Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Angiotensin–Neprilysin Inhibition in Acute Decompensated Heart Failure

BACKGROUND Acute decompensated heart failure accounts for more than 1 million hospitalizations in the United States annually. Whether the initiation of sacubitril–valsartan therapy is safe and effective among patients who are hospitalized for acute decompensated heart failure is unknown. METHODS We enrolled patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction who were hospitalized for acute decompensated heart failure at 129 sites in the United States. After hemodynamic stabilization, patients were randomly assigned to receive sacubitril–valsartan (target dose, 97 mg of sacubitril with 103 mg of valsartan twice daily) or enalapril (target dose, 10 mg twice daily). The primary efficacy outcome was the time‐averaged proportional change in the N‐terminal pro–B‐type natriuretic peptide (NT‐proBNP) concentration from baseline through weeks 4 and 8. Key safety outcomes were the rates of worsening renal function, hyperkalemia, symptomatic hypotension, and angioedema. RESULTS Of the 881 patients who underwent randomization, 440 were assigned to receive sacubitril–valsartan and 441 to receive enalapril. The time‐averaged reduction in the NT‐proBNP concentration was significantly greater in the sacubitril–valsartan group than in the enalapril group; the ratio of the geometric mean of values obtained at weeks 4 and 8 to the baseline value was 0.53 in the sacubitril–valsartan group as compared with 0.75 in the enalapril group (percent change, ‐46.7% vs. ‐25.3%; ratio of change with sacubitril–valsartan vs. enalapril, 0.71; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.63 to 0.81; P<0.001). The greater reduction in the NT‐proBNP concentration with sacubitril–valsartan than with enalapril was evident as early as week 1 (ratio of change, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.69 to 0.85). The rates of worsening renal function, hyperkalemia, symptomatic hypotension, and angioedema did not differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction who were hospitalized for acute decompensated heart failure, the initiation of sacubitril–valsartan therapy led to a greater reduction in the NT‐proBNP concentration than enalapril therapy. Rates of worsening renal function, hyperkalemia, symptomatic hypotension, and angioedema did not differ significantly between the two groups. (Funded by Novartis; PIONEER‐HF ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02554890.)
CAPTAIN: Comprehensive Composition Assistance for Photo Taking

Many people are interested in taking astonishing photos and sharing them with others. Emerging high-tech hardware and software facilitate the ubiquitousness and functionality of digital photography. Because composition matters in photography, researchers have leveraged some common composition techniques, such as the rule of thirds and the perspective-related techniques, in providing photo-taking assistance. However, composition techniques developed by professionals are far more diverse than well-documented techniques can cover. We present a new approach to leverage the underexplored photography ideas, which are virtually unlimited, diverse, and correlated. We propose a comprehensive fork-join framework, named CAPTAIN (Composition Assistance for Photo Taking), to guide a photographer with a variety of photography ideas. The framework consists of a few components: integrated object detection, photo genre classification, artistic pose clustering, and personalized aesthetics-aware image retrieval. CAPTAIN is backed by a large managed dataset crawled from a Website with ideas from photography enthusiasts and professionals. The work proposes steps to decompose a given amateurish shot into composition ingredients and compose them to bring the photographer a list of useful and related ideas. The work addresses personal preferences for composition by presenting a user-specified preference list of photography ideas. We have conducted many experiments on the newly proposed components and reported findings. A user study demonstrates that the work is useful to those taking photos.
The Potential of 3D-MID Technology for Omnidirectional Inductive Wireless Power Transfer

Omnidirectional inductive wireless charging system of a mobile is studied. Instead of using conventional planar coils printed on circuit boards, 3D Molded Interconnect Device (3D-MID) coils are used. The receiver is a single piece that has 3 elliptic inductors pointing in 3 different directions of the space. A half meter cubic box with 4 planar emitting inductors on 4 sides is used to transmit power to the receiver inside the cube, regardless to the position and orientation of the receiver. Measurement results show that the 3D-MD receiver can get a power of 1.4 W at 7.9% efficiency on most of the positions inside the box. When the receiver is at the central position and also in the corners of the box, there is little variation of the transferred power when the receiver turns 360°, which means that it is almost insensitive to angular misalignment. However, when the receiver moves from the center towards the corners, there is a drop or an increase of power, which means that there is a lack of uniformity of the power which transferred near the corners. Ways to improve this point are discussed. However, our conclusion is that 3D-MID technology is an interesting technology for replacing the planar coils used in conventional WPT receivers.
Multiscale Multitask Deep NetVLAD for Crowd Counting

Deep convolutional networks (CNNs) reign undisputed as the new de-facto method for computer vision tasks owning to their success in visual recognition task on still images. However, their adaptations to crowd counting have not clearly established their superiority over shallow models. Existing CNNs turn out to be self-limiting in challenging scenarios such as camera illumination changing, partial occlusions, diverse crowd distributions, and perspective distortions for crowd counting because of their shallow structure. In this paper, we introduce a dynamic augmentation technique to train a much deeper CNN for crowd counting. In order to decrease overfitting caused by limited number of training samples, multitask learning is further employed to learn generalizable representations across similar domains. We also propose to aggregate multiscale convolutional features extracted from the entire image into a compact single vector representation amenable to efficient and accurate counting by way of “Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors” (VLAD). The “deeply supervised” strategy is employed to provide additional supervision signal for bottom layers for further performance improvement. Experimental results on three benchmark crowd datasets show that our method achieves better performance than the existing methods. Our implementation will be released at https://github.com/shizenglin/Multitask-Multiscale-Deep-NetVLAD.
Response production during extinction training is not sufficient for extinction of evaluative conditioning

ABSTRACT Two high-powered experiments examined the role of evaluative response production in the extinction of evaluative conditioning (EC) by positioning EC in the procedural and conceptual framework of classical conditioning (CC). According to Rescorla's response inhibition hypothesis, more frequent responding during extinction training results in larger extinction during testing. Experiment 1 used three extinction conditions following response acquisition in an EC procedure: evaluative responses were measured only after extinction; after acquisition and after extinction; or were continuously measured after acquisition, during extinction and after extinction. Based on Rescorla's response inhibition hypothesis, we predicted that extinction of EC would be the highest in the third condition. Experiment 2 was aimed at further facilitating extinction of EC by encouraging participants to experience that their evaluation may change over the course of the experiment. To this end, half of the participants completed pre- and post-acquisition ratings prior to practicing continuous response expression in the extinction phase. Contrary to our predictions, no extinction of EC was observed in either of these experiments. We conclude that Rescorla's inhibition response hypothesis may not apply to EC and discuss the theoretical implications of this finding.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational evidence for the use of bailout self-expandable stents following failed anterior circulation stroke thrombectomy

Background The crucial role of thrombectomy in the management of emergent large vessel occlusive stroke is not disputed but there is a technical failure rate in a significant minority of patients whose outcomes are often poor. Our objective was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the safety and efficacy of permanent self-expandable stent deployment as a bailout procedure in cases of failed anterior circulation thrombectomy. Methods Two independent reviewers searched the Pubmed (Medline) database for studies reporting outcomes following failed endovascular thrombectomy with subsequent rescue therapy employing self-expandable stents. Results Eight studies (one prospective, seven retrospective) originating from Europe, Asia, and America comprising 160 patients met the inclusion criteria. Estimated baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score was 17.1 (95% CI 15.7 to 18.4). Following failed thrombetcomy and stent deployment, the rate of favorable outcome (modified Rankin Scale score 0–2) was 43% (95% CI 34% to 53%). Pooled mortality was 21% (95% CI 13% to 33%). Successful recanalization (Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction (TICI) 2b–3 or Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) 2–3) was 71% (95% CI 63% to 77%). Symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage was seen in 12% (95% CI 7% to 18%). The Solitaire stent (Medtronic) was the most commonly deployed stent following failed thrombectomy attempts (66%; 95% CI 31% to 89%). Pre- or post-stent angioplasty was performed in 39%of patients (95% CI 29% to 48%). Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors were used in 89% (95% CI 71% to 97%). 95% of patients received postprocedural antiplatelet therapy. Conclusion A rescue stent procedure seems reasonable as a last resort following failed thrombectomy but currently the level of evidence is limited. Prospective registries may aid in guiding future recommendations.
Network-Coded Cooperative Spatial Multiplexing in Two-Way Relay Channels

In this paper, for a two-way relay channel comprising two multi-antenna transceivers and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L$</tex-math></inline-formula> single-antenna potential relay nodes, we propose three network-coded cooperative spatial multiplexing (CSM) schemes that effectively overcome the rate loss incurred due to the half-duplex limitation of the transceivers and the relay nodes and achieve high spectral efficiency. In the following, these three schemes are referred to as <italic>time-division broadcast (TDBC)-CSM</italic>, <italic> incremental (I)-TDBC-CSM</italic> and <italic>multiple-access broadcast (MABC)-CSM</italic>. We investigate these schemes in terms of the outage probability, the average transmission rate, the asymptotic behavior, and the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. The analysis of the paper shows that, first, the I-TDBC-CSM scheme achieves the full diversity of order <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L\min (M_1,M_2)+M_1M_2$</tex-math></inline-formula> , where <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_1$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_2$</tex-math></inline-formula> are the numbers of antennas employed by the two transceivers; second, the TDBC-CSM and MABC-CSM schemes achieve the diversity of order <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L\min (M_1,M_2)$</tex-math></inline-formula>, where this quantity is the maximum achievable diversity gain in the absence of the direct link between the transceivers; third, the TDBC-CSM and I-TDBC-CSM schemes effectively overcome the rate loss incurred due to the half-duplex limitation of the relay nodes; fourth, the MABC-CSM scheme not only overcomes the half-duplex limitation of the relay nodes but also mitigates the spectral efficiency loss incurred due to the half-duplex limitation of the transceivers; and fifth, if one or both of the transceivers are equipped with a massive antenna array, the asymptotic average rate of the CSM-based schemes scales linearly with the number of potential relay nodes, as opposed to the conventional relaying schemes, in which the average rate is not scalable with <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L$</tex-math></inline-formula> . We provide extensive simulation results to confirm the theoretical analysis of the paper. The simulation results show that for a given outage probability, the proposed schemes outperform the conventional relaying schemes in terms of the average transmission rate.
Redundancy, Feedback, and Robustness in the Arabidopsis thaliana BZR/BEH Gene Family

Organismal development is remarkably robust, tolerating stochastic errors to produce consistent, so-called canalized adult phenotypes. The mechanistic underpinnings of developmental robustness are poorly understood, but recent studies implicate certain features of genetic networks such as functional redundancy, connectivity, and feedback. Here, we examine the BRZ/BEH gene family, whose function is crucial for embryonic stem development in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, to test current assumptions on functional redundancy and trait robustness. Our analyses of BRZ/BEH gene mutants and mutant combinations revealed that functional redundancy among gene family members does not contribute to trait robustness. Connectivity is another commonly cited determinant of robustness; however, we found no correlation between connectivity among gene family members or their connectivity with other transcription factors and effects on robustness. Instead, we found that only BEH4, the most ancient family member, modulated developmental robustness. We present evidence that regulatory cross-talk among gene family members is integrated by BEH4 and promotes wild-type levels of developmental robustness. Further, the chaperone HSP90, a known determinant of developmental robustness, appears to act via BEH4 in maintaining robustness of embryonic stem length. In summary, we demonstrate that even among closely related transcription factors, trait robustness can arise through the activity of a single gene family member, challenging common assumptions about the molecular underpinnings of robustness.
Fascia thickness, aging and flexibility: is there an association?

The morphology of the connective tissue may play an important role in locomotor mechanics. Recent research has revealed an association between increased fascia thickness and reduced joint flexibility in patients with chronic pain. The present study aimed to examine the relationship of both factors in healthy individuals, additionally testing the hypothesis that older subjects display a higher fascia thickness. Young (n = 18, 22 ± 1 years) and old (n = 17, 69 ± 4 years) healthy females were recruited for a quasi‐experimental, cross‐sectional trial. All participants underwent standardized ultrasound‐based thickness measurements of the deep fasciae of the trunk and lower limb. Flexibility was assessed using sit and reach testing (hamstring extensibility) and the Schober test (lumbar flexion and extension). Systematic between‐group differences of fascia thickness and variable associations (i.e. fascia thickness and flexibility) were detected using non‐parametric data analyses. Young adults exhibited higher fascia thickness of the anterior and posterior lower leg, anterior thigh and abdominal wall (+12.3–25.8%, P < 0.05). Conversely, older participants showed higher thickness in the lumbar spine (+40.0–76.7%, P < 0.05). Correlations of both body mass and fascia thickness (τ = 0.45–0.75, P < 0.05), as well as flexibility and fascia thickness (τ = 0.38–0.42, P < 0.05) were found. Age‐related changes in fascia thickness may be a contributing factor of restrictions in joint range of motion. Further study delineating the cause–effect triangle of body mass index, flexibility and fascia thickness is necessary.
The Time-Varying Network Patterns in Motor Imagery Revealed by Adaptive Directed Transfer Function Analysis for fMRI

Motor imagery (MI) is a multi-dimensional high-level cognitive ability that involves coordinated contributions from multiple brain regions [i.e., supplemental motor area (SMA), premotor cortex (M1), and posterior parietal cortex] and their couplings as well. However, the dynamic interactions among these activated regions during MI are still unclear. Here, we applied the adaptive directed transfer function (ADTF) to track time-varying connectivity patterns among activated regions during MI. We found that the connectivity patterns are different in two MI tasks and dynamically changes over time, representing special state-dependent and timing-dependent time-varying connectivity patterns. Our findings indicate that left anterior insula (aIns), contralateral SMA, and contralateral M1, which served as important causal targets, play crucial roles in reorganization of the network at different stages, implying that there exists a hierarchical network reorganization during MI. In addition, we found that the lateralization of the left- and right-hand MI occurred in the MI middle stages and was reflected by the effective connectivities modulated by contralateral SMA. Moreover, a graph analysis was adopted to further characterize the temporal evolution of these interactions among activated regions. We also found that network efficiencies are coordinated with the connectivity pattern of networks during MI. Collectively, these findings based on the ADTF analysis expand our understanding of the time-varying network organization in MI.
HLA-DR in Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes Predicts Breast Cancer Patients' Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Prediction of breast cancer response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy (NACT) is an urgent need to promptly direct non-responder patients to alternative therapies. Infiltrating T lymphocytes, namely cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) have been appointed as predictors of response. However, cancer cells have the ability to dampen CTLs' activity and thus, the prognostic value of the CTLs, per se, is debatable. Here, we disclose that more than the occurrence of CTLs, it is their activation state, revealed by HLA-DR expression, that can accurately predict response to NACT. Flow cytometry analysis of breast cancer biopsies showed that the frequency of CTLs and other lymphocytes were similar regardless disease stage and between NACT responders and non-responders. However, only breast cancer patients without axillary lymph node metastasis and NACT responders have HLA-DRhi CTLs. Interestingly, HLA-DR levels in tumor CTLs is correlated with HLA-DR levels in systemic CTLs. These HLA-DR+ CTLs produce IFN-γ and Granzyme B, enlightening their effector and probable anti-tumor activity profile. Moreover, the level of HLA-DR in CTLs is negatively correlated with the level of HLA-DR in T regulatory lymphocytes and with immunosuppressive and pro-tumor molecules in the tumor microenvironment. Hence, HLA-DR levels in CTLs is a highly sensitive and specific potential predictive factor of NACT-response, which can be assessed in blood to guide therapeutic decisions.
The Direct Testing Effect Is Pervasive in Action Memory: Analyses of Recall Accuracy and Recall Speed

Successful retrieval from memory is a desirably difficult learning event that reduces the recall decrement of studied materials over longer delays more than restudying does. The present study was the first to test this direct testing effect for performed and read action events (e.g., “light a candle”) in terms of both recall accuracy and recall speed. To this end, subjects initially encoded action phrases by either enacting them or reading them aloud (i.e., encoding type). After this initial study phase, they received two practice phases, in which the same number of action phrases were restudied or retrieval-practiced (Exp. 1–3), or not further processed (Exp. 3; i.e., practice type). This learning session was ensued by a final cued-recall test both after a short delay (2 min) and after a long delay (1 week: Exp. 1 and 2; 2 weeks: Exp. 3). To test the generality of the results, subjects retrieval practiced with either noun-cued recall of verbs (Exp. 1 and 3) or verb-cued recall of nouns (Exp. 2) during the intermediate and final tests (i.e., test type). We demonstrated direct benefits of testing on both recall accuracy and recall speed. Repeated retrieval practice, relative to repeated restudy and study-only practice, reduced the recall decrement over the long delay, and enhanced phrases’ recall speed already after 2 min, and this independently of type of encoding and recall test. However, a benefit of testing on long-term retention only emerged (Exp. 3), when prolonging the recall delay from 1 to 2 weeks, and using different sets of phrases for the immediate and delayed final tests. Thus, the direct testing benefit appears to be highly generalizable even with more complex, action-oriented stimulus materials, and encoding manipulations. We discuss these results in terms of the distribution-based bifurcation model.
Cardiovascular Risk Reduction with Icosapent Ethyl for Hypertriglyceridemia

BACKGROUND Patients with elevated triglyceride levels are at increased risk for ischemic events. Icosapent ethyl, a highly purified eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester, lowers triglyceride levels, but data are needed to determine its effects on ischemic events. METHODS We performed a multicenter, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled trial involving patients with established cardiovascular disease or with diabetes and other risk factors, who had been receiving statin therapy and who had a fasting triglyceride level of 135 to 499 mg per deciliter (1.52 to 5.63 mmol per liter) and a low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol level of 41 to 100 mg per deciliter (1.06 to 2.59 mmol per liter). The patients were randomly assigned to receive 2 g of icosapent ethyl twice daily (total daily dose, 4 g) or placebo. The primary end point was a composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, coronary revascularization, or unstable angina. The key secondary end point was a composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke. RESULTS A total of 8179 patients were enrolled (70.7% for secondary prevention of cardiovascular events) and were followed for a median of 4.9 years. A primary end‐point event occurred in 17.2% of the patients in the icosapent ethyl group, as compared with 22.0% of the patients in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.75; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.68 to 0.83; P<0.001); the corresponding rates of the key secondary end point were 11.2% and 14.8% (hazard ratio, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.83; P<0.001). The rates of additional ischemic end points, as assessed according to a prespecified hierarchical schema, were significantly lower in the icosapent ethyl group than in the placebo group, including the rate of cardiovascular death (4.3% vs. 5.2%; hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.98; P=0.03). A larger percentage of patients in the icosapent ethyl group than in the placebo group were hospitalized for atrial fibrillation or flutter (3.1% vs. 2.1%, P=0.004). Serious bleeding events occurred in 2.7% of the patients in the icosapent ethyl group and in 2.1% in the placebo group (P=0.06). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with elevated triglyceride levels despite the use of statins, the risk of ischemic events, including cardiovascular death, was significantly lower among those who received 2 g of icosapent ethyl twice daily than among those who received placebo. (Funded by Amarin Pharma; REDUCE‐IT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01492361.)