Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Center Specific Implantation Volume a Predictor of Clinical Outcomes with Mechanical Circulatory Support?

This study examined the relationship between implant center volumes and survival rate for implantation of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices. Using the Novacor left ventricular assist system (LVAS) Registry, the study cohort consisted of 1,348 patients with established outcomes from 97 centers stratified by the implant center volume: 1–10 implants (n = 199, 65 centers), 11–25 implants (n = 189, 12 centers), 26–50 implants (n = 445, 13 centers), and more than 51 implants (n = 515, 7 centers). Regression and correlation analyses were performed.Regression analysis found a negative impact on survival for centers performing 1–10 implants, with an odds ratio of 1.73 (95% confidence interval, 1.28–2.34; p < 0.001). Composite results from the first 10 implants of each larger volume center were then compared with the group with 1–10 implants, demonstrating that centers with larger volumes had superior results, even in the early patient experience (61%versus 46% transplanted/weaned, p < 0.001). However, when annualized outcomes (i.e., outcomes by calendar year) were determined for each center, no significant correlation was found between the outcomes and annualized frequency of implantation (R2 = 0.003, n = 422). Although the total number of implants performed at a specific center appeared to impact clinical outcomes, no correlation was found between annualized frequency of implant and clinical outcome.
Reliability and validity of the Greek version of the Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale.

BACKGROUND The Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) is a commonly used questionnaire which measures children's dental fear. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to gather data to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Greek version of the CFSS-DS. METHODS A sample of 260 children aged 4-12 completed the Greek version of the CFSS-DS while in the waiting room of a paediatric dentist. The dentist, who was unaware of the children's scores, rated the children's behaviour during the dental appointment using the Frankl scale. Children who returned for a second dental appointment during the study period completed the CFSS-DS a second time. RESULTS The mean CFSS-DS score was 24.80 (standard deviation = 9.17). Age and gender were not related to mean scores. Invasiveness of dental treatment was not related to mean scores. Children who were most uncooperative/fearful on the Frankl had the highest mean scores (Kruskal-Wallis chi2 = 9.48; d.f. = 2; P = 0.009). The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.85, and the test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation) was 0.74. CONCLUSIONS The Greek version of the CFSS-DS appears to be reliable and valid. Further samples should include school samples, to include children who may not go to the dentist.
Superoxide Generation of Leukemic Cells in Children

Superoxide (O2-) generation of leukemic cells was investigated in 28 children with acute leukemia. Leukemic cells of seven with acute myelomonocytic leukemia and one with acute monocytic leukemia produced various amounts of O2- (0.13-0.87 nmol/min/10(6) cells) when stimulated with wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). Other types of leukemia cells exhibited no such functions. Leukemic cells of two patients diagnosed as unusual cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia generated significant amounts of O2- when stimulated with WGA and PMA. Both patients went into complete remission while on acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia treatment. Thus O2- generating activity can serve as a functional marker of leukemic cells in myelomonocytic lineage.
B‐cell epitope spreading in autoimmunity

Summary: How the immune response matures from recognizing a single or a few structures of the antigen to many is an obviously important process. Models of B‐cell epitope spreading have been developed in a variety of systems. For example, immunization of animals with PPPGMRPP, one of the earliest B‐cell epitopes in the anti‐Sm response found in human lupus, leads to antispliceosomal autoimmunity and features of lupus. The humoral immune response spreads from PPPGMRPP to other structures of the spliceosome in an apparently reproducible sequence. B‐cell epitope spreading has provided the experimental basis from which a relationship between lupus and Epstein‐Barr virus was suspected. An understanding of B‐cell epitope spreading is likely to lead to important principles in basic immunology and to answers to human disease problems.
Pevonedistat (MLN4924), a First‐in‐Class NEDD8‐activating enzyme inhibitor, in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndromes: a phase 1 study

This trial was conducted to determine the dose‐limiting toxicities (DLTs) and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of the first in class NEDD8‐activating enzyme (NAE) inhibitor, pevonedistat, and to investigate pevonedistat pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Pevonedistat was administered via a 60‐min intravenous infusion on days 1, 3 and 5 (schedule A, n = 27), or days 1, 4, 8 and 11 (schedule B, n = 26) every 21‐days. Dose escalation proceeded using a standard ‘3 + 3’ design. Responses were assessed according to published guidelines. The MTD for schedules A and B were 59 and 83 mg/m2, respectively. On schedule A, hepatotoxicity was dose limiting. Multi‐organ failure (MOF) was dose limiting on schedule B. The overall complete (CR) and partial (PR) response rate in patients treated at or below the MTD was 17% (4/23, 2 CRs, 2 PRs) for schedule A and 10% (2/19, 2 PRs) for schedule B. Pevonedistat plasma concentrations peaked after infusion followed by elimination in a biphasic pattern. Pharmacodynamic studies of biological correlates of NAE inhibition demonstrated target‐specific activity of pevonedistat. In conclusion, administration of the first‐in‐class agent, pevonedistat, was feasible in patients with MDS and AML and modest clinical activity was observed.
Cyclic AMP Inhibition of Mammary Gland Lactose Synthesis: Specificity and Potentiation by 1-Methyl-3-Isobutylxanthine*

same 30-40% maximum inhibition as DBcAMP but with 1/100 the dose 00-7 M). Cholera toxin in the range 0.001 to 10 /-I8/ml had no effect on release of lactose by gland slices over a 2 1/2-hr period or on lactose synthesis. The ex periments demonstrate that cAMP inhibition of mammary gland lactose synthesis is weak bu t strongly specific and it is potentiated by phosphodiesterase inhibitors but the addi tivity is easily masked due to the potency of MIX. Finally, lactating alveolar cells may be missing a receptor for cho· lera toxin or a transducer Iinking the receptor to adenylate cyclase.
Arytenoid dislocation: Diagnosis and treatment

Disruption of the cricoarytenoid joint is a relatively uncommon event, according to the world literature. Only 31 reported cases of arytenoid dislocation or subluxation exist other than the 26 cases described in this paper. Often cases are misdiagnosed as vocal fold paralysis. Knowledge of the signs and symptoms of arytenoid dislocation aids in correct diagnosis and early treatment. Even when diagnosis has been delayed, surgery may be highly effective. Familiarity with state‐of‐the‐art diagnostic techniques and new concepts in management helps optimize the chances for good voice quality.
Analysis of beta1 and beta2-adrenergic receptors polymorphism in patients with apical ballooning cardiomyopathy.

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to analyse the frequency of beta1 and/or beta2 adrenergic receptor polymorphisms in patients with takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC). METHODS AND RESULTS beta1 and/or beta2 adrenergic receptor polymorphisms in 61 patients with TTC were compared with 109 controls. The beta1 adrenoreceptor (amino acid position 389) genotype frequencies were significantly different in the two groups; assuming a recessive model for the allelic variant coding for Arg on this position, the odds ratio was 3.14, 95% Cl 1.55-6.37 (P = 0.0015). The beta2 adrenoreceptor amino acid position 27 genotype was significantly different and assuming a recessive model for the allelic variant coding for Gln on this position, the odds ratio was 0.29, 95% Cl 0.12-0.74 (P = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS This study showed for the first time an association between TTC phenotype and beta1 adrenoreceptor gene polymorphisms. Beta adrenoreceptors gene polymorphisms are probably disease modifiers, and any risk estimate should be based on a combination of genotypes and on interactions with other genes and environmental features.
Abelian L-adic representation and elliptic curves

This classic book contains an introduction to systems of l-adic representations, a topic of great importance in number theory and algebraic geometry, as reflected by the spectacular recent developments on the Taniyama-Weil conjecture and Fermat's Last Theorem. The initial chapters are devoted to the Abelian case (complex multiplication), where one finds a nice correspondence between the l-adic representations and the linear representations of some algebraic groups (now called Taniyama groups). The last chapter handles the case of elliptic curves with no complex multiplication, the main result of which is that the image of the Galois group (in the corresponding l-adic representation) is "large. "
Subclinical atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis in India.

OBJECTIVE Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality as compared to the general population. Indians are also at increased risk of developing early and severe atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. Carotid intima-media thickness as measured by ultrasound is a validated surrogate marker of atherosclerosis. We studied the prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis in Indian patients with RA. METHODS Common carotid IMT (CCA IMT) was measured at the level of carotid bifurcation along with fasting lipid profile in 57 RA patients and 45 age and sex matched controls. Values of mean CCA IMT above mean + 2 SD of the control group were defined as abnormal IMT. Variables of disease activity and severity were measured in RA patients. Patients and controls with known traditional cardiovascular risk factors were excluded from the study. Student t test and chi-square test for proportion were used for statistical analysis. A logistic regression analysis was done to find out independent predictors of abnormal IMT. RESULTS Nineteen RA patients (33.3%) and 2 controls (4.44%) had abnormal IMT values. RA patients had significantly increased mean CCA IMT (0.558 +/- 0.137 mm) as compared to controls (0.416 +/- 0.002 mm; p < 0.0001). Age > or = 42 years, duration of disease > or= 6 years, and tender joint count > or = 5 predicted increased risk of having abnormal CCA IMT in a logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSION One-third of Indian RA patients had subclinical atherosclerosis. Age and tender joint count were independent predictors of abnormal CCA IMT.
Road Detection and Semantic Segmentation without Strong Human Supervision

Recently, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained with strong human supervision have shown to achieve state of the art performance for both road detection and semantic segmentation. However, collecting strongly labeled data for both require detailed per-pixel annotations from humans which renders data annotation highly costly and time consuming. Therefore, in this work we propose methods to train a CNN for both of these tasks without using strong human supervision. For road detection , we propose a two-step self-supervised method which does not require any human image annotation. Firstly, we automatically generate road annotations for training using OpenStreetMap, vehicle pose estimation sensors, and camera parameters. Next, we train a fully convolutional network (FCN) for road detection using these annotations. We show that we are able to generate reasonably accurate training annotations on KITTI data-set [14]. We achieve state-of-the-art performance among the methods which do not require human annotation effort. For semantic segmentation, we use image-level tag annotations to learn a dense pixel-level prediction model. These tags indicate the presence or absence of various classes in an image. We propose a novel graph regularized multiple-instance multilabel (G-MIML) loss to train the FCN. The MIML loss encodes the constraints provided by image-level tags. The superpixel level graph over an image encodes the inherent label smoothness assumption. The proposed loss yields state-of-the-art performance on tag-supervised semantic segmentation on PASCAL VOC 2012 [12] data-set.
The endogenous opioid system in cocaine addiction: what lessons have opioid peptide and receptor knockout mice taught us?

Cocaine addiction has become a major concern in the UK as Britain tops the European ‘league table’ for cocaine abuse. Despite its devastating health and socio‐economic consequences, no effective pharmacotherapy for treating cocaine addiction is available. Identifying neurochemical changes induced by repeated drug exposure is critical not only for understanding the transition from recreational drug use towards compulsive drug abuse but also for the development of novel targets for the treatment of the disease and especially for relapse prevention. This article focuses on the effects of chronic cocaine exposure and withdrawal on each of the endogenous opioid peptides and receptors in rodent models. In addition, we review the studies that utilized opioid peptide or receptor knockout mice in order to identify and/or clarify the role of different components of the opioid system in cocaine‐addictive behaviours and in cocaine‐induced alterations of brain neurochemistry. The review of these studies indicates a region‐specific activation of the µ‐opioid receptor system following chronic cocaine exposure, which may contribute towards the rewarding effect of the drug and possibly towards cocaine craving during withdrawal followed by relapse. Cocaine also causes a region‐specific activation of the κ‐opioid receptor/dynorphin system, which may antagonize the rewarding effect of the drug, and at the same time, contribute to the stress‐inducing properties of the drug and the triggering of relapse. These conclusions have important implications for the development of effective pharmacotherapy for the treatment of cocaine addiction and the prevention of relapse.
Effects of yokukansan and donepezil on learning disturbance and aggressiveness induced by intracerebroventricular injection of amyloid β protein in mice

The effects of yokukansan and donepezil on learning disturbance and aggressiveness were examined in amyloid β protein (Aβ)‐injected mice. Intellicage tests showed that both yokukansan and donepezil ameliorated Aβ‐induced learning disturbance, but the ameliorating effect of donepezil was not enhanced by concomitant administration of yokukansan. On the other hand, a social interaction test showed that Aβ‐induced aggressiveness was ameliorated by yokukansan, but not by donepezil. Co‐administration of both drugs also ameliorated aggressiveness, as did yokukansan alone. In vitro binding assays revealed that yokukansan did not bind to choline receptors or transporters. In vitro enzyme assays revealed that yokukansan did not affect choline acetyltransferase activity or inhibit acetylcholinesterase activity, as did donepezil. These results suggest that yokukansan might ameliorate aggressiveness without interfering with the pharmacological efficacy (antidementia effect) of donepezil and also that concomitant administration of yokukansan might be useful for amelioration of aggressiveness, which was not lessened by donepezil. The difference in the efficacies of both drugs may be due to a difference in their pharmacological mechanisms. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An LMS-based adaptive digital calibration algorithm for CMOS pipelined analog-to-digital converters

In order to reduce the design difficulties, the input sample-and-hold amplifier (SHA) is often removed in the nested background calibration of the CMOS pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADC). The system uses a dual-channel LMS adaptive digital background calibration algorithm, and the reference ADC was calibrated in the foreground. Without the input SHA, the sampling-time error between the two channels is inevitable, requiring a new timing compensation block to be added to the digital background calibration algorithm. Simulations show that with the proposed method, the timing error is greatly reduced, and the tradeoffs between accuracy and power dissipation are relaxed.
Do early adopters upgrade early?: An empirical study of mobile 4G service

Since Rogers proposed innovation diffusion theory, it has been used to analyze the new technology adoption behavior and divided the customer into five segments. Some studies compared the difference between early adopters and majorities. Some studies support the early adopters upgrade earlier, however, researchers usually employ self-report adoption intention as the proxy of actual adoption behavior. We argue that factors affecting adoption intention may differ to factors affecting actual adoption behavior. Therefore, we collect our dataset from a Taiwanese telecommunication service provider; the sample set includes 8900 users who register for the 3G service between 2005 and 2014 and their voice and data usage in August 2014. Some of them have upgrade to be 4G users. According to innovation diffusion theory, we divide the consumers to be four groups: early adopter, early majority, late Majority and laggards. The results show that the 3G early adopters have significantly higher usage of basic function than others. The 3G early adopters upgrade earlier for 4G than other groups, which is only partly supported. However, the 3G early adopters with higher usage of innovative function tend to upgrade earlier for 4G than their counterpart with lower usage of innovative function.
The effects of dothiepin on subjects with rheumatoid arthritis and depression.

BACKGROUND The relative importance of direct analgesic and antidepressant effects of antidepressant drugs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not clear. METHOD Forty-eight female out-patients with RA, with depression and/or anxiety, were entered into a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of dothiepin in doses up to 150 mg daily to assess the effects on mood [Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale and Hamilton Rating Scale (HRS) for Depression], pain [visual analogue scale (VAS)] and disability [Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)]. RESULTS Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance revealed that treatment had a significant effect on pain (F(d.f. 1,39) =5.7, P=0.02). There were further interaction effects between treatment and time on pain (F(d. f. 3,117) =3.3, P=0.03), disability (F(d.f. 3,117)=4.2, P=0.008) and duration of early morning stiffness (F(d.f. 3,117) =3.3, P=0.03). Depression (HRS) was considerably reduced in both the dothiepin and placebo groups, and there was no significant difference between groups. Post hoc analyses using analysis of covariance revealed that, in the dothiepin group, pain was significantly reduced by week 4 and remained so at week 12. Disability scores and duration of early morning stiffness were consistently lower in the dothiepin group, although differences failed to reach statistical significance at any follow-up assessment. In the group as a whole, reductions in pain were highly significantly correlated with reductions in HAD depression (r =0.63, P<0.0005), HAD anxiety (r=0.46, P=0.001) and HRS depression (r=0.37, P=0.01). CONCLUSION Dothiepin is effective in relieving pain, disability and reducing the duration of early morning stiffness in out-patients with RA. Although there is a general association between pain reduction and improved anxiety and depression, the analgesic effect of dothiepin is independent of its antidepressant effect. Individual variation is considerable and further research should try to identify mechanisms of interaction between the antidepressant and analgesic effects of treatment in different patient groups.
Hypertension Prevention and Control in Latin America and the Caribbean

It has long been recognized by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) that hypertension assessment and management was critical to the prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). In 2000, PAHO’s Directing Council called for the implementation of surveillance systems, development of national prevention plans, and greater emphasis on controlling hypertension. In 2006, PAHO adopted its first regional strategy and plan of action for chronic diseases and their risk factors, with hypertension being a key element of that strategy. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a region with significant socioeconomic disparities and countries at different stages of epidemiological transition, the prevention and control of hypertension has been prioritized quite unevenly. The purpose of this brief report is to give an update on the burden of the problem, the mandates and priorities, surveillance activities, and some initiatives on the current agenda based on lessons learned for prevention and control of hypertension in LAC.
Comparative study of acid maltase deficiency. Biochemical differences between infantile, childhood, and adult types.

Maltase (α-1,4-glucosidase) activity was determined at various pH values in tissues in infantile (heart, liver, skeletal muscle), childhood (heart, liver, skeletal muscle), and adult (liver, skeletal muscle, leukocytes) types of acid maltase deficiency (AMD) and in control tissues. In an infantile case of AMD, only traces of neutral maltase were present in heart, and this activity was significantly decreased in skeletal muscle and liver. In a childhood case of AMD, neutral maltase activity was decreased only in liver. No decreases of neutral maltase occurred in adult AMD tissues. An absolute decrease of leukocyte acid maltase was found in four and a relative decrease in one of five adults with AMD. A decrease in the pH 4.0/pH 6.5 ratio of leukocyte maltase activity may aid in the diagnosis of adult AMD.