Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison between oscillometric and invasive blood pressure measurements in critically ill premature infants

Aim: Blood pressure (BP) measurement techniques in neonates generally involve noninvasive measurements with a cuff (oscillometric) or invasive measurements through an arterial catheter. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability of the noninvasive oscillometric method in critically ill preterm infants when results were compared with the invasive technique.
Patterns of Care and Survival in a Retrospective Analysis of 1059 Patients With Glioblastoma Multiforme Treated Between 2002 and 2007: A Multicenter Study by the Central Nervous System Study Group of Airo (Italian Association of Radiation Oncology)

OBJECTIVETo investigate the pattern of care and outcomes for newly diagnosed glioblastoma in Italy and compare our results with the previous Italian Patterns of Care study to determine whether significant changes occurred in clinical practice during the past 10 years. METHODSClinical, pathological, therapeutic, and survival data regarding 1059 patients treated in 18 radiotherapy centers between 2002 and 2007 were collected and retrospectively reviewed. RESULTSMost patients underwent both computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging either preoperatively (62.7%) or postoperatively (35.5%). Only 123 patients (11.6%) underwent a biopsy. Radiochemotherapy with temozolomide was the most frequent adjuvant treatment (70.7%). Most patients (88.2%) received 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy. Median survival was 9.5 months. Two- and 5-year survival rates were 24.8% and 3.9%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed the statistical significance of age, postoperative Karnofsky Performance Status scale score, surgical extent, use of 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, and use of chemotherapy. Use of a more aggressive approach was associated with longer survival in elderly patients. Comparing our results with those of the subgroup of patients included in our previous study who were treated between 1997 and 2001, relevant differences were found: more frequent use of magnetic resonance imaging, surgical removal more common than biopsy, and widespread use of 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy + temozolomide. Furthermore, a significant improvement in terms of survival was noted (P < .001). CONCLUSIONChanges in the care of glioblastoma over the past few years are documented. Prognosis of glioblastoma patients has slightly but significantly improved with a small but noteworthy number of relatively long-term survivors.
Hydrological connectivity of hillslopes and streams: Characteristic time scales and nonlinearities

Subsurface flow from hillslopes is widely recognized as an important contributor to streamflow generation; however, processes that control how and when hillslopes connect to streams remain unclear. We investigated stream and hillslope runoff dynamics through a wet‐up period in watershed 10 of the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in the western Cascades of Oregon where the riparian zone has been removed by debris flows. We examined the controls on hillslope‐stream connectivity on the basis of observations of hydrometric, stable isotope, and applied tracer responses and computed transit times for multiple runoff components for a series of storms during the wet‐up phase of the 2002–2003 winter rainy season. Hillslope discharge was distinctly threshold‐like with a near linear response and average quick flow ratio of 0.58 when antecedent rainfall was greater than 20 mm. Hillslope and stream stormflow varied temporally and showed strong hysteretic relationships. Event water mean transit times (8–34 h) and rapid breakthrough from applied hillslope tracer additions demonstrated that subsurface contributing areas extend far upslope during events. Despite rapid hillslope transport processes during events, soil water and runoff mean transit times during nonstorm conditions were greater than the time scale of storm events. Soil water mean transit times ranged between 10 and 25 days. Hillslope seepage and catchment base flow mean transit times were between 1 and 2 years. We describe a conceptual model that captures variable physical flow pathways, their synchronicity, threshold activation, hysteresis, and transit times through changing antecedent wetness conditions that illustrate the different stages of hillslope and stream connectivity.
Distribution of tracheal and laryngeal mucous glands in some rodents and the rabbit

We used scanning electron microscopy to count the number of mucous gland openings in the tracheae and lower portion of the larynges of the rat, guinea pig, hamster, mouse and rabbit. Cells of the airway surface epithelium were removed by protease digestion better to visualise the gland openings. The distribution of glands was further studied by conventional histology and by PAS/Alcian blue staining of whole mounts. In all rodent species, gland openings in the larynx occurred with a frequency of 1–2 per mm2. Mice had no gland openings in their tracheae, and hamsters, only a handful. Rat tracheae contained 126±42 gland openings (±S.D.; n = 6) at a frequency of ∼ 0.6 per mm2 at the top of the trachea and ∼ 0.15 per mm2 at the bottom. Guinea pig tracheae contained 153±90 gland openings (±S.D.; n = 5), with 54% being in the top 40% of the trachea. In both rat and guinea pig, tracheal glands were found in the ventral aspect between the cartilaginous rings, and were absent from the dorsal membranous portion. Gland openings in most species were simple circles of ∼ 50 μm diameter. However, glands in the rat trachea generally opened obliquely into shallow (∼ 20 μm deep) oval troughs (∼ 150×75 μm), which had their long axes oriented from head to tail. In the rabbit, there was no evidence of tracheal or laryngeal glands histologically. However, the tracheal and laryngeal surfaces contained numerous pits (∼ 30 μm diameter) distributed evenly over and between cartilages at a frequency of ∼ 4 per mm2. These may correspond to the ‘nests’ of goblet cells described by others.
Effects of Aging on Experimentally Instructed Detached Reappraisal, Positive Reappraisal, and Emotional Behavior Suppression Aging and Emotion Regulation: the Current Picture

Emotion regulation includes multiple strategies that rely on different underlying abilities and that may be affected differently by aging. We assessed young, middle-aged, and older adults' ability to implement 3 emotion regulation strategies (detached reappraisal, positive reappraisal, and behavior suppression) in a laboratory setting, using standardized emotional stimuli and a multimethod approach to assessing regulation success. Results revealed age-related decline in ability to implement detached reappraisal, enhancement of ability to implement positive reappraisal, and maintenance of ability to implement behavior suppression. We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for emotion theory and for promoting successful aging. Emotion regulation has been defined as " the processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions " (Gross, 1998a, p. 275). Whereas studies of cognitive and physical aging often emphasize decline (e. suggest that the ability to manage emotions is maintained, perhaps even enhanced, throughout adulthood. These findings are augmented by studies of older adults' use of a few particular regulation strategies, such as avoiding unpleasant social situations Emotion regulation is not a single process, but rather a family of processes that rely on different skills and produce different outcomes. As a result, various emotion regulation strategies may be affected differently by aging. Only a few strategies have been studied in this regard, and little research has addressed the effects of normal aging on several strategies studied extensively in young adults, including cognitive reappraisal and behavior suppression The aim of the present study was to assess young, middle-aged, and older adults' ability to implement three emotion regulation strategies (detached reappraisal, positive reap-praisal, and behavior suppression) in a laboratory setting. We used standardized emotional stimuli and a multimethod approach (subjective experience, physiological response, and facial expression) to assess regulation success. The theoretical and empirical literatures offer strong support for the argument that emotion regulation skill is maintained or enhanced throughout adulthood. According to socioemotional selec-tivity theory (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999), emotion regulation goals become more salient as people age, and older adults invest more effort in enjoying the present rather than building resources for the future. A number of studies with diverse samples have found that self-reported emotional control increases throughout adulthood (e. Emotion regulation is typically geared toward reducing negative emotion, and evidence that overall levels of negative emotion decrease throughout adulthood is provided by studies that have …
Addressing MAC layer inefficiency and deafness of IEEE802.11ad millimeter wave networks using a multi-band approach

Achieving multi-gigabit per second data rates, millimeter wave communication promises to accommodate future and current demands for very high speed wireless data transmission. However, the mandatory use of directional antennas brings significant challenges for the design of efficient MAC layer mechanisms. In particular, IEEE 802.11ad for the 60 GHz band lacks omni-directional transmissions and carrier sensing. This prevents stations from overhearing the actions of other stations, the so called “deafness” problem, which substantially impairs the efficiency and fairness of CSMA/CA medium access. Most existing solutions to this problem depend on properties of lower frequency bands and thus do not apply to 60 GHz. In this paper, we propose a dual-band MAC protocol combining 60 GHz communication with co-existing 5 GHz interfaces. By broadcasting control messages on 5 GHz frequencies, we solve the deafness problem and can use the 60 GHz band exclusively for high rate data transmission. While our approach occupies air time on the 5 GHz band for control messages, it does achieve a net throughput gain (over both bands) of up to 65.3% compared to IEEE 802.11ad. In addition, our simulation results show an improvement of MAC fairness of up to 42.8% over IEEE 802.11ad.
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to diagnose human leptospirosis: a meta-analysis of the published literature

SUMMARY We report an evaluation of the accuracy of ELISA for the detection of Leptospira-specific antibodies in humans. Eighty-eight studies published in 35 articles met all inclusion criteria and were submitted to meta-analysis. Pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0·779 (95% CI 0·770–0·789) and 0·913 (95% CI 0·908–0·917), respectively, and the area under the curve was 0·964. Heterogeneity across studies was statistically significant, but none of the sources of heterogeneity (disease stage, antigen used, antibody detected) could fully explain this finding. Although the convalescent stage of disease was significantly associated with higher diagnostic accuracy, IgM ELISA was the best choice, regardless of the stage of disease. Negative ELISAs (IgG or IgM) applied in the acute phase do not rule out leptospirosis due to the possibility of false-negative results. In this case it is advisable to request a second blood sample or to apply a direct method for leptospiral DNA.
Near-Affine-Invariant Texture Learning for Lung Tissue Analysis Using Isotropic Wavelet Frames

We propose near-affine-invariant texture descriptors derived from isotropic wavelet frames for the characterization of lung tissue patterns in high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) imaging. Affine invariance is desirable to enable learning of nondeterministic textures without a priori localizations, orientations, or sizes. When combined with complementary gray-level histograms, the proposed method allows a global classification accuracy of 76.9% with balanced precision among five classes of lung tissue using a leave-one-patient-out cross validation, in accordance with clinical practice.
Hemostatic alterations in patients with obstructive sleep apnea and the implications for cardiovascular disease.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are at increased risk for coronary artery and cerebrovascular diseases. Numerous studies suggest that a hypercoagulable state is prospectively related to atherothrombotic events. This review explores whether changes in hemostasis may constitute one biological link between OSA and vascular disease. DESIGN Ten studies on hemostatic variables in OSA were located by electronic library search and descriptively reviewed. Work on hemostatic function with physiologic conditions similar to those found in OSA (hypoxemia and hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system) was considered to discuss potential molecular mechanisms of procoagulant disturbances in OSA. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS The reviewed data suggest that, as compared to non-OSA control subjects, patients with OSA have elevated plasma fibrinogen levels, exaggerated platelet activity, and reduced fibrinolytic capacity. Although not consistently shown, severity of OSA (ie, apnea-hypopnea index) and plasma epinephrine were independent predictors of platelet activity, and average minimal oxygen saturation was an independent predictor of fibrinogen. In some studies, treatment with continuous positive airway pressure decreased platelet activity, plasma fibrinogen levels, and activity of clotting factor VII. CONCLUSIONS There is some evidence for a hypercoagulable state in OSA, which might help explain the increased prevalence of vascular diseases in this population. To further confirm such a notion, future studies need to be performed on sufficiently large samples to be able to control for confounders of hemostatic activity. Prospective studies are needed to examine the association between hemostasis molecules and strong vascular end points.
Azathioprine for primary biliary cirrhosis.

BACKGROUND Azathioprine is used for patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, but the therapeutic responses in randomised clinical trials have been conflicting. OBJECTIVES To assess the benefits and harms of azathioprine for patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. SEARCH STRATEGY Randomised clinical trials were identified by searching The Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group Controlled Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Citation Index Expanded, The Chinese Biomedical Database, and LILACS, and manual searches of bibliographies to September 2005. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised clinical trials comparing azathioprine versus placebo, no intervention, or another drug were included irrespective of blinding, language, year of publication, and publication status. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Our primary outcomes were mortality, and mortality or liver transplantation. Dichotomous outcomes were reported as relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Continuous outcomes were reported as weighted mean difference (WMD) or standardised mean difference (SMD). We examined the intervention effects by random-effects and fixed-effect models. MAIN RESULTS We identified two randomised clinical trials with 293 patients. Only one of the trials was regarded as having low bias risk. Azathioprine did not significantly decrease mortality (RR 0.80, 95% CI 0.49 to 1.31, 2 trials). Azathioprine did not improve pruritus at one-year intervention (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.28 to 1.84, 1 trial), cirrhosis development, or quality of life. Patients given azathioprine experienced significantly more adverse events than patients given no intervention or placebo (RR 2.44, 95% CI 1.14 to 5.20, 2 trials). The common adverse events were rash, severe diarrhoea, and bone marrow depression. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS There is no evidence to support the use of azathioprine for patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. Researchers who are interested in performing further randomised clinical trials should be aware of the risks of adverse events.
A ranking approach to target detection for automatic link generation

We focus on the task of target detection in automatic link generation with Wikipedia, i.e., given an N-gram in a snippet of text, find the relevant Wikipedia concepts that explain or provide background knowledge for it. We formulate the task as a ranking problem and investigate the effectiveness of learning to rank approaches and of the features that we use to rank the target concepts for a given N-gram. Our experiments show that learning to rank approaches outperform traditional binary classification approaches. Also, our proposed features are effective both in binary classification and learning to rank settings.
Non-Rigid Registration for Image-Guided Neurosurgery on the TeraGrid: A Case Study

We present a feasibility study of using TeraGrid resources for computing non-rigid registration (NRR) of brain MRI. The end-to-end NRR procedure we consider has previously undergone clinical validation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. We consider the use of TeraGrid resources in two scenarios. First, we evaluate the feasibility of using a grid-enabled implementation to provide timely execution of the most time-consuming components of the registration. Second, we describe a workflow implementation to enable speculative computation of registration to improve confidence in the result and assist in retrospective evaluation of the method. Our initial results indicate that TeraGrid provides practical and cost-effective means to support IGNS image processing. At the same time, performance limitations of the intra-operative speculative NRR execution using conventional means of workflow scheduling prevent its intra-operative applications. The results of this paper motivate future work in highthroughput scheduling and execution models on TeraGrid, which can be leveraged by the workflow implementation we present.
Scaling of Sea Ice FracturePart I: Vertical Penetration

Based on the premise that large-scale failure of sea ice is governed by fracture mechanics, recently validated by Dempsey's in situ tests of fracture specimens of a record-breaking size, this two-part study applies fracture mechanics and asymptotic approach to obtain approximate explicit formulas for the size effect in two fundamental problems. In the present Part I, the load capacity of a floating ice plate subjected to vertical load is determined, and in Part II, which follows, the horizontal force exerted by an ice plate moving against a fixed structure is analyzed in a similar manner. The resulting formulas for vertical loading agree with previous sophisticated numerical fracture simulations as well with the limited field tests of vertical penetration that exist. The results contrast with the classical predictions of material strength or plasticity theories, which in general exhibit no size effect on the nominal strength of the structure. ©2002 ASME
Human Embryonic Stem Cell‐Derived Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cell Transplants Improve Recovery after Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

Evidence that cell transplants can improve recovery outcomes in spinal cord injury (SCI) models substantiates treatment strategies involving cell replacement for humans with SCI. Most pre‐clinical studies of cell replacement in SCI examine thoracic injury models. However, as most human injuries occur at the cervical level, it is critical to assess potential treatments in cervical injury models and examine their effectiveness using at‐level histological and functional measures. To directly address cervical SCI, we used a C5 midline contusion injury model and assessed the efficacy of a candidate therapeutic for thoracic SCI in this cervical model. The contusion generates reproducible, bilateral movement and histological deficits, although a number of injury parameters such as acute severity of injury, affected gray‐to‐white matter ratio, extent of endogenous remyelination, and at‐level locomotion deficits do not correspond with these parameters in thoracic SCI. On the basis of reported benefits in thoracic SCI, we transplanted human embryonic stem cell (hESC)‐derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) into this cervical model. hESC‐derived OPC transplants attenuated lesion pathogenesis and improved recovery of forelimb function. Histological effects of transplantation included robust white and gray matter sparing at the injury epicenter and, in particular, preservation of motor neurons that correlated with movement recovery. These findings further our understanding of the histopathology and functional outcomes of cervical SCI, define potential therapeutic targets, and support the use of these cells as a treatment for cervical SCI. STEM CELLS 2010;28:152–163
Symptom Clustering in Subjects With and Without Diabetes Mellitus: A Population-Based Study of 15,000 Australian Adults

OBJECTIVES:GI symptoms form distinct symptom clusters in community samples when factor and cluster analysis is applied. However, this has not been studied in diabetic populations, despite clear evidence that GI complaints are common in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). This study aimed to describe clustering of GI symptoms among individuals with and without diabetes mellitus, and to describe associations of symptom clustering in diabetes mellitus, with self-reported glucose control and treatment.METHODS:A large population survey (n = 15,000) was used to identify a cohort with diabetes mellitus. Items assessing therapy and quality of glycemic control were included, as were those assessing 16 common GI symptoms. Latent GI symptom factors were extracted by factor analysis and used in a k-means cluster analysis. The latter serves to group individuals according to commonalities in symptom profiles. The association of cluster group membership to glycemic control and diabetic treatment was described by logistic regression.RESULTS:Factor analysis identified four latent symptom factors, which accounted for 69.3% of the total variance. These were labeled Upper GI/Dysmotility, Diarrhea, Constipation, and Vomiting/Nausea. The k-means analysis produced a five-cluster solution, which included a “health” group and four “diseased” groups, each identified by a predominant symptom: Upper GI/Dysmotility symptoms, Nausea/Vomiting, Diarrhea, and Constipation. After adjustment for age and gender, poor glycemic control predicted membership in all disease clusters, when compared separately with the health group. Oral hypoglycemic drugs predicted membership in the Nausea/Vomiting cluster (OR = 5.13) when used alone, and membership in the Nausea/Vomiting (OR = 10.12) and Upper GI/Dysmotility cluster (OR = 10.12) when used in combination with insulin.CONCLUSIONS:Diabetes can be grouped according to common GI symptoms. Glycemic control and treatment for DM predict membership of symptom clusters.
The role of the university in computers, data processing, and related fields

Since the Fall of 1956, the author has been studying the genesis and operation of university programs in the fields of computers, data processing, operations research, and other relatively new and apparently closely related fields. The specific purposes were: 1) To study and evaluate the organization, curriculum, research program, computing equipment, financing, and facilities of universities in the United States having computer and/or data processing and/or related programs. 2) To identify those fields of study (some already accepted and identified as disciplines as well as those not yet so designated) that are unambiguously part of the computer and data processing fields and those closely related fields that might legitimately be part of a university program. 3) To appraise the role of the universities in these fields and to determine what universities might do to build distinguished programs in these fields.