Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The cost of managing complex surgical site infections following primary hip and knee arthroplasty: A population-based cohort study in Alberta, Canada

Abstract Objective Nearly 800,000 primary hip and knee arthroplasty procedures are performed annually in North America. Approximately 1% of these are complicated by a complex surgical site infection (SSI), leading to very high healthcare costs. However, population-based studies to properly estimate the economic burden are lacking. We aimed to address this knowledge gap. Design Economic burden study. Methods Using administrative health and clinical databases, we created a cohort of all patients in Alberta, Canada, who received a primary hip or knee arthroplasty between April 1, 2012, and March 31, 2015. All patients who developed a complex SSI postoperatively were identified through a provincial infection prevention and control database. A combination of corporate microcosting data and gross costing methods were used to determine total mean 12- and 24-month costs, enabling comparison of costs between the infected and noninfected patients. Results Mean 12-month total costs were significantly greater in patients who developed a complex SSI compared to those who did not (CAD$95,321 [US$68,150] vs CAD$19,893 [US$14,223]; P < .001). The magnitude of the cost difference persisted even after controlling for underlying patient factors. The most commonly identified causative pathogen (38%) was Staphylococcus aureus (95% MSSA). Conclusions Complex SSIs following hip and knee arthroplasty lead to high healthcare costs, which are expected to rise as the yearly number of surgeries increases. Using our costing estimates, the cost-effectiveness of different strategies to prevent SSIs should be investigated.
Simultaneous Presentation of Definite Vestibular Migraine and Definite Ménière's Disease: Overlapping Syndrome of Two Diseases

Objectives: To review the clinical records of patients that exhibited the clinical features of both vestibular migraine (VM) and Ménière's disease (MD) during each episodic vertigo attack and to discuss the possible pathophysiology of such combination of symptoms. Subjects: Ten patients that were selected according to criteria based on a combination of the diagnostic criteria for definite MD and VM (9 females and one male, age: 22–54 years) were enrolled. They were required to show features of both diseases in each vertigo attack. Methods: The patients' medical histories and pure-tone audiometry, cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP), video head-impulse test (vHIT), and caloric test results were examined. cVEMP was recorded using 500 and 1,000 Hz short tone bursts (125dBSPL, air-conducted), 500 Hz-1,000 Hz cVEMP slope, an index of endolymphatic hydrops in the saccule was calculated using normalized amplitudes of p13-n23. For performing vHIT, each subject was seated 1.5 m in front of a target and asked to keep watching it as their head was passively rotated by the examiner. Their eye movements were evaluated using video-oculography while their head movements were recorded using inertial sensors. Results: The patients were predominantly female. On average, the onset of migrainous headaches occurred 9 years earlier than the onset of vertigo attacks. All of the patients but one had migraines with auras. Five of the 10 patients had a family history of vertigo attacks accompanied by both migrainous and auditory symptoms. The patients mainly displayed hearing loss at low frequencies. Nine patients exhibited 500–1,000 Hz cVEMP slope < −19.9, which was suggestive of endolymphatic hydrops. None of the patients who underwent vHIT showed abnormal canal function. One patient showed unilaterally decreased caloric responses. Conclusions: These patients presented with simultaneous MD and VM signs/symptoms might be referred to “VM/MD overlapping syndrome (VM/MD-OS)” as a new clinical syndrome.
Logographic Subword Model for Neural Machine Translation

A novel logographic subword model is proposed to reinterpret logograms as abstract subwords for neural machine translation. Our approach drastically reduces the size of an artificial neural network, while maintaining comparable BLEU scores as those attained with the baseline RNN and CNN seq2seq models. The smaller model size also leads to shorter training and inference time. Experiments demonstrate that in the tasks of English-Chinese/Chinese-English translation, the reduction of those aspects can be from $11\%$ to as high as $77\%$. Compared to previous subword models, abstract subwords can be applied to various logographic languages. Considering most of the logographic languages are ancient and very low resource languages, these advantages are very desirable for archaeological computational linguistic applications such as a resource-limited offline hand-held Demotic-English translator.
The association between early life antibiotic use and allergic disease in young children: recent insights and their implications

ABSTRACT Introduction: Greater prescribing of antibiotics to infants has coincided with an epidemic of allergic disease. Through meta-analytic synthesis, accumulating evidence from prospective or database cohorts suggests a link between infant antibiotic treatment and the development of atopy. Stronger associations seen with multiple course and broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment add to biological plausibility. A major bias, confounding by indication, has been addressed in studies on antibiotic treatment of conditions which do not precede allergic disease. Areas covered: Our review provides an up-to-date synthesis of the current literature on associations between infant antibiotic exposure and future allergic disease. We discuss methods that assist in reducing study bias and look at new insights from studies of the infant gut microbiome. Expert commentary: Large-scale profiling of the gut microbiome provides a new tool for disentangling biases found in observational studies of infant antibiotic use. To date, microbial dysbiosis of the infant gut has been reported to predict allergic disease independent of antibiotic exposure up to 3 months after birth. However, these studies have not accounted for antibiotic treatment in later infancy. Continued study of the infant gut microbiome, mycobiome, or resistome will provide a closer link to antibiotic treatment or refute it as a cause of allergic disease.
LDL-C does not cause cardiovascular disease: a comprehensive review of the current literature

ABSTRACT Introduction: For half a century, a high level of total cholesterol (TC) or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) has been considered to be the major cause of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD), and statin treatment has been widely promoted for cardiovascular prevention. However, there is an increasing understanding that the mechanisms are more complicated and that statin treatment, in particular when used as primary prevention, is of doubtful benefit. Areas covered: The authors of three large reviews recently published by statin advocates have attempted to validate the current dogma. This article delineates the serious errors in these three reviews as well as other obvious falsifications of the cholesterol hypothesis. Expert commentary: Our search for falsifications of the cholesterol hypothesis confirms that it is unable to satisfy any of the Bradford Hill criteria for causality and that the conclusions of the authors of the three reviews are based on misleading statistics, exclusion of unsuccessful trials and by ignoring numerous contradictory observations.
An update of clinical experience with the quadrivalent meningococcal ACWY-CRM conjugate vaccine

ABSTRACT Introduction: Menveo, quadrivalent meningococcal ACWY-CRM conjugate vaccine, was first licensed in 2010 in the United States and has a long track record of immunogenicity and safety in all age groups, including infants from 2 months of age. Areas covered: This review presents clinical and post-marketing experience with MenACWY-CRM from 32 studies conducted in 20 countries that included individuals aged from 2 months to 75 years. Expert commentary: This decade has seen an increased number of countries reporting serogroup W ST-11 clonal complex outbreaks of invasive meningococcal disease. As infant vaccination programs targeting the meningococcus are reevaluated, the role of quadrivalent meningococcal vaccines including MenACWY-CRM will be expanded. MenACWY-CRM was immunogenic in all populations and age groups studied, regardless of country of origin. MenACWY-CRM can be coadministered with many routinely used infant, toddler and adolescent vaccines, and traveler vaccines in adults, allowing for flexible use within national immunization programs and recommendations. Antibody persistence has been demonstrated up to 5 years post vaccination in all age groups. Booster doses induced robust increases in antibody titers for all four serogroups, indicative of effective priming and induction of immunological memory. The acceptable safety profile of MenACWY-CRM has been confirmed in large post-marketing safety studies.
Molecular Identification of Bartonella melophagi and Wolbachia Supergroup F from Sheep Keds in Xinjiang, China

To confirm that Bartonella and Wolbachia were carried by sheep keds (Melophagus ovinus) in southern Xinjiang of China, 17 M. ovinus samples, which were collected in Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, were randomly selected. In this study, the Bartonella gltA and Wolbachia 16S rRNA gene were amplified through conventional PCR and the sequence of those amplified products, were analyzed. The results demonstrated that Bartonella was carried by all of the 17 sheep keds and Wolbachia was carried by 15 out of them. Bartonella was identified as B. melophagi. Three strains of Wolbachia were supergroup F and 1 strain has not been confirmed yet. It is the first report about Wolbachia supergroup F was found in sheep keds and provided the molecular evidence that B. melophagi and Wolbachia supergroup F were carried by sheep keds in Aksu Prefecture of southern Xinjiang, China. The 2 pathogens were found in sheep keds around Taklimakan Desert for the first time.
Integrative Transcriptomic and microRNAomic Profiling Reveals Immune Mechanism for the Resilience to Soybean Meal Stress in Fish Gut and Liver

In aquafeeds, fish-meal has been commonly replaced with plant protein, which often causes enteritis. Currently, foodborne enteritis has few solutions in regards to prevention or cures. The recovery mechanism from enteritis in herbivorous fish may further help understand prevention or therapy. However, few reports could be found regarding the recovery or resilience to fish foodborne enteritis. In this study, grass carp was used as an animal model for soybean meal induced enteritis and it was found that the fish could adapt to the soybean meal at a moderate level of substitution. Resilience to soybean meal stress was found in the 40% soybean meal group for juvenile fish at growth performance, morphological and gene expression levels, after a 7-week feeding trial. Furthermore, the intestinal transcriptomic data, including transcriptome and miRNAome, was applied to demonstrate resilience mechanisms. The result of this study revealed that in juvenile grass carp after a 7-week feeding cycle with 40% soybean meal, the intestine recovered via enhancing both an immune tolerance and wound healing, the liver gradually adapted via re-balancing immune responses, such as phagosome and complement cascades. Also, many immune factors in the gut and liver were systemically revealed among stages of on-setting, remising, and recovering (or relief). In addition, miRNA regulation played a key role in switching immune states. Thus, the present data systemically demonstrated that the molecular adaptation mechanism of fish gut-liver immunity is involved in the resilience to soybean meal stress.
Multiple Myeloma Exemplifies a Model of Cancer Based on Tissue Disruption as the Initiator Event

The standard model of multiple myeloma (MM) oncogenesis is based on the genetic instability of MM cells and presents its evolution as the emergence of clones with more and more aggressive genotypes, giving them surviving and proliferating advantage. The micro-environment has a passive role. In contrast, many works have shown that the progression of MM is also characterized by the selection of clones with extended phenotypes able to destroy bone trabeculae, suggesting a major role for early micro-environmental disruption. We present a model of MM oncogenesis in which genetic instability is the consequence of the disruption of normal interactions between plasma cells and their environment, the bone remodeling compartment. These interactions, which normally ensure the stability of the genotypes and phenotypes of normal plasma cells could be disrupted by many factors as soon as the early steps of the disease (MGUS, pre-MGUS states). Therapeutical implications of the model are presented.
Growth hormone secretagogue receptor constitutive activity impairs voltage‐gated calcium channel‐dependent inhibitory neurotransmission in hippocampal neurons

Presynaptic CaV2 voltage‐gated calcium channels link action potentials arriving at the presynaptic terminal to neurotransmitter release. Hence, their regulation is essential to fine tune brain circuitry. CaV2 channels are highly sensitive to G protein‐coupled receptor (GPCR) modulation. Our previous data indicated that growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) constitutive activity impairs CaV2 channels by decreasing their surface density. We present compelling support for the impact of CaV2.2 channel inhibition by agonist‐independent GHSR activity exclusively on GABA release in hippocampal cultures. We found that this selectivity arises from a high reliance of GABA release on CaV2.2 rather than on CaV2.1 channels. Our data provide new information on the effects of the ghrelin–GHSR system on synaptic transmission, suggesting a putative physiological role of the constitutive signalling of a GPCR that is expressed at high levels in brain areas with restricted access to its natural agonist.
Endovascular Treatment in Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Nationwide Survey in Korea

Purpose As endovascular therapy (EVT) has been approved as a treatment guideline for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), it has been increasing in Korea. We conducted a nationwide survey to evaluate the current status of EVT for patients with AIS in Korea. Materials and Methods An electronic survey was sent to a representative clinician at each hospital where EVT was available in Korea. A Google survey was used to distribute the questionnaires and receive responses from October 2017 to December 2017. Results Among 120 hospitals in our society, 76 participated in this survey. In 26% of the hospitals, more than 50 annual cases of EVT were performed, and 25–50 annual cases in 37%. Fifty-six hospitals (73.7%) achieved successful recanalization (thrombolysis in cerebral infarction ≥2b) in more than 80% of patients. Computed tomography (CT) angiography was the most common imaging modality for AIS treatment, and magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion, MR-perfusion/diffusion, and perfusion CT were frequently used in order. Non-eligibility criteria for EVT included a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale <4 (64.5%), the absence of MR perfusion/diffusion mismatch (52.6%), and a low Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (42.1%). For anterior circulation stroke, 60% of Korean hospitals adopted a wider time range of “8 hours” from symptom onset, while 70% of hospitals had a time limitation of 12–24 hours for posterior circulation stroke. The most preferred EVT device was a stentriever (89.4%). In the failed cases due to underlying stenosis, 79% of Korean hospitals performed angioplasty or stenting for revascularization. Conclusion This first nationwide survey showed that most Korean hospitals conducted EVT for AIS patients according to the present guideline in the era of mechanical thrombectomy by integrating the clinical experiences of many medical institutions and specialists.
Autologous Fat Transfer After Augmentation and Reconstruction of the Female Breast: An International, Cross-Sectional Photo-Comparison Study Among Different Physician and Laymen Study Groups

Objective. The aim of this study is to compare the cosmetic evaluation of autologous fat transfer (AFT) for various indications between surgeons and different laymen groups. Background Data. Despite the upsurge in AFT scientific/clinical interest, objectifying satisfaction has only recently progressed beyond simple Likert-type/Visual Analog Scales. Furthermore, differences in satisfaction between laymen and surgeons has not been thoroughly studied. Method. A photo comparison study between European plastic surgeons and different laymen groups was conducted to investigate agreement on cosmetic evaluation of AFT. Three sets of preoperative/postoperative photographs illustrating patients treated with External Vacuum Expansion (EVE) + AFT for various indications in breast surgery were scored according to the Harris Scale, and the interrater agreement was analyzed using Cohen’s κ. Results. The overall agreement between the surgeons and the groups of former augmentation, control group, and deep inferior epigastric artery perforator patients was fair, moderate, and substantial, respectively. Interrater agreements among different laymen groups and surgeons from different countries among themselves was substantial to almost perfect. Finally, we found that laymen are generally more optimistic about postoperative results than surgeons. Conclusion. In our study, former augmentation patients showed the lowest agreement with surgeons, in the cosmetic appreciation of EVE + AFT and this group might benefit from a more thorough preoperative consultation regarding expectations when choosing AFT. However, overall laymen tend to be more optimistic about postoperative results and surgeon education in general does not seem influenced by surgeon nationality. The significant differences between surgeons and laymen in the cosmetic evaluation of EVE + AFT justifies further studies that focus on the qualitative aspects of these differences to further balance patients’ and surgeons’ expectations.
GANs beyond divergence minimization

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) can be interpreted as an adversarial game between two players, a discriminator D and a generator G, in which D learns to classify real from fake data and G learns to generate realistic data by "fooling" D into thinking that fake data is actually real data. Currently, a dominating view is that G actually learns by minimizing a divergence given that the general objective function is a divergence when D is optimal. However, this view has been challenged due to inconsistencies between theory and practice. In this paper, we discuss of the properties associated with most loss functions for G (e.g., saturating/non-saturating f-GAN, LSGAN, WGAN, etc.). We show that these loss functions are not divergences and do not have the same equilibrium as expected of divergences. This suggests that G does not need to minimize the same objective function as D maximize, nor maximize the objective of D after swapping real data with fake data (non-saturating GAN) but can instead use a wide range of possible loss functions to learn to generate realistic data. We define GANs through two separate and independent D maximization and G minimization steps. We generalize the generator step to four new classes of loss functions, most of which are actual divergences (while traditional G loss functions are not). We test a wide variety of loss functions from these four classes on a synthetic dataset and on CIFAR-10. We observe that most loss functions converge well and provide comparable data generation quality to non-saturating GAN, LSGAN, and WGAN-GP generator loss functions, whether we use divergences or non-divergences. These results suggest that GANs do not conform well to the divergence minimization theory and form a much broader range of models than previously assumed.
Spectral-based tests for periodicities

In this thesis, tests for periodicity are investigated based on a spectral analysis of a time series. Some important fundamental theories of spectral analysis of stationary and harmonic processes are reviewed. A regression model is developed in the frequency domain based on the Fourier transformation. We present some of the periodogram based tests, which are the global test and three local tests, i.e., the hearing test, local F test and Thomson’s multitaper test. We will show that most of the tests can be derived from our regression model with the error term having an approximately diagonal covariance matrix. The distribution of the error term of the spectral regression model is based on the asymptotic distribution of the tapered Fourier transform of the error process. This asymptotic distribution has approximately a diagonal covariance matrix when the sample size is large and the spectral density functions (SDFs) of error processes have small dynamic range. We contrast the F test in the time domain and the local F test in the frequency domain as well as the global and local spectral-based tests. The global test uses the spectral estimates at all sample points, whereas a local test uses a subset of the sample points available. Standard global tests for periodicity are often based on the assumption of a Gaussian IID error process. Using a smoothing spline approach, we extend the global test to the non-IID case. We compare this approach to a number of local tests for periodicity such as the local F test, the test commonly used in hearing sciences, and Thomson’s multitaper F ii test. Using regression-based F tests, we demonstrate that asymptotic size and power calculations can be made for some of these tests. We compare the size and power at finite sample sizes, under a number of different experimental conditions. According to the exploratory data analysis, we applied the local F test to hearing data, Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAEs), collected in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, OSU. The logistic regression model and the noncentral F mixed effects regression models are explored to capture the important features of hearing data. In particular, noncentral-F mixed effects regression models capture within-subject-variability of the distortion products of healthy hearing subjects. This is key to understanding the underlying processes inherent in DPOAEbased hearing tests. The Penalized Quasi-Likelihood method is used to estimate the model parameters and we demonstrate how to do the model selection and diagnosing.
Exploring and integrating discrete and dimensional approaches while inducing negative emotional states

Abstract Selecting visual stimuli for inducing specific emotional states is very challenging, since the choice relies on specific conceptualization of emotions. In this work, we present a set of 55 stimuli, realized integrating discrete and dimensional theories of emotions, and specifically selected to investigate anger, fear, and disgust reactions in non-clinical and clinical contexts. Our set of stimuli presents several aspects of novelty since (1) a large and heterogeneous sample of subjects from the general population was involved in the labelling task, and (2) bivariate and multivariate statistical techniques were applied to integrate emotion models. The proposed set of stimuli could be useful for researchers and other professionals in the affective sciences to address negative emotion recognition issues within a broader perspective both in general population and in psychiatric samples. The obtained comprehensive characterization of the stimuli allowed us to confirm the sexual dimorphism in emotional processing.