Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aristolochic acid‐induced upper tract urothelial carcinoma in Taiwan: Clinical characteristics and outcomes

Aristolochic acid (AA), a component of all Aristolochia‐based herbal medicines, is a potent nephrotoxin and human carcinogen associated with upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUC). To investigate the clinical and pathological characteristics of AA‐induced UUC, this study included 152 UUC patients, 93 of whom had been exposed to AA based on the presence of aristolactam‐DNA adducts in the renal cortex. Gene sequencing was used to identify tumors with A:T‐to‐T:A transversions in TP53, a mutational signature associated with AA. Cases with both aristolactam‐DNA adducts and A:T‐to‐T:A transversions in TP53 were defined as AA‐UUC, whereas patients lacking both of these biomarkers were classified as non‐AA‐UUC. Cases with either biomarker were classified as possible‐AA‐UUC. Forty (26%), 60 (40%), and 52 (34%) patients were classified as AA‐UUC, possible‐AA‐UUC and non‐AA‐UUC, respectively. AA‐UUC patients were younger (median ages: 64, 68, 68 years, respectively; p=0.189), predominately female (65%, 42%, 35%, respectively; p=0.011), had more end‐stage renal disease (28%, 10%, 12%, respectively; p=0.055), and were infrequent smokers (5%, 22%, 33%, respectively; p=0.07) compared to possible‐AA‐UUC and non‐AA‐UUC patients. All 14 patients who developed contralateral UUC had aristolactam‐DNA adducts; ten of these also had signature mutations. The contralateral UUC‐free survival period was shorter in AA‐UUC compared to possible‐ or non‐AA‐UUC (p=0.019 and 0.002, respectively), whereas no differences among groups were observed for bladder cancer recurrence. In conclusion, AA‐UUC patients tend to be younger and female, and have more advanced renal disease. Notably, AA exposure was associated with an increased risk for developing synchronous bilateral and metachronous contralateral UUC.
Double Sensitization to Honeybee and Wasp Venom: Immunotherapy with One or with Both Venoms?

Background: Double sensitization to honeybee (Apis mellifera) and wasp venom (Vespula spp.) as determined by skin test and measurement of specific IgE is common in hymenoptera sting allergy. Double-sensitized patients have either distinct antibodies for each venom or cross-reacting antibodies that recognize similar or identical epitopes in both venoms. Unfortunately, patients often fail to identify the stinging insect which makes it difficult to distinguish cross-reactors from non cross-reactors. However, for economic reasons as well as for the benefit of the patients, it would be useful to identify complete cross-reactors. Methods: In this study we investigated 24 double-sensitized patients who were candidates for venom immunotherapy. Homologous and heterologous FEIA inhibition was carried out with honeybee (Apis mellifera) and wasp venom (Vespula spp.) preparations from two different providers. The inhibitor concentrations were ranging from 0 to 100 μg protein/ml. Results: Sera of 4 patients were completely cross-reacting for one venom (3 honeybee, 1 wasp), 8 patients were partially cross-reacting and 10 patients were not cross-reacting. Two patients were excluded from the study due to insufficient homologous inhibition. Data from specific IgE measurements, skin test, and clinical history were not useful for the identification of cross-reacting patients. Conclusion: FEIA inhibition is easy to perform and useful for the identification of patients with complete cross-reactivity. In these patients immunotherapy might be restricted to one venom which is beneficial for the patient and cost-effective.
Short-term starvation decreases POMC mRNA but does not alter GnRH mRNA in the brain of adult male rats.

Dietary restriction reduces circulating gonadotropin and testosterone levels in male rats, an effect thought to be mediated through reduced gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion; however, the cellular mechanisms subserving this response are still unknown. We reasoned that if dietary restriction reduces GnRH secretion, this would be reflected by a decrease in GnRH synthesis and likewise cellular GnRH mRNA levels. We tested this hypothesis by comparing cellular levels of GnRH mRNA between ad libitum fed (n = 4) and starved (n = 4) adult male rats. Five days of starvation resulted in a 21% decrease in body weight and an 85% decline in serum testosterone levels (fed: 13.9 +/- 2.00 vs. starved: 2.1 +/- 0.70 nmol/l; p < 0.01). In situ hybridization and image analysis demonstrated that short-term starvation influenced neither GnRH cell number (fed: 148 +/- 16 vs. starved: 157 +/- 13 cells) nor cellular GnRH mRNA signal level (fed: 177 +/- 5 vs. starved: 160 +/- 7 grains/cell) in any region of the basal forebrain. Endogenous opioid peptides are known to exert an inhibitory effect on GnRH secretion and have been implicated in having a role in the starvation-induced effects on the reproductive system. We therefore also tested the hypothesis that alterations in proopiomelanocortin (POMC) gene expression are involved in the neuroendocrine response to starvation, by comparing cellular POMC mRNA levels in individual neurons (approximately 160 neurons/animal) of the arcuate and periarcuate nuclei between fed control (n = 4) and starved (n = 4) adult male rats. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Single image super-resolution using back-propagation neural networks

There are several existing mathematical algorithms for colour image upscaling like Nearest Neighbour, Bicubic and Bilinear. This paper firstly investigates the performances of these three and it has been found that Bicubic performs the best in terms of structural similarity and execution time. A Bicubic with backpropagation based ANN method has been proposed to improve the results. Bicubic with ANN shows 6.5% higher SSIM, 6.9% higher PSNR, 8.7% higher SNR and 30.23% lower MSE values than pure Bicubic. The results of Bicubic with ANN are also compared with state of the art super-resolution techniques like SRCNN. Bicubic with ANN produces 1.48% higher SSIM and 3.44% higher PSNR than SRCNN.
Optimization of Sparse Frequency Diverse Array With Time-Invariant Spatial-Focusing Beampattern

The optimization of the sparse time-modulated optimized frequency offset frequency diverse array (S-TMOFO-FDA) with time-invariant spatial-focusing beampattern is presented. The minimum array with smallest number of elements is obtained through iterative optimization. From numerical results, the S-TMOFO-FDA can provide above 70% reduction in the element amount while displaying superior sidelobe performance than the same aperture-sized full uniform time-modulated logarithmically increasing frequency offset frequency diverse arrays. Furthermore, the scanning performance of the optimized array is also investigated. The S-TMOFO-FDAs of different array length are optimized.
Impact of Early Screening for Gestational Diabetes on Perinatal Outcomes in High-Risk Women

Abstract Objective To examine the benefits of early gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) screening in a high-risk population. Study Design Retrospective cohort of all singletons diagnosed with GDM with indications for early screening: GDM or macrosomia in a prior pregnancy or obesity. Subjects were classified as early (<20 weeks) or routine (>24 weeks) screening. Patients diagnosed with GDM were managed according to standard institutional protocols. Outcomes examined were cesarean delivery (CD), preeclampsia, large for gestational age (LGA), small for gestational age (SGA), macrosomia, and preterm birth (PTB). Results Subjects screened early were more likely to have had GDM in a prior pregnancy, hypertension, higher body mass index, and higher fasting glucose. Early and routine screening groups had similar incidences of CD (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.95, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.55–1.64), preeclampsia (AOR 0.84, 95% CI 0.38–1.83), LGA (AOR 0.90, 95% CI 0.51–1.72), SGA (AOR 0.38, 95% CI 0.13–1.13), and macrosomia (AOR 1.00, 95% CI 0.53–1.87). Subjects in the early screening group had a higher incidence of PTB (AOR 1.79, 95% CI 1.08–2.99). Conclusion We did not detect a benefit to early screening for women who met the criteria. The utility of early GDM screening requires evaluation in a prospective trial.
Estrogen Receptor Binding (18F-FES PET) and Glycolytic Activity (18F-FDG PET) Predict Progression-Free Survival on Endocrine Therapy in Patients with ER+ Breast Cancer

Purpose:18F-fluoroestradiol (FES) PET scans measure regional estrogen binding, and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET measures tumor glycolytic activity. We examined quantitative and qualitative imaging biomarkers of progression-free survival (PFS) in breast cancer patients receiving endocrine therapy. Experimental Design: Ninety patients with breast cancer from an estrogen receptor–positive (ER+), HER2− primary tumor underwent FES PET and FDG PET scans prior to endocrine therapy (63% aromatase inhibitor, 22% aromatase inhibitor and fulvestrant, 15% other). Eighty-four had evaluable data for PFS prediction. Results: Recursive partitioning with 5-fold internal cross-validation used both FES PET and FDG PET measures to classify patients into three distinct response groups. FDG PET identified 24 patients (29%) with low FDG uptake, suggesting indolent tumors. These patients had a median PFS of 26.1 months (95% confidence interval, 11.2–49.7). Of patients with more FDG-avid tumors, 50 (59%) had high average FES uptake, and 10 (12%) had low average FES uptake. These groups had median PFS of 7.9 (5.6–11.8) and 3.3 months (1.4–not evaluable), respectively. Patient and tumor features did not replace or improve the PET measures' prediction of PFS. Prespecified endocrine resistance classifiers identified in smaller cohorts did not individually predict PFS. Conclusions: A wide range of therapy regimens are available for treatment of ER+ metastatic breast cancer, but no guidelines are established for sequencing these therapies. FDG PET and FES PET may help guide the timing of endocrine therapy and selection of targeted and/or cytotoxic chemotherapy. A multicenter trial is ongoing for external validation. Clin Cancer Res; 23(2); 407–15. ©2016 AACR.
Facial emotion recognition and eye movement behaviour in conduct disorder

BACKGROUND Conduct Disorder (CD) is associated with impairments in facial emotion recognition. However, it is unclear whether such deficits are explained by a failure to attend to emotionally informative face regions, such as the eyes, or by problems in the appraisal of emotional cues. METHOD Male and female adolescents with CD and varying levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) controls (aged 13-18) categorised the emotion of dynamic and morphed static faces. Concurrent eye tracking was used to relate categorisation performance to participants' allocation of overt attention. RESULTS Adolescents with CD were worse at emotion recognition than TD controls, with deficits observed across static and dynamic expressions. In addition, the CD group fixated less on the eyes when viewing fearful and sad expressions. Across all participants, higher levels of CU traits were associated with fear recognition deficits and reduced attention to the eyes of surprised faces. Within the CD group, however, higher CU traits were associated with better fear recognition. Overall, males were worse at recognising emotions than females and displayed a reduced tendency to fixate the eyes. DISCUSSION Adolescents with CD, and particularly males, showed deficits in emotion recognition and fixated less on the eyes when viewing emotional faces. Individual differences in fixation behaviour predicted modest variations in emotion categorisation. However, group differences in fixation were small and did not explain the much larger group differences in categorisation performance, suggesting that CD-related deficits in emotion recognition were not mediated by abnormal fixation patterns.
Caries incidence, salivary flow rate and efficacy of fluoride gel treatment in irradiated patients.

The caries-preventive effect of daily applications of a fluoride gel was studied in 55 patients receiving radiotherapy for tumors of the head and neck. The study was designed as a randomized, double-blind study with two parallel groups. From the start of radiotherapy one group received a 0.42% F gel once a day for 1 year. The other group received a daily application of a 1.23% F gel for 4 weeks followed by the use of the 0.42% F gel daily for 1 year. The results showed that in patients with an unstimulated saliva flow of > 0.1 ml/min daily fluoride gel treatment with a fluoride concentration of 0.42% F was sufficient to inhibit caries almost completely. The use of the 1.23% F gel was not superior to the 0.42% gel treatment program alone. In an attempt to evaluate the salivary flow rate as a diagnostic criterion for increased caries risk, sensitivity and specificity were evaluated. It was found that with an unstimulated saliva flow rate of < 0.1 ml/min the positive predictive value was 80%. The corresponding value for stimulated salivary flow rate of < 0.5 ml/min was 85%. One can therefore predict that 80% of patients with flow rates < 0.1 ml/min will develop at least one carious lesion per year. The corresponding negative predictive value for unstimulated saliva flow > 0.1 ml/min was 75%. That means that 75% of patients using the 0.42% F gel daily and with at least some saliva secretion will not develop any new carious lesions.
Preliminary Assessment of a10-Day Rapid Detoxification Programme Using High Dosage Buprenorphine

The original French therapeutic strategy for the treatment of opioid addiction was a rapid detoxification occasionally accompanied by treatment for withdrawal symptoms. In 1995, substitution therapy using opioids was introduced with the aim of maintenance, utilising methadone and the partial agonist buprenorphine, introduced in 1996. As well as being a maintenance agent, buprenorphine has been prescribed for rapid detoxification due to its reduced tendency to cause any withdrawal effects and its ability to block the effects of other opioids. This trial was initiated to measure the efficacy of buprenorphine in rapid detoxification and to assess whether additional medication would be required. Participants in this open study had requested rapid detoxification and were referred to the addiction clinic as inpatients. Patients were assessed by the clinician and during counselling sessions, and an initial dose was agreed upon. This dose was then gradually decreased over ten days in a flexible dosing schedule, with concurrent toxicological urinalysis to ensure no illicit drug use. During the trial, 25% of patients transferred to a maintenance programme and 58% remained in the study. The large transfer of patients to maintenance programmes may indicate that many people requesting rapid detoxification are actually asking for a more generalised form of assistance. No opioid-positive urines were noted after the fourth day in any patients, and the study indicates that buprenorphine should prove to be a useful detoxification agent, particularly in less hardened addicts. Step-down buprenorphine detoxification minimises withdrawal symptoms and, therefore, reduces the need for concurrent medication.
Sustenance and Performance: Nutritional Reserves, Longevity, and Contest Outcomes of Fed and Starved Adult Parasitoid Wasps

Dyadic contests for possession of resources occur across a wide range of animal taxa, with contest outcome often being heavily influenced by the energetic reserves of the competitors. The majority of studied parasitoid wasps lack de novo lipogenesis, with adult lipid reserves being limited to those acquired throughout larval development. Carbohydrate- and lipid-rich adult diets can increase adult parasitoid lifespan and fecundity by potentially acting as a maintenance energy store. However, the effects of such diets on fat reserve compositions and some aspects of parasitoid behaviour contest outcome dynamics have not been examined. This study assesses the effect of a carbohydrate rich diet (honey) on the longevity, metabolic state and contest performance of Goniozus legneri, a bethylid wasp. The longevity of honey-fed diet adults was typically more than twice that of starved wasps. Compared to similarly-aged starved wasps, honey feeding increased concentrations of common haemolymph sugars and amino acids in a 3-day old and 7-day old wasps, and higher concentrations of stored lipid in7-day old wasps. However, nutritional status did not affect the outcome of dyadic contests over host possession when both contestants were either 3 days or 7 days old. While contest dynamics outcome may be unaffected by diet, it remains possible that an enhancing effect of feeding on contest ability is matched by an effect of higher value being placed on winning by starved wasps.
A subarachnoid haemorrhage-specific outcome tool

Functional outcome after subarachnoid haemorrhage has traditionally been assessed using scales developed for other neurological conditions. The modified Rankin score and Glasgow Outcome Scale are most commonly used. Employment of these scales in subarachnoid haemorrhage is hampered by well recognized limitations. We set out to develop and validate a new condition-specific subarachnoid haemorrhage outcome tool (SAHOT). Items addressing diverse aspects of the impact of subarachnoid haemorrhage were collected during focus groups involving patients, next-of-kin and multidisciplinary professionals involved in subarachnoid haemorrhage management. After a series of iterative revisions, the resultant questionnaire was applied to patients and their next-of-kin at 1, 3 and 6 months post-subarachnoid haemorrhage. Rasch methodology was used to finalize the structure of the questionnaire and explore the extent to which SAHOT scores met Rasch-based criteria of successful measurement. The SAHOT was further assessed using traditional scale evaluation techniques, and validated in a second separate subarachnoid haemorrhage patient cohort. The final SAHOT included 56 items dealing with cognitive, physical, and behavioural/psychological consequences of subarachnoid haemorrhage. Rasch analysis indicated the scale successfully measured functional outcome post-subarachnoid haemorrhage. Three item scoring categories produced the best scale performance. There was no evidence of differential item functioning between patients and next-of-kin. The SAHOT was found to be acceptable, have good convergent and divergent validity, good discrimination and excellent responsiveness. It was successfully validated in a second subarachnoid haemorrhage patient cohort. The SAHOT offers the first subarachnoid haemorrhage-specific scientifically robust outcome measure with potential utility in neurovascular clinical services and research studies.
Community Detection and Mining in Social Media

This book, from a data mining perspective, introduces characteristics of social media, reviews representative tasks of computing with social media, and illustrates associated challenges. It introduces basic concepts, presents state-of-the-art algorithms with easy-to-understand examples, and recommends effective evaluation methods. In particular, we discuss graph-based community detection techniques and many important extensions that handle dynamic, heterogeneous networks in social media. We also demonstrate how discovered patterns of communities can be used for social media mining. The concepts, algorithms, and methods presented in this lecture can help harness the power of social media and support building socially-intelligent systems. This book is an accessible introduction to the study of \emph{community detection and mining in social media}. It is an essential reading for students, researchers, and practitioners in disciplines and applications where social media is a key source of data that piques our curiosity to understand, manage, innovate, and excel. This book is supported by additional materials, including lecture slides, the complete set of figures, key references, some toy data sets used in the book, and the source code of representative algorithms. The readers are encouraged to visit the book website http://dmml.asu. edu/cdm/ for the latest information.
Maximum electricity generation from low cost sediment microbial fuel cell using copper and zinc electrodes

A low cost Sediment Microbial fuel cell designed to provide an opportunity to produce renewable energy from sediment. The power produced by the MFC by microbes present in sediment. In this paper maximum energy extraction is investigated with copper anode and zinc cathode and compare with previous work. Here maximum generated voltage and current of sediment MFC was 1.160V and 0.301mA. Maximum power in sediment MFC with copper anode was 3.491mW for steady state operating condition. Sediment Microbial fuel cell is gifted for sustainable cheap-cost green electricity produce, stable power generation and the long-term operation of MFCs. Sediment microbial fuel cells can be used as a renewable power source for remote environmental monitoring.
Effects of Sex on Renal Structure

Aims: There are few data examining differences in renal structure between the sexes. Elucidation of the mechanisms responsible for the observed effects of sex on the progression of chronic renal disease requires knowledge of the effects of sex on renal structure. Results: Although we found that male kidneys weigh more than female kidneys, sex is not an independent determinant of kidney weight. The increased kidney weight seen in men is solely dependent on their greater body surface area. We found no difference in glomerular number between men and women. Although men had larger glomeruli than women, sex is not an independent determinant of glomerular volume. The occurrence of larger glomeruli in men is solely dependent on their greater body surface area. Similarly, the greater total glomerular volume seen in men as compared to women reflects increased kidney weight in men. Sex is not an independent determinant of total glomerular volume. Conclusions: These findings do not support the hypothesis that renal structural differences contribute to sex-related differences in the rate of progression of chronic renal disease.
The HDL cholesterol/apolipoprotein A-I ratio: an indicator of cardiovascular disease

Purpose of review In multiple studies, the HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) concentration has been shown to be inversely associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD risk. Based on this observation, increasing the plasma HDL-C concentration is thought to be a desirable strategy, in the 21st century, for decreasing the burden of CVD. Recent findings Recent studies have shown that powerful HDL-C concentration-increasing drugs are ineffective for decreasing CVD. Increasing evidence now shows that HDL is an unstable and heterogeneous particle, and that ‘HDL particle functionality’ is far more important in atheroprotection than is the HDL-C level, alone. Apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) is the major protein component of HDL, and increasing evidence suggests that the ratio of HDL-C to apoA-I may give additional insight as a risk marker not just for CVD but also for all-cause and cancer mortality. Summary In this review, we discuss the importance of HDL composition, apoA-I levels, and the HDL-C/apoA-I ratio for predicting CVD and mortality outcomes.