Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spontaneous initiation of atrial fibrillation by ectopic beats originating in the pulmonary veins.

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation, the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia and a major cause of stroke, results from simultaneous reentrant wavelets. Its spontaneous initiation has not been studied. METHODS We studied 45 patients with frequent episodes of atrial fibrillation (mean [+/-SD] duration, 344+/-326 minutes per 24 hours) refractory to drug therapy. The spontaneous initiation of atrial fibrillation was mapped with the use of multielectrode catheters designed to record the earliest electrical activity preceding the onset of atrial fibrillation and associated atrial ectopic beats. The accuracy of the mapping was confirmed by the abrupt disappearance of triggering atrial ectopic beats after ablation with local radio-frequency energy. RESULTS A single point of origin of atrial ectopic beats was identified in 29 patients, two points of origin were identified in 9 patients, and three or four points of origin were identified in 7 patients, for a total of 69 ectopic foci. Three foci were in the right atrium, 1 in the posterior left atrium, and 65 (94 percent) in the pulmonary veins (31 in the left superior, 17 in the right superior, 11 in the left inferior, and 6 in the right inferior pulmonary vein). The earliest activation was found to have occurred 2 to 4 cm inside the veins, marked by a local depolarization preceding the atrial ectopic beats on the surface electrocardiogram by 106+/-24 msec. Atrial fibrillation was initiated by a sudden burst of rapid depolarizations (340 per minute). A local depolarization could also be recognized during sinus rhythm and abolished by radiofrequency ablation. During a follow-up period of 8+/-6 months after ablation, 28 patients (62 percent) had no recurrence of atrial fibrillation. CONCLUSIONS The pulmonary veins are an important source of ectopic beats, initiating frequent paroxysms of atrial fibrillation. These foci respond to treatment with radio-frequency ablation.
Antibiotic prophylaxis for urinary tract infections after removal of urinary catheter: meta-analysis

Objective To determine whether antibiotic prophylaxis at the time of removal of a urinary catheter reduces the risk of subsequent symptomatic urinary tract infection. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published before November 2012 identified through PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library; conference abstracts for 2006-12 were also reviewed. Inclusion criteria Studies were included if they examined antibiotic prophylaxis administered to prevent symptomatic urinary tract infection after removal of a short term (≤14 days) urinary catheter. Results Seven controlled studies had symptomatic urinary tract infection after catheter removal as an endpoint; six were randomized controlled trials (five published; one in abstract form) and one was a non-randomized controlled intervention study. Five of these seven studies were in surgical patients. Studies were heterogeneous in the type and duration of antimicrobial prophylaxis and the period of observation. Overall, antibiotic prophylaxis was associated with benefit to the patient, with an absolute reduction in risk of urinary tract infection of 5.8% between intervention and control groups. The risk ratio was 0.45 (95% confidence interval 0.28 to 0.72). The number needed to treat to prevent one urinary tract infection was 17 (12 to 30). Conclusions Patients admitted to hospital who undergo short term urinary catheterization might benefit from antimicrobial prophylaxis when the catheter is removed as they experience fewer subsequent urinary tract infections. Potential disadvantages of more widespread antimicrobial prophylaxis (side effects and cost of antibiotics, development of antimicrobial resistance) might be mitigated by the identification of which patients are most likely to benefit from this approach.
Observing Reef Fishes from Submersibles Off North Carolina

: During August and September 1979, the submersibles JOHNSON SEA LINK-II and NEKTON GAMMA were used to observe fishes at 13 reefs in Raleigh, Onslow, and Long Bays, N.C. , at depths ranging from 23 to 152m. Reefs with the highest profile (up to 10m) and in depths of 52 to 92 m exhibited the greatest fish species richness and abundance, while adjacent sandy areas were usually barren of fishes. Estimates of recreationally and commercially important reef fishes were 61/ha (S.E. 59.9) over sand and 774/ha (S.E. 748.1) over reefs, with considerable variation between stations. Ninety-nine species in 35 families were observed. Most numerous were Holocentridae, Serranidae, Priacanthidae, Haemulidae, Sparidae, Sciaenidae, Chaetodontidae, Pomacentridae, and Labridae. Many tropical species previously thought to be rare off North Carolina were abundant.
Vascular Health and Risk Management Dovepress Surgery in Current Therapy for Infective Endocarditis

The introduction of the Duke criteria and transesophageal echocardiography has improved early recognition of infective endocarditis but patients are still at high risk for severe morbidity or death. Whether an exclusively antibiotic regimen is superior to surgical intervention is subject to ongoing debate. Current guidelines indicate when surgery is the preferred treatment , but decisions are often based on physician preferences. Surgery has shown to decrease the risk of short-term mortality in patients who present with specific symptoms or microorganisms ; nevertheless even then it often remains unclear when surgery should be performed. In this review we i) systematically reviewed the current literature comparing medical to surgical therapy to evaluate if surgery is the preferred option, ii) performed a meta-analysis of studies reporting propensity matched analyses, and iii), briefly summarized the current indications for surgery.
Taylor series expansions for the entropy rate of Hidden Markov Processes

Finding the entropy rate of Hidden Markov Processes is an active research topic, of both theoretical and practical importance. A recently used approach is studying the asymptotic behavior of the entropy rate in various regimes. In this paper we generalize and prove a previous conjecture relating the entropy rate to entropies of finite systems. We use the proof to establish series expansions for the entropy rate in two different regimes. We also study the radius of convergence of the two series expansions.
Nearly optimal sparse group testing

Group testing is the process of pooling arbitrary subsets from a set of n items so as to identify, with a minimal number of disjunctive tests, a “small” subset of d defective items. In “classical” non-adaptive group testing, it is known that when d = o(n<sup>1−δ</sup>) for any δ > 0, θ(d log(n)) tests are both information-theoretically necessary, and sufficient to guarantee recovery with high probability. Group testing schemes in the literature meeting this bound require most items to be tested Ω(log(n)) times, and most tests to incorporate Ω(n/d) items. Motivated by physical considerations, we study group testing models in which the testing procedure is constrained to be “sparse”. Specifically, we consider (separately) scenarios in which (a) items are finitely divisible and hence may participate in at most γ tests; and (b) tests are size-constrained to pool no more than ρ items per test. For both scenarios we provide information-theoretic lower bounds on the number of tests required to guarantee high probability recovery. In particular, one of our main results shows that γ-finite divisibility of items forces any group testing algorithm with probability of recovery error at most ϵ to perform at least Ω(γ(n/d)<sup>(1−2ϵ)/((1+2ϵ)γ)</sup>) tests. Analogously, for ρ-sized constrained tests, we show an information-theoretic lower bound of Ω(n log(n/d)/(ρ log(n/ρd))). In both scenarios we provide both randomized constructions (under both ϵ-error and zero-error reconstruction guarantees) and explicit constructions of computationally efficient group-testing algorithms (under ϵ-error reconstruction guarantees) that require a number of tests that are optimal up to constant factors in some regimes of n, d, γ and ρ. We also investigate the effect of unreliability/noise in test outcomes.
Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety of USL261, a midazolam formulation optimized for intranasal delivery, in a randomized study with healthy volunteers

To compare the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and tolerability of USL261, a midazolam formulation optimized for intranasal delivery, versus midazolam intravenous (IV) solution administered intranasally (MDZ‐inj IN) or intravenously (MDZ‐inj IV) in healthy adults.
Lingeling, Plingeling and Treengeling Entering the SAT Competition 2013

This paper serves as solver description for our SAT solver Lingeling and its two parallel variants Treengeling and Plingeling entering the SAT Competition 2013. We only list important differences to the version of these solvers used in the SAT Challenge 2012. For further information we refer to the solver description [1] of the SAT Challenge 2012 or source code.
FKBP5 genetic variation: association with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment outcomes in major depressive disorder

Objectives FKBP51 (51 kDa immunophilin) acts as a modulator of the glucocorticoid receptor and a negative regulator of the Akt pathway. Genetic variation in FKBP5 plays a role in antidepressant response. The aim of this study was to comprehensively assess the role of genetic variation in FKBP5, identified by both Sanger and Next Generation DNA resequencing, as well as genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with FKBP5 expression in the response to the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment of major depressive disorder. Methods We identified 657 SNPs in FKBP5 by Next Generation sequencing of 96 DNA samples from white patients, and 149 SNPs were selected for the genotyping together with 235 SNPs that were trans-associated with variation in FKBP5 expression in lymphoblastoid cells. A total of 529 DNA samples from the Mayo Clinic PGRN-SSRI Pharmacogenomic trial for which genome-wide SNPs had already been obtained were genotyped for these 384 SNPs, and associations with treatment outcomes were determined. The most significant SNPs were genotyped using 96 DNA samples from white non-Hispanic patients of the NIMH-supported Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study to attempt replication, followed by functional genomic studies. Results Genotype–phenotype association analysis indicated that rs352428 was associated with both 8-week treatment response in the Mayo study (odds ratio=0.49; P=0.003) and 6-week response in the STAR*D replication study (odds ratio=0.74; P=0.05). The electrophoresis mobility shift assay and the reporter gene assay confirmed the possible role of this SNP in transcription regulation. Conclusion This comprehensive FKBP5 sequence study provides insight into the role of common genetic polymorphisms that might influence SSRI treatment outcomes in major depressive disorder patients.
PARENTAL FREQUENCIES AND SPATIAL CONFIGURATION SHAPE BUMBLEBEE BEHAVIOR AND FLORAL ISOLATION IN HYBRIDIZING RHINANTHUS

To shed light on the role played by pollinators in the diversification of angiosperms, focus is needed on how floral isolation varies locally in the early stages of plant divergence. The few studies performed so far have often used species pairs with distinct pollination syndromes and contrasting floral displays. Here, we focus on a hybridizing pair (Rhinanthus minor and Rhinanthus angustifolius) with strong similarities in flower morphology and pollinators (bumblebees). We examined how ethological isolation changes locally in relation to relative Rhinanthus frequencies, spatial configurations, and pollinator assemblages. Interestingly, floral divergence based on adaptation to different pollinators is unlikely in Rhinanthus: no relationship was found between floral isolation and the local pollinator assemblage. In contrast, species frequency and spatial arrangement strongly influenced bumblebee behavior, ethological isolation, and thus potentially hybrid formation. When both Rhinanthus were present in equal proportions, bees generally preferred the more rewarding and conspicuous species. However, when the Rhinanthus frequencies were unbalanced, the more abundant species was preferred, although this was less pronounced when the less rewarding R. minor predominated. Ethological isolation is highly sensitive to site characteristics, and can be as high as in species with contrasting floral displays and pollinator suites, even though flowers are similar.
Thyroid hormone increases mannan-binding lectin levels.

BACKGROUND Recent studies have indicated the existence of causal links between the endocrine and immune systems and cardiovascular disease. Mannan-binding lectin (MBL), a protein of the innate immune system, may constitute a connection between these fields. METHODS To test whether thyroid hormone regulates MBL levels, we studied eight patients with Graves' hyperthyroidism before and after methimazole therapy, eight healthy subjects before and after short-term experimental hyperthyroidism, and eight hypothyroid patients with chronic auto-immune thyroiditis before and after L-thyroxine substitution. RESULTS In all hyperthyroid patients, MBL levels were increased--median (range), 1886 ng/ml (1478-7344) --before treatment and decreased to 954 ng/ml (312-3222) after treatment (P = 0.01, paired comparison: Wilcoxon's signed ranks test). The healthy subjects had MBL levels of 1081 ng/ml (312-1578). Administration of thyroid hormones to these persons induced mild hyperthyroidism and increased MBL levels significantly to 1714 ng/ml (356-2488) (P = 0.01). Two of the eight hypothyroid patients had undetectably low levels of MBL both before and after L-thyroxine substitution. The other six hypothyroid patients had decreased levels of MBL of 145 ng/ml (20-457) compared with 979 ng/ml (214-1533) after L-thyroxine substitution (P = 0.03, paired comparison: Wilcoxon's signed ranks test). CONCLUSION Our data show that thyroid hormone increases levels of MBL. MBL is part of the inflammatory complement system, and this modulation of complement activation may play a role in the pathogenesis of a number of key components of thyroid diseases.
For and against Organ Donation and Transplantation: Intricate Facilitators and Barriers in Organ Donation Perceived by German Nurses and Doctors

Background. Significant facilitators and barriers to organ donation and transplantation remain in the general public and even in health professionals. Negative attitudes of HPs have been identified as the most significant barrier to actual ODT. The purpose of this paper was hence to investigate to what extent HPs (physicians and nurses) experience such facilitators and barriers in ODT and to what extent they are intercorrelated. We thus combined single causes to circumscribed factors of respective barriers and facilitators and analyzed them for differences regarding profession, gender, spiritual/religious self-categorization, and self-estimated knowledge of ODT and their mutual interaction. Methods. By the use of questionnaires we investigated intricate facilitators and barriers to organ donation experienced by HPs (n = 175; 73% nurses, 27% physicians) in around ten wards at the University Hospital of Munich. Results. Our study confirms a general high agreement with the importance of ODT. Nevertheless, we identified both facilitators and barriers in the following fields: (1) knowledge of ODT and willingness to donate own organs, (2) ethical delicacies in ODT, (3) stressors to handle ODT in the hospital, and (4) individual beliefs and self-estimated religion/spirituality. Conclusion. Attention to the intricacy of stressors and barriers in HPs continues to be a high priority focus for the availability of donor organs.
Bmc Developmental Biology Time-dependent Patterning of the Mesoderm and Endoderm by Nodal Signals in Zebrafish

Background: The vertebrate body plan is generated during gastrulation with the formation of the three germ layers. Members of the Nodal-related subclass of the TGF-β superfamily induce and pattern the mesoderm and endoderm in all vertebrates. In zebrafish, two nodal-related genes, called squint and cyclops, are required in a dosage-dependent manner for the formation of all derivatives of the mesoderm and endoderm. These genes are expressed dynamically during the blastula stages and may have different roles at different times. This question has been difficult to address because conditions that alter the timing of nodal-related gene expression also change Nodal levels. We utilized a pharmacological approach to conditionally inactivate the ALK 4, 5 and 7 receptors during the blastula stages without disturbing earlier signaling activity. This permitted us to directly examine when Nodal signals specify cell types independently of dosage effects.
WELL-POSEDNESS AND GLOBAL ATTRACTORS FOR LIQUID CRYSTALS ON RIEMANNIAN MANIFOLDS

ABSTRACT We study the coupled Navier-Stokes Ginzburg-Landau model of nematic liquid crystals introduced by F.H. Lin, which is a simplified version ofthe Ericksen-Leslie system. We generalize the model to compact n-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, deriving the system from a variational principle, and provide a very simple proof of local well-posedness for this coupled system using a contraction mapping argument. We then prove that this system is globally well-posed and has compact global attractors when the dimension of the manifold M is two. A small data result in n dimensions follows easily. Finally, we introduce the Lagrangian averaged liquid crystal equations, which arise from averaging the Navier-Stokes fluid motion over small spatial scales in the variational principle. We show that this averaged system is globally well-posed and has compact global attractors even when M is three-dimensional.
Independent Set, Induced Matching, and Pricing: Connections and Tight (Subexponential Time) Approximation Hardnesses

We present a series of almost settled inapproximability results for three fundamental problems. The first in our series is the subexponential-time inapproximability of the independent set problem, a question studied in the area of parameterized complexity. The second is the hardness of approximating the bipartite induced matching problem on bounded-degree bipartite graphs. The last in our series is the tight hardness of approximating the k-hypergraph pricing problem, a fundamental problem arising from the area of algorithmic game theory. In particular, assuming the Exponential Time Hypothesis, our two main results are: For any r larger than some constant, any r-approximation algorithm for the independent set problem must run in at least 2n1-ε/r1+ε time. This nearly matches the upper bound of 2n/r [23]. It also improves some hardness results in the domain of parameterized complexity (e.g., [26], [19]). For any k larger than some constant, there is no polynomial time min{k1-ε, n1/2-ε} time min -approximation algorithm for the k-hypergraph pricing problem , where n is the number of vertices in an input graph. This almost matches the upper bound of min{O(k), Õ(√n) } min (by Balcan and Blum [3] and an algorithm in this paper). We note an interesting fact that, in contrast to n1/2-ε hardness for polynomial-time algorithms, the k-hypergraph pricing problem admits nδ approximation for any δ > 0 in quasi-polynomial time. This puts this problem in a rare approximability class in which approximability thresholds can be improved significantly by allowing algorithms to run in quasi-polynomial time. The proofs of our hardness results rely on unexpectedly tight connections between the three problems. First, we establish a connection between the first and second problems by proving a new graph-theoretic property related to an induced matching number of dispersers. Then, we show that the n1/2-ε hardness of the last problem follows from nearly tight subexponential time inapproximability of the first problem, illustrating a rare application of the second type of inapproximability result to the first one. Finally, to prove the subexponential-time inapproximability of the first problem, we construct a new PCP with several properties; it is sparse and has nearly-linear size, large degree, and small free-bit complexity. Our PCP requires no ground-breaking ideas but rather a very careful assembly of the existing ingredients in the PCP literature.
Recent Surface Air Temperature Change over Mainland China Based on an Urbanization-Bias Adjusted Dataset

A dataset from 763 national Reference Climate and Basic Meteorological Stations (RCBMS) was used to analyze surface air temperature (SAT) change in mainland China. The monthly historical observational records had been adjusted for urbanization bias existing in the data series of size-varied urban stations, after they were corrected for data inhomogeneities mainly caused by relocation and instrumentation. The standard procedures for creating area-averaged temperature time series and for calculating linear trend were used. Analyses were made for annual and seasonal mean temperature. Annual mean SAT in mainland China as a whole rose by 1.24°C for the last 55 years, with a warming rate of 0.23°C decade−1. This was close to the warming of 1.09°C observed in global mean land SAT over the period 1951–2010. Compared to the SAT before correction, after-corrected data showed that the urbanization bias had caused an overestimate of the annual warming rate of more than 19.6% during 1961–2015. The winter, autumn, spring, and summer mean warming rates were 0.28°, 0.23°, 0.23°, and 0.15°C decade−1, respectively. The spatial patterns of the annual and seasonal mean SAT trends also exhibited an obvious difference from those of the previous analyses. The largest contrast was a weak warming area appearing in central parts of mainland China, which included a small part of southwestern North China, the northwestern Yangtze River, and the eastern part of Southwest China. The annual mean warming trends in Northeast and North China obviously decreased compared to the previous analyses, which caused a relatively more significant cooling in Northeast China after 1998 under the background of global warming slowdown.
Hydrodynamic mediation of density‐dependent growth and adult‐juvenile interactions of a spionid polychaete

We performed an experiment to test the effects of adult density on the growth rates of juvenile Polydora cornuta. Our experiment was performed in three identical counter‐rotating annular flumes, each set to one of three different flow speeds for a period of 3 d (U5mm = 3, 6, or 12 cm s−1, where U5mm = velocity measured 5 mm above bottom). We implanted replicate vials containing a premeasured juvenile P. cornuta and either 0, 2, or 5 adults into a 2‐cm layer of sediment in the flume. The relative growth rates of the juveniles were determined by measuring each juvenile's body volume before and after the 3‐d deployment in the flumes. We repeated the experiment three times. The growth rates of juveniles were negatively affected by adult density at the two slower flows, but there was no evidence of negative density‐dependent growth at the fastest flow. In the two slower flows, the mean relative growth rate of juveniles declined from 53 to 34% d−1 as the number of adults increased from 0 to 5. Fecal mounds accumulated near adults in the two slower flows, but mounds were absent in the fastest flow. The hydrodynamic mediation of the effects of density suggests that the strength of density‐dependent and adult‐juvenile interactions in nature are likely to be mediated by flow. Spionids should be able to achieve higher population densities at places where or times when faster flows facilitate suspension feeding and reduce the effects of biogenic disturbance of the sediment‐water inter