Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quality of Chronic Anticoagulation Control in Patients with Intracranial Haemorrhage due to Vitamin K Antagonists

Introduction Patients treated with vitamin K antagonists (VKA) are at increased risk of intracranial haemorrhage (ICH). The purpose of our study was to determine the quality of previous anticoagulation control in patients with VKA-associated ICH. Materials and Methods We prospectively assessed every consecutive patient admitted to our stroke unit with VKA-associated ICH between 2013 and 2016. Demographic, clinical, and radiological variables, as well as consecutive international normalized ratios (INR) during 7 previous months, were extracted. Time in therapeutic range (TTR), time over range (TOR), time below range (TBR), and percentage of INR within range (PINRR) were calculated. Results and Discussion The study population comprised 53 patients. Mean age was 79 years; 42% were women. Forty-eight patients had atrial fibrillation (AF) and 5 mechanical prosthetic valves. Therapeutic or infratherapeutic INR on arrival was detected in 64.4% of patients (95% CI 2.7 to 3.2). TTR was 67.8% (95% CI: 60.2 to 75.6 %) and PINRR was 75% (95% CI: 49.9-100). TOR was 17.2% (95% CI: 10.4 to 23.9% ) and TBR was 17% (95% CI: 10.6 to 23.9%). Conclusion VKA-associated ICH happens usually in the context of good chronic anticoagulation control. Newer risk assessment methods are required.
Analysis of Leafy Vegetable Nitrate Using a Modified Spectrometric Method

A quick and cost-effective method to analyze leafy vegetable nitrate on spectrometry was developed and compared with a standard method using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This method was designed to use ion-exchange solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges in reducing interference from organic matrices to meet the criterion of an existing method for analyzing nitrate in wastewater. Nine vegetables (bok coy, cabbage, celery, Chinese cabbage, Chinese kale, lettuce, mustard green, pak choi, and water spinach) were selected for the method testing with three replicates being conducted for each vegetable. The nitrate contents ranged from 800 to 4,300 μg/g, with bok coy, celery, and pak choi being the highest. Data derived from spectrometry and HPLC were close to each other with most relative errors being within ±10% and were highly correlated with an R square value of 0.969. Stability testing and spike analysis resulted in a mean coefficient of variation lower than 6% and a mean recovery rate of 83.7%, suggesting reliability of the method. In addition, both the cost and time consumption for using this method were lower than the standard method using HPLC or ion chromatography, making this spectrometric method a good alternative for analysis of leafy vegetable nitrate.
The Effects of Andrographis paniculata on Platelet Activity in Healthy Thai Volunteers

Background. Andrographis paniculata (AP) has been used in Thai traditional medicine to treat various infections, including the common cold and fever. Its bioactive compound, andrographolide, has shown antiplatelet activities in an in vitro study model. Since clinical studies of the effects of AP on the human platelet function have never been reported, we investigated its effect on platelet activity in ten healthy volunteers. Methods. Two grams of AP was taken 3 times within one day. The blood was withdrawn by venipuncture before and 2 and 24 hours after the AP administration to analyze the effects of AP on platelet aggregation, the expression of enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX) mRNA and protein, and TXB2, including P-selectin. Result. Even though there was no significant change in the studied parameters, this study exhibited patient-to-patient variability in platelet function. It was found that ADP-induced platelet aggregation tended to decrease after AP administration, while epinephrine-induced platelet aggregation in females tended to be higher than that in males for the entire study period. Moreover, COX-1 mRNA levels tended to decrease while P-selectin levels tended to rise after AP administration. Conclusion. These controversial results are possibly due to the multifactorial mechanisms of platelet aggregation as well as the multichemical composition of AP. Further study, probably at the molecular level, is needed to unveil the underlying mechanisms of action of AP.
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus as a Probable Cause of Antibiotic-Associated Enterocolitis

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea is typically associated with Clostridium difficile. However, Staphylococcus aureus has also been described as a cause of antibiotic-associated enterocolitis and diarrhea and is likely an underrecognized etiology. We present a case of enterocolitis and urinary tract infection caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus following antibiotic treatment.
Effect of Bhramari Pranayama on the Acoustic and Aerodynamic Parameters of Voice in Normophonic Females

Summary. Objective Pranayama is known for improving various health conditions. The present study is aimed at investigating the effects of bhramari pranayama on aerodynamic and acoustic parameters of voice in healthy individuals. Study Design This is a pretest-posttest design study. Methods A total of 24 participants in the age range of 20 to 25 years completed the bhramari pranayama regimen for 30 sessions. Aerodynamic and acoustic assessments were done before and after pranayama sessions. Maximum phonation duration, pitch, loudness, subglottal pressure, glottal airflow, laryngeal resistance and conductance along with acoustical parameters such as average F0, jitter, and shimmer, soft phonation index, noise to harmonic ratio, cepstral peak prominence, and smoothened cepstral peak prominence were analysed. Results The results revealed significant improvement in the maximum phonation duration, glottal airflow and pressure, average fundamental frequency, and cepstral peak prominence after practice suggesting that it has an effect on voice parameters. Conclusion Bhramari pranayama is effective in improving the acoustic and aerodynamic parameters of voice. The same needs to be investigated in hyper- and hypofunctional voice disorders in the future studies.
Prevalence of tuberculosis and multidrug resistant tuberculosis in the Middle East Region

ABSTRACT Introduction: Prevalence of TB and MDR-TB varies considerably among various regions of World Health Organization (WHO) and also among individual countries within each region. Many Middle Eastern countries have war/civil war-like situations, refugees from war-torn countries or dynamic expatriate population from TB endemic countries which will likely affect the END-TB strategy launched by the WHO in 2015. Areas covered: The data for each of 17 countries comprising the Middle East were analyzed for estimated incidence of TB, number of notified TB cases, mortality rate, and rate of MDR-TB in new and previously treated TB cases as reported by WHO. Data from national surveys or surveillance studies from individual countries were also analyzed for incidence of MDR-TB in new and previously treated TB patients and compared with the estimated data by WHO. Expert commentary: Several Middle Eastern countries have low/intermediate incidence rate and are striving for TB elimination. Reaching pre-elimination (< 1 TB case per 100 000 population) stage will require testing and treatment of latent TB infection in groups at high risk of reactivation and effective treatment of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB cases. Large numbers of refugees, expatriate workers, or confounding noncommunicable diseases in some countries pose major challenges in achieving progress toward TB elimination.
Exploring the structural determinants of novel xanthine derivatives as A2B adenosine receptor antagonists: a computational study

Abstract Adenosine is a ubiquitous endogenous nucleoside that controls numerous physiological functions via interacting with its specific G-coupled receptors. Activation of adenosine receptors (AdoRs), particularly A2B AdoRs promotes the release of inflammatory cytokines; reduces vascular permeabilization and induces angiogenesis, thereby making A2B AdoR becomes a potentially pharmacological target for drug development. Presently, for investigating the structural determinants of 164 xanthine derivatives as A2B AdoR antagonists, we performed an in silico study integrating with 3D-QSAR, docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The obtained optimal model shows strong predictability (Q2 = 0.647, R2ncv = 0.955, and R2pred = 0.848). Additionally, to explore the binding mode of the ligand with A2B AdoR and to understand their binding mechanism, docking analysis, MD simulations (20 ns), and the calculation of binding free energy were also carried out. Finally, the structural determinants of these xanthine derivatives were identified and a total of 20 novel A2B AdoR antagonists with improved potency were computationally designed, and their synthetic feasibility and selectivity were also evaluated. The information derived from the present study offers a better appreciation for exploring the interaction mechanism of the ligand with A2B AdoR, which could be helpful for designing novel potent A2B AdoR antagonists. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
Gradual Collective Upgrade of a Swarm of Autonomous Buoys for Dynamic Ocean Monitoring

Swarms of autonomous surface vehicles equipped with environmental sensors and decentralized communications bring a new wave of attractive possibilities for the monitoring of dynamic features in oceans and other waterbodies. However, a key challenge in swarm robotics design is the efficient collective operation of heterogeneous systems. We present both theoretical analysis and field experiments on the responsiveness in dynamic area coverage of a collective of 22 autonomous buoys, where 4 units are upgraded to a new design that allows them to move 80% faster than the rest. This system is able to react on timescales of the minute to changes in areas on the order of a few thousand square meters. We have observed that this partial upgrade of the system significantly increases its average responsiveness, without necessarily improving the spatial uniformity of the deployment. These experiments show that the autonomous buoy designs and the cooperative control rule described in this work provide an efficient, flexible, and scalable solution for the pervasive and persistent monitoring of water environments.
Self-Attention Linguistic-Acoustic Decoder

The conversion from text to speech relies on the accurate mapping from linguistic to acoustic symbol sequences, for which current practice employs recurrent statistical models like recurrent neural networks. Despite the good performance of such models (in terms of low distortion in the generated speech), their recursive structure tends to make them slow to train and to sample from. In this work, we try to overcome the limitations of recursive structure by using a module based on the transformer decoder network, designed without recurrent connections but emulating them with attention and positioning codes. Our results show that the proposed decoder network is competitive in terms of distortion when compared to a recurrent baseline, whilst being significantly faster in terms of CPU inference time. On average, it increases Mel cepstral distortion between 0.1 and 0.3 dB, but it is over an order of magnitude faster on average. Fast inference is important for the deployment of speech synthesis systems on devices with restricted resources, like mobile phones or embedded systems, where speaking virtual assistants are gaining importance.
Reversible inhibition of the blood-testis barrier protein improves stem cell homing in mouse testes

Stem cell homing is a complex phenomenon that involves multiple steps; thus far, attempts to increase homing efficiency have met with limited success. Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) migrate to the niche after microinjection into seminiferous tubules, but the homing efficiency is very low. Here we report that reversible disruption of the blood-testis barrier (BTB) between Sertoli cells enhances the homing efficiency of SSCs. We found that SSCs on a C57BL/6 background are triggered to proliferate in vitro when MHY1485, which stimulates MTORC, were added to culture medium. However, the cultured cells did not produce offspring by direct injection into the seminiferous tubules. When acyline, a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue, was administered into infertile recipients, SSC colonization increased by ~5-fold and the recipients sired offspring. In contrast, both untreated individuals and recipients that received leuprolide, another GnRH analogue, remained infertile. Acyline not only decreased CLDN5 expression but also impaired the BTB, suggesting that increased colonization was caused by efficient SSC migration through the BTB. Enhancement of stem cell homing by tight junction protein manipulation constitutes a new approach to improve homing efficiency, and similar strategy may be applicable to other self-renewing tissues.
Source Attribution of Foodborne Diseases: Potentialities, Hurdles, and Future Expectations

Centre for Infectious Disease Control (CIb), National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, Netherlands, 2 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, 3 Risk Assessment Department, French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses), Maisons-Alfort, France, 4 Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort, Maisons-Alfort, France, 5 Ploufragan-Plouzané Laboratory, French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses), Ploufragan, France, NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Meat-Safety (CRSV), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Montreal, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada, 7 Laboratory for Food Safety, French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses), Maisons-Alfort, France, 8 The French National Public Health Agency, Saint-Maurice, France, 9 Biostatistics, Biomathematics, Pharmacoepidemiology and Infectious Diseases (B2PHI),
Scavenger receptor BI promotes cytoplasmic accumulation of lipoproteins in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma[S]

Clear-cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) are characterized by inactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene and intracellular lipid accumulation by unknown pathomechanisms. The immunochemical analysis of 356 RCCs revealed high abundance of apoA-I and apoB, as well as scavenger receptor BI (SR-BI) in the ccRCC subtype. Given the characteristic loss of VHL function in ccRCC, we used VHL-defective and VHL-proficient cells to study the potential influence of VHL on lipoprotein uptake. VHL-defective patient-derived ccRCC cells and cell lines (786O and RCC4) showed enhanced uptake as well as less resecretion and degradation of radio-iodinated HDL and LDL (125I-HDL and 125I-LDL, respectively) compared with the VHL-proficient cells. The ccRCC cells showed enhanced vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and SR-BI expression compared with normal kidney epithelial cells. Uptake of 125I-HDL and 125I-LDL by patient-derived normal kidney epithelial cells as well as the VHL-reexpressing ccRCC cell lines, 786-O-VHL and RCC4-O-VHL cells, was strongly enhanced by VEGF treatment. The knockdown of the VEGF coreceptor, neuropilin-1 (NRP1), as well as blocking of SR-BI significantly reduced the uptake of lipoproteins into ccRCC cells in vitro. LDL stimulated proliferation of 786-O cells more potently than 786-O-VHL cells in a NRP1- and SR-BI-dependent manner. In conclusion, enhanced lipoprotein uptake due to increased activities of VEGF/NRP1 and SR-BI promotes lipid accumulation and proliferation of VHL-defective ccRCC cells.
“SENECA” Sinecatechins 10% ointment: A green tea extract for the treatment of actinic keratosis. Case series

Dear Editor Actinic keratosis (AK) is a cutaneous intraepithelial neoplasm appearing within areas referred as “fields of cancerization” and it is relatively common on sun-damaged skin of elderly individuals (Chetty, Choi, & Mitchell, 2015). AK is one of the most common cutaneous lesions encountered in clinical practice and its incidence is increasing worldwide (Ortonne, 2002). Actinic keratoses are proliferations of transformed neoplastic keratinocytes in the epidermis resulting from the effect of cumulative ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Excessive exposure to UV radiation induces multiple cascades of molecular signaling events at cellular level that promotes inflammation, immunosuppression, failure of apoptosis, and aberrant differentiation (Bergman & Cockerell, 2013). A variable percentage of untreated AKs (0.6–20%) is able to progress toward invasive squamous cell carcinoma (iSCC), but it is impossible to predict which among them will progress (Ortonne, 2002). There are several therapeutic options available for the management of AKs, but they are not exempt from local side effects and are not always well-accepted by patients. Green tea catechins possess a wide range of pharmacological properties, including antiviral, anti-infective, anti-proliferative, proapoptotic effects, and immunostimulatory properties (Tyring, 2012). They have also demonstrated inhibitory capacity on different enzymatic and metabolic pathways involved in cancer development (Meltzer, Monk, & Tewari, 2009). We postulated that sinecatechins’ anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, and pro-apoptotic effects may contribute to AKs clearance. The aim of the present case series is to investigate the effectiveness of Sinecatechins 10% ointment in treatment of AK. 1 | CASE PRESENTATION
A single-institution retrospective analysis of metachronous and synchronous metastatic bronchial neuroendocrine tumors.

Background Broncho-pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors (bpNETs) are rare malignancies and there is no consensus on therapeutical management of metastatic disease and follow-up after radical resection. Methods Clinical records of patients with a cytological or histological diagnosis of bpNETs and distant metastases (metachronous or synchronous), evaluated at the European Institute of Oncology between 1997 and 2014, were retrospectively analyzed. Data on patient demographics, pathology, imaging exams, surgical and non-surgical treatments were collected. P value descriptive data, uni- and multi-variate survival analysis were generated for all variables. Results With a median follow-up of 53 [9-215] months, 61 patients with metachronous and 47 with synchronous metastases were analysed. The most common tool of first recurrence detection was computed tomography. Liver (67%), lymph node (25%), bone (22%) and lung (16%) were the most common sites of relapse. Median time to recurrence was 5 years. Median overall survival (OS) was 72 months for the whole population, with no significant difference between patients with synchronous and metachronous metastases. Age, bone metastases, liver metastases and Ki-67 as a continuous variable all significantly correlated with prognosis at the multivariate analysis. Conclusions This is one of the largest, single-centre, series of metastatic bpNETs. Among patients with metachronous metastases the pattern of recurrences was heterogeneous as were the follow-up exams used to detect them. The results of our analysis may represent solid bases for designing prospective clinical trials in homogeneous settings of bpNETs.
Multi-Hop Knowledge Graph Reasoning with Reward Shaping

Multi-hop reasoning is an effective approach for query answering (QA) over incomplete knowledge graphs (KGs). The problem can be formulated in a reinforcement learning (RL) setup, where a policy-based agent sequentially extends its inference path until it reaches a target. However, in an incomplete KG environment, the agent receives low-quality rewards corrupted by false negatives in the training data, which harms generalization at test time. Furthermore, since no golden action sequence is used for training, the agent can be misled by spurious search trajectories that incidentally lead to the correct answer. We propose two modeling advances to address both issues: (1) we reduce the impact of false negative supervision by adopting a pretrained one-hop embedding model to estimate the reward of unobserved facts; (2) we counter the sensitivity to spurious paths of on-policy RL by forcing the agent to explore a diverse set of paths using randomly generated edge masks. Our approach significantly improves over existing path-based KGQA models on several benchmark datasets and is comparable or better than embedding-based models.
Randomized Comparative Assessment of Three Surgical Cricothyrotomy Devices on Airway Mannequins

Abstract Background: Airway obstruction is the second leading cause of preventable battlefield death, at least in part because surgical cricothyrotomy (SC) failure rates remain unacceptably high. Ideally, SC should be a rapid, simple, easily-learned, and reliably-performed procedure. Currently, 3 SC devices meet Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) standards: The Tactical CricKit® (TCK), Control-CricTM(CC), and Bougie-assisted Technique (BAT). However, no previous studies have compared these devices in application time, application success, user ratings, and user preference. Methods: United States Navy Corpsmen (N = 25) were provided 15 minutes of standardized instruction, followed by hands-on practice with each device on airway mannequins. Participants then performed SC with each of the 3 devices in a randomly assigned sequence. In this within-subjects design, application time, application success, participant ratings, and participant preference data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA, regression, and non-parametric statistics at p < 0.05. Results: Application time for CC (M = 184 sec, 95% CI 144-225 sec) was significantly slower than for BAT (M = 135 sec, 95% CI 113-158 sec, p < 0.03) and TCK (M = 117 sec, 95% CI 93-142 sec, p < 0.005). Success was significantly greater for BAT (76%) than for TCK (40%, p < 0.02) and trended greater than CC (48%, p = 0.07). CC was rated significantly lower than TCK and BAT in ease of application, effectiveness, and reliability (each p < 0.01). User preference was significantly (p < 0.01) higher for TCK (58%) and BAT (42%) than for CC (0%). Improved CC blade design was the most common user suggestion. Conclusion: While this study was limited by the use of mannequins in a laboratory environment, present results indicate that none of these devices was ideal for performing SC. Based on slow application times, low success rates, and user feedback, the Control-CricTM cannot be recommended until improvements are made to the blade design.