Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Norepinephrine Administration Is Associated with Higher Mortality in Dialysis Requiring Acute Kidney Injury Patients with Septic Shock

(1) Background: Norepinephrine (NE) is the first-line vasoactive agent used in septic shock patients; however, the effect of norepinephrine on dialysis-required septic acute kidney injury (AKI-D) patients is uncertain. (2) Methods: To evaluate the impact of NE on 90-day mortality and renal recovery in septic AKI-D patients, we enrolled patients in intensive care units from 30 hospitals in Taiwan. (3) Results: 372 patients were enrolled and were divided into norepinephrine users and non-users. After adjustment by Inverse probability of treatment weighted (IPTW), there was no significant difference of baseline comorbidities between the two groups. NE users had significantly higher 90-day mortality rate and using NE is a strong predictor of 90-day mortality in the multivariate Cox regression (HR = 1.497, p = 0.027) after adjustment. The generalized additive model disclosed norepinephrine alone exerted a dose–dependent effect on 90-day mortality, while other vasoactive agents were not. (4) Conclusion: Using norepinephrine in septic AKI-D patients is associated with higher 90-day mortality and the effect is dose-dependent. Further study to explore the potential mechanism is needed.
A Generalised Formulation for Collaborative Representation of Image Patches (GP-CRC)

Collaborative Representation based Categorization (CRC) represents query samples collaboratively as an optimal weighted average of training samples across all classes. It has been shown to be e ﬀ ective for recognition problems, but its performance degrades in presence of high variation in image background. We present a generalization mathematical reformulation of a patch based CRC approach. The proposed method (GP-CRC) analytically overcomes the problem in the cost function itself and provides a closed form solution. Experiments are carried out on two face recognition (AR and LFW) and two species recognition (Oxford-102 Flowers and Oxford-IIIT Pets) benchmarks. The proposed method outperforms the original CRC as well as basic patch based CRC consistently across all the datasets (with statistical signiﬁcance in majority of the cases) and comparable or marginally higher accuracy than the state of the art probabilistic CRC. It is also demonstrated experimentally that our method is more robust to background variations than its competitors.
Quality appraisal of clinical guidelines for surgical site infection prevention: A systematic review

Background Surgical site infections (SSI) occur in up to 10% of surgeries. Wound care practices to prevent infections are guided by Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs), yet their contribution to improving patient outcomes relies on their quality and adoption in practice. We critically evaluated the quality of CPGs for SSI prevention during pre-, intra- and post-operative phases of care. Methods We systematically reviewed the literature from 1990–2018 using the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, ProQuest databases and five guidelines repositories. We extracted characteristics of each guideline using purposely-developed data collection tools. We assessed overall quality using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) tool. Results Combined searches of databases and repositories yielded 5,910 citations. Of these, we reviewed 215 full text documents. The final sample included 15 documents: 6 complete CPGs, 3 CPG updates, and 6 supplementary documents. The overall %mean scores across AGREE II domains for CPGs were: 1) scope and purpose (%mean ± SD = 86.3±23.5); 2) stakeholder involvement (%mean ± SD = 64±31.0); 3) rigour of development (%mean ± SD = 68.7±30.6); 4) clarity and presentation (%mean ± SD = 88.5±16.7); 5) applicability (%mean ± SD = 44±30.2); and, 5) editorial independence (%mean ± SD = 61±37.6). Based on individual AGREE II domains and overall scores, we appraised 4 out of 6 CPGs (inclusive of updates) as “recommended” for use in practice. Overall agreement among appraisers was excellent (ICC 0.86 [95%CI 0.73–0.94] - 0.98 [95%CI 0.96–0.99]; p <0.001). Discussion International interest in CPG development has resulted in refinements to methodologies, which has led to improvements in the overall quality of the product. Implications for translation Given the domains that received the lowest scores, it is clear that we need more consumer involvement and better consideration of the implementation challenges with CPG uptake and sustainability.
The Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) genome and transcriptome assembly

Arctic charr have a circumpolar distribution, persevere under extreme environmental conditions, and reach ages unknown to most other salmonids. The Salvelinus genus is primarily composed of species with genomes that are structured more like the ancestral salmonid genome than most Oncorhynchus and Salmo species of sister genera. It is thought that this aspect of the genome may be important for local adaptation (due to increased recombination) and anadromy (the migration of fish from saltwater to freshwater). In this study, we describe the generation of a new genetic map, the sequencing and assembly of the Arctic charr genome (GenBank accession: GCF_002910315.2) using the newly created genetic map and a previous genetic map, and present several analyses of the Arctic charr genes and genome assembly. The newly generated genetic map consists of 8,574 unique genetic markers and is similar to previous genetic maps with the exception of three major structural differences. The N50, identified BUSCOs, repetitive DNA content, and total size of the Arctic charr assembled genome are all comparable to other assembled salmonid genomes. An analysis to identify orthologous genes revealed that a large number of orthologs could be identified between salmonids and many appear to have highly conserved gene expression profiles between species. Comparing orthologous gene expression profiles may give us a better insight into which genes are more likely to influence species specific phenotypes.
Improving target tracking robustness with Bayesian data fusion

Intelligent data fusion is an active area of research. Most recent works in data fusion for object tracking employ machine learning techniques that lack flexibility due to their inability to adapt to changing conditions in the presence of limited amounts of training data. Our work explores a hierarchical Bayesian fusion approach, which aggregates information from multiple tracking algorithms into a more robust estimate and hence outperforms its constituent trackers. This adaptive and general data fusion scheme takes advantage of each tracker’s local statistics and combines them using a global softened majority voting. The widespread availability of high-performance multicore processors has allowed parallel threads to run multiple trackers asynchronously, which means that the algorithm can be executed in real time as it is only limited by the slowest tracker in the ensemble. The proposed approach is corroborated and evaluated on the OTB-50 dataset.
The kinases PIG-1 and PAR-1 act in redundant pathways to regulate asymmetric division in the EMS blastomere of C. elegans

The PAR-1 kinase of C. elegans is localized to the posterior of the one-cell embryo and its mutations affect asymmetric spindle placement and partitioning of cytoplasmic components in the first cell cycle. However, unlike mutations in the posteriorly localized PAR-2 protein, par-1 mutations do not cause failure to restrict the anterior PAR polarity complex. Further, it has been difficult to examine the role of PAR-1 in subsequent divisions due to the early defects in par-1 mutant embryos. Here we show that the PIG-1 kinase acts redundantly with PAR-1 to restrict the anterior PAR-3 protein for polarity maintenance in the one-cell embryo. By using a weak allele of par-1 that exhibits enhanced lethality when combined with a pig-1 mutation we have further explored roles for these genes in subsequent divisions. We find that both PIG-1 and PAR-1 regulate spindle orientation in the EMS blastomere of the four-cell stage embryo to ensure that it undergoes an asymmetric division. In this cell, PIG-1 and PAR-1 act in parallel pathways for spindle positioning, PIG-1 in the MES-1/SRC-1 pathway and PAR-1 in the Wnt pathway.
Real-Time Joint Semantic Segmentation and Depth Estimation Using Asymmetric Annotations

Deployment of deep learning models in robotics as sensory information extractors can be a daunting task to handle, even using generic GPU cards. Here, we address three of its most prominent hurdles, namely, i) the adaptation of a single model to perform multiple tasks at once (in this work, we consider depth estimation and semantic segmentation crucial for acquiring geometric and semantic understanding of the scene), while ii) doing it in real-time, and iii) using asymmetric datasets with uneven numbers of annotations per each modality. To overcome the first two issues, we adapt a recently proposed real-time semantic segmentation network, making changes to further reduce the number of floating point operations. To approach the third issue, we embrace a simple solution based on hard knowledge distillation under the assumption of having access to a powerful ‘teacher’ network. We showcase how our system can be easily extended to handle more tasks, and more datasets, all at once, performing depth estimation and segmentation both indoors and outdoors with a single model. Quantitatively, we achieve results equivalent to (or better than) current state-of-the-art approaches with one forward pass costing just 13ms and 6.5 GFLOPs on 640×480 inputs. This efficiency allows us to directly incorporate the raw predictions of our network into the SemanticFusion framework [1] for dense 3D semantic reconstruction of the scene.33The models are available here: https://github.com/drsleep/ multi–task–refinenet
Inhibition of endogenous hydrogen sulfide production exacerbates the inflammatory response during urine-derived sepsis-induced kidney injury

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of endogenous H2S on the inflammatory response in kidneys following urine-derived sepsis-induced injury. A rabbit model of urine-derived sepsis was established by injecting Escherichia coli into the ligated ureter. Rabbits were randomly divided into the, control, sham, sepsis and DL-propargylglycine (PAG)-treated sepsis groups. The same surgical procedure except for the bacteria injection was performed for the sham group, while the control group was fed on normal diet without any additional treatments. The monitoring of vital signs, routine blood examinations and kidney function tests were performed prior to surgery and at 12, 24, 36 and 48 h following surgery. The serum H2S concentration and kidney cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE) activity were determined following surgery. Pathological alterations were assessed by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, and the expression levels of inflammation-associated cytokines were detected by western blot analysis. The results demonstrated that rabbits in the sepsis and PAG groups exhibited a significant increase in rectal temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate following surgery when compared with the sham group; with the PAG group demonstrating the greatest increase. In addition, white cell counts and creatinine and urea nitrogen levels were significantly elevated following surgery in the sepsis and PAG groups when compared with the sham group. The serum H2S concentration and kidney CSE activity were significantly reduced in the sepsis group compared with the sham group, and a significant decrease in the levels of these factors were observed in the PAG group compared with the sepsis group. H&E staining indicated obvious structural abnormalities in kidney tissues in the sepsis group, which were exacerbated by PAG treatment. In addition, PAG treatment significantly increased the expression levels of nuclear factor-κB and interleukin-6, and decreased transforming growth factor-β1 expression when compared with the sepsis group. In conclusion, PAG significantly exacerbated urine-derived sepsis-induced kidney injury potentially via altering the expression of inflammation-associated cytokines.
Association between coronary artery disease and hepatitis C virus seropositivity.

Background Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Predisposing factors include some infectious aetiologies that have a systemic effect like hepatitis C virus. Aims The aim of this study was to explore the association between hepatitis C viral infection and coronary artery disease. Methods This case-control study was designed to include 100 patients attending the Cardiology Department in Tanta University Hospital, Gharbia Governorate, Egypt, for diagnostic angiography. A consecutive sample of 50 patients with abnormal angiographic findings was matched with another 50 consecutive patients with normal angiographic findings regarding age, sex, and major risk factors for coronary artery disease (diabetes mellitus, hypertension and smoking). Patients were investigated for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Results We found that 46% of abnormal angiography were HCV-positive compared to 28% of patients with normal angiography; this difference was not statistically significant. On studying the number of vessels affected among patients with abnormal angiography it was noted that one vessel affection was found mainly among HCV-negative patients (59.3% compared to 17.4% among HCV-negative and -positive patients). Multi-vessel affection was found mainly among HCV-positive patient (47.8% compared to 22.2% among HCV-positive and -negative respectively). Conclusions The possible association between HCV positivity and extension of coronary artery disease may refer to the role of HCV in coronary artery disease pathology. Further studies on a large scale to investigate this association are recommended.
Ultrastructural features of the retina and optic nerve of Strombus luhuanus, a marine gastropod

The retina and optic nerve of Strombus luhuanus were examined by transmission electron microscopy in order to provide an ultrastructural basis for their electrophysiological responses, described elsewhere. The retina exhibits a distinct rhabdomeric layer and layers of cell nuclei and neuropile. These layers are comprised predominantly of three cell types that can be readily distinguished on the basis of their shape, their nuclei and cytoplasmic inclusions such as vesicles and filaments. One type of cell, apparently a photoreceptor that depolarizes in response to photic stimulation, possesses a long distal segment with microvilli; such distal segments comprise the bulk of the rhabdomeric layer. A second cell type, which appears to be supportive in function, contains a bundle of tightly packed tonofilaments that extend across the retina from the capsule to the vitreous body; this cell is quite narrow except in the region near the rhabdomeric layer, where it is expanded and wraps around the other cell types. A third type of cell possesses many short microvilli that project from its apical end into the rhabdomeric layer; it may be a second type of photoreceptor or another type of neuron. The retina also contains bundles of cilia that appear to project from a possible fourth type of cell. The layer of neuropile contains numerous processes that exhibit a variety of vesicle types and structures generally associated with synapses; these appear to play a role in mediating inhibitory and excitatory interactions between the retinal neurons. The optic nerve exhibits two populations of fiber distinguishable on the basis of mean diameter. Fibers in these two populations apparently yield “on” and “off” discharges in response to photic stimulation of the eye.
Disordered skyrmion phase stabilized by magnetic frustration in a chiral magnet

Magnetic frustration in a chiral magnet stabilizes a new disordered skyrmion phase over an extended temperature region. Magnetic skyrmions are vortex-like topological spin textures often observed to form a triangular-lattice skyrmion crystal in structurally chiral magnets with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Recently, β-Mn structure–type Co-Zn-Mn alloys were identified as a new class of chiral magnet to host such skyrmion crystal phases, while β-Mn itself is known as hosting an elemental geometrically frustrated spin liquid. We report the intermediate composition system Co7Zn7Mn6 to be a unique host of two disconnected, thermal-equilibrium topological skyrmion phases; one is a conventional skyrmion crystal phase stabilized by thermal fluctuations and restricted to exist just below the magnetic transition temperature Tc, and the other is a novel three-dimensionally disordered skyrmion phase that is stable well below Tc. The stability of this new disordered skyrmion phase is due to a cooperative interplay between the chiral magnetism with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and the frustrated magnetism inherent to β-Mn.
Evaluating Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Images for Estimating Forest Canopy Fuels in a Ponderosa Pine Stand

Forests in the Southwestern United States are becoming increasingly susceptible to large wildfires. As a result, forest managers are conducting forest fuel reduction treatments for which spatial fuels and structure information are necessary. However, this information currently has coarse spatial resolution and variable accuracy. This study tested the feasibility of using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery to estimate forest canopy fuels and structure in a southwestern ponderosa pine stand. UAV-based multispectral images and Structure-from-Motion point clouds were used to estimate canopy cover, canopy height, tree density, canopy base height, and canopy bulk density. Estimates were validated with field data from 57 plots and aerial photography from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Imaging Program. Results indicate that UAV imagery can be used to accurately estimate forest canopy cover (correlation coefficient (R2) = 0.82, root mean square error (RMSE) = 8.9%). Tree density estimates correctly detected 74% of field-mapped trees with a 16% commission error rate. Individual tree height estimates were strongly correlated with field measurements (R2 = 0.71, RMSE = 1.83 m), whereas canopy base height estimates had a weaker correlation (R2 = 0.34, RMSE = 2.52 m). Estimates of canopy bulk density were not correlated to field measurements. UAV-derived inputs resulted in drastically different estimates of potential crown fire behavior when compared with coarse resolution LANDFIRE data. Methods from this study provide additional data to supplement, or potentially substitute, traditional estimates of canopy fuel.
Serum neurofilament light

Objective To explore the utility of serum neurofilament light chain (NfL) as a biomarker for primary and secondary neuroaxonal injury after ischemic stroke (IS) and study its value for the prediction of clinical outcome. Methods We used an ultrasensitive single-molecule array assay to measure serum NfL levels in healthy controls (n = 30) and 2 independent cohorts of patients with IS: (1) with serial serum sampling at hospital arrival (n = 196), at days 2, 3, and 7 (n = 89), and up to 6 months post stroke; and (2) with standardized MRI at baseline and at 6 months post stroke, and with cross-sectional serum sampling at 6 months (n = 95). We determined the temporal profile of serum NfL levels, their association with imaging markers of neuroaxonal injury, and with clinical outcome. Results Patients with IS had higher serum NfL levels compared with healthy controls starting from admission until 6 months post stroke. Serum NfL levels peaked at day 7 (211.2 pg/mL [104.7–442.6], median [IQR]) and correlated with infarct volumes (day 7: partial r = 0.736, p = 1.5 × 10−15). Six months post stroke, patients with recurrent ischemic lesions on MRI (n = 19) had higher serum NfL levels compared to those without new lesions (n = 76, p = 0.002). Serum NfL levels 6 months post stroke further correlated with a quantitative measure of secondary neurodegeneration obtained from diffusion tensor imaging MRI (r = 0.361, p = 0.001). Serum NfL levels 7 days post stroke independently predicted modified Rankin Scale scores 3 months post stroke (cumulative odds ratio [95% confidence interval] = 2.35 [1.60–3.45]; p = 1.24 × 10−05). Conclusion Serum NfL holds promise as a biomarker for monitoring primary and secondary neuroaxonal injury after IS and for predicting functional outcome.
How Usability Can Save the Day - Methodological Considerations for Making Automated Driving a Success Story

It will not be long until Level 3 Automated Driving Systems (L3 ADS) enter the consumer market. An important role corresponds to methodology development. The present paper gives impetus to the process of developing robust methods for evaluating Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) for L3 ADS. First, a literature review on automotive interfaces concerning methodology application is outlined showing that studies often lack to provide both self-report and observational data. To derive a comprehensive image of HMI quality, we recommend multi-method approach in user research. Subsequently, we provide an overview of state-of-the-art self-report and observational measures. From the availability of measures and the necessity to include both in user studies, the issue of the performance-preference dissociation arises. It threatens study designs and interpretation of results. Following methodological recommendations from the present work supports researchers and practitioners in the area of automated driving for proper study design and interpretation of study results.
Infantile bullous pemphigoid successfully treated with combined pulse corticosteroids and high‐dose IVIG

Bullous pemphigoid is the most common autoimmune blistering disorder in the elderly. It affects people aged 70 years or older. Clinically it is characterized by intensely pruritic eruption consisting of widespread tense blisters on an erythematous background. It is associated with cellular and humoral responses against hemidesmosomal components of the skin and mucous membranes. In contrast, infantile bullous pemphigoid is exceedingly rare disease and presents with some unique features like favorable prognosis, possible association with vaccination, and primary involvement of acral surfaces. Herein, we present a case of 4,5‐month‐old infant with neonatal pemphigoid, successfully treated with a combination of intravenous immunoglobulins and pulse methylprednisolone.