Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MiR‐20b‐5p relieves neuropathic pain by targeting Akt3 in a chronic constriction injury rat model

Neuropathic pain is caused by somatosensory nervous system disorder which happens in patients with different diseases. Akt3 regulates innate immune function and plays a role in neuropathic pain pathogenesis in rats. MiR‐20b‐5p is a microRNA which has been suggested to inhibit Akt3 expression through directly targeting Akt3 mRNA. This research focused on miR‐20b‐5p function in neuropathic pain by Akt3 expression inhibition. Chronic constriction injury (CCI) was employed to induce neuropathic pain in rats. Paw withdrawal thresholds and paw withdrawal latency were examined to show neuropathic pain development. Expression levels of relative genes or microRNA were checked using qRT‐PCR and western blot. Inflammation cytokine levels were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay kits. In CCI rat model, miR‐20b‐5p level was declined and Akt3 mRNA level was upregulated. MiR‐20b‐5p mimics suppressed the enhanced neuropathic pain, neuroinflammation, and Akt3 expression. MiR‐20b‐5p directly targeted Akt3 mRNA and downregulated the Akt3 expression in rat primary microglial cells. MiR‐20b‐5p inhibitory function in neuropathic pain was suppressed by the upregulation of Akt3 expression. This research illustrated that miR‐20b‐5p alleviated neuropathic pain through the inhibition of Akt3 expression in CCI rat model.
Electrodiagnostic findings in dogs with apparently painful lumbosacral foraminal stenosis

Abstract Background Development of management strategies for lumbosacral stenosis in dogs is hampered by the lack of objective diagnostic criteria and outcome measures. Objective To explore the suitability of electrodiagnostic tests as ancillary diagnostic aids, inclusion criteria, or outcome measures. Sample population Sixty‐one client‐owned dogs with clinical signs of lumbosacral foraminal stenosis. Methods A blinded, cross‐sectional cohort study. Fifty‐one dogs exhibiting apparent lumbosacral pain or pelvic limb lameness with no detected orthopedic cause had blinded review of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), allowing classification as affected with foraminal stenosis (25 dogs), unaffected (20 dogs), or another diagnosis (6 dogs). The presence of electromyographic changes and tibial neurography variables were compared between groups. Results Cord dorsum potential onset latency, F‐wave onset latency (both corrected for limb length), and F‐ratio were increased in dogs with lumbosacral foraminal stenosis versus those without, although there was overlap of the values between groups. The proportion of dogs with electromyographic changes was not significantly greater in MRI‐affected dogs. Conclusion Electrophysiological testing is a useful ancillary test, either to provide stricter inclusion criteria and outcome measures or to aid clinical decision‐making in equivocal cases.
Listening effort: Are we measuring cognition or affect, or both?

Listening effort is increasingly recognized as a factor in communication, particularly for and with nonnative speakers, for the elderly, for individuals with hearing impairment and/or for those working in noise. However, as highlighted by McGarrigle et al., International Journal of Audiology, 2014, 53, 433-445, the term "listening effort" encompasses a wide variety of concepts, including the engagement and control of multiple possibly distinct neural systems for information processing, and the affective response to the expenditure of those resources in a given context. Thus, experimental or clinical methods intended to objectively quantify listening effort may ultimately reflect a complex interaction between the operations of one or more of those information processing systems, and/or the affective and motivational response to the demand on those systems. Here we examine theoretical, behavioral, and psychophysiological factors related to resolving the question of what we are measuring, and why, when we measure "listening effort. " This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Psychology > Theory and Methods Psychology > Attention Psychology > Emotion and Motivation.
Prevalence and Evolution of Susceptibility‐Weighted Imaging Lesions in Patients With Artificial Heart Valves

Background In patients with mechanical heart valves, cerebral susceptibility‐weighted imaging (SWI) lesions on magnetic resonance imaging, postulated to be caused by degenerative metallic abrasion, are frequently referred to as valve abrasion. It remains unclear whether valve implantation not requiring cardiopulmonary bypass or biological heart valves also shows those lesions. Methods and Results Two blinded readers rated SWI lesions and cerebral amyloid angiopathy probability according to established criteria on brain magnetic resonance imaging pre‐ and postinterventionally. We assessed the association between valve type/cardiopulmonary bypass use and SWI lesion count on the first postinterventional scan using multivariable logistic regression. On postinterventional magnetic resonance imaging, 57/58 (98%) patients with mechanical heart valves had at least 1 and 46/58 (79%) 3 or more SWI lesions, while 92/97 (95%) patients with biological heart valves had at least 1 and 72/97 (74%) 3 or more SWI lesions. On multivariate analysis, duration of cardiopulmonary bypass during implantation significantly increased the odds of having SWI lesions on the first postinterventional magnetic resonance imaging (β per 10 minutes 0.498; 95% CI, 0.116–0.880; P=0.011), whereas valve type showed no significant association (P=0.338). Thirty‐seven of 155 (23.9%) patients fulfilled the criteria of possible/probable cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Conclusions SWI lesions in patients with artificial heart valves evolve around the time point of valve implantation and the majority of patients had multiple lesions. The missing association with the valve type weakens the hypothesis of degenerative metallic abrasion and highlights cardiopulmonary bypass as the main risk factor for SWI occurrence. SWI lesions associated with cardiac procedures can mimic cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Further research needs to clarify whether those lesions are associated with intracranial hemorrhage after intravenous thrombolysis or anticoagulation.
Decision- and feedback-related brain potentials reveal risk processing mechanisms in patients with alcohol use disorder.

Individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) are aware of the risks of alcohol abuse yet continue risky drinking. Research indicates that dysfunctional decision processes and trait variables such as impulsivity contribute to this awareness-behavior discrepancy. The present study focused on decision-related versus feedback-related processes as potential contributors to decision making in AUD by examining the relationship between decision choices and decision- and feedback-related ERP phenomena in the balloon analogue risk task (BART). N = 39 AUD and n = 35 healthy comparison participants (HC) performed the BART modified for EEG assessment. In each of 100 runs, participants made a series of choices about whether to pump up a virtual balloon, which popped pseudorandomly, ending the run. Alternatively, participants ended the run by pressing a "cash-out" button. Each pump not producing a pop provided . 05 €; popping resulted in loss of the run's accumulated gain. Groups made similar choices, though AUD responded more slowly. The decision P3 200-400 ms after decision prompt (balloon) was larger in AUD than in HC, and decision P3 enhancement on high-risk trials predicted choices to pump. Feedback-related negativity (FRN) after loss (relative to cash out) feedback was smaller in AUD than in HC, suggesting indifference to negative feedback. In AUD, high impulsivity was associated with risk-modulated decision P3 but not FRN. Results indicate atypical decision- and feedback-related processes that could contribute to difficulties in engaging with daily challenges effectively.
Are maternal hemodynamic indices markers of fetal growth restriction in pregnancies with a small‐for‐gestational‐age fetus?

Pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction (FGR) have a worse outcome than those with a small‐for‐gestational‐age (SGA) fetus. There is increasing evidence of a maternal cardiovascular role in the pathophysiology of FGR. We aimed to compare maternal hemodynamic indices between pregnancies complicated by FGR and those delivering a SGA neonate, using a non‐invasive device.
Pregnancy anxiety and preterm birth: The moderating role of sleep.

OBJECTIVE Preterm birth (PTB) is a prevalent public health concern. Pregnancy anxiety, poor sleep quality, and short sleep duration have been associated with an increased risk of PTB. Theoretically, sleep variables could moderate the strength of the relationship between pregnancy anxiety and PTB; investigating this question was the primary aim of this study. METHOD The sample consisted of 290 pregnant women who were assessed at 2 time points in pregnancy: Time 1 (< 22 weeks gestational age [GA]; MGA = 15.04, SD = 3.55) and Time 2 (32 weeks GA; MGA = 32.44, SD = 0.99). Pregnancy anxiety was assessed with the Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Scale, sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and sleep duration was assessed via actigraphy. Data on gestational age at birth were obtained from the electronic medical record. RESULTS After adjustment for relevant covariates, higher levels of pregnancy anxiety were associated with shorter gestational length and an increased risk of PTB. There were no direct associations between sleep quality or sleep duration and gestational length or PTB. Pregnancy anxiety interacted with sleep duration such that pregnancy anxiety was significantly associated with shorter gestational length and PTB only when women had relatively shorter sleep duration (approximately < 8.3 hr). CONCLUSIONS This study reveals new evidence of an interaction between pregnancy anxiety and sleep duration in the prediction of the timing of delivery. The findings point to avenues to better understand and potentially ameliorate risk for PTB. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Behavioral economics and coping-related drinking motives in trauma exposed drinkers: Implications for the self-medication hypothesis.

Behavioral economic theory can help researchers understand complex behavior by considering the availability and economic value associated with an individual's choices. This study explored how behavioral economic constructs relate to alcohol consumption and alcohol problems in a sample of trauma-exposed young adults. We further explored whether these behavioral economic constructs explained unique variance in alcohol outcomes beyond coping-related drinking motives. Participants were 91 trauma-exposed young adults who reported recent alcohol consumption (Mage = 26.53, female = 36.26%, non-White = 41.75%). Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Questionnaires measured alcohol consumption, problems, and motives for use, as well as alcohol demand, delay discounting, future orientation, and access to environmental reward. Future orientation (ΔR2 = .05, p = .03) and delay discounting (ΔR2 = .04, p = .05) explained unique variance in alcohol problems after controlling for coping-related drinking motives. Further, alcohol demand indices (ΔR2s = .04-.10, ps = .00-.05) explained unique variance in alcohol consumption after controlling for coping-related drinking. Both coping motives and behavioral economic variables contribute to alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences among trauma-exposed young adults. Findings suggest that, beyond coping motives, behavioral economics may play a meaningful role in understanding alcohol misuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Specific changes in faecal microbiota are associated with familial Mediterranean fever

Objectives Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) can be complicated by AA amyloidosis (AAA), though it remains unclear why only some patients develop amyloidosis. We examined the gut microbiota composition and inflammatory markers in patients with FMF complicated or not by AAA. Methods We analysed the gut microbiota of 34 patients with FMF without AAA, 7 patients with FMF with AAA, 19 patients with AAA of another origin, and 26 controls using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing with the Illumina MiSeq platform. Associations between bacterial taxa and clinical phenotypes were evaluated using multivariate association with linear models statistical method. Blood levels of interleukin (IL)−1β, IL-6, tumour necrosis factor-α and adipokines were assessed by ELISA; indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) activity was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. Results Compared with healthy subjects, specific changes in faecal microbiota were observed in FMF and AAA groups. Several operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were associated with FMF. Moreover, two OTUs were over-represented in FMF-related AAA compared with FMF without AAA. Additionally, higher adiponectin levels and IDO activity were observed in FMF-related AAA compared with FMF without AAA (p<0.05). Conclusion The presence of specific changes in faecal microbiota in FMF and in FMF-related AAA suggests that intestinal microorganisms may play a role in the pathogenesis of these diseases. These findings may offer an opportunity to use techniques for gut microbiota manipulation.
Pancreatic cancer—A disease in need: Optimizing and integrating supportive care

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive malignancy that continues to be challenging to treat. PDAC has the lowest 5‐year relative survival rate compared with all other solid tumor malignancies and is expected to become the second‐leading cause of cancer‐related death in the United States by 2030. Given the high mortality, there is an increasing role for concurrent anticancer and supportive care in the management of patients with PDAC with the aims of maximizing length of life, quality of life, and symptom control. Emerging trends in supportive care that can be integrated into the clinical management of patients with PDAC include standardized supportive care screening, early integration of supportive care into routine cancer care, early implementation of outpatient‐based advance care planning, and utilization of electronic patient‐reported outcomes for improved symptom management and quality of life. The most common symptoms experienced are nausea, constipation, weight loss, diarrhea, anorexia, and abdominal and back pain. This review article includes current supportive management strategies for these and others. Common disease‐related complications include biliary and duodenal obstruction requiring endoscopic procedures and venous thromboembolic events. Patients with PDAC continue to have a poor prognosis. Systemic therapy options are able to palliate the high symptom burden but have a modest impact on overall survival. Early integration of supportive care can lead to improved outcomes.
Comparative Effectiveness Analysis of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention vs. Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease and Unprotected Left Main Coronary Artery Disease :Insights From a Large-Sized All-Comers Registry.

AIMS Outcomes according to the status of renal insufficiency were not fully evaluated in left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD). METHODS AND RESULTS Among 4894 patients with LMCAD, renal insufficiency was graded according to the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The primary outcome was major adverse cardiocerebrovascular event (MACCE), defined as death, myocardial infarction, stroke, or any revascularization. 3,824 (78%) had group 1 (eGFR ≥60 ml·min -1·1.73m2), 838 (17%) had group 2 (eGFR ≥ 30 and <60), and 232 (5%) had group 3 (eGFR <30). At 2 years, after adjustment, compared with group 1, the risk of MACCE was significantly higher in group 2 (hazard ratio [HR] 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18-1.79) and in group 3 (HR 3.39, 95% CI 2.61-4.40). Meanwhile, the P interaction for MACCE across groups was 0.20. The adjusted risk of MACCE was similar between percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in group 1 or 2. However, PCI was associated with a significantly higher risk of MACCE compared to CABG (HR 1.88, 95% CI 1.08-3.25) in group 3. CONCLUSIONS The degree of renal insufficiency was proportionately associated with unfavorable outcomes in patients with LMCAD. In group 3, PCI was associated with a higher risk of MACCE compared with CABG. Also, the effect of PCI vs. CABG on MACCE was consistent, with PCI being associated less bleeding and CABG being associated with less repeat revascularization.
Analysis for Influence of Training Data Sequence on CNN-based Steganalysis

Recent studies have proved that CNN (Convolution neural network) is an effective method to solve steganalysis problem. In this paper, we analyze the influence of the input data sequence on CNN training results according to the training mechanism of CNN. The differences made by variant data sequence may be caused by data correlation, data mini-batch processing and high-pass filtering operations. In experiment, the accuracy of CNN detection with variant data sequence was compared, with cover and stego produced by two steganography algorithms (S_UNIWARD, WOW) with different embedding rates (0.1, 0.4). Results demonstrate that the network detection effect of pairwise data is better than that of random one.
Sentiment Classification Based on Specific Target

In a given target, identifying the emotional polarity of a specific target in a comment based on the context information is a more meaningful and in-depth classification task. Until now, researchers have provided many solutions to solve this task. However, in previous studies, many people have overlooked the link between goals and content. This paper proposes a new model to learn the relationship between goals and contexts. at the same time, it also pays attention to the semantic relationship between sentence words. the experimental results have achieved excellent performance in SemEval 2014 data set.
Fast Motion Estimation Algorithm for High Efficient Video Coding

High Efficient Video Coding(HEVC) is the latest generation of video compression standard after Advanced Video Coding(AVC). Which meets the video coding requirements of high-definition and high-definition video, and its real-time performance has been improved too. Inter prediction coding is one of the most frequently used methods in HEVC coding. Whether it is at the coding side or the decoding side, the motion search takes most time in the inter prediction. In the HEVC standard software HM, Test zone (TZ) Search has been used to replace the full search algorithm, which saves a lot of time on motion search, but it is still far from enough. This article proposes a fast search method based on neighbor blocks' move vector (MV). And the relationship between the Inter_2N×2N mode PU with the other modes of PU is used to judge whether narrow the search range. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm saves about 23.5% motion estimation(ME) time and 19.37% total encoding time compared to TZ Search, and the bit consumption is basically negligible.
Feasibility study of Nearly Zero Energy Building in a real Microgrid case study

This paper examines, from the energetic point of view, the design process of a stand-alone house as a microgrid (MG) in Rome, which inhabited by a family of four people. The house is equipped with all the electrical devices necessary to ensure comfort conditions and to achieve a Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB). In the island mode, the electric current of the building is supplied by a photovoltaic (PV) system and a battery energy storage system (BESS). All the electrical users present in the house are characterized by a high energy class. In order to make the house working in island mode from an electric and thermal point of view, has been decided to install a heat pump, electrically driven, for the production of domestic hot water (DHW) to feed the radiators and for domestic uses. For this MG case study, a standard load profile and an optimized load profile have been analyzed. The comparison between the two different scenarios has been carried out by the optimization software. The results show an improvement of all the economic and technical parameters in the optimized case compared to the standard case, due to a better exploitation of the energy produced by the PV system. Furthermore, the size of the components with the installation of a Building Automation and Control System (BACS) in the optimized case, is slightly reduced leading to a lower cost of operation and investment.
Reconstruction for ECG Compressed Sensing Using a Time-Normalized PCA Dictionary

Compressed sensing (CS), due to its computational simplicity is a perspective data reduction technique for remote ECG monitoring applications. In this paper, a novel method of reconstruction for CS of ECG signal is proposed, which uses a time-normalized agnostic dictionary created by the principal component analysis (PCA) of training signals. The proposed method exploits a QRS detector to split the input signal into variable-size frames and shows significantly better reconstruction quality compared against traditional orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) approach with Mexican hat and Symlet4 wavelet dictionaries.
A Low Power Biopotential Amplifier based on Bulk Driven Quasi Floating Gate Technique

Design of low-power and low-noise Biopotential Amplifier (BPA) plays crucial role in the success of high end medical diagnosis systems. However, most of these researched BPAs face a major challenge of consuming large amount of power and also exhibit high values of Noise Efficiency Factor (NEF). Here we report the design of a BPA using Bulk-Driven Quasi-Floating Gate (BDQFG) technique which consumes only low-power $(\mathbf{0.657 \mu \mathrm{W})}$ and also exhibits NEF of 2.06. Circuit design and simulation have been performed in Cadence Analog Design Environment using standard $\mathbf{0.18\ \mu \mathrm{m}}$ technology. Besides promising results on power and noise, design of the BPA using BDQFG technique has also been fine-tuned to achieve mid-band gain of 38.3 dB (from 2.9 Hz to −3dB frequency of 735.5 Hz) and phase margin of 80.6°.
Latency Aware Optimal Workload Assignment in Mobile Edge Cloud Offloading Network

Mobile Edge Cloud Architecture (MECA) facilitates mobile devices to perform computational intensive applications in a collaborative manner with cloud computing. The offloading system in MECA is a technique in which application can be divided into local execution and cloud execution. However, existing MECA does not stable due to a longer delay for interactive and real time applications which have to execute within a given deadline. Since, current offloading systems do not consider communication and cloud process delay, they have just focused on mobile execution time. In this paper, we are minimizing the hybrid delay (i.e., mobile process delay, communication delay, cloud process delay) in order to minimize average response time of application. To cope with the above challenges we have proposed Latency Aware Task Assignment Algorithm (LATA), which aim is to minimize the response time of interactive application. Simulation results show that our proposed LATA has reduced response time of application as compared to baseline approaches.