Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Haploidentical transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia patients with minimal/measurable residual disease at transplantation

There have been conflicting results regarding the impact of minimal/measurable disease at transplant on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) outcomes after haploidentical transplantation (haplo‐SCT). We assessed the impact of pre‐transplant disease status on post‐transplant outcomes of 143 patients treated with haplo‐SCT using fludarabine‐melphalan (FM) conditioning and post‐transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy). With a median follow‐up of 29 months, the two‐year PFS for all patients was 41%. Compared to patients in complete remission (CR) at transplant, those with active disease (n = 29) and CR with incomplete count recovery (CRi) (n = 39) had worse PFS. They had hazard ratios (HR) of 3.5 (95% CI: 2.05‐6.1; P < .001) and 2.3 (95% CI: 1.3‐3.9; P = .002), respectively. Among patients who were in CR at transplant, there were no differences in PFS between those who had minimal residual disease (MRD) positive (n = 24), and MRD negative (n = 41) (HR 1.85, 95%CI: 0.9‐4.0; P = .1). In multivariable analysis for patients in CR, only age was predictive for outcomes, while MRD status at transplant did not influence the treatment outcomes. Our findings suggest that haplo‐SCT with FM conditioning regimen and PTCy‐based GVHD prophylaxis has a protective effect, and may potentially abrogate the inferior outcomes of MRD positivity for patients with AML. Patients with positive MRD may benefit from proceeding urgently to a haplo‐SCT, as this does not appear to negatively impact transplant outcomes.
Ten-Year Secular Trends in Sleep/Wake Patterns in Shanghai and Hong Kong School-Aged Children: A Tale of Two Cities.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To compare the secular trends of sleep/wake patterns in school-aged children in Hong Kong and Shanghai, two major metropolitan cities in China with two different policies that school start time was delayed in Shanghai, but advanced in Hong Kong in 10 years' time. METHODS Participants were from two waves of cross-sectional school-based surveys of children aged 6 to 11 years. In Shanghai, 4,339 and 13,795 children participated in the 2005 and 2014 surveys, respectively. In Hong Kong, 6,231 and 4,585 children participated in the 2003 and 2012 surveys, respectively. Parents reported their children's bedtime and wakeup time, and thus sleep duration, short sleep (≤ 9 hours) and weekend oversleep (difference in sleep duration between weekday and weekend > 2 hours) were determined. RESULTS Hong Kong children had later bedtime and wakeup time and slept consistently less than their Shanghai counterparts at both survey time points. The shorter sleep duration was particularly marked during weekdays. Over the interval period, weekday sleep duration significantly decreased from 9.2 to 8.9 hours as wakeup time became earlier for Hong Kong children, but increased from 9.4 to 9.6 hours as wakeup time became later for children in Shanghai. Children from both cities slept longer on the weekends. Prevalence of weekend oversleep significantly increased in Hong Kong children, but no interval change was found in Shanghai children. CONCLUSIONS The findings indicate subcultural differences in sleep/wake patterns in Shanghai and Hong Kong school-aged children. In particular, sleep duration had increased for Shanghai children, but decreased for Hong Kong children over 10 years. The benefits and barriers of delaying school start time for optimizing sleep health in school-aged children should be further explored.
Effectiveness of a multicomponent safe surgery intervention on improving surgical quality in Tanzania’s Lake Zone: protocol for a quasi-experimental study

Introduction Effective, scalable strategies for improving surgical quality are urgently needed in low-income and middle-income countries; however, there is a dearth of evidence about what strategies are most effective. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Safe Surgery 2020, a multicomponent intervention focused on strengthening five areas: leadership and teamwork, safe surgical and anaesthesia practices, sterilisation, data quality and infrastructure to improve surgical quality in Tanzania. We hypothesise that Safe Surgery 2020 will (1) increase adherence to surgical quality processes around safety, teamwork and communication and data quality in the short term and (2) reduce complications from surgical site infections, postoperative sepsis and maternal sepsis in the medium term. Methods and analysis Our design is a prospective, longitudinal, quasi-experimental study with 10 intervention and 10 control facilities in Tanzania’s Lake Zone. Participants will be surgical providers, surgical patients and postnatal inpatients at study facilities. Trained Tanzanian medical data collectors will collect data over a 3-month preintervention and postintervention period. Adherence to safety as well as teamwork and communication processes will be measured through direct observation in the operating room. Surgical site infections, postoperative sepsis and maternal sepsis will be identified prospectively through daily surveillance and completeness of their patient files, retrospectively, through the chart review. We will use difference-in-differences to analyse the impact of the Safe Surgery 2020 intervention on surgical quality processes and complications. We will use interviews with leadership and surgical team members in intervention facilities to illuminate the factors that facilitate higher performance. Ethics and dissemination The study has received ethical approval from Harvard Medical School and Tanzania’s National Institute for Medical Research. We will report results in peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. If effective, the Safe Surgery 2020 intervention could be a promising approach to improve surgical quality in Tanzania’s Lake Zone region and other similar contexts.
Wharton's jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells attenuate sepsis-induced organ injury partially via cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway activation.

Sepsis induces organ dysfunction due to overexpression of the inflammatory host response, resulting in cardiopulmonary and autonomic dysfunction, thus increasing the associated morbidity and mortality. Wharton's jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (WJ-MSCs) express genes and secrete factors with anti-inflammatory properties, neurological and immunological protection, as well as improving survival in experimental sepsis. The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) is mediated by α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7nAChRs), which play an important role in the control of systemic inflammation. We hypothesized that WJ-MSCs attenuate sepsis-induced organ injury in the presence of an activated CAP pathway. Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: control (sham-operated); cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) alone; CLP+WJ-MSCs (1 × 106 cells, at 6 h post-CLP); and CLP+methyllycaconitine(MLA)+WJ-MSCs (5 mg/kg body weight, at 5.5 h post-CLP, and 1 × 106 cells, at 6 h post-CLP, respectively). All experiments, including the assessment of echocardiographic parameters and heart rate variability, were performed 24 h after CLP. WJ-MSC treatment attenuated diastolic dysfunction and restored baroreflex sensitivity. WJ-MSCs also increased cardiac sympathetic and cardiovagal activity. WJ-MSCs reduced leukocyte infiltration and pro-inflammatory cytokines, effects that were abolished by administration of a selective α7nAChR antagonist (MLA). In addition, WJ-MSC treatment also diminished apoptosis in the lungs and spleen. In cardiac and splenic tissue, WJ-MSCs downregulated α7nAChR expression, as well as reducing the phospho-STAT3/total STAT3 ratio in the spleen. WJ-MSCs appear to protect against sepsis-induced organ injury by reducing systemic inflammation, at least in part, via a mechanism that is dependent on an activated CAP.
Case Report: Acute Amebic Colitis Triggered by Colonoscopy: Exacerbation of Asymptomatic Chronic Infection with Entamoeba histolytica Accompanied by Dysbiosis

Abstract. Recent data show that the gut microbiome plays a role in determining the clinical outcome of Entamoeba histolytica infection. We report the case of a patient who developed recurrent acute amebic colitis (second episode of acute colitis) after colonoscopy. Genotyping of E. histolytica revealed that she developed a second episode of acute amebic colitis with the same genotype as that of the first episode, indicating chronic infection had persisted asymptomatically for > 10 months between the first and second episodes. Analysis of the gut microbiome, in addition to the clinical findings, suggested that dysbiosis at colonoscopy induced the change in the clinical form of E. histolytica infection from asymptomatic chronic infection to symptomatic colitis.
Income inequalities in oral health and access to dental services in the Brazilian population: National Health Survey, 2013.

INTRODUCTION Despite the improvement in oral health conditions observed in the Brazilian population, there are still high social inequalities that must be monitored. OBJECTIVE To evaluate income inequality in oral hygiene practices, oral health status and the use of dental services in the adult and senior Brazilian population. METHODS Data from the National Health Survey conducted in 2013 (Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde - PNS 2013) were used for the population aged 18 years old or older. RESULTS Inequalities were found among the income strata in most of the oral health indicators evaluated. The greatest inequalities were observed in the use of dental floss, in hygiene practices (PR = 2.85 in adults and PR = 2.45 in seniors), and in total tooth loss (PR = 6.74 in adults and PR = 2.24 in seniors) and difficulty in chewing (PR = 4.49 in adults and PR = 2.67 in seniors) among oral condition indicators. The magnitude of inequalities was high in both groups in most oral condition indicators. Income was a factor that persisted in limiting access to dental services, and even the lower income segments had high percentages that paid for dental consultations. CONCLUSION Based on data from the first PNS, the findings of this study enabled the identification of oral health and dental care aspects more compromised by income differentials, thus, contributing to the planning of dental care in Brazil and to stimulate the monitoring of these disparities with data from future surveys.
Voice parade procedures: optimising witness performance

ABSTRACT Unfamiliar voice identification is error-prone. Whilst the investigation of system variables may indicate ways of boosting earwitness performance, this is an under-researched area. Two experiments were conducted to investigate how methods of presenting voices during a parade affect accuracy and self-rated confidence. In each experiment participants listened to a target voice, and were later asked to identify that voice from a nine-person target present or target absent parade. In Experiment 1, accuracy did not vary across parades comprising 15 or 30 s sample durations. Overall, when the target was present, participants correctly identified the target voice with 39% accuracy. However, when the target was absent, participants correctly rejected the parade 6% of the time. There was no relationship between accuracy and confidence. In Experiment 2, performance with a serial procedure, in which participants responded after hearing all nine voices, was compared with a sequential procedure, in which participants made a decision after listening to each voice. Overall accuracy was higher with the sequential procedure. These results highlight the importance of system variable research in voice identification. Different methods of presenting voices have the potential to support higher levels of accuracy than the procedure currently recommended in England and Wales.
A Novel Detection Tool for Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients Based on Eye Movement and Electroencephalogram.

BACKGROUND Detecting subtle changes in visual attention from electroencephalography (EEG) and the perspective of eye movement in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients can be of great significance in screening early Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a large population at primary care. OBJECTIVE We proposed an automatic, non-invasive, and quick MCI detection approach based on multimodal physiological signals for clinical decision-marking. METHODS The proposed model recruited 152 patients with MCI and 184 healthy elderly controls (HC) who underwent EEG and eye movement signal recording under a visual stimuli task, as well as other neuropsychological assessments. Forty features were extracted from EEG and eye movement signals by linear and nonlinear analysis. The features related to MCI were selected by logistic regression analysis. To evaluate the efficacy of this MCI detection approach, we applied the same procedures to achieve the Clinical model, EEG model, Eye movement model, EEG+ Clinical model, Eye movement+ Clinical model, and Combined model, and compared the classification accuracy between the MCI and HC groups with the above six models. RESULTS After the penalization of logistic regression analysis, five features from EEG and eye movement features exhibited significant differences (p < 0.05). In the classification experiment, the combined model resulted in the best accuracy. The average accuracy for the Clinical/EEG/Eye movement/EEG+ Clinical/Eye movement+ Clinical/Combined model was 68.69%, 61.79%, 73.13%, 69.46%, 75.61%, and 81.51%, respectively. CONCLUSION These results suggest that the proposed MCI detection tool has the potential to screen MCI patients from HCs and may be a powerful tool for personalized precision MCI screening in the large-scale population under primary care condition.
Assessment of Anterior Chamber by Ultrasound Biomicroscopy and Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography in Patients with Inflammatory Glaucoma

Objective To investigate the clinical indications of ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) in eyes with inflammatory glaucoma. Methods Sixteen patients (16 eyes) with inflammatory glaucoma were analysed retrospectively. All of the subjects underwent UBM and AS-OCT scans, measuring the following parameters: central corneal thickness (CCT), central anterior chamber depth (ACD), angle-opening distance (AOD500), and trabecular-iris angle (TIA500) in four quadrants. Results Both the UBM and AS-OCT generated detailed, high-resolution images of the anterior segments of the eyes with inflammatory glaucoma. Moreover, the UBM and AS-OCT exhibited statistically similar measurement results for all of the indices. A Bland–Altman analysis showed a high level of agreement between the two imaging techniques. Additionally, the UBM was able to visualize the ciliary body and pars plana, while the cells and the flare in the anterior chamber appeared more pronounced in the UBM images. Conclusions Both the UBM and AS-OCT are useful tools for anterior segment imaging and taking measurements needed for evaluating inflammatory glaucoma. The AS-OCT has the advantages of being noninvasive and fast, whereas the UBM is presently unparalleled in the visualization of the ciliary body and pars plana.
Imaging Findings of Vaping-Associated Lung Injury.

OBJECTIVE. E-cigarettes are devices that aerosolize nicotine- or cannabis-based concentrates mixed with other solvents and have been marketed as an alternative to cigarettes. E-cigarette use, or vaping, is increasingly popular but has not been proven to be an innocuous substitute for traditional smoking. Several patterns of vaping-associated inhalational lung injuries have been reported in the past few years. This article reviews many of the imaging patterns that have been encountered in association with e-cigarette use. CONCLUSION. E-cigarette use is associated with a range of lung injury patterns that have only recently been recognized as use of these products continues to rise. When the radiologist sees one of these patterns of lung injury, it is important to raise the possibility of vaping-induced lung injury because cessation of vaping is an important step in treatment.
Dental caries and oral health related quality of life of 3-year-olds living in Lima, Peru.

BACKGROUND Untreated dental caries negatively impacts children and their families; the implication of which is best measured through assessing quality of life. Information related to Oral-Health-Related-Quality-of-Life (OHRQoL) in Peruvian pre-school children is scarce. AIM To investigate the relationship between dental caries and the OHRQoL of 3-year-old children. DESIGN Randomly selected government pre-schools (n=17), situated in three low socio-economic status districts in Lima, participated. The OHRQoL data were obtained using the Peruvian (P) ECOHIS questionnaire. Clinical examinations using the Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment (CAST) instrument were performed on 308 children. From which, 213 parents returned the P-ECOHIS form. ANOVA, Tamhane and Tukey methods were used to analyse the data. RESULTS The mean age of the children was 3.04 years. The two highest mean P-ECOHIS scores in the child section were 'child symptoms' and 'child psychology' while 'parent distress' scored highest in the parent section. The prevalence of dental caries was 64.3% (CAST scores 4-7). Including CASTcode 3 (enamel carious lesion), the dental caries prevalence was 93.4%. The mean P-ECOHIS scores for 'child symptoms', 'child functions', 'child impact', 'parent distress' and 'the sample' were statistically significantly higher for children with MaxCASTcodes 5 and 6 (dentine and pulpally involved cavities, respectively) than for those with MaxCASTcode 3. CONCLUSION The presence of cavitated teeth with and without pulpal involvement impacts negatively on the OHRQoL of 3-year-old children.
High throughput fault-resilient AES architecture

As more and more confidential information is being transmitted securely, the use of cryptographic algorithms is expanded. However, existing cryptographic algorithms are subject to various malicious attacks. Fault injection attack is one of the most effective attacks that are able to extract private information with the inexpensive requirement and short amount of time. AES is a block cipher that is used in many critical applications. Here, a lightweight error-detection architecture for AES has been proposed; the authors call it as high throughput fault-resilient AES (HFA). In the proposed architecture, the authors use parallel AES architecture, which contains four equivalent blocks and split each block into two pipeline stages. The authors have shown that HFA achieves high error-detection rate while keeping overheads reasonable.
Compensation for Impairments of Frequency Converters in Millimeter Wave Vector Signal Generators

The upcoming fifth generation (5G) of wireless communications aims to utilize millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequencies in its infrastructure to alleviate the crowded spectrum problem below 6 GHz. At higher frequencies, modulation bandwidths of several hundreds of MHz can be utilized to increase system capacities. However, the radio frequency (RF) frontends can exhibit significant amounts of impairments over these wide bandwidths, thereby limiting the achievable output signal quality and capacity. In this work, two signal generation architectures and the accompanying compensation schemes to mitigate the impairments are proposed for the generation of wideband modulated signals at mm-wave frequencies. The frequency dependent IQ imbalance effects in conventional direct conversion signal generation architectures over ultra wide bandwidths are first investigated. For that, a new interleaved multi-tone test signal based identification and compensation scheme is proposed. This scheme was experimentally validated by using an off-the-shelf IQ mixer operating at 30 GHz driven with an interleaved multi-tone signal with 4 GHz of modulation bandwidth and achieving a reduction in the normalized mean squared error (NMSE) from -14 dB to -38 dB. Subsequently, a low-complexity pruned Volterra series based digital predistortion (DPD) scheme was devised to mitigate the nonlinear distortions exhibited by the power amplifier stage and maximize the signal quality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals with modulation bandwidths up to 800 MHz. After compensation of the system with 66 DPD coefficients, the OFDM signal with 800 MHz of modulation bandwidth exhibited an NMSE of -32.4 dB and an adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) of 45 dBc. However, the challenges associated with the implementation of traditional direct conversion architectures exacerbate as the operating frequency increases. For instance, the performance of high frequency active building blocks, e.g. mixer and amplifiers, deteriorates as the operating frequency approaches the maximum oscillation frequency of the semiconductor technology. To address this challenge, a signal generation system utilizing frequency multipliers to replace the mixer and facilitate frequency upconversion is proposed. A novel Volterra series based behavioural model is also devised to predict the nonlinear behaviour of frequency multipliers and to form the basis for synthesizing a DPD scheme capable of obtaining acceptable signal quality when driven with wideband modulated signals. Various frequency multiplier based signal generation systems were implemented using off-the-shelf frequency doublers, triplers, and quadruplers to serve as proof of concept prototypes. Experiments confirmed the ability to generate modulated signals with competitive error vector magnitudes (EVM) and ACPR levels with low complexity DPD schemes.
New Method to Evaluate the Buried Pipeline– Sandy Soil Interaction Subjected to Strike Slip Faulting

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to provide a new method to assess the interaction between sandy soil and buried pipeline in the presence of strike slip faulting. To that end, two full-scale experiments were carried out on steel and polyethylene pipes. Using ABAQUS and an optimization algorithm, the stiffness of the equivalent transverse spring of the soil was calculated so that the deformation of the pipe would have the highest agreement with the experimental results. The results showed that the specifications of the equivalent pipe-soil spring are highly dependent upon the material of the pipe, a fact which has not been considered in design codes. The initial stiffness and the maximum pipe-soil interaction force for both the steel and polyethylene pipes were calculated and compared to the criteria presented by ASCE and ALA standards. The maximum pipe-soil interaction force in steel pipe test was obtained to be 70% higher than ASCE Guideline given value while in HDPE pipe test it was about 80% lower than code’s value. This fact demonstrates the importance of pipe material on lateral pipe-soil interaction.
Energy-Storage-Based Intelligent Frequency Control of Microgrid With Stochastic Model Uncertainties

With the increasing proportion of renewable power generations, the frequency control of microgrid becomes more challenging due to stochastic power generations and dynamic uncertainties. The energy storage system (ESS) is usually used in microgrid since it can provide flexible options to store or release power energy. In this paper, an intelligent control strategy completely based on the adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) is developed for the frequency stability, which is designed to adjust the power outputs of micro-turbine and ESS when photovoltaic (PV) power generation is connected into the microgrid. Further, considering the changes of PV power and load demand in a day, the full utilization of PV power and the recycling of energy storage are realized through the proposed regulation strategy. Numerical simulation results validate the energy-storage-based intelligent frequency control strategy for the microgird with stochastic model uncertainties, and comparative studies based on PID, LQR and fuzzy logic control illustrate the superiority of the proposed control strategy.