Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single-Inhaler Triple versus Dual Therapy in Patients with COPD.

n engl j med 379;6 nejm.org August 9, 2018 590 the trial to assess for differences in clinically significant cancer in the subgroups with different coil strengths. Eighteen of 62 men in the 1.5-T MRI group (29%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 19 to 41) and 75 of 184 men in the 3.0-T MRI group (41%; 95% CI, 34 to 48) had clinically significant cancer. Since men were not randomly assigned to undergo MRI performed with 1.5-T or 3.0-T scanners, the differences observed may be confounded by other factors. The Prostate MRI Imaging Study (PROMIS), a multicenter study involving 576 men, used only 1.5-T MRI machines and showed that MRI was superior to transrectal ultrasonography–guided prostate biopsy for the detection of clinically significant cancer.1 We agree with Vickers and Ehdaie that urologists have been performing transrectal ultrasonography–guided biopsies for decades, but we would assert that tradition alone is an insufficient reason not to change practice in the face of growing scientific evidence. Transrectal ultrasonography–guided biopsy has been shown to miss more than 50% of clinically significant cancers in men.1 Many men undergo repeat transrectal ultrasonography–guided biopsy, with a 2 to 4% risk of sepsis and costs to health services.2 The Danish Cancer Registry study cited by Vickers et al. showed that in 17% of men with negative results on transrectal ultrasonography–guided biopsy who underwent repeat biopsy, prostate cancer of Gleason sum 8 was missed.3 This is undesirable for a diagnostic test. In the PRECISION trial, with the use of the same threshold for clinically significant cancers as described by Vickers et al., MRI with or without targeted biopsy detected 6% (95% CI, 1 to 10) more cancers of Gleason sum 8 or worse than transrectal ultrasonography–guided biopsy. In addition, 13% (95% CI, 7 to 19) fewer men in the MRI-targeted biopsy group than in the standard-biopsy group received a diagnosis of clinically insignificant cancer — a diagnosis that can lead to considerable overtreatment and harm to men. Other studies have also shown that MRI-targeted biopsy detects more clinically significant cancer and less clinically insignificant cancer than transrectal ultrasonography–guided biopsy.4 We acknowledge that there is uncertainty as to the prognosis of clinically significant cancer identified by MRItargeted biopsy,5 although future studies, and not conjecture, may ascertain the risk of death among these patients.
Discovering optimal features using static analysis and a genetic search based method for Android malware detection

Mobile device manufacturers are rapidly producing miscellaneous Android versions worldwide. Simultaneously, cyber criminals are executing malicious actions, such as tracking user activities, stealing personal data, and committing bank fraud. These criminals gain numerous benefits as too many people use Android for their daily routines, including important communi-cations. With this in mind, security practitioners have conducted static and dynamic analyses to identify malware. This study used static analysis because of its overall code coverage, low resource consumption, and rapid processing. However, static analysis requires a minimum number of features to efficiently classify malware. Therefore, we used genetic search (GS), which is a search based on a genetic algorithm (GA), to select the features among 106 strings. To evaluate the best features determined by GS, we used five machine learning classifiers, namely, Naïve Bayes (NB), functional trees (FT), J48, random forest (RF), and multilayer perceptron (MLP). Among these classifiers, FT gave the highest accuracy (95%) and true positive rate (TPR) (96.7%) with the use of only six features.
Extending Thesauri Using Word Embeddings and the Intersection Method

In many legal domains, the amount of available and relevant literature is continuously growing. Legal content providers face the challenge to provide their customers relevant and comprehensive content for search queries on large corpora. However, documents written in natural language contain many synonyms and semantically related concepts. Legal content providers usually maintain thesauri to discover more relevant documents in their search engines. Maintaining a high-quality thesaurus is an expensive, difficult and manual task. The word embeddings technology recently gained a lot of attention for building thesauri from large corpora. We report our experiences on the feasibility to extend thesauri based on a large corpus of German tax law with a focus on synonym relations. Using a simple yet powerful new approach, called intersection method, we can significantly improve and facilitate the extension of thesauri.
Prion acute synaptotoxicity is largely driven by protease-resistant PrPSc species

Although misfolding of normal prion protein (PrPC) into abnormal conformers (PrPSc) is critical for prion disease pathogenesis our current understanding of the underlying molecular pathophysiology is rudimentary. Exploiting an electrophysiology paradigm, herein we report that at least modestly proteinase K (PK)-resistant PrPSc (PrPres) species are acutely synaptotoxic. Brief exposure to ex vivo PrPSc from two mouse-adapted prion strains (M1000 and MU02) prepared as crude brain homogenates (cM1000 and cMU02) and cell lysates from chronically M1000-infected RK13 cells (MoRK13-Inf) caused significant impairment of hippocampal CA1 region long-term potentiation (LTP), with the LTP disruption approximating that reported during the evolution of murine prion disease. Proof of PrPSc (especially PrPres) species as the synaptotoxic agent was demonstrated by: significant rescue of LTP following selective immuno-depletion of total PrP from cM1000 (dM1000); modestly PK-treated cM1000 (PK+M1000) retaining full synaptotoxicity; and restoration of the LTP impairment when employing reconstituted, PK-eluted, immuno-precipitated M1000 preparations (PK+IP-M1000). Additional detailed electrophysiological analyses exemplified by impairment of post-tetanic potentiation (PTP) suggest possible heightened pre-synaptic vulnerability to the acute synaptotoxicity. This dysfunction correlated with cumulative insufficiency of replenishment of the readily releasable pool (RRP) of vesicles during repeated high-frequency stimulation utilised for induction of LTP. Broadly comparable results with LTP and PTP impairment were obtained utilizing hippocampal slices from PrPC knockout (PrPo/o) mice, with cM1000 serial dilution assessments revealing similar sensitivity of PrPo/o and wild type (WT) slices. Size fractionation chromatography demonstrated that synaptotoxic PrP correlated with PK-resistant species >100kDa, consistent with multimeric PrPSc, with levels of these species >6 ng/ml appearing sufficient to induce synaptic dysfunction. Biochemical analyses of hippocampal slices manifesting acute synaptotoxicity demonstrated reduced levels of multiple key synaptic proteins, albeit with noteworthy differences in PrPo/o slices, while such changes were absent in hippocampi demonstrating rescued LTP through treatment with dM1000. Our findings offer important new mechanistic insights into the synaptic impairment underlying prion disease, enhancing prospects for development of targeted effective therapies.
Defining the optimal duration for normothermic regional perfusion in the kidney donor: A porcine preclinical study

Kidneys from donation after circulatory death (DCD) are highly sensitive to ischemia‐reperfusion injury and thus require careful reconditioning, such as normothermic regional perfusion (NRP). However, the optimal NRP protocol remains to be characterized. NRP was modeled in a DCD porcine model (30 minutes of cardiac arrest) for 2, 4, or 6 hours compared to a control group (No‐NRP); kidneys were machine‐preserved and allotransplanted. NRP appeared to permit recovery from warm ischemia, possibly due to an increased expression of HIF1α‐dependent survival pathway. At 2 hours, blood levels of ischemic injury biomarkers increased: creatinine, lactate/pyruvate ratio, LDH, AST, NGAL, KIM‐1, CD40 ligand, and soluble‐tissue‐factor. All these markers then decreased with time; however, AST, NGAL, and KIM‐1 increased again at 6 hours. Hemoglobin and platelets decreased at 6 hours, after which the procedure became difficult to maintain. Regarding inflammation, active tissue‐factor, cleaved PAR‐2 and MCP‐1 increased by 4‐6 hours, but not TNF‐α and iNOS. Compared to No‐NRP, NRP kidneys showed lower resistance during hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP), likely associated with pe‐NRP eNOS activation. Kidneys transplanted after 4 and 6 hours of NRP showed better function and outcome, compared to No‐NRP. In conclusion, our results confirm the mechanistic benefits of NRP and highlight 4 hours as its optimal duration, after which injury markers appear.
Root condensed tannins vary over time, but are unrelated to leaf tannins

Abstract Although the negative effects of root herbivores on plant fitness are expected to be similar to those of above-ground herbivores, the study of below-ground plant defences is limited compared to the rich literature on above-ground defences. Current theory predicts that concentrations of defensive chemicals above- and below-ground should be correlated, as the evolutionary drivers that shape plant defence are similar across the whole plant. We conducted a field study to measure root condensed tannin concentrations in Populus tremuloides, and determine how they related to leaf condensed tannin concentrations, tree position within the stand (edge vs. interior), tree size, and time of year. Overall, root tannin concentrations were substantially lower than leaf tannin concentrations. At individual sampling periods, root and leaf tannin concentrations were uncorrelated with each other, and did not vary with stand position or size. Across the growing season both root and leaf tannin concentrations did show similar trends, with both highest in the early summer, and declining through mid-summer and fall. These results suggest that the mechanisms that influence leaf and root tannin levels in aspen are independent within individual stems, possibly due to different evolutionary pressures experienced by the different tissue types or in response to localized (roots vs. foliage) stressors. However, across individual stems, the similar patterns in chemical defence over time, independent of plant size or stand position indicate that larger scale processes can have consistent effects across individuals within a population, such as the relative investment in defence of tissues in the spring versus the fall. Overall, we conclude that using theories based on above-ground defence to predict below-ground defences may not be possible without further studies examining below-ground defence.
Bipartite induced density in triangle-free graphs

We prove that any triangle-free graph on $n$ vertices with minimum degree at least $d$ contains a bipartite induced subgraph of minimum degree at least $d^2/(2n)$. This is sharp up to a logarithmic factor in $n$. Relatedly, we show that the fractional chromatic number of any such triangle-free graph is at most the minimum of $n/d$ and $(2+o(1))\sqrt{n/\log n}$ as $n\to\infty$. This is sharp up to constant factors. Similarly, we show that the list chromatic number of any such triangle-free graph is at most $O(\min\{\sqrt{n},(n\log n)/d\})$ as $n\to\infty$. Relatedly, we also make two conjectures. First, any triangle-free graph on $n$ vertices has fractional chromatic number at most $(\sqrt{2}+o(1))\sqrt{n/\log n}$ as $n\to\infty$. Second, any triangle-free graph on $n$ vertices has list chromatic number at most $O(\sqrt{n/\log n})$ as $n\to\infty$.
Characterization of the suppressive effects of extremely‐low‐frequency electric fields on a stress‐induced increase in the plasma glucocorticoid level in mice

We recently suggested that an increase in the plasma glucocorticoid (GC) level in immobilized mice is suppressed by a 50‐Hz electric field (EF) in an EF strength‐dependent manner. The present study aimed to assess the anti‐stress effect of EFs in three scenarios: exposure to an EF of either 50 or 60 Hz, which are the standard power frequencies in most regions; varying levels of environmental brightness during EF exposure; complete or partial shielding of the mouse from the EF. We compared the GC levels and blood parameters among control, EF‐alone, immobilization‐alone, and co‐treatment groups. There was no difference between EFs of 50 and 60 Hz in terms of the suppression of the immobilization‐induced increase in GC, that is, the anti‐stress effect upon EF exposure. Examination of the effects of three environmental illuminance levels, 0, 200, and 490 lux, revealed that the effect of the EF was influenced by environmental illuminance. Shielding of the mice from the EF by wrapping the animals with an electrically conductive sheet inhibited the EF effect, which showed a negative correlation with the area shielded. Hence, environmental illuminance and the body area exposed to the EF might influence the effects of an EF on stress‐induced increases in plasma GC levels in mice. Because stress plays an important role in the onset and progression of various diseases, these findings may have broad implications for understanding the efficacy of EFs in health. Bioelectromagnetics. 39:516‐528, 2018 © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Memetic algorithm-based path generation for multiple Dubins vehicles performing remote tasks

ABSTRACT This paper formalises path planning problem for a group of heterogeneous Dubins vehicles performing tasks in a remote fashion and develops a memetic algorithm-based method to effectively produce the paths. In the setting, the vehicles are initially located at multiple depots in a two-dimensional space and the objective of planning is to minimise a weighted sum of the total tour cost of the group and the largest individual tour cost amongst the vehicles. While the presented formulation takes the form of a mixed-integer linear programme (MILP) for which off-the-shelf solvers are available, the MILP solver easily loses the tractability as the number of tasks and agents grow. Therefore, a memetic algorithm tailored to the presented formulation is proposed. The algorithm features a sophisticated encoding scheme to efficiently select the order of performing tasks. In addition, a path refinement technique that optimises detailed tours with the sequence of visits fixed is proposed to finally obtain further optimised trajectories. Comparative numerical experiments show the validity and efficiency of the proposed methods compared with the previous methods in the literature.
What nutritional factors influence bone mineral density in Crohn's disease patients?

Background/Aims Bone mineral density (BMD) is often low in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). This study aimed to evaluate the association between nutritional factors and BMD in a group of CD patients. Methods CD patients 18 years of age or older were included. The body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and dietary intake were evaluated during two 24-hour recalls. Bone densitometry was performed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry of the full body to assess body composition and of the lumbar vertebrae and femoral neck to assess BMD. Results In the 60 patients evaluated, there was no association between BMD and disease activity or between BMD and disease duration. We observed moderate correlations between BMD in at least one of the evaluated sites and BMI, lean mass, WC, and protein, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium dietary intakes (P<0.05). In the linear regression analysis for spinal BMD, only BMI and calcium dietary intake remained associated (P<0.05). In the linear regression analysis for femoral BMD, WC and phosphorus intake continued to be significant in the final model, although they had low explanatory power for BMD (P<0.05). Conclusions The prevalence of low BMD was high in CD patients. BMI, WC, calcium and phosphorus dietary intake were positively correlated with BMD.
Association of breastfeeding and malocclusion in 5‐year‐old children: Multilevel approach

BACKGROUND Breastfeeding plays an important role in child health, including the development of normal dental occlusion, but large epidemiological findings on the association breastfeeding-malocclusion are lacking. AIM To investigate the association between the proportion of breastfed children in the city level and the prevalence of malocclusion in the primary dentition at age 5. DESIGN This cross-sectional analysis used data from national population surveys on oral health and on breastfeeding practices. Data refer to 5278 5-year-old children and 44 Brazilian towns. Information on malocclusion and individual sociodemographic characteristics were obtained from the 2010 Brazilian Oral Health Survey. Breastfeeding rates during the first year of life were extracted from the Breastfeeding Prevalence Survey in Brazilian Towns. Population sociodemographic data were analysed as confounder. Multilevel Poisson analyses were performed. RESULTS Malocclusion prevalence was 63.3%. Towns exhibiting higher prevalence of breastfeeding among 9- to 12-month-olds presented lower prevalence of malocclusion among children at age 5 (PR 0.98; 95% CI 0.98-0.99). CONCLUSIONS Lower prevalence of malocclusion among 5-year-old children was associated with a higher proportion of children breastfed at ages 9 to 12 months at a city level, regardless of sociodemographic factors. These findings highlight the importance of encouraging breastfeeding during a child's first year.
Quality of Life and Explanatory Models of Illness in Patients with Schizophrenia

Background: Patients with schizophrenia hold a variety of explanatory models of illness that influence different aspects of their life including their understanding of the disease, ability to cope and sense of well-being. Aim: To study the association of explanatory models and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia. Materials and Methods: One hundred and thirty consecutive patients with schizophrenia attending a psychiatric outpatient clinic were recruited in the study and administered the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), the modified Short Explanatory Model Interview (SEMI) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) Scale to assess severity of psychosis, explanatory models of illness, and quality of life. Sociodemographic and clinical details of patients were also recorded. Standard bivariate and multivariable statistics were employed. Results: Higher quality of life scores were associated with better socioeconomic conditions and lower scores on negative and general psychopathology subscales of PANSS. Quality-of-life scores were significantly higher in patients who did not perceive their illness to have negative effects on the different domains of their functioning. Conclusion: Explanatory models of illness are associated with perceived quality of life in patients with schizophrenia. There is a need to focus on attitudes, perceptions and functioning, rather than symptom reduction alone, to enhance the quality of life in schizophrenia.
Local coderivatives and approximation of Hodge Laplace problems

The standard mixed finite element approximations of Hodge Laplace problems associated with the de Rham complex are based on proper discrete subcomplexes. As a consequence, the exterior derivatives, which are local operators, are computed exactly. However, the approximations of the associated coderivatives are nonlocal. In fact, this nonlocal property is an inherent consequence of the mixed formulation of these methods, and can be argued to be an undesired effect of these schemes. As a consequence, it has been argued, at least in special settings, that more local methods may have improved properties. In the present paper, we construct such methods by relying on a careful balance between the choice of finite element spaces, degrees of freedom, and numerical integration rules. Furthermore, we establish key convergence estimates based on a standard approach of variational crimes.
Misogyny Identification Through SVM at IberEval 2018

This paper explains the author’s approach to the task Automatic Misogyny Identification at IberEval 2018 whose objective is to identify cases of aggressiveness and hate speech towards women. It describes the system submitted to the task, which is based on a support vector machine model, its development and the results obtained.
Mechanism of Action Potential Prolongation During Metabolic Inhibition in the Whole Rabbit Heart

Myocardial ischemia is associated with significant changes in action potential (AP) duration, which has a biphasic response to metabolic inhibition. Here, we investigated the mechanism of initial AP prolongation in whole Langendorff-perfused rabbit heart. We used glass microelectrodes to record APs transmurally. Simultaneously, optical AP, calcium transient (CaT), intracellular pH, and magnesium concentration changes were recorded using fluorescent dyes. The fluorescence signals were recorded using an EMCCD camera equipped with emission filters; excitation was induced by LEDs. We demonstrated that metabolic inhibition by carbonyl cyanide-p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP) resulted in AP shortening preceded by an initial prolongation and that there were no important differences in the response throughout the wall of the heart and in the apical/basal direction. AP prolongation was reduced by blocking the ICaL and transient outward potassium current (Ito) with diltiazem (DTZ) and 4-aminopyridine (4-AP), respectively. FCCP, an uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation, induced reductions in CaTs and intracellular pH and increased the intracellular Mg2+ concentration. In addition, resting potential depolarization was observed, clearly indicating a decrease in the inward rectifier K+ current (IK1) that can retard AP repolarization. Thus, we suggest that the main currents responsible for AP prolongation during metabolic inhibition are the ICaL, Ito, and IK1, the activities of which are modulated mainly by changes in intracellular ATP, calcium, magnesium, and pH.
Effects of Resistive Jaw-Opening Exercise with Elastic Bands on Suprahyoid Muscle Activation in Normal Subjects

Objective: The effect of a resistive jaw-opening exercise using an elastic band on suprahyoid muscle activity and tongue strength was examined in healthy volunteers. Methods: Twenty-one adults wore an elastic loop around their head and mandible. To prescribe the appropriate elastic band resistance, the 10-repetition maximum (10 RM) was measured among 4 bands at baseline. Band loops, starting with the highest resistance value band, were sequentially applied to determine the suitability for 10 RM. During the exercise, the participants were required to open their jaw maximally and maintain the position for 10 s; then, they rested for 10 s. This procedure was repeated for 20 min, 3 days per week for 8 weeks to test suprahyoid muscle activation during effortful swallowing; isometric tongue pressures of the tongue tip and base at baseline, after 4, and after 8 weeks of training were measured. Results: Peak suprahyoid muscle activation amplitudes during effortful swallow and isometric pressures at the tongue tip significantly increased after 8 weeks. Conclusion: The 8-week resistive jaw-opening exercise significantly improved strength of the suprahyoid muscle and tongue pressures in healthy subjects. These positive results warrant further investigation of the therapeutic effects and feasibility of this resistive exercise.