binary encoding directly exposes similarities between related classes, allowing the model to learn a more coherent representation of simultaneous pitch content. Evaluations on a corpus of 1217 annotated recordings demonstrate substantial improvements compared to previous models.
Nutritional Care in a Nursing Home in Italy

Introduction Malnutrition is a clinical condition due to the imbalance among needs, intake and use of nutrients, leading to the increase of morbidity and mortality, and to the impairment of quality of life. Even in industrialized countries undernutrition is becoming an alarming phenomenon, especially involving elderly institutionalized subjects. A multicentric study called PIMAI (Project Iatrogenic MAlnutrition in Italy), was carried out in Italy over 2005. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of malnutrition in hospitals and in nursing care homes (NH), to assess the level of nutritional attention and to measure the perceived quality in food and nutritional care. This paper represents a preliminary analysis of data collected in a NH included in the PIMAI project. Materials and methods A total of 100 subjects (29 males and 71 females, aged 80.2±10 years), were recruited from January to June 2005 at the Clinical Rehabilitation Institute “Villa delle Querce” in Nemi (Rome), among patients in the NH facility. All the participants underwent a multidimensional geriatric evaluation (considering nutritional, clinical, functional and cognitive parameters), and a survey on “perceived quality” of nutritional care. Results and discussion According to nutritional status defined by the Mini Nutritional Assessment®, data analysis showed a high prevalence of malnutrition (36%) especially related to advanced age, chewing, cognitive and functional impairments. Patients seemed to consider nutrition to be important for their health; on the other hand, they were not thoroughly satisfied with the quality of food. Particularly, it was observed scarce attention to nutritional status from medical and nursing staff. Conclusions Our study confirms the need to pay greater attention to nutritional status in elderly institutionalized subjects. Medical and nursing teams need to be aware of the importance to perform an evaluation of nutritional status in these subset of subjects.
Finite element modelling of tungsten inert gas welding of aluminium alloy 2024

Abstract A finite element model to predict the evolution of stress and distortion for a bead on plate tungsten inert gas (TIG) weld in aluminium alloy 2024 plate is described. The thermal model was calibrated against thermocouple measurements, and the mechanical model was validated against direct measurements of residual strain made using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Particular attention has been paid to the clamping arrangement, the transfer of heat between the plate and the copper backing plate, and the selection of appropriate thermal history dependent mechanical properties. The validated model has been used to determine the optimal arrangement for 'low stress no distortion' welding using laser heating applied to both sides of the joint line ahead of the TIG torch. In this manner it is predicted that the peak longitudinal tensile stresses in the weld region can be reduced to 15% of their normal values.
Perspectives on: information and coding in mammalian sensory physiology: inhibitory synaptic mechanisms underlying functional diversity in auditory cortex.

In the auditory system, acoustic information conveyed by hair cells and auditory nerves is broken up into different components in central neural circuits, which can then be processed and encoded separately. This process relies on the generation of a variety of response features different from auditory nerve activity. Inhibition in the central circuits proves crucial for the creation and refinement of these functional response properties. Previous understanding of inhibitory mechanisms for auditory information processing has been limited by the methodology of deriving inhibition indirectly from spike and membrane potential responses. Recent application of in vivo whole cell voltage-clamp recordings (iVCRs) to auditory cortical neurons directly reveals the spectral and temporal properties of synaptic inhibition evoked by auditory stimuli. These findings provide new insights into how cortical inhibition shapes spike responses of excitatory neurons through its specific interaction with their excitatory synaptic input. This review highlights our current understanding of cortical inhibitory mechanisms underlying several fundamental functional properties of auditory cortical neurons. In particular, we propose that the variation in spectrotemporal pattern of cortical inhibition in relation to excitation contributes to the functional diversity of auditory cortex.
Beyond the looking-glass self: social structure and efficacy-based self-esteem.

The "looking-glass self" has been the dominant metaphor within sociology for the development of self-conception and has contributed to an overly passive and oversocialized view of human beings. The major theme in this paper is that our self-conceptions are also based upon our actions in the world, especially efficacious actions. The notions of human agency and self-creativity, which have been a hallmark of the symbolic interactionist tradition at the philosophical level, can be brought into our studies of self-concept through the concept of self-efficacy. Efficacy-based self-esteem not only places greater emphasis upon "self-determination" in the process of self-concept formation, but also underscores the reciprocity between self and social structure. Several aspects of social structure are examined as they affect the development of efficacy-based self-conception.
The development of antimicrobial biomaterial surfaces

Summary One of the major drawbacks in the use of biomedical materials is the occurrence ofbiomaterial-centered infections. After implantation, the host interacts with a biomaterial byforming a conditioning film on its surface and an immune reaction towards the foreignmaterial. When microorganisms reach a biomaterial surface they can adhere to it. Adhesion ofmicroorganisms to an implant is mediated by their physico-chemical surface properties andthe properties of the biomaterial surface itself. Subsequent surface growth of themicroorganisms will lead to a mature biofilm and infection, which is difficult to eradicate byantibiotics. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the mechanisms involved in biomaterial-centeredinfection and the possible strategies to prevent these infections. Chapter 2 describes the parallel plate flow chamber system. With this system thedifferent steps in biofilm formation, i.e. conditioning film formation, initial bacterialadhesion, bacterial surface growth and bacterial detachment can be modeled and monitored