Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Clinical analysis of 4 049 hospitalized cases of adrenal lesions].

OBJECTIVE To summarize the disease distribution characteristics of adrenal lesions and analyze the changes of disease spectrum so as to further guide clinical practices. METHODS All clinical data of adrenal lesion patients hospitalized between 1993 and 2013 were collected. Their profiles of gender ratio, visiting age, final diagnosis and year of hospitalization were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS A total of 4 049 patients with adrenal lesions were admitted. There were 2 004 males and 2 045 females with a mean age of 46.82 ± 13.36 years. The number of cases gradually increased year-on-year. And the visiting age was 30-60 years. The annual proportion of adrenal incidentaloma out of total adrenal lesions gradually increased with advancing age. Among them, 3 014 received endocrine function assessments. And there were non-functional lesions (n = 1 503, 49.88%) , adrenal Cushing's syndrome (n = 259, 8.60%), primary aldosteronism (n = 665, 22.04%) and pheochromocytoma (n = 235, 7.80%) . The proportion of non-functional lesions rose from 20.97% to 54.11% (P < 0.05). The proportion of primary aldsteronism declined from 29.84% to 20.43% (P < 0.05). And the proportion of adrenal Cushing syndrome changed slightly (P > 0.05). The proportion of pheochromocytoma declined from 18.55% to 6.99% (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The number of patients gradually increased over the last two decades.So did the proportion of adrenal incidentaloma. The disease spectrum of adrenal lesions has changed. And the proportion of non-functional lesions increased while that of functional lesions declined.
Adolescent Political Activism and Long-Term Happiness: A 21-Year Longitudinal Study on the Development of Micro- and Macrosocial Worries

Utilizing latent growth modeling, the long-term development of worries among peace movement supporters is examined. Data originate from a seven-wave German longitudinal study started in 1985 with on average 14-year-olds. Waves were interspersed 3 and a half years each. Activists are assumed to have lower (self-related) microworries (Hypothesis 1) and higher macroworries (concerned with larger entities; Hypothesis 2) than nonactivists at the onset of the study. Nonactivists who appraised the threat of nuclear war as high in 1985 are assumed to report worse mental health than their activist age-mates 21 years later (Hypothesis 3). Activists are assumed to express relatively more macroworries than nonactivists in midadulthood (Hypothesis 4). All four hypotheses were confirmed. Results are interpreted in a stress-coping (Lazarus) and resource (Elder) framework, suggesting that refraining from acting out against a perceived sociopolitical threat is a long-term risk for a positive mental health trajectory.
Composition of Satureja kitaibelii Essential Oil and its Antimicrobial Activity

The composition of the essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of Satureja kitaibelii from Rtanj mountain (Serbia), collected during three years, was studied. Thirty-nine components were identified in each sample of S. kitaibelii essential oil, representing about 87% of the oils. p-Cymene was the most dominant compound in all three oils (27.9%, 14.7% and 24.4%, respectively). The simple formulation of a lozenge with 0.2% of S. kitaibelii essential oil was prepared and the antimicrobial activity of the essential oil and the lozenge with essential oil was tested using a broth microdilution assay. Both essential oil and lozenge possessed strong antimicrobial activity with MIC values of 0.10-25 μg/mL, and 0.97-15.6 mg/mL, respectively.
The floppy mitral valve. Study of incidence, pathology, and complications in surgical, necropsy, and forensic material.

SUMMARY In the study of 1984 routine hospital necropsies the mitral valve was examined from the left atrium in the intact heart with a pressure head of water in the left ventricle. The valve was graded from grade 0 (normal) to grade 4: grade 1, expansion of a small part of one cusp only; grade 2, over one-third of the posterior cusp or one-half of the anterior cusp expanded, with intact chordae; grade 3, ruptured chordae; grade 4, chordal fusion to ventricular wall. The frequency of grade 2 to 4 floppy valves rose with age with an overall incidence of 3 9 per cent in men and 5-2 per cent in women. Grade 1 floppy valves have no clinical significance. Grade 2 floppy valves were found to be associated with auscultatory signs but often only contributed to cardiac failure or were coincidental findings. Grade 3 and 4 floppy valves were direct causes of death from bacterial endocarditis and/or severe mitral regurgitation. The surgical series of floppy valves showed that chordal rupture was the event which most commonly made operation necessaryin middle age:in a minority this was caused bybacterial endocarditis. Dilatation of the annulus was an important contributory factor but can produce significant mitral regurgitation without chordal rupture, particularly in inherited connective tissue disorders such as the Marfan syndrome. Forensic necropsies confirm that sudden death occurs in patients with floppy valves. The majority have grade 3 or 4 floppy valves and presumably significant mitral regurgitation. A minority have minimal valve involvement and the mechanism of death is unexplained.
Characteristics of Individuals With Insomnia Who Seek Treatment in a Clinical Setting Versus Those Who Volunteer for a Randomized Controlled Trial

The generalizability of outcome data derived from insomnia clinical trials is based largely on the extent to which research volunteers resemble clinical patients. This study compared sociodemographic, sleep, psychological, and medical characteristics of individuals who volunteered for an insomnia treatment study (n = 120) to patients who sought treatment in a clinical setting (n = 106). The samples did not differ on most sleep and medical variables, but clinical patients had a higher prevalence of mood disorders, greater anxiety and depression symptoms, and higher perceived insomnia severity. Differences on psychological variables were accentuated by the research selection process. It is suggested to minimize exclusion based on psychological comorbidity in order to enhance ecological validity of randomized controlled trials of insomnia treatments.
University Students’ Online Habits and Their Use of the Internet for Health Information

Studies have explored the use of the Internet for health information, but few have focused on the young adult population, a population that is known to have difficulties in accessing mainstream health services. It has been acknowledged that young people are active users of the Internet, and this mode of health service delivery warrants further exploration. This study aimed to determine university students’ online habits and their use of the Internet for health information using a quantitative descriptive design. Data were collected from 922 university students in Ireland, aged between 18 and 24 years. The findings indicated that university students are active users of the Internet and of social networking sites, particularly for communication purposes. It was also found that 66.1% of participants had used the Internet to search for health information, for a variety of reasons, including information on specific illnesses, sexual health, and fitness and nutrition. It is concluded that the use of the Internet to communicate with young people in relation to their health needs to be explored.
The International Prognostic Scoring System for Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia is applicable in patients treated with rituximab-based regimens

Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM) is characterized by lymphoplasmacytic bone marrow infiltration and by production of serum monoclonal IgM. [1][1] This disease usually follows a relatively indolent course with a median survival ranging from 60 months to 120 months in different series. However,
A Comprehensive Evaluation of Multi-task Learning and Multi-task Pre-training on EHR Time-series Data

Multi-task learning (MTL) is a machine learning technique aiming to improve model performance by leveraging information across many tasks. It has been used extensively on various data modalities, including electronic health record (EHR) data. However, despite significant use on EHR data, there has been little systematic investigation of the utility of MTL across the diverse set of possible tasks and training schemes of interest in healthcare. In this work, we examine MTL across a battery of tasks on EHR time-series data. We find that while MTL does suffer from common negative transfer, we can realize significant gains via MTL pre-training combined with single-task fine-tuning. We demonstrate that these gains can be achieved in a task-independent manner and offer not only minor improvements under traditional learning, but also notable gains in a few-shot learning context, thereby suggesting this could be a scalable vehicle to offer improved performance in important healthcare contexts.
Adversarial control scheme for an islanded power plant

This paper addresses the concept of an adversarial control scheme designed for an islanded power plant with input hard constraints. The system evolves in the discrete-time domain and is subject to performance and alarm state constraints, both described by convex and compact polyhedral sets, that represent valid domains of safe operation under the effect of a stabilizing output-feedback controller. An attacker succeeds in gaining access to the automatic generation control unit of the system and sends false control commands, whenever necessary, attempting to drive the state vector outside the performance set, at the maximum admissible rate, without violating any alarm constraints. Simulation studies highlight the effects of the adversarial policies on the physical plant.
Pediatric Phase I Drug Tolerance: A Review and Comparison of Recent Adult and Pediatric Phase I Trials

Purpose: We evaluated the ratio of pediatric to adult maximum tolerated doses (MTDs) from 70 Phase I studies conducted between 1975 and 1995. The aim of this study was to determine whether previously observed differences in drug tolerance between adult and pediatric Phase I patients have persisted over the 20-year period of this analysis. Patients and Methods: Phase I trials of pediatric and adult patients with solid tumors as the predominant diagnosis and sharing similar dosing regimens were evaluated. For consistent comparison between Phase I studies, the MTD was defined as the drug dose one level below that yielding dose-limiting toxicity in >30% of patients. The ratio of pediatric to adult MTDs was calculated and plotted chronologically by year of pediatric study closure. Statistical evaluation of MTD ratios included regression and correlation analysis. The extent of therapy before Phase I study entry was also examined. Results: Ninety-three Phase I studies were reviewed. Twenty-one drugs (70 studies) met our criteria for paired review of MTDs and analysis of the variation of ratio with time. The pediatric to adult MTD ratios ranged from 0.4 to 2.8, with a median of 1.2. Regression analysis of the ratio of MTD versus date of pediatric study closure supports a linear relationship of decreasing ratio with time (p<0.01). Analysis of the regression line predicts MTD ratios of 2.02 and 0.76 for 1974 and 1995, respectively. Of patients included in this analysis, 37.1% and 68.6% of adult and pediatric patients, respectively, were considered to have been heavily pretreated before study entry. A significant (p<0.001) downward trend with time was observed in the proportion of adult patients entering Phase I studies who had received both radiation and chemotherapy. Conclusions: The results of this review continue to show an equal or greater drug tolerance in the pediatric population when compared with adult patients for most drugs studied during Phase I trials. However, there appears to be a significant trend of decreasing differences in drug tolerance between pediatric and adult Phase I patients with time, as defined by the descent of the MTD ratio toward values <1.0. Mechanisms to explain greater drug tolerance in children and the observation of decreasing maximum tolerated dose ratios with time are discussed. Limited data suggest that changes in degree of therapy before Phase I study entry may be influencing the MTD ratio.
Coexistence of polycystic ovaries and uterine fibroids and their combined effect on the uterine artery blood flow in relation to age and parity.

OBJECTIVE To examine the coexistence of fibroids and ultrasonically diagnosed polycystic ovaries (PCO) and their combined effects on the uterine artery blood flow in relation to age and parity in women with regular menstruation. STUDY DESIGN One thousand seventy women, 18-40 years old, with gynecologic or infertility problems, were investigated with transvaginal ultrasound for uterine fibroids and PCO. A subgroup of 468 patients with regular cycles had repeated examinations up to ovulation time. Midcycle mean uterine artery pulsatility index (PI) and Doppler pulse waveform patterns were examined in relation to age, parity, PCO and fibroids. Cross tabulation with chi2 and ANOVA were used for data analysis. A two-tailed p value < 0.05 was taken as significant. RESULTS One hundred eleven of 343 patients > 35 years old (32.4%) had PCO compared to 479/727 younger women (65.9%) (p < 0.001). Furthermore, fewer patients with PCO (67 of 590, 11.4%) had fibroids as compared to patients with normal ovaries (131 of 480, 27.3%) (p < 0.001). This negative correlation was maintained irrespective of age, parity or ethnic origin. PCO were associated with higher uterine artery PI and more unfavourable Doppler pulse waveform patterns in women < 35 years old and nulliparous women. This effect was not maintained in parous women and those > or = 35 years old. Fibroids did not alter the effect of PCO but increased the uterine artery blood flow in patients with normal-looking ovaries. CONCLUSION The effect of PCO on the uterine artery blood flow is modulated by age and parity but not by fibroids, which are less common in women with PCO.
Erythropoietin: New Directions for the Nervous System

New treatment strategies with erythropoietin (EPO) offer exciting opportunities to prevent the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disorders that currently lack effective therapy and can progress to devastating disability in patients. EPO and its receptor are present in multiple systems of the body and can impact disease progression in the nervous, vascular, and immune systems that ultimately affect disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, retinal injury, stroke, and demyelinating disease. EPO relies upon wingless signaling with Wnt1 and an intimate relationship with the pathways of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-K), protein kinase B (Akt), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Modulation of these pathways by EPO can govern the apoptotic cascade to control β-catenin, glycogen synthase kinase-3β, mitochondrial permeability, cytochrome c release, and caspase activation. Yet, EPO and each of these downstream pathways require precise biological modulation to avert complications associated with the vascular system, tumorigenesis, and progression of nervous system disorders. Further understanding of the intimate and complex relationship of EPO and the signaling pathways of Wnt, PI 3-K, Akt, and mTOR are critical for the effective clinical translation of these cell pathways into robust treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
Neurological and neuropathologic heterogeneity in two brothers with cobalamin C deficiency

Two adult brothers, one documented to have methylmalonic acidemia with homocystinuria, or cobalamin C deficiency, after autopsy, displayed severe but divergent neurological presentations. One exhibited a myelopathy and the other chronic endocrine problems (Schmidt's syndrome) followed by a neuropsychiatric and dementing disorder owing to cerebral perivascular demyelination. The recognition of cobalamin C deficiency has practical implications because it is one of the few inherited diseases of central white matter that is treatable. Ann Neurol 2001;49:396–400
Excitatory Synaptic Transmission Persists Independently of the Glutamate–Glutamine Cycle

The glutamate–glutamine cycle is thought to be integral in continuously replenishing the neurotransmitter pool of glutamate. Inhibiting glial transfer of glutamine to neurons leads to rapid impairment in physiological and behavioral function; however, the degree to which excitatory synaptic transmission relies on the normal operation of this cycle is unknown. In slices and cultured neurons from rat hippocampus, we enhanced the transfer of glutamine to neurons, a fundamental step in this cycle, by adding exogenous glutamine. Although raising glutamine augments synaptic transmission by increasing vesicular glutamate, access to this synthetic pathway by exogenously applied glutamine to neurons is delayed and slow, challenging mechanisms linking the rapid effects of pharmacological inhibitors to decreased vesicular glutamate. We find that pharmacological inhibitors of glutamine synthetase or system A transporters cause an acute depression of basal synaptic transmission that is rapidly reversible, which is unlikely to be attributable to the rapid loss of vesicular glutamate. Furthermore, release of vesicular glutamate remains robust even during the prolonged removal of glutamine from pure neuronal cultures. We conclude that neurons have the capacity to store or produce glutamate for long periods of time, independently of glia and the glutamate–glutamine cycle.
ANALISE FÍSICO-QUÍMICAS DE ÁGUAS ORIUNDAS DAS PRINCIPAIS LAGOAS E POÇOS DO GARIMPO BOM FUTURO – ARIQUEMES/RO

R esumo: A agua subterrânea pode sofrer contaminacao por produtos quimicos, os quais podem ser compostos toxicos soluveis, inclusive metais pesados. Dessa forma e importanteConhecer os valores dos padroes fisico-quimicos e microbiologicos da area escolhida (Garimpo Bom Futuro), como forma de levantar dados sobre a qualidade da agua desta localidade. Foram avaliados os seguintes parâmetros fisico-quimicos da agua: condutividade eletrica, pH, turbidez, cor, dureza, oxigenio consumido, oxigenio dissolvido, cloretos, amonia, ferro, alcalinidade, ortofosfato, manganes, aluminio, potassio, cobre, zinco, cromo e DQO (Demanda Quimica de Oxigenio). O pH, oxigenio consumido, e o ferro apresentaram valores abaixo do permitido pela Legislacao.Tambem foram avaliados os parâmetros microbiologicos de coliformes fecais, totais e salmonela, sendo que apresentaram valores acima do permitido, indicando contaminacao por organismos patogenicos, deixando assim certa preocupacao, pois a qualidade de vida da populacao esta relacionada diretamente a agua potavel.
Genetic Linkage Map of the Eastern Oyster Crassostrea virginica Gmelin

Amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), along with some microsatellite and Type I markers, were used for linkage analysis in Crassostrea virginica Gmelin, the eastern oyster. Seventeen AFLP primer combinations were selected for linkage analysis with two parents and their 81 progeny. The 17 primer combinations produced 396 polymorphic markers, and 282 of them were segregating in the two parents. Chi-square analysis indicated that 259 (91.8%) markers segregated in Mendelian ratio, while the other 23 (8.2%) showed significant (P < 0.05) segregation distortion, primarily for homozygote deficiency and probably due to deleterious recessive genes. Moderately dense linkage maps were constructed using 158 and 133 segregating markers (including a few microsatellite and Type I markers) from male and female parents, respectively. The male framework map consisted of 114 markers in 12 linkage groups, covering 647 cM. The female map had 84 markers in 12 linkage groups with a length of 904 cM. The estimated genome length was 858 cM for the male map and 1296 cM for the female map. The observed genome coverage was 84% for the male and female map when all linked markers were considered. Genetic maps observed in this study are longer than the cytogenetic map, possibly because of low marker density.
Reevaluation of lung cancer risk in the acrylonitrile cohort study of the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

OBJECTIVES The present study provides additional analyses of data obtained earlier on lung cancer risk among workers with acrylonitrile exposure. METHODS The original authors provided the data. For total mortality and the cancer sites of a priori interest (lung, stomach, brain, breast, prostate, and the lymphatic and hematopoietic systems), standardized mortality ratios (SMR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were computed, the total United States and surrounding counties being used as standard populations. Regional rate-based SMR values were also computed between lung cancer and cumulative acrylonitrile exposure. RESULTS Except for lung cancer, the external comparisons corroborated the earlier internal comparisons (no increased cancer mortality risk). For lung cancer, the external comparisons revealed death deficits for the unexposed workers (SMR 0.68, 95% CI 0.5-0.9) and all categories of acrylonitrile-exposed workers. The SMR obtained using external rates and the most exposed group (SMR 0.92. 95% CI 0.6-1.4) differed from the corresponding relative risk (RR) of the internal rates (RR 1.5, 95% CI 0.9-2.4). CONCLUSIONS The analysis of the present study provides little evidence that acrylonitrile exposure increases the mortality risk of cancers of a priori interest, including lung cancer. The lung cancer findings of the external comparison differed from the earlier findings of the internal comparisons. Selection bias (as the healthy worker effect) was probably not responsible. Additional follow-up and analyses, especially of the unexposed workers with low lung cancer rates, may help elucidate the internal and external comparison differences. Results from both comparisons should be presented when the relative risks differ markedly, as both have advantages and disadvantages.
Resummed kinetic field theory: a model of coupled baryonic and dark matter

We present a new analytical description of cosmic structure formation in a mixture of dark and baryonic matter, using the framework of Kinetic Field Theory (KFT)—a statistical field theory for classical particle dynamics. So far, KFT has only been able to describe a single type of particles, sufficient to consider structure growth due to the gravitational interactions between dark matter. However, the influence of baryonic gas dynamics becomes increasingly relevant when describing smaller scales. In this paper, we thus demonstrate how to extend the KFT formalism as well as a previously presented resummation scheme towards describing such mixtures of two particle species. Thereby, the gas dynamics of baryons are accounted for using the recently developed model of Mesoscopic Particle Hydrodynamics. Assuming a flat ΛCDM Universe and a simplified model for the thermal gas evolution, we demonstrate the validity of this approach by computing the linear evolution of the individual and total matter power spectra between the epoch of recombination and today. Our results correctly reproduce the expected behaviour, showing a suppression of both baryonic and dark matter structure growth on scales smaller than the baryonic Jeans length, in good agreement with results from the numerical Boltzmann solver CLASS. Nonlinear corrections within this approach will be investigated in upcoming works.