Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fasting time and lipid levels in a community-based population: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND Although current guidelines recommend measuring lipid levels in a fasting state, recent studies suggest that nonfasting lipid profiles change minimally in response to food intake and may be superior to fasting levels in predicting adverse cardiovascular outcomes. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between fasting times and lipid levels. METHODS Cross-sectional examination of laboratory data, including fasting duration (in hours) and lipid results, was performed over a 6-month period in 2011 in a large community-based cohort. Data were obtained from Calgary Laboratory Services, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the sole supplier of laboratory services for Calgary and surrounding areas (source population, 1.4 million persons). The main outcome measures were mean levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglycerides for fasting intervals from 1 hour to more than 16 hours. After differences in individual ages were controlled for, linear regression models were used to estimate the mean levels of cholesterol subclasses at different fasting times. RESULTS A total of 209,180 individuals (111,048 females and 98,132 males) were included in the study. The mean levels of total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol differed little among individuals with various fasting times. The mean calculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels showed slightly greater variations of up to 10% among groups of patients with different fasting intervals, and the mean triglyceride levels showed variations of up to 20%. CONCLUSION Fasting times showed little association with lipid subclass levels in a community-based population, which suggests that fasting for routine lipid levels is largely unnecessary.
Executive deficits detected in mild Alzheimer's disease using the antisaccade task

The antisaccade task, a hands‐ and language‐free metric, may provide a functional index of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a region damaged in the later stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our objective was to determine if patients with mild AD made more errors relative to age‐matched controls. Thirty patients with mild AD (Mini Mental Status Exam [MMSE] ≥ 17) and 31 age‐matched controls completed a laptop version of the prosaccades and antisaccades tasks. Patients with AD made more antisaccade errors, and corrected fewer errors, than age‐matched controls. Error rates, corrected or uncorrected, were not correlated with AD MMSE or Dementia Rating Scale scores. Our findings indicate that antisaccade impairments exist in mild AD, suggesting clinically detectable DLPFC pathology may be present earlier than suggested by previous studies.
Patient information systems are not more expensive than leaflets

EDITOR—Graham et al, who compared a touch screen system with leaflets for providing women with information on prenatal tests,1 and Wyatt in his commentary2 may be too conservative in their conclusions. Graham et al mention the cost of developing the system and Wyatt says because there is limited evidence of benefit for these expensive tools over well designed leaflets they should be used only in the context of rigorous research studies. However, the study did not include an economic comparison of the use of the computer and leaflets. A full …
Evaluation of carvacrol and eugenol as prophylaxis and treatment of vaginal candidiasis in an immunosuppressed rat model.

OBJECTIVES Anticandidal activity of carvacrol and eugenol, the major phenolic components of oregano and clove essential oils, respectively, were tested in vivo. METHODS Efficacy evaluation of carvacrol and eugenol in the prophylaxis and treatment of experimental vaginal candidiasis was performed in immunosuppressed rats. The anticandidal activity was analysed by microbiological and histological techniques and was compared with that of nystatin. RESULTS Microbiologically, prophylactic treatment with carvacrol eradicated the vaginal fungal burden of infected rats, whereas eugenol reduced the number of colony counts of Candida albicans in vaginas of infected rats by 98.9% 10 days after inoculation. Therapeutic treatment for 7 consecutive days with carvacrol was able to eradicate the vaginal candidal burden in 7/9 of the infected rats and reduced the number of colony counts of C. albicans in vaginas of the two remaining rats by 98%. Treatment with eugenol completely cured 2/9 of the infected animals, but the 7/9 still infected showed an 84% reduction of colony counts of C. albicans in their vaginas. Histologically, in all treated rats, no Candida organisms were found in the lumina of the vagina; this was in contrast to control groups in which many yeasts, strongly stained with periodic acid-Schiff, were observed. The results obtained with nystatin used at 10-fold minimal inhibitory concentration confirm the validity of this model. CONCLUSIONS Carvacrol and eugenol could be considered as promising products in the treatment of vaginal candidiasis. This work is a preliminary contribution to the development of a new generation of efficient and natural antifungal agents for curative treatment and prophylaxis.
Differential evolution for strongly noisy optimization: Use 1.01n resamplings at iteration n and reach the − 1/2 slope

This paper is devoted to noisy optimization in case of a noise with standard deviation as large as variations of the fitness values, specifically when the variance does not decrease to zero around the optimum. We focus on comparing methods for choosing the number of resamplings. Experiments are performed on the differential evolution algorithm. By mathematical analysis, we design a new rule for choosing the number of resamplings for noisy optimization, as a function of the dimension, and validate its efficiency compared to existing heuristics.
Scene Classification with a Biologically Inspired Method

We present a biologically motivated method for scene image classification. The core of the method is to use shape based image property that is provided by a hierarchical feedforward model of the visual cortex [18]. Edge based and color based image properties are additionally used to improve the accuracy. The method consists of two stages of image analysis. In the first stage, each of three paths of classification uses each image property (i.e. shape, edge or color based features) independently. In the second stage, a single classifier assigns the category of an image based on the probability distributions of the first stage classifier outputs. Experiments show that the method boosts the classification accuracy over the shape based model. We demonstrate that this method achieves a high accuracy comparable to other reported methods on publicly available color image dataset.
Low power, monolithic tunable recursive filters having variable and uniform gain

We suggest the new monolithic, tunable, recursive filters having variable, uniform, and high gain. We change the location of amplifier to achieve higher gain. We use the cascode amplifier as VGA to get the variable, uniform and high gain. To achieve higher Q and low power consumption, we also fabricate the second-order filter using only one amplifier. The measured results are similar to our estimations.
The Interaction Between Faraday Rotation and System Effects in Synthetic Aperture Radar Measurements of Backscatter and Biomass

For long-wavelength space-based radars, such as the P-band radar on the recently selected European Space Agency BIOMASS mission, system distortions (crosstalk and channel imbalance), Faraday rotation, and system noise all combine to degrade the measurements. A first-order analysis of these effects on the measurements of the polarimetric scattering matrix is used to derive differentiable expressions for the errors in the polarimetric backscattering coefficients in the presence of Faraday rotation. Both the amplitudes and phases of the distortion terms are shown to be important in determining the errors and their maximum values. Exact simulations confirm the accuracy and predictions of the first-order analysis. Under an assumed power-law relation between σhv and the biomass, the system distortions and noise are converted into biomass estimation errors, and it is shown that the magnitude of the deviation of the channel imbalance from unity must be 4-5 dB less than the crosstalk, or it will dominate the error in the biomass. For uncalibrated data and midrange values of biomass, the crosstalk must be less than -24 dB if the maximum possible error in the biomass is to be within 20% of its true value. A less stringent condition applies if the amplitudes and phases of the distortion terms are considered random since errors near the maximum possible are very unlikely. For lower values of the biomass, the noise becomes increasingly important because the σhv signal-to-noise ratio is smaller.
Uniform polarity microtubule assemblies imaged in native brain tissue by second-harmonic generation microscopy

Microtubule (MT) ensemble polarity is a diagnostic determinant of the structure and function of neuronal processes. Here, polarized MT structures are selectively imaged with second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy in native brain tissue. This SHG is found to colocalize with axons in both brain slices and cultured neurons. Because SHG arises only from noninversion symmetric structures, the uniform polarity of axonal MTs leads to the observed signal, whereas the mixed polarity in dendrites leads to destructive interference. SHG imaging provides a tool to investigate the kinetics and function of MT ensemble polarity in dynamic native brain tissue structures and other subcellular motility structures based on polarized MTs.
Extending the TokenCMP Cache Coherence Protocol for Low Overhead Fault Tolerance in CMP Architectures

It is widely accepted that transient failures will appear more frequently in chips designed in the near future due to several factors such as the increased integration scale. On the other hand, chip-multiprocessors (CMP) that integrate several processor cores in a single chip are nowadays the best alternative to more efficient use of the increasing number of transistors that can be placed in a single die. Hence, it is necessary to design new techniques to deal with these faults to be able to build sufficiently reliable chip multiprocessors (CMPs). In this work, we present a coherence protocol aimed at dealing with transient failures that affect the interconnection network of a CMP, thus assuming that the network is no longer reliable. In particular, our proposal extends a token-based cache coherence protocol so that no data can be lost and no deadlock can occur due to any dropped message. Using GEMS full system simulator, we compare our proposal against TokenCMP. We show that in absence of failures our proposal does not introduce overhead in terms of increased execution time over TokenCMP. Additionally, our protocol can tolerate message loss rates much higher than those likely to be found in the real world without increasing execution time more than 15 percent.
Physiological and haematological parameters of bitches affected with pyometra

Aim: The aim of the study was to find out alteration in physiological and haematological parameters in bitches affected with pyometra. Materials and methods: Physiological and haematological parameters were studied in twenty eight bitches affected with pyometra. Results: Evaluation of physiological parameters revealed that rectal temperature and respiration rate were increased in the bitches affected with pyometra where as heart rate did not reveal any significant change. In haematological parameters, haemoglobin, packed cell volume (PCV), total erythrocyte count (TEC) and lymphocyte count were decreased in the bitches affected with pyometra. The total leucocyte count (TLC), neutrophil count and monocyte count were increased in pyometra. Erythrocytic indices like mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) did not show any significant changes in the bitches. Conclusion: Normocytic and normochromic anaemia, leucocytosis, a predominant absolute neutrophilia, lymphopenia and monocytosis were the most common findings in all the bitches affected with pyometra.
Evidence of presence of poliovirus genomic sequences in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with postpolio syndrome

The postpolio syndrome (PPS) is characterized by new neuromuscular symptoms occurring 30 to 40 years after the acute episode of poliomyelitis paralysis. The presence of the poliovirus RNA genome in the cerebrospinal fluid from 10 patients with PPS and from 23 control patients was sought by using reverse transcription and a PCR specific for polioviruses and/or other enteroviruses. Poliovirus-specific genomic sequences in the 5' untranslated region and in the capsid region (VP1) were detected by reverse transcription PCR in 5 of 10 patients with PPS but in none of the control patients. Sequencing confirmed the presence of mutated poliovirus sequences. This finding suggests persistent viral infection in the central nervous system related to the presence of poliovirus genomes.
Penicillin-Induced Oxidative Stress: Effects on Antioxidative Response of Midgut Tissues in Instars of Galleria mellonella

Abstract Penicillin and other antibiotics are routinely incorporated in insect culture media. Although culturing insects in the presence of antibiotics is a decades-old practice, antibiotics can exert deleterious influences on insects. In this article, we test the hypothesis that one of the effects of dietary penicillin is to increase oxidative stress on insects. The effects of penicillin on midgut concentrations of the oxidative stress indicator malondialdehyde (MDA) and on midgut antioxidant enzyme (superoxide dismutase [SOD], catalase [CAT], glutathione S-transferase [GST], and glutathione peroxidase [GPx]) and transaminases (alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase) activities in greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella (L.), were investigated. The insects were reared from first instars on artificial diets containing 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, or 1.0 g penicillin per 100 g of diets. MDA content was significantly increased in the midgut tissues of each larval instar reared in the presence of high penicillin concentrations. Activities of antioxidant and transaminase enzymes did not show a consistent pattern with respect to penicillin concentrations in diet or age of larvae. Despite the increased penicillin-induced oxidative stress in gut tissue, antioxidant and transaminase enzymes did not correlate with oxidative stress level or between each other in larvae of other age stages except for the seventh instar. We found a significant negative correlation of MDA content with SOD and GST activities in seventh instars. SOD activity was also negatively correlated with CAT activity in seventh instars. These results suggest that exposure to dietary penicillin resulted in impaired enzymatic antioxidant defense capacity and metabolic functions in wax moth larval midgut tissues and that the resulting oxidative stress impacts midgut digestive physiology.
Distributed quasi-Monte Carlo algorithm for option pricing on HNOWs using mpC

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is one of the popular approaches for approximating the value of options and other derivative securities due to the absence of straightforward closed form solutions for many financial models. However, the slow convergence rate, O(N/sup - 1/2/) for N number of samples of the MC method has motivated research in quasi Monte-Carlo (QMC) techniques. QMC methods use low discrepancy (LD) sequences that provide faster, more accurate results than MC methods. In this paper, we focus on the parallelization of the QMC method on a heterogeneous network of workstations (HNOWs) for option pricing. HNOWs are machines with different processing capabilities and have distinct execution time for the same task. It is therefore important to allocate and schedule the tasks depending on the performance and resources of these machines. We present an adaptive, distributed QMC algorithm for option pricing, taking into account the performances of both processors and communications. The algorithm distributes data and computations based on the architectural features of the available processors at run time. We implement the algorithm using mpC, an extension of ANSI C language for parallel computation on heterogeneous networks. We compare and analyze the performance results with different parallel implementations. The results of our algorithm demonstrate a good performance on heterogenous parallel platforms.
Delayed detection of esophageal intubation: Thai Anesthesia Incidents Study (THAI Study) database of 163,403 cases.

INTRODUCTION Even though esophageal intubation is a common event in anesthesia practice, frequently it is easily detected and resolved. However delayed detection of esophageal intubation (DDEI) can lead to many serious adverse events such as severe hypoxemia, cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac arrest and brain death. OBJECTIVES To analyze the incidence of DDEI during general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation and to identify its risk factors, especially patients factors and anesthetic techniques, as well as suggested strategies to prevent it. DESIGN Prospective observational study. MATERIAL AND METHOD All reported DDEI incidents were identified from the Thai Anesthesia Incidents Study (THAI Study) database conducted between February 1, 2003, and January 31, 2004. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. RESULTS Forty four cases of DDEI were reported from total of 85,021 cases underwent general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation (5.2: 10,000). The incidence was highest in tertiary care hospital (11.6:10,000). Infant patients (< or = 1 year of age), emergency operation and technique of rapid sequence induction with cricoid pressure were identified as risk factors of DDEI. Detection of DDEI was mainly based on clinical examination. The incidents with extremely low SpO2 level were reported but most of them were adequately managed without long term consequences and only one patient suffered from severe permanent brain damage. CONCLUSION The overall incidence of DDEI in Thailand was 5.2:10,000. Contributing factors included infant patients, emergency operation, and rapid sequence induction with cricoid pressure. Increased awareness and additional training are suggested as preventive strategies.
Multibiometrics Belief Fusion

This paper proposes a multimodal biometric system through Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) for face and ear biometrics with belief fusion of the estimated scores characterized by Gabor responses and the proposed fusion is accomplished by Dempster-Shafer (DS) decision theory. Face and ear images are convolved with Gabor wavelet filters to extracts spatially enhanced Gabor facial features and Gabor ear features. Further, GMM is applied to the high-dimensional Gabor face and Gabor ear responses separately for quantitive measurements. Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm is used to estimate density parameters in GMM. This produces two sets of feature vectors which are then fused using Dempster-Shafer theory. Experiments are conducted on multimodal database containing face and ear images of 400 individuals. It is found that use of Gabor wavelet filters along with GMM and DS theory can provide robust and efficient multimodal fusion strategy.
Genome-wide RNAi Screen Reveals a New Role of a WNT/CTNNB1 Signaling Pathway as Negative Regulator of Virus-induced Innate Immune Responses

To identify new regulators of antiviral innate immunity, we completed the first genome-wide gene silencing screen assessing the transcriptional response at the interferon-β (IFNB1) promoter following Sendai virus (SeV) infection. We now report a novel link between WNT signaling pathway and the modulation of retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptor (RLR)-dependent innate immune responses. Here we show that secretion of WNT2B and WNT9B and stabilization of β-catenin (CTNNB1) upon virus infection negatively regulate expression of representative inducible genes IFNB1, IFIT1 and TNF in a CTNNB1-dependent effector mechanism. The antiviral response is drastically reduced by glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) inhibitors but restored in CTNNB1 knockdown cells. The findings confirm a novel regulation of antiviral innate immunity by a canonical-like WNT/CTNNB1 signaling pathway. The study identifies novel avenues for broad-spectrum antiviral targets and preventing immune-mediated diseases upon viral infection.
A Fitting Formula for the Merger Timescale of Galaxies in Hierarchical Clustering

We study galaxy mergers using a high-resolution cosmological hydro/N-body simulation with star formation and compare the measured merger timescales with theoretical predictions based on the Chandrasekhar formula. In contrast to Navarro et al., our numerical results indicate that the commonly used equation for the merger timescale given by Lacey and Cole systematically underestimates the merger timescales for minor mergers and overestimates those for major mergers. This behavior is partly explained by the poor performance of their expression for the Coulomb logarithm, ln (mpri/msat) . The two alternative forms ln (1 + mpri/msat) and ½ln[1 + (mpri/msat)2] for the Coulomb logarithm can account for the mass dependence of merger timescale successfully, but both of them underestimate the merger timescale by a factor 2. Since ln (1 + mpri/msat) represents the mass dependence slightly better, we adopt this expression for the Coulomb logarithm. Furthermore, we find that the dependence of the merger timescale on the circularity parameter ϵ is much weaker than the widely adopted power law ϵ0. 78, whereas 0. 94ϵ0.60 + 0.60 provides a good match to the data. Based on these findings, we present an accurate and convenient fitting formula for the merger timescale of galaxies in cold dark matter models.
Use of quetiapine XR and quetiapine IR in clinical practice for hospitalized patients with schizophrenia: a retrospective study

Quetiapine fumarate, a first-line treatment for schizophrenia, exists in two formulations: extended release (XR) and immediate release (IR). This naturalistic, noninterventional study evaluated use of quetiapine XR/IR among in-patients with schizophrenia [ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01214135]. Data were collected from medical records. Categorical and numerical outcomes were compared using χ2 and t tests. Of 178 enrolled patients, 66% and 34% used quetiapine XR and IR respectively. Based on mean daily dose, XR was used as antipsychotic medication in 64% of patients compared with 40% of patients on IR (dose ≥ 400 mg/day; p = 0.002) and in higher doses than IR (494 versus 345 mg/day; p = 0.001; calculated averages). Schizophrenia was more commonly reported as reason for use of XR than IR (20% versus 0%; p = 0.0003). Patients with comorbid substance abuse or somatic disease were more likely to receive XR (p = 0.003; p = 0.03). Treatment cessation due to nonadherence was less common in patients on XR (3.4% versus 12%; p = 0.03). Polypharmacy was seen in 98% of patients. Quetiapine XR/IR usage varies in hospitalized patients with schizophrenia. XR is more often used in antipsychotic dosage; IR is more commonly used at lower doses as add-on therapy. Both quetiapine XR and IR have their place in clinical practice and provide treatment choice in schizophrenia.