Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circulating Prolidase Activity in Patients with Myocardial Infarction

Background Collagen is a major determinant of atherosclerotic plaque stability. Thus, identification of differences in enzymes that regulate collagen integrity could be useful for predicting susceptibility to atherothrombosis or for diagnosing plaque rupture. In this study, we sought to determine whether prolidase, the rate-limiting enzyme of collagen turnover, differs in human subjects with acute myocardial infarction (MI) versus those with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods We measured serum prolidase activity in 15 patients with stable CAD and 49 patients with acute MI, of which a subset had clearly defined thrombotic MI (n = 22) or non-thrombotic MI (n = 12). Prolidase activity was compared across study time points (at cardiac catheterization, T0; 6 h after presentation, T6; and at a quiescent follow-up, Tf/u) in acute MI and stable CAD subjects. We performed subgroup analyses to evaluate prolidase activity in subjects presenting with acute thrombotic versus non-thrombotic MI. Results Although prolidase activity was lower at T0 and T6 versus the quiescent phase in acute MI and stable CAD subjects (p < 0.0001), it was not significantly different between acute MI and stable CAD subjects at any time point (T0, T6, and Tf/u) or between thrombotic and non-thrombotic MI groups. Preliminary data from stratified analyses of a small number of diabetic subjects (n = 8) suggested lower prolidase activity in diabetic acute MI subjects compared with non-diabetic acute MI subjects (p = 0.02). Conclusion Circulating prolidase is not significantly different between patients with acute MI and stable CAD or between patients with thrombotic and non-thrombotic MI. Further studies are required to determine if diabetes significantly affects prolidase activity and how this might relate to the risk of MI.
Addressing suicide risk in partners and relatives bereaved by suicide

Summary Analyses of population-based registers provide evidence to support an increased risk of suicide and mental illness after the suicide of a relative or partner. This editorial explores the implications of this work for progressing recommendations made in suicide prevention strategies regarding the specific support provided to people bereaved by suicide. Declaration of interest A.P. served on the Public Health England expert reference committee contributing to local guidance on commissioning and delivering postvention support (Public Health England, 2016. Support After a Suicide: A Guide to Providing Local Services) and has submitted applications for funding to investigate mediators of suicide risk after suicide bereavement. Since writing this article she has become a Patron of the Support After Suicide Partnership.
Eclampsia: morbidity, mortality, and management.

Introduction Pre-eclampsia is a multisystem disorder of pregnancy and the puerperium, complicating approximately 6% to 8% of all pregnancies in developed nations. Pre-eclampsia may be defined by the clinical diad of new onset hypertension (sitting blood pressure $140 mm Hg systolic or $90 mm Hg diastolic) and proteinuria ($1+ in a random urine sample or $300 mg in a 24-hour collection). It may also be accompanied by clinical symptoms after 20 weeks’ gestation. These include an unremitting headache, visual changes, right upper quadrant pain, midepigastric pain, nausea and vomiting, oliguria, and shortness of breath. Each of these symptoms herald potentially severe clinical manifestations, including intracerebral hemorrhage, hypertensive encephalopathy, hepatic involvement (including hematoma or capsular rupture), renal failure, and pulmonary edema. Pre-eclampsia may be subdivided into 2 categories, mild and severe, by virtue of the severity of the hypertension and proteinuria, as well as by the presence of unremitting symptoms as a manifestation of other organ involvement. In the most recent publication of the National High Blood Pressure Education ProgramWorking Group on High Blood Pressure in Pregnancy, the previously used traditional defining criteria of edema ($2+ pretibial, facial, or presacral edema) and proteinuria (mild identified as $300 mg in a 24-hour collection, severe as $5 g) in a 24-hour collection have been altered in the diagnosis and distinction of mild and severe forms of the disorder. Alternatively, current guidelines suggest that ‘‘Proteinuria is defined as the urinary excretion of 0.3 g protein or greater in a 24-hour specimen. This will usually correlate with 30 mg/dL (‘‘1+ dipstick’’) or greater in a random urine determination with no evidence of urinary tract infection. However, because of the discrepancy between random protein determinations and 24-hour urine protein in pre-eclampsia (which may be either higher or lower), it is recommended that the diagnosis be based on a 24-hour urine if possible or a timed collection corrected for creatinine Correspondence:Michael A. Belfort,MD,PhD, 1200East 3900 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84124. E-mail: uvmbelfo@ ihc.com
Incidence, Survival, and Risk Factors for Adults with Acute Myeloid Leukemia Not Otherwise Specified and Acute Myeloid Leukemia with Recurrent Genetic Abnormalities: Analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Database, 2001–2013

Background/Aim: As the knowledgebase of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has grown, classification systems have moved to incorporate these new findings. Methods: We assessed 32,941 patients with AML whose records are contained in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Results: Half of all patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2013 did not have a World Health Organization (WHO) classification. Acute promyelocytic leukemia and acute panmyelosis with myelofibrosis were associated with the longest leukemia-specific survival (110 and 115 months, respectively), and AML with minimal differentiation and acute megakaryoblastic leukemia with the shortest (30 and 28 months, respectively). For patients in the WHO groups AML not otherwise specified (AML-NOS) and AML with recurrent genetic abnormalities (AML-RGA), the risk of death was greater for older patients and less for married patients. Black patients with any type of AML-NOS also had a higher risk of death. Patients whose case of AML did not receive a WHO classification were older and this group had a higher risk of death when compared to patients with a WHO type of AML-NOS. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the divergent outcomes of patients with AML and the importance of using the WHO classification system and demographic factors to gauge their prognosis.
Estimating a change point in the long memory parameter

We propose an estimator of change point in the long memory parameter d of an ARFIMA(p, d, q) process using the sup Wald test. We derive the consistency and the rate of convergence of the estimator for the time of change. The convergence rate of our change point estimator depends on the magnitude of a shift. Furthermore, we obtain the limiting distribution of our change point estimator without depending on the distribution of the process. Therefore, we can construct confidence intervals for the change point. Simulations show the validity of the asymptotic theory of our estimator if the sample size is large enough. We apply our change point estimator to the yearly Nile river minimum water level.
Molecular Basis of Differential Selectivity of Cyclobutyl-Substituted Imidazole Inhibitors against CDKs: Insights for Rational Drug Design

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) belong to the CMGC subfamily of protein kinases and play crucial roles in eukaryotic cell division cycle. At least seven different CDKs have been reported to be implicated in the cell cycle regulation in vertebrates. These CDKs are highly homologous and contain a conserved catalytic core. This makes the design of inhibitors specific for a particular CDK difficult. There is, however, growing need for CDK5 specific inhibitors to treat various neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, cis-substituted cyclobutyl-4-aminoimidazole inhibitors have been identified as potent CDK5 inhibitors that gave up to 30-fold selectivity over CDK2. Available IC50 values also indicate a higher potency of this class of inhibitors over commercially available drugs, such as roscovitine. To understand the molecular basis of higher potency and selectivity of these inhibitors, here, we present molecular dynamics simulation results of CDK5/p25 and CDK2/CyclinE complexed with a series of cyclobutyl-substituted imidazole inhibitors and roscovitine. The atomic details of the stereospecificity and selectivity of these inhibitors are obtained from energetics and binding characteristics to the CDK binding pocket. The study not only complements the experimental findings, but also provides a wealth of detailed information that could help the structure-based drug designing processes.
Altered states of consciousness among inpatients in a Trauma Program

ABSTRACT A set of measures of trauma, dissociation, altered states of consciousness, and spiritual experiences was administered to a convenience sample of 100 inpatients in a hospital Trauma Program. The inpatients had an average Dissociative Experiences Scale score of 42.3 and an average Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale score of 6.6, both of which are very high. Both trauma and dissociation correlated significantly with measures of pathological altered states of consciousness (ASC) but not with adaptive, normal spiritual experiences as measured by the Spiritual Orientation Inventory and the ASC Scale. The authors conclude that future study of the relationships between psychological trauma, dissociation, and ASC should subdivide altered states into at least two major categories: more inherently pathological states versus those that are more adaptive and spiritual in nature.
Congenital Hypothyroidism and Bone Remodeling Cycle

Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the biochemical markers of bone turnover in children with congenital hypothyroidism during the course of treatment as compared to healthy children selected as controls. Methods: The study included 31 children with congenital hypothyroidism and 29 healthy children. In both groups, we evaluated serum procollagen type-1 N-terminal propeptide (PINP) and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase type 5b isoform (TRACP 5b) levels as bone turnover markers. Results: In both groups, thyroid hormone levels were within normal limits. The levels of vitamin D were significantly higher in the cases with congenital hypothyroidism. Although PINP levels were not found to be different, TRACP 5b levels which are related to osteoclastic activities were significantly higher in the control group. Conclusion: We did not detect an increase in bone resorption in patients with congenital hypothyroidism, despite long-term treatment with LT4. Our results suggest that with effective vitamin D treatment and thyroxin replacement, congenital hypothyroidism is not a deleterious factor for bone turnover.
A comparative evaluation of global representation-based schemes for face verification

This paper is focused on algorithmic issues for biometric face verification (i.e., given an image of the face and an identity claim, decide whether they correspond to each other or not). Several alternatives for geometric normalization of images, photometric normalization, dimensionality reduction and similarity measures are proposed and compared using the XM2VTS database and the associated Lausanne protocol [K. Messer et al., 1999], [J. Luettin et al., 1998]. Experiments under this particular framework show that best verification results are obtained when holistic approaches for face recognition (such as eigenfaces or fisherfaces) are combined with techniques traditionally associated to local feature-based approaches, such as Gabor decompositions.
Panel Data Analysis of Japanese Residential Water Demand Using a Discrete/Continuous Choice Approach

Block rate pricing is often applied to income taxation, telecommunication services, and brand marketing, in addition to its best-known application in public utility services. Under block rate pricing, consumers face piecewise-linear budget constraints. A discrete/continuous choice approach is usually used to account for piecewise-linear budget constraints in demand and price endogeneity. A recent study proposed a method to incorporate a separability condition ignored by previous studies, by implementing a Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation based on a hierarchical Bayesian approach. To extend this approach to panel data, our study proposes Bayesian hierarchical models incorporating random and fixed individual effects.
WOOD FIBER REINFORCED BACTERIAL BIOCOMPOSITES: EFFECTS OF INTERFACIAL MODIFIERS AND PROCESSING ON MECHANICAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

by Scott Powell Anderson, M. S. Washington State University December 2007 Co-Chair: Jinwen Zhang Co-Chair: Michael P. Wolcott Derived from renewable resources, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) exhibits good mechanical properties relative to its polyolefin based counterparts. Reinforcing PHB with wood fiber (WF) results in a biodegradable composite with costs significantly decreased. In this study, PHB/WF composites are produced with percentages of wood fiber comparable to current commercial wood plastic composites (WPCs). In order to improve mechanical and physical properties, interfacial modifiers were added to the PHB/WF composites and processed through injection molding at levels of 1, 2, and 4% on total. Tensile, impact, density, and water absorption properties were investigated for composites modified with maleic anhydride-grafted PHB (MA-PHB), D.E. R. , Uralac, and poly(methylene diphenyl diisocyanate) (pMDI). All interfacial modifiers demonstrated improvements in mechanical and physical properties, however composites modified with pMDI displayed properties far superior from the rest. Fracture morphology has been investigated through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and indicates enhanced fiber adhesion. Morphological studies utilizing dynamic scanning calorimetry (DSC), and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), suggest that pMDI is serving to increase
Self-Reported Receipt of Advice and Action Taken To Reduce Dietary Sodium Among Adults With and Without Hypertension — Nine States and Puerto Rico, 2015

Hypertension is a major cardiovascular disease risk factor (1,2). Advice given by health professionals can result in lower sodium intake and lower blood pressure (3). The 2017 Hypertension Guideline released by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association emphasizes nonpharmacologic approaches, including sodium reduction, as important components of hypertension prevention and treatment (4). Data from 50,576 participants in the sodium module of the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in nine states and Puerto Rico were analyzed to determine the prevalence of reported sodium reduction advice and action among participants with and without self-reported hypertension. Among participants with self-reported hypertension, adjusted prevalence of receiving sodium reduction advice from a health professional was 41.9%, compared with 12.8% among participants without hypertension. Among those with hypertension, adjusted prevalence of reported action to reduce sodium intake was 80.9% among participants who received advice and 55.7% among those who did not receive advice. Among participants without hypertension, adjusted prevalence of taking action to reduce sodium intake was 72.7% among those who received advice and 46.9% among those who did not receive advice. The provision of advice on sodium reduction by health professionals is associated with respondent action to watch or reduce sodium intake. Fewer than half of patients with hypertension received this advice from their health professionals, a circumstance that represents a substantial missed opportunity to promote hypertension prevention and treatment.
Multimorbidity and out-of-pocket expenditure on medicines: a systematic review

Background Multimorbidity, the presence of two or more non-communicable diseases (NCD), is a costly and complex challenge for health systems globally. Patients with NCDs incur high levels of out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), often on medicines, but the literature on the association between OOPE on medicines and multimorbidity has not been examined systematically. Methods A systematic review was conducted via searching medical and economics databases including Ovid Medline, EMBASE, EconLit, Cochrane Library and the WHO Global Health Library from year 2000 to 2016. Study quality was assessed using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. PROSPERO: CRD42016053538. Findings 14 articles met inclusion criteria. Findings indicated that multimorbidity was associated with higher OOPE on medicines. When number of NCDs increased from 0 to 1, 2 and ≥3, annual OOPE on medicines increased by an average of 2.7 times, 5.2 times and 10.1 times, respectively. When number of NCDs increased from 0 to 1, 2, ≥2 and ≥3, individuals spent a median of 0.36% (IQR 0.15%–0.51%), 1.15% (IQR 0.62%–1.64%), 1.41% (IQR 0.86%–2.15%), 2.42% (IQR 2.05%–2.64%) and 2.63% (IQR 1.56%–4.13%) of mean annual household net adjusted disposable income per capita, respectively, on annual OOPE on medicines. More multimorbidities were associated with higher OOPE on medicines as a proportion of total healthcare expenditures by patients. Some evidence suggested that the elderly and low-income groups were most vulnerable to higher OOPE on medicines. With the same number of NCDs, certain combinations of NCDs yielded higher medicine OOPE. Non-adherence to medicines was a coping strategy for OOPE on medicines. Conclusion Multimorbidity of NCDs is increasingly costly to healthcare systems and OOPE on medicines can severely compromise financial protection and universal health coverage. It is crucial to recognise the need for better equity and financial protection, and policymakers should consider health system financial options, cost sharing policies and service patterns for those with NCD multimorbidities.
Life History Changes in Coral Fluorescence and the Effects of Light Intensity on Larval Physiology and Settlement in Seriatopora hystrix

Fluorescence is common in both coral adult and larval stages, and is produced by fluorescent proteins that absorb higher energy light and emit lower energy light. This study investigated the changes of coral fluorescence in different life history stages and the effects of parental light environment on larval fluorescence, larval endosymbiotic dinoflagellate abundance, larval size and settlement in the brooding coral Seriatopora hystrix. Data showed that coral fluorescence changed during development from green in larvae to cyan in adult colonies. In larvae, two green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) co-occur where the peak emission of one GFP overlaps with the peak excitation of the second GFP allowing the potential for energy transfer. Coral larvae showed great variation in GFP fluorescence, dinoflagellate abundance, and size. There was no obvious relationship between green fluorescence intensity and dinoflagellate abundance, green fluorescence intensity and larval size, or dinoflagellate abundance and larval size. Larvae of parents from high and low light treatments showed similar green fluorescence intensity, yet small but significant differences in size, dinoflagellate abundance, and settlement. The large variation in larval physiology combined with subtle effects of parental environment on larval characteristics seem to indicate that even though adult corals produce larvae with a wide range of physiological capacities, these larvae can still show small preferences for settling in similar habitats as their parents. These data highlight the importance of environmental conditions at the onset of life history and parent colony effects on coral larvae.
Conventional and Ambulatory Blood Pressure as Predictors of Diastolic Left Ventricular Function in a Flemish Population

Background No longitudinal study compared associations of echocardiographic indexes of diastolic left ventricular function studies with conventional (CBP) and daytime ambulatory (ABP) blood pressure in the general population. Methods and Results In 780 Flemish (mean age, 50.2 years; 51.7% women), we measured left atrial volume index (LAVI), peak velocities of the transmitral blood flow (E) and mitral annular movement (e′) in early diastole and E/e′ 9.6 years (median) after CBP and ABP. In adjusted models including CBP and ABP, we expressed associations per 10/5‐mm Hg systolic/diastolic blood pressure increments. LAVI and E/e′ were 0.65/0.40 mL/m2 and 0.17/0.09 greater with higher systolic/diastolic ABP (P≤0.028), but not with higher baseline CBP (P≥0.086). e′ was lower (P≤0.032) with higher diastolic CBP (−0.09 cm/s) and ABP (−0.19 cm/s). When we substituted baseline CBP by CBP recorded concurrently with echocardiography, LAVI and E/e′ remained 0.45/0.38 mL/m2 and 0.15/0.08 greater with baseline ABP (P≤0.036), while LAVI (+0.53 mL/m2) and E/e′ (+0.19) were also greater (P<0.001) in relation to concurrent systolic CBP. In categorized analyses of baseline data, sustained hypertension or masked hypertension compared with normotension or white‐coat hypertension was associated with greater LAVI (24.0 versus 22.6 mL/m2) and E/e′ (7.35 versus 6.91) and lower e′ (10.7 versus 11.6 cm/s; P≤0.006 for all) with no differences (P≥0.092) between normotension and white‐coat hypertension or between masked hypertension and sustained hypertension. Conclusions ABP is a long‐term predictor of diastolic left ventricular function, statistically outperforming distant but not concurrent CBP. Masked hypertension and sustained hypertension carry equal risk for deterioration of diastolic left ventricular function.
Preparation of Titanium Alloy Parts by Powder Compact Extrusion of a Powder Mixture and Scaled up Manufacture

Blended Elemental Powder Metallurgy (BE-PM) is a very attractive method for producing titanium alloys, which can be near-net shape formed with compositional freedom. However, a minimization of oxygen pick-up during processing into manufactured parts is a big challenge for powder metallurgy of titanium alloys. In this paper, different approaches for preparing titanium alloy parts by powder compact extrusion with 0.05-0.1wt. % of oxygen pick-up during manufacturing are discussed. The starting materials were a powder mixture of HDH titanium powder, other elemental powders and a master alloy powder. Different titanium alloys and composites, such as Ti-6Al-4V, Ti-4Al-4Sn-4Mo-0.5Si, Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr, and Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr-5vol%TiB, with different profiles such as round and rectangular bars, a wedge profile, wire and tubes have been successfully manufactured on a laboratory and pilot-plant scale. Furthermore, a possible route for scaling up the titanium processing capabilities in the University of Waikato has also been discussed.