Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glissonean pedicle approach in liver surgery

Glisson's capsule was discovered by Johannis Walaeus in 1640 and described by Francis Glisson in 1654. The capsule wraps the hepatic artery, the portal vein and the bile duct in the liver and forms bundles at the hepatic hilus and in the liver as the Glissonean pedicle tree. Glisson's capsule does not connect to the proper membrane of the liver, which was discovered by Laennec; therefore, the Glissonean pedicles can be detached from the liver parenchyma without liver dissection. Couinaud described three main approaches to control the inflow system at the hepatic hilus in liver surgery; the intrafascial approach, the extrafascial and transfissural approach, and the extrafascial approach. The intrafascial approach is the so‐called control method. The extrafascial and transfissural approach, and the extrafascial approach are recognized as the Glissonean pedicle approach. When the Glissonean pedicles are ligated before liver transection, various types of anatomical hepatectomy can be carried out. The Glissonean pedicle approach is, therefore, considered to be one of the most important procedures in liver surgery. We herein describe the historical aspects and procedures of the Glissonean pedicle approach in liver surgery.
Effects of voltage-bias annealing on metastable defect populations in CIGS and CZTSe solar cells

We report on voltage-bias annealing (VBA) experiments performed on CIGS and CZTSe solar cells. In these experiments, completed devices were annealed at moderate temperatures and subsequently quenched with continuously applied voltage bias. These treatments resulted in substantial reversible changes in device characteristics. Photovoltaic (PV) conversion efficiency of the CIGS device varied from below 3% to above 15%, with corresponding changes in CIGS hole density from ~1014 cm-3 to ~1017 cm-3. In the CZTSe device, open-circuit voltage varied from 289 meV to 446 meV, caused by an approximately factor of fifty change in the CZTSe hole density. We interpret these findings in terms of reversible changes to the metastable point-defect populations that control key properties in these materials. Implications for optimization of PV materials and connections to long-term stability of PV devices are discussed.
Drag-reducing riblets with fouling-release properties: development and testing

Abstract The manufacture and preliminary testing of a drag-reducing riblet texture with fouling-control properties is presented. The commercial fouling-release product Intersleek® 1100SR was modified to manufacture riblet-textured coatings with an embossing technology. Hydrodynamic drag measurements in a Taylor–Couette set-up showed that the modified Intersleek® riblets reduced drag by up to 6% compared to a smooth surface. Barnacle settlement assays demonstrated that the riblets did not substantially reduce the ability of Intersleek® 1100SR to prevent fouling by cyprids of Balanus amphitrite. Diatom adhesion tests revealed significantly higher diatom attachment on the riblet surface compared to smooth Intersleek® 1100SR. However, after exposure to flow, the final cell density was similar to the smooth surface. Statically immersed panels in natural seawater showed an increase of biofilm cover due to the riblets. However, the release of semi-natural biofilms grown in a multi-species biofilm culturing reactor was largely unaffected by the presence of a riblet texture.
Progression to total hip arthroplasty following hip arthroscopy

Hip arthroscopy is a minimally invasive surgical technique increasingly being used to treat hip pathology. There is evidence that a proportion of patients require total hip arthroplasty in the years immediately following arthroscopy, suggesting that these patients have derived only a limited benefit from the procedure. Identification of risk factors for early progression to hip arthroplasty may enable refinement of hip arthroscopy indications and more informed decision making. The aim of this study is to identify the proportion of patients in a hip arthroscopy cohort who progress to total hip arthroplasty within 2 years of arthroscopy, and to analyse risk factors for this early progression.
Transforming Pain With Prosocial Meaning: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Objective Contextual factors can transform how we experience pain, particularly if pain is associated with other positive outcomes. Here, we test a novel meaning-based intervention. Participants were given the opportunity to choose to receive pain on behalf of their romantic partners, situating pain experience in a positive, prosocial meaning context. We predicted that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a key structure for pain regulation and generation of affective meaning, would mediate the transformation of pain experience by this prosocial interpersonal context. Methods We studied fMRI activity and behavioral responses in 29 heterosexual female participants during (1) a baseline pain challenge and (2) a task in which participants decided to accept a self-selected number of additional pain trials to reduce pain in their male romantic partners (“accept-partner-pain” condition). Results Enduring extra pain for the benefit of the romantic partner reduced pain-related unpleasantness (t = −2.54, p = .016) but not intensity, and increased positive thoughts (t = 3.60, p = .001) and pleasant feelings (t = 5.39, p < .0005). Greater willingness to accept the pain of one's partner predicted greater unpleasantness reductions (t = 3.94, p = .001) and increases in positive thoughts (r = .457, p = .013). The vmPFC showed significant increases (q < .05 FDR-corrected) in activation during accept-partner-pain, especially for women with greater willingness to relieve their partner's pain (t = 2.63, p = .014). Reductions in brain regions processing pain and aversive emotion significantly mediated reductions in pain unpleasantness (q < .05 FDR-corrected). Conclusions The vmPFC has a key role in transforming the meaning of pain, which is associated with a cascade of positive psychological and brain effects, including changes in affective meaning, value, and pain-specific neural circuits.
Adsorption of Organophosphorous Pesticide from Aqueous Solution Using “Waste” Jute Fiber Carbon

“Waste” Jute Fiber, an agricultural “waste” by-product was converted into an effective adsorbent and the same was tested for the removal of Malathion pesticide from aqueous solution. The prepared activated Jute fiber carbon (JFC) was characterized by using Scanning Electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Elemental analyzer and proximate analysis methods. Adsorption equilibrium, kinetics, thermodynamics and mass transfer studies were investigated as a function of agitation time, adsorbent dose, pH and temperature. The adsorption data obtained are found to obey Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption kinetics was analyzed by using pseudo first order, pseudo second order and Elovich models. Thermodynamic parameters of adsorption process, i.e. ? G, ? S and ? H were computed and their negative values indicate the adsorption was exothermic and spontaneous nature.
Cybersecurity in Hospitals: A Systematic, Organizational Perspective

Background Cybersecurity incidents are a growing threat to the health care industry in general and hospitals in particular. The health care industry has lagged behind other industries in protecting its main stakeholder (ie, patients), and now hospitals must invest considerable capital and effort in protecting their systems. However, this is easier said than done because hospitals are extraordinarily technology-saturated, complex organizations with high end point complexity, internal politics, and regulatory pressures. Objective The purpose of this study was to develop a systematic and organizational perspective for studying (1) the dynamics of cybersecurity capability development at hospitals and (2) how these internal organizational dynamics interact to form a system of hospital cybersecurity in the United States. Methods We conducted interviews with hospital chief information officers, chief information security officers, and health care cybersecurity experts; analyzed the interview data; and developed a system dynamics model that unravels the mechanisms by which hospitals build cybersecurity capabilities. We then use simulation analysis to examine how changes to variables within the model affect the likelihood of cyberattacks across both individual hospitals and a system of hospitals. Results We discuss several key mechanisms that hospitals use to reduce the likelihood of cybercriminal activity. The variable that most influences the risk of cyberattack in a hospital is end point complexity, followed by internal stakeholder alignment. Although resource availability is important in fueling efforts to close cybersecurity capability gaps, low levels of resources could be compensated for by setting a high target level of cybersecurity. Conclusions To enhance cybersecurity capabilities at hospitals, the main focus of chief information officers and chief information security officers should be on reducing end point complexity and improving internal stakeholder alignment. These strategies can solve cybersecurity problems more effectively than blindly pursuing more resources. On a macro level, the cyber vulnerability of a country’s hospital infrastructure is affected by the vulnerabilities of all individual hospitals. In this large system, reducing variation in resource availability makes the whole system less vulnerable—a few hospitals with low resources for cybersecurity threaten the entire infrastructure of health care. In other words, hospitals need to move forward together to make the industry less attractive to cybercriminals. Moreover, although compliance is essential, it does not equal security. Hospitals should set their target level of cybersecurity beyond the requirements of current regulations and policies. As of today, policies mostly address data privacy, not data security. Thus, policy makers need to introduce policies that not only raise the target level of cybersecurity capabilities but also reduce the variability in resource availability across the entire health care system.
Cofilin-1 levels and intracellular localization are associated with melanoma prognosis in a cohort of patients

Melanoma is an aggressive cancer with highly metastatic ability. We propose cofilin-1, a key protein in the regulation of actin dynamics and migration, as a prognostic marker. We determined cofilin-1 levels in a retrospective cohort of patients with melanomas and benign lesions of melanocytes (nevi) by immunohistochemistry. Higher cofilin-1 levels were found in malignant melanoma (MM) with Breslow Index (BI)>2 vs MM with BI<2, melanoma in situ (MIS) and nevi and also in MM with metastasis vs MM without detected metastasis. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were performed, clustering patients according to either the type of melanocytic lesions or cofilin-1 level. Survival curves demonstrated worse prognosis of patients with high vs low cofilin-1 levels. TCGA database analysis of melanoma also showed low survival in patients with upregulated cofilin-1 mRNA vs patients without alteration in CFL1 mRNA expression. As cofilin-1 has a dual function depending on its intracellular localization, we evaluated nuclear and cytoplasmic levels of cofilin-1 in melanoma and nevi samples by immunofluorescence. MM with high Breslow index and metastatic cells not only presented cytoplasmic cofilin-1, but also showed this protein at the nucleus. An increase in nuclear/cytoplasmic cofilin-1 mean fluorescence ratio was observed in MM with BI>2 vs MM with BI<2, MIS and nevi. In conclusion, an association of cofilin-1 levels with malignant features and an inverse correlation with survival were demonstrated. Moreover, this study suggests that not only the higher levels of cofilin-1, but also its nuclear localization can be proposed as marker of worse outcome of patients with melanoma.
Inference Aided Reinforcement Learning for Incentive Mechanism Design in Crowdsourcing

Incentive mechanisms for crowdsourcing are designed to incentivize financially self-interested workers to generate and report high-quality labels. Existing mechanisms are often developed as one-shot static solutions, assuming a certain level of knowledge about worker models (expertise levels, costs of exerting efforts, etc.). In this paper, we propose a novel inference aided reinforcement mechanism that learns to incentivize high-quality data sequentially and requires no such prior assumptions. Specifically, we first design a Gibbs sampling augmented Bayesian inference algorithm to estimate workers' labeling strategies from the collected labels at each step. Then we propose a reinforcement incentive learning (RIL) method, building on top of the above estimates, to uncover how workers respond to different payments. RIL dynamically determines the payment without accessing any ground-truth labels. We theoretically prove that RIL is able to incentivize rational workers to provide high-quality labels. Empirical results show that our mechanism performs consistently well under both rational and non-fully rational (adaptive learning) worker models. Besides, the payments offered by RIL are more robust and have lower variances compared to the existing one-shot mechanisms.
Favism Clinical Experience in Al-Elwia Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Iraq

The glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) gene is an X-linked disease, and its deficiency is common throughout the world.Acute hemolytic anemia is the main feature, usually during infection, after treatment with certain drugs, and after eating fava beans. A target of studying favism clinically in a sample of Iraqi patients was performed, including (but not limited to) the commonest involved age, gender,and a presumable disease-triggering discrimination between raw and cooked fava beans. All cases with suggestive symptoms and signs of acute hemolysis following exposure to fava beans, were studied retrospectively, resulted in 123 patients enrolled, 101 males and 22 females. The most common age on presentation was between 2-3 years (21.95%), row fava beans were about double than that of cooked ones asthe most popular risk factor even in small amounts (66.7% versus 33.3%). In a conclusion; male toddlers ≤ 5 years` age had the highest chance of hemolysis due to G6PD deficiency, which was induced by fava beans ingestion, only a small amount of raw beans could be enough, while larger deal was required if these fava beans were cooked.
Mad moves of the building blocks – nucleotide sugars find unexpected paths into cell walls

This article comments on: Zhao X, Liu N, Shang N, et al. 2018. Three UDP-xylose transporters (UXTs) participate in xylan biosynthesis by conveying cytosolic UDP-xylose into the Golgi lumen in Arabidopsis. Journal of Experimental Botany 69, 1125–1134.
Efficient Sequence Learning with Group Recurrent Networks

Recurrent neural networks have achieved state-of-the-art results in many artificial intelligence tasks, such as language modeling, neural machine translation, speech recognition and so on. One of the key factors to these successes is big models. However, training such big models usually takes days or even weeks of time even if using tens of GPU cards. In this paper, we propose an efficient architecture to improve the efficiency of such RNN model training, which adopts the group strategy for recurrent layers, while exploiting the representation rearrangement strategy between layers as well as time steps. To demonstrate the advantages of our models, we conduct experiments on several datasets and tasks. The results show that our architecture achieves comparable or better accuracy comparing with baselines, with a much smaller number of parameters and at a much lower computational cost.
MRI-verified “asleep” deep brain stimulation in Malta through cross border collaboration: clinical outcome of the first five years

Abstract Introduction: Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) requires a specialist multidisciplinary approach and lifelong follow-up. Patient access can be a challenge for small nation states. Malta is an island nation with a population of just under 450 000. The number of patients likely to benefit from DBS is around 5 to 10 per year. This study explores the outcome of a cross border collaboration between specialist services at Queen Square, London and a tertiary centre in Malta. Material and methods: Between 2011 and 2015, 35 patients underwent MRI-Guided and MRI-Verified DBS with 29 receiving bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS for Parkinson’s Disease under general anaesthesia. Pre-operative motor function was compared with one year post-operative motor function assessments in 26 patients (16 male; age 60 ± 9, range 32–70; disease duration 8.8 ± 2.7). Pre-operative and post-operative quality of life scores were also completed in 24 patients. Results: There was significant improvement in off-medication Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) III motor function (41.7%), reduction in Levodopa Equivalent Dose (LED) (30.6%) and improvement in quality of life as measured by the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) (52.3%) (p < .001). All PDQ-39 dimensions showed significant improvement except communication, with greatest benefit in activities of daily living (ADLs) (72.4%) and stigma (66.3%). Surgical complications did not lead to any permanent deficit. Patients receiving DBS to other targets and for different indications also benefitted from surgery. Conclusion: An MRI-guided and MRI-verified approach to DBS was successfully implemented through cross border collaboration with achievement of expected clinical results. This healthcare collaboration developed out of necessity and opportunity, taking advantage of a UK-based neurosurgeon from Malta. The UK healthcare system benefits from numerous immigrants at Consultant level. Such a mutually beneficial arrangement could enable such individuals to offer their expertise to citizens in the UK as well as their country of origin.
Impact of involvement of non-formal health providers on TB case notification among migrant slum-dwelling populations in Odisha, India

Background Migrant labourers living in the slums of urban and industrial patches across India make up a key sub-population so far controlling Tuberculosis (TB) in the country is concerned. This is because many TB patients from these communities- remain under reached by the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) of India. This marginalized community usually seeks early-stage healthcare from “friendly neighbourhood” non-formal health providers (NFHPs). Because, RNTCP has limited capacity to involve the NFHPs, an implementation research project was conceived, whereby an external partner would engage with the NFHPs to enable them to identify early TB symptomatics from this key sub-population who would be then tested using Xpert MTB/RIF technology. Diagnosed TB cases among them would be referred promptly to RNTCP for treatment. This paper aimed to describe the project and its impact. Methods Adopting a quasi-experimental before-after design, four RNTCP units from two major urban-industrial areas of Odisha were selected for intervention, which spanned five quarters and covered 151,400 people, of which 30% were slum-dwelling migrants. Two similar units comprised the control population. The hypothesis was, reaching the under reached in the intervention area through NFHPs would increase TB notification from these traditionally under-notifying units. RNTCP notification data during intervention was compared with pre-intervention era, adjusted for contemporaneous changes in control population Results The project detected 488 Xpert+ TB cases, of whom 466 were administered RNTCP treatment. This translated into notification of additional 198 new bacteriologically positive cases to RNTCP, a 30% notification surge, after adjustment for 2% decline in control. This meant an average quarterly increase in notification of 41.20(20.08, 62.31; p<0.001) cases. The increase was immediate, evident from the rise in level in the time series analysis by 50.42(10.28, 90.55; p = 0.02) cases. Conclusion Engagement with NFHPs contributed to an increase in TB notification to RNTCP from key under reached, slum-dwelling migrant populations.
Neurobiology of Non-Motor Symptoms in Parkinson Disease

Parkinson disease (PD) is a multisystem disease clinically characterized by variegated motor and non-motor (NM) deficits. Many of these NM alterations antedate motor dysfunctions, representing a preclinical phase spanning 20 or even more years before the diagnosis of PD is established, and then worsen with disease progression. The clinical spectrum of NM symptoms in PD and atypical parkinsonism has been repeatedly reviewed [1-6]. Their causes of NM symptoms in PD are multifactorial and linked to widespread distribution of α-synuclein (αSyn), the basic pathological protein aggregated in neurons, neurites, presynaptic terminals and glia as hallmarks in PD and other synucleinopathies [7]. αSyn aggregation in presynaptic terminals that predates the formation of Lewy bodies (LB) and dystrophic neurites and does not necessarily correlate with LB pathology [8] is not restricted to specific dopaminergic brainstem nuclei, but involves multiple areas of the central, autonomic, and peripheral nervous system, the retina, sympathetic and parasympathetic ganglia, nerves, skin, salivary glands, and other organs [9,10]. The pathology of NM symptoms in PD has been reviewed recently [11], and its sequential part in the disease progression has been presented [12]. This is a brief update of the relations between αSyn deposition and the most frequent NM symptoms, and a discussion of animal models and their probable relevance for NM aspects of PD.
Stable isotopes from multiple tissues reveal diet switching in sharks

Food web relationships in marine systems have traditionally been defined through stomach content analysis, but biochemical techniques have recently emerged to validate and broaden temporal diet patterns. Stable isotope analysis has become a practical tool for evaluating these relationships in aquatic systems; however, routine sampling of muscle tissue captures only part of the trophic information available from each animal. We compared δ 15 N and δ 13 C values among liver, muscle and cartilage in the blue shark Prionace glauca, shortfin mako Isurus oxyrinchus, and common thresher Alopias vulpinus from the northwest Atlantic to show how multiple-tissue sampling captured feeding relationships which would have been invisible to muscle tissue alone. Specifically, we demonstrated evidence of a cephalopod to bluefish Pomatomus saltatrix diet switch in the short- fin mako in spring, and found that the blue shark and common thresher have consistent diets throughout the year. We concluded that consistency observed among stable isotope values in multi- ple tissues implied that the fish were in steady-state with the isotope ratios of their diet and that multiple tissues should be used in trophic assessments of large pelagic fishes. Further experiments to quantify the turnover of stable isotopes in different tissues and species are needed to improve the accuracy of stable-isotope analyses .