Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Alteplase for Acute Stroke on the Distribution of Functional Outcomes: A Pooled Analysis of 9 Trials

Background— Thrombolytic therapy with intravenous alteplase within 4.5 hours of ischemic stroke onset increases the overall likelihood of an excellent outcome (no, or nondisabling, symptoms). Any improvement in functional outcome distribution has value, and herein we provide an assessment of the effect of alteplase on the distribution of the functional level by treatment delay, age, and stroke severity. Methods— Prespecified pooled analysis of 6756 patients from 9 randomized trials comparing alteplase versus placebo/open control. Ordinal logistic regression models assessed treatment differences after adjustment for treatment delay, age, stroke severity, and relevant interaction term(s). Results— Treatment with alteplase was beneficial for a delay in treatment extending to 4.5 hours after stroke onset, with a greater benefit with earlier treatment. Neither age nor stroke severity significantly influenced the slope of the relationship between benefit and time to treatment initiation. For the observed case mix of patients treated within 4.5 hours of stroke onset (mean 3 hours and 20 minutes), the net absolute benefit from alteplase (ie, the difference between those who would do better if given alteplase and those who would do worse) was 55 patients per 1000 treated (95% confidence interval, 13–91; P=0.004). Conclusions— Treatment with intravenous alteplase initiated within 4.5 hours of stroke onset increases the chance of achieving an improved level of function for all patients across the age spectrum, including the over 80s and across all severities of stroke studied (top versus bottom fifth means: 22 versus 4); the earlier that treatment is initiated, the greater the benefit.
The Single Model Principle

We contrast modelling languages that are founded on use of a single model with those founded on use of multiple models. We propose that to best support seamless and reversible development of reliable software, languages that follow the single model principle are superior. We define this principle precisely, and discuss when it is insufficient, particularly for early requirements engineering.
Behavioral / Cognitive Amodal Processing in Human Prefrontal Cortex

Benjamin J. Tamber-Rosenau,1,2 Paul E. Dux,3 Michael N. Tombu,4 Christopher L. Asplund,5 and René Marois1,2 1Department of Psychology, and 2Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240, 3School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Queensland, Australia, 4Defence Research and Development Canada Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M3K 2C9, Canada, and 5Division of Social Sciences, Yale-NUS College, Singapore 138614
Long-term patient satisfaction after surgical correction of penile curvature via tunical plication.

OBJECTIVE To assess patient satisfaction and functional results at long term follow-up after surgical correction for Peyronie's disease (PD) and congenital penile curvature (CPC) with the technique of tunical plication. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred and two men operated for PD (n = 76) or CPC (n = 26) in four different departments of urology in public hospitals agreed to answer a six-question telephone questionnaire about treatment satisfaction. Tunica albuginea plication procedures represented the standard surgical approach. Subjects under investigation were correction of the deformity, feeling of bumps under the skin, pain during erection, penile sensory changes, development of erectile dysfunction (ED) and postoperative ability for complete vaginal intromission. Subjective response rates were compared using the chi square test on the basis of the etiology of the disease (CPC or PD). RESULTS Significant differences (p < 0.05) between patients with CPC and PD were noticed in the prevalence of postoperative penile deformity, sensory changes, ED and ability to complete vaginal intromission, PD patients always showing a more pessimistic view. No significant differences (p = ns) were detected in terms of unpleasant nodes under the penile skin or pain during erection. CONCLUSIONS Long-term outcome after surgical correction for PD and CPC with the technique of tunical plication can be poor. Probably patient expectations are above the real performance of surgical techniques. Preoperative information should be more exhaustive.
Assessment of Spatial Variability of Soil Chemical Properties under Small-holder Farmers’ Field: a Case Study from Kavrepalanchowk District of Nepal

A proper understanding of variability of soil chemical properties over an area is important for identifying the soil nutrients related production constraints. The suggestions for remedial measures and execution of appropriate nutrient management strategies are also based on the good knowledge of variation in soil nutrients. A case study was undertaken with an objective of assessing spatial variability of selected soil chemical properties of agricultural land. Soil samples from the surface (0 to 15 cm) were collected from farmers’ field in the central part of Kavrepalanchowk district of Nepal in February 2018. Soil samples were analyzed for soil pH, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K). Descriptive statistics revealed that the soil in the study area was slightly acidic and contained the low status of TOC, P, and K, while the N content was medium. Coefficient of variation (CV) indicated that soil pH was the least variable (CV= 9.37% with values ranging from 5.3 to 7.7) among the investigated soil samples while N was the most variable (CV= 98.81% with content values ranging from 0.03% to 0.67%). Other selected properties (TOC, P, and K) were found to be highly variable (CV= 49.94%, 94.89%, and 57.53% respectively). These variations in soil chemical properties were mostly related to the different cropping systems and soil management practices, including nutrient management carried out in the study area. Owing to the higher variability of nutrients, the results suggested to take into account various soil and nutrient management practices for sustained soil fertility and enhanced productivity.
Stimulation by iodide of H(2)O(2) generation in thyroid slices from several species.

The regulation of thyroid metabolism by iodide involves numerous inhibitory effects. However, in unstimulated dog thyroid slices, a small inconstant stimulatory effect of iodide on H(2)O(2) generation is observed. The only other stimulatory effect reported with iodide is on [1-(14)C]glucose oxidation, i.e., on the pentose phosphate pathway. Because we have recently demonstrated that the pentose phosphate pathway is controlled by H(2)O(2) generation, we study here the effect of iodide on basal H(2)O(2) generation in thyroid slices from several species. Our data show that in sheep, pig, bovine, and to a lesser extent dog thyroid, iodide had a stimulatory effect on H(2)O(2) generation. In horse and human thyroid, an inconstant effect was observed. We demonstrate in dogs that the stimulatory effect of iodide is greater in thyroids deprived of iodide, raising the possibility that differences in thyroid iodide pool may account, at least in part, for the differences between the different species studied. This represents the first demonstration of an activation by iodide of a specialized thyroid function. In comparison with conditions in which an inhibitory effect of iodide on H(2)O(2) generation is observed, the stimulating effect was observed for lower concentrations and for a shorter incubation time with iodide. Such a dual control of H(2)O(2) generation by iodide has the physiological interest of promoting an efficient oxidation of iodide when the substrate is provided to a deficient gland and of avoiding excessive oxidation of iodide and thus synthesis of thyroid hormones when it is in excess. The activation of H(2)O(2) generation may also explain the well described toxic effect of acute administration of iodide on iodine-depleted thyroids.
SOX14 activates the p53 signaling pathway and induces apoptosis in a cervical carcinoma cell line

SOX14 is a member of the SOX family of transcription factors mainly involved in the regulation of neural development. Recently, it became evident that SOX14 is one of four hypermethylated genes in cervical carcinoma, considered as a tumor suppressor candidate in this type of malignancy. In this paper we elucidated the role of SOX14 in the regulation of malignant properties of cervical carcinoma cells in vitro. Functional analysis performed in HeLa cells revealed that SOX14 overexpression decreased viability and promoted apoptosis through altering the expression of apoptosis related genes. Our results demonstrated that overexpression of SOX14 initiated accumulation of p53, demonstrating potential cross-talk between SOX14 and the p53 signaling pathway. Further analysis unambiguously showed that SOX14 triggered posttranslational modification of p53 protein, as detected by the significantly increased level of phospho-p53 (Ser-15) in SOX14-overexpressing HeLa cells. Moreover, the obtained results revealed that SOX14 activated p53 protein, which was confirmed by elevated p21Waf1/Cip1, a well known target gene of p53. This study advances our understanding about the role of SOX14 and might explain the molecular mechanism by which this transcription factor could exert tumor suppressor properties in cervical carcinoma.
Back to the future

Every opportunity to look forward is also an invitation to look back. We have little hope of understanding where we are going except within the context of where we have been. My own views on the future of computing and software grow from nearly four decades of work in the field. I would not want to drift into a nostalgic reverie, but to put this into perspective. When I started my career at MIT, LISP had just been invented by McCarthy, CorbatÓ was developing the first practical multiuser timesharing system, and Digital Equipment Corporation had donated a low serial-number PDP-1 for research use. On it, I would learn the art of programming with reusable components by writing routines for image analysis of physics experiments. It was, like today, an era of anticipation when the possibilities seemed boundless, constrained only by the imagination and the limited speed and capacity of our computing machinery. I remember one of my professors, Marvin Minsky, remarking to a group of students that real-time computer translation of spoken natural language was within striking distance. The theory, the algorithms, and the software issues were thought to be well understood; all that was needed was faster computers with more memory. History has shown that the problem is not just a matter of hardware. Despite the fact that computers have become more powerful by many orders of magnitude, solutions to this and other problems that once seemed so tractable continue to elude us today. Indeed, the decades since my apprenticeship have seen a staggering progression of developments on the hardware side of computing. In this light, it is easy to get excited about the bright future of computing and great fun to engage the imagination in unfettered speculation about future devices of ever increasing power and decreasing size. Although I have designed computer hardware in my day, the software side of computing has always been my primary interest. On that side, it is much harder to point to anything like genuine progress. When we look back over the evolution of software, we see fewer clearly defined landmarks, and what dominates the landscape is the relentless trend toward ever larger, more complex, and less reliable systems loaded down with a panoply of bewildering features of questionable utility. While change in software is evident everywhere, it is far more difficult to document genuine advancement in the usable capability that software delivers to its users. For the basic operations that LARRY L. CONSTANTINE]
Lack of collagen VI promotes neurodegeneration by impairing autophagy and inducing apoptosis during aging

Collagen VI is an extracellular matrix (ECM) protein with a broad distribution in different tissues and mostly deposited at the close periphery of the cell surface. Previous studies revealed that collagen VI protects neurons from the toxicity of amyloid-βpeptides and from UV-induced damage. However, the physiological role of this protein in the central nervous system (CNS) remains unknown. Here, we established primary neural cultures from murine cortex and hippocampus, and carried out in vitro and in vivo studies in wild-type and collagen VI null (Col6a1−/−) mice. Col6a1−/− neural cultures displayed an increased incidence of spontaneous apoptosis and higher vulnerability to oxidative stress, accompanied by altered regulation of autophagy with increased p62 protein levels and decreased LC3 lipidation. Analysis of brain sections confirmed increased apoptosis and abnormal regulation of autophagy in the CNS of collagen VI-deficient animals. To investigate the in vivo physiological consequences of these CNS defects, we carried out functional studies and found that motor and memory task performances were impaired in aged Col6a1−/− mice. These findings indicate that lack of collagen VI leads to spontaneous apoptosis and defective autophagy in neural cells, and point at a protective role for this ECM protein in the CNS during physiological aging.
Adaptive compressed caching: design and implementation

We reevaluate the use of adaptive compressed caching in order to improve system performance through reduction of accesses to the backing stores. We propose a new and simple adaptability policy that adjusts the compressed cache size on-the-fly, and evaluate a compressed caching system with this policy through an implementation in a widely used operating system, Linux. We also redesign compressed caching in order to provide performance improvements for all tested workloads and address the problems faced in previous works and implementations that led to nonconclusive results. Among these fundamental modifications, our compressed cache is the first one to also compress file cache pages, to adaptively disable compression of clean pages when necessary and to address applications with poor compressibility. We tested a system with our adaptive compressed cache under many applications and benchmarks, each one with different memory pressures. The results showed performance improvements (up to 171.4%) in all of them if under memory pressure, and minimal overhead (up to 0.39%) when there is very light memory pressure. We show that this adaptive compressed cache design is actually considered as an effective mechanism for improvement in system performance.
Mobility Limited Flip-Based Sensor Networks Deployment

An important phase of sensor networks operation is deployment of sensors in the field of interest. Critical goals during sensor networks deployment include coverage, connectivity, load balancing, etc. A class of work has recently appeared, where mobility in sensors is leveraged to meet deployment objectives. In this paper, we study deployment of sensor networks using mobile sensors. The distinguishing feature of our work is that the sensors in our model have limited mobilities. More specifically, the mobility in the sensors we consider is restricted to a flip, where the distance of the flip is bounded. We call such sensors as flip-based sensors. Given an initial deployment of flip-based sensors in a field, our problem is to determine a movement plan for the sensors in order to maximize the sensor network coverage and minimize the number of flips. We propose a minimum-cost maximum-flow-based solution to this problem. We prove that our solution optimizes both the coverage and the number of flips. We also study the sensitivity of coverage and the number of flips to flip distance under different initial deployment distributions of sensors. We observe that increased flip distance achieves better coverage and reduces the number of flips required per unit increase in coverage. However, such improvements are constrained by initial deployment distributions of sensors due to the limitations on sensor mobility
Barriers to the up-take of telemedicine in Australia--a view from providers.

INTRODUCTION The continued poorer health status of rural and remote Australians when compared with their urban counterparts is cause for concern. The use of advanced technology to improve access to health care has the potential to assist in addressing this problem. Telemedicine is one example of such technology which has advanced rapidly in its capacity to increase access to healthcare services or provide previously unavailable services. The important anticipated benefits of greater access to healthcare services are improved health outcomes and more cost-effective delivery. METHODS A national study was conducted to investigate the current perceived use and usefulness of telemedicine from the perspective of users and providers, and their views on how telemedicine could be expanded in Australia. In one component of this national study, the expert opinion of experienced providers of telemedicine services was elicited using a Grounded Theory approach and using semi-structured interviews which were analysed thematically. This article reports on the barriers to the up-take of telemedicine identified by this sub-sample. RESULTS The primary barriers identified were: funding; time; infrastructure; equipment; skills; and preference for the traditional approach. While funding is a well-known barrier to the up-take of telemedicine, the extra time required for a telemedicine consultation has particular implications for the workload of rural doctors. The comparatively poor internet access available in rural Australia combines with difficulties accessing some items such as a computer, to make equipment an issue. Even though lack of equipment skills was identified as a barrier, the providers in this study reported that rural doctors are adept at using the telephone/teleconferencing and facsimile. A preference for a traditional approach can reflect a lack of interest in learning computer skills or difficulty acquiring this skill set. CONCLUSIONS These results raise issues in the domains of policy, funding priorities, and education and training. This indicates an inter-related set of challenges that would require a targeted multifaceted approach to address. The results suggest that not using telemedicine is, in the current climate, a rational response--it is quicker, easier and more cost-effective not to use telemedicine.
A study on the work profile of ASHA workers in a district of Odisha in eastern India

Background: Our aim was to study the socio demographic determinants of ASHA workers, to study the work profile of the ASHA workers, to assess the knowledge, awareness and practice of their roles and responsibilities in the delivery of health care services and to suggest specific recommendations on the ASHA scheme based on the study findings.Methods: The type of study was a cross sectional study, placed at Khordha district in Odisha. Time Period of this study was March to June 2018. 1218 ASHAs were finally included in the study. On the days of the monthly sector / block level meetings with ASHA workers they were appraised and accordingly a predesigned, pretested questionnaire was implemented to them.Results: Nearly 93% of ASHA workers were trained with module 1 to 5, first AID and DOTs training. Refresher training was given to 34% of ASHA workers, FTD/Malaria training was given to 88.4% of ASHA workers. 1218 (100%) ASHA’s helped in immunization. Majority of them 1199 (98.4%) accompanied delivery cases and 1198 (98.3%) were aware about family planning activities.Conclusions: Activities of ASHA’s should be increased with a corresponding increase in incentives, so that she can get up to Rs. 10000-15000 per month. IEC/BCC skills to ASHA may be built by short course certification. Other services like strengthening the role of ASHA on promotive and preventive health care particularly age at marriage, nutrition, home based care delay in first child birth and spacing between 1st and 2nd birth.
Semantic reference systems

Four centuries after René Descartes watched a fly walk across his ceiling and wondered how to capture its position (Gribbin 2002), we use Cartesian coordinates routinely to describe locations. We identify the positions of entities in the real world, transform their GIS representations from one coordinate system to another, and integrate spatially referenced data across multiple coordinate systems. A theory of spatial reference systems standardises the notions of geodetic datum, map projections, and coordinate transformations (ISO 2002). Similarly, our temporal data refer unambiguously to temporal reference systems, such as calendars, and can be transformed from one to another. Geographical information systems contain spatial, temporal, and thematic data. The first two kinds are firmly tied to reference system theories and tools. We now need to produce the third component—semantic reference systems. Descartes might wonder today how to establish common frames of reference for, say, a geneticist and an entomologist to talk about that fly. They would need methods to explain the meaning of their specialized vocabularies to each other, to detect synonyms and homonyms, and to translate expressions. Accordingly, a theory of semantic reference systems will enable producers and users of geographical information to explain the meaning of thematic data, to translate this meaning from one information community to another (OGC 1998), and to integrate data across differing semantics. Reaching this goal may not take centuries again, but a decade or two could pass until we see the kind of on-the-fly (so to speak) integration that is now possible across different spatial reference systems in GIS (Lutz 2003). There is no need for universal geographical information semantics, as long as we can provide the means for any pair of information communities to define their concepts and translate between them. All the same, work on semantic primitives and universals (Wierzbicka 1996) as well as on top-level ontologies (Sowa 2000) strongly suggests that a common core of concepts exists and can be defined. Formalizing the semantics of geographical information communities is, in any case, much simpler than defining natural language terms. The reason is that every information community agrees, per definition, on a shared set of concepts, expressed in conceptual models, feature-attribute catalogues, legal documents, work practices,
Neural correlates of action understanding in infants: influence of motor experience

Mirror neurons are recognized as a crucial aspect of motor and social learning yet we know little about their origins and development. Two competing hypotheses are highlighted in the literature. One suggests that mirror neurons may be innate and are an adaptation for action understanding. The alternative, proposes that mirror neurons develop through sensorimotor experience. To date, there has been little direct evidence from infant studies to support either argument. In the present study, we explored the temporal dynamics and spatial distribution of electroencephalography (EEG) brain responses in young infants during the observation of three distinct types of actions: (a) actions that are within the motor repertoire of infants, (b) actions that are not within the motor repertoire of infants, and (c) object motion. We show that young infants had significant motor resonance to all types of actions in the sensorimotor regions. Only observation of human goal‐directed actions led to significant responses in the parietal regions. Importantly, there was no significant mu desychronization observed in the temporal regions under any observation condition. In addition, the onset of mu desychronization occurred earliest in response to object motion, followed by reaching, and finally walking. Our results suggest that the infants may have a basic, experience‐independent sensorimotor mechanism optimized to detect all coherent motion that is modulated by experience.