Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation: Indian working group recommendations

Expanding use of ABO-incompatible kidney transplant (ABOiKT) globally and in India demands harmonized protocols. With an aim to provide unified and standardized consensus for ABOiKT in Indian setting, a 14-member working group formulated this document on key critical areas to guide ABOiKT. The recommendations include the following: (i) Gel column agglutination test is a method of choice for antibody (Ab) titer assessment with tube method as acceptable alternative. Immunoglobulin G measurement is advised for clinical decision making. (ii) Assessment of one Ab titer before subjecting patient to Ab removal is recommended. Postplasmapheresis (PP) titers to be monitored anywhere between 2 and 12 h. (iii) Target Ab titer recommended is ≤1:16 irrespective of the method used for titer assessment. (iv) If cost and availability are not a concern, immunoadsorption (IA) should be preferred. (vi) Choice of replacement fluid depends on the method employed for Ab removal. (vii) Donor or AB-positive plasma transfusion can be considered to avoid coagulopathy and bleeding in posttransplant period. It also decreases the risk of coagulopathy associated with greater number of PP cycles performed during and after transplant. (viii) IA column can be reused if cleaned, sterilized and stored properly. (ix) Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is optional for use in ABOiKT. Choose IVIG batch with lowest ABO- Ab titers and use in low dose (~ 100 mg/kg). (x) Rituximab in a low dose of 100–200 mg is effective and its use (at-least 2 weeks prior to transplant) is at the discretion of treating renal transplant physician. (xi) Avoid, if possible, the combined used of antithymocyte globulin and rituximab as it increases risk of infections significantly. (xii) Posttransplant PP is needed if there is Ab mediated rejection with increasing titers. (xiii) Standard immunosuppression should be followed. These recommendations are first of a kind that aims to standardize the practice of ABOiKT, serve as a guiding tool to the transplant physicians in India.
Anticalculi Activity of Apigenin and Celery (Apium graveolens L.) Extract in Rats Induced by Ethylene Glycol–Ammonium Chloride

Objective: Kidney stones (nephrolithiasis) is one of the kidney diseases in the form of stones that contain crystal and organic matrix components. It is one of the most common diseases of the urinary tract. Calcium stone is the most important type of stone (80%) found in the case of kidney stones. Celery (Apium graveolens L.) is a plant rich in flavonoids, which can break down calcium crystals. Apigenin is considered to be one of the main flavonoids because of its presence and abundance in celery. This research aimed to compare the anticalculi effect of apigenin with that of celery extract. Materials and Methods: Wistar albino rats were given ethylene glycol 0.75% (vol/vol) and ammonium chloride 2% (wt/vol) orally for 7 days in all groups to induce hyperoxaluria and Rats treated by Apigenin at doses 1.2, 2.4, and 4.8 mg/kg of rat body weight and celery extract at doses of 200, 400, and 600 mg/kg of rat body weight as anticalculi. Measurements of calcium levels in the kidneys and urine of rats was obtained using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Data obtained were statistically analyzed with the IBM SPSS by ANOVA Method version 21.0 probability value < 0.05 was considered significant. Result: The results showed that both apigenin and celery extracts caused kidney stone to decay. From the data Apigenin and celery showed that calcium level in urine there were significant differences (p value < 0.05) in treated group from negative control group but calcium level in kidney there were not significant differences (p value > 0.05). Conclusion: Celery extract has better ability to break down kidney stones than apigenin.
OV Graphs Are (Probably) Hard Instances

A graph G on n nodes is an Orthogonal Vectors (OV) graph of dimension d if there are vectors v 1 , . , v n ∈ { 0 , 1 } d such that nodes i and j are adjacent in G if and only if h v i , v j i = 0 over Z . In this paper, we study a number of basic graph algorithm problems, except where one is given as input the vectors deﬁning an OV graph instead of a general graph. We show that for each of the following problems, an algorithm solving it faster on such OV graphs G of dimension only d = O (log n ) than in the general case would refute a plausible conjecture about the time required to solve sparse MAX-k -SAT instances:
R2D2: Reliable and Repeatable Detector and Descriptor

Interest point detection and local feature description are fundamental steps in many computer vision applications. Classical approaches are based on a detect-then-describe paradigm where separate handcrafted methods are used to first identify repeatable keypoints and then represent them with a local descriptor. Neural networks trained with metric learning losses have recently caught up with these techniques, focusing on learning repeatable saliency maps for keypoint detection or learning descriptors at the detected keypoint locations. In this work, we argue that repeatable regions are not necessarily discriminative and can therefore lead to select suboptimal keypoints. Furthermore, we claim that descriptors should be learned only in regions for which matching can be performed with high confidence. We thus propose to jointly learn keypoint detection and description together with a predictor of the local descriptor discriminativeness. This allows to avoid ambiguous areas, thus leading to reliable keypoint detection and description. Our detection-and-description approach simultaneously outputs sparse, repeatable and reliable keypoints that outperforms state-of-the-art detectors and descriptors on the HPatches dataset and on the recent Aachen Day-Night localization benchmark.
Does Academic Publishing Lead to Work-Related Stress or Happiness?

The topic of work-related stress and happiness has recently been of interest to science as well as in practice. Work-related stress has negative effects on workers, organizations, and the whole of society, whereas happiness has positive effects. It is therefore important to monitor the wellbeing of workers. This article deals with stress and happiness as related to academic publishing. To answer the research question of whether academic publishing leads to stress or happiness, a narrative analysis was conducted. Narratives from ten Czech academics were collected and analyzed with the use of a categorical-content approach. The categories used are the general causes of work-related stress and happiness as identified in the literature: work overload, ambiguity, conflict, the sense of meaningful work, job satisfaction, and affective organizational commitment. It was found that academic publishing leads to both work-related stress and happiness. However, stress is more prevalent. Not only do academics experience all the general causes of work-related stress, unfortunately they often lack the sources of happiness. Many specific causes of stress and happiness, as well as unhappiness, were discovered in the narratives. Several ways to improve the situation have been suggested. Refining policies in human resources is particularly important if universities wish to retain their academics.
How to Reduce Anomaly Detection in Images to Anomaly Detection in Noise

Anomaly detectors address the diﬃcult problem of detecting automatically exceptions in a background image, that can be as diverse as a fabric or a mammography. Detection methods have been proposed by the thousands because each problem requires a diﬀerent background model. By analyzing the existing approaches, we show that the problem can be reduced to detecting anomalies in residual images (extracted from the target image) in which noise and anomalies prevail. Hence, the general and impossible background modeling problem is replaced by a simple noise model, and allows the calculation of rigorous detection thresholds. Our approach is therefore unsupervised and works on arbitrary images. The residual images can favorably be computed on dense features of neural networks. Our detector is powered by the a contrario detection theory, which avoids over-detection by ﬁxing detection thresholds taking into account the multiple tests.
Investigating the Effect of Lexical Segmentation in Transformer-based Models on Medical Datasets

Transformer-based models have been popular recently and have improved performance for many Natural Language Processing (NLP) Tasks, including those in the biomedical ﬁeld. Previous research suggests that, when us-ing these models, an in-domain vocabulary is more suitable than using an open-domain vocabulary. We investigate the effects of a specialised in-domain vocabulary trained from scratch on a biomedical corpus. Our research suggests that, although the in-domain vocabulary is useful, it is usually constrained by the corpora size because these models needs to be trained from scratch. Instead, it is more useful to have more data, perform additional pretraining steps with a corpus-speciﬁc vocabulary. 1
A Pointer Network Architecture for Context-Dependent Semantic Parsing

Semantic parsing targets at mapping human utterances into structured meaning representations, such as logical forms, programming snippets, SQL queries etc. In this work, we focus on logical form generation, which is extracted from an automated email assistant sys-tem. Since this task is dialogue-oriented, information across utterances must be well handled. Furthermore, certain inputs from users are used as arguments for the logical form, which requires a parser to distinguish the functional words and content words. Hence, an intelligent parser should be able to switch be-tween generation mode and copy mode. In order to address the aforementioned issues, we equip the vanilla seq2seq model with a pointer network and a context-dependent architecture to generate more accurate logical forms. Our model achieves state-of-the-art performance on the email assistant task.
miR-503 Inhibits Proliferation, Migration, And Angiogenesis Of Glioma By Acting On VEGFA Through Targeting LRIG2

Background Glioma is a common malignant tumor of the human central nervous system, and the pathological characteristics include invasive growth, angiogenesis, and so on. Ectopic expression of miR-503 works as a critical factor in cancer cell proliferation, migration, and capillary-like tube formation. The potential mechanisms of miR-503 in angiogenesis of glioma cells are still not reported. Methods The expression levels of miR-503, LRIG2, and VEGFA mRNA and protein were performed by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR or Western blot assay. Dual-Luciferase reporter gene assay was used to determine the interaction between miR-503 and LRIG2. The concentration of VEGFA was measured using the ELISA method. The cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis of cocultured HCMEC/D3 cells were analyzed by MTT assay, transwell detection, and tube formation assay, respectively. Results The expression levels of LRIG2 and VEGFA were reduced in glioma cells with miR-503 overexpression and enhanced with miR-503 inhibition. Moreover, cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis of cocultured HCMEC/D3 cells were alleviated with miR-503 mimics transfection. VEGFA and miR-503 inhibitor promoted cell proliferation, cell migration, and angiogenesis. Luciferase reporter gene assay revealed that miR-503 could directly target LRIG2. Furthermore, knockdown of LRIG2 or addition of VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab could abrogate the effect of miR-503 inhibitor on VEGFA expression, as well as the promotion of cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis. Conclusion MiR-503 mediated LRIG2 suppression and regulated the expression of VEGFA, thereby reducing cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis of glioma cells. These results provide new insight into the action mechanism of miR-503-modulated signaling pathway in angiogenesis of glioma cells.
Exosome-Mediated Transfer of lncRNA HOTTIP Promotes Cisplatin Resistance in Gastric Cancer Cells by Regulating HMGA1/miR-218 Axis

Background Chemoresistance has become a major obstacle for cancer therapy in clinic. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to play critical roles in the development of chemoresistance in various tumors, including gastric cancer (GC). However, the role of HOXA transcript at the distal tip (HOTTIP) within extracellular vesicles (exosomes) in cisplatin-resistant GC cells remains largely unknown. Materials and methods Cell proliferation, migration and invasion were detected using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and transwell assays, respectively. Western blot assay was employed to analyze the protein levels of E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Vimentin, CD63, CD83, GRP78, HMGA1, and high-mobility group A1 (HMGA1). The expression levels of HOTTIP, microRNA-218 (miR-218) and HMGA1were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The interaction between miR-218 and HOTTIP or HMGA1 was predicted by bioinformatics software and confirmed by the dual-luciferase reporter and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays. Results Cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were promoted in cisplatin-resistant GC cells. HOTTIP level was upregulated in cisplatin-resistant GC cells and its downregulation enhanced cisplatin sensitivity. Moreover, extracellular HOTTIP could be incorporated into exosomes and transmitted to sensitive cells, thus disseminating cisplatin resistance. Additionally, exosomal HOTTIP promoted cisplatin resistance via activating HMGA1 in GC cells. Interestingly, HMGA1 was a target of miR-218 and miR-218 could directly bind to HOTTIP. Clinically, high expression of exosomal HOTTIP in serum was associated with poor response to cisplatin treatment in GC patients. Conclusion Exosomal HOTTIP contributed to cisplatin resistance in GC cells by regulating miR-218/HMGA1 axis, providing a novel avenue for the treatment of GC.
Comparing different definitions of prediabetes with subsequent risk of diabetes: an individual participant data meta-analysis involving 76 513 individuals and 8208 cases of incident diabetes

Objective There are currently five widely used definition of prediabetes. We compared the ability of these to predict 5-year conversion to diabetes and investigated whether there were other cut-points identifying risk of progression to diabetes that may be more useful. Research design and methods We conducted an individual participant meta-analysis using longitudinal data included in the Obesity, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Collaboration. Cox regression models were used to obtain study-specific HRs for incident diabetes associated with each prediabetes definition. Harrell’s C-statistics were used to estimate how well each prediabetes definition discriminated 5-year risk of diabetes. Spline and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses were used to identify alternative cut-points. Results Sixteen studies, with 76 513 participants and 8208 incident diabetes cases, were available. Compared with normoglycemia, current prediabetes definitions were associated with four to eight times higher diabetes risk (HRs (95% CIs): 3.78 (3.11 to 4.60) to 8.36 (4.88 to 14.33)) and all definitions discriminated 5-year diabetes risk with good accuracy (C-statistics 0.79–0.81). Cut-points identified through spline analysis were fasting plasma glucose (FPG) 5.1 mmol/L and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) 5.0% (31 mmol/mol) and cut-points identified through ROC analysis were FPG 5.6 mmol/L, 2-hour postload glucose 7.0 mmol/L and HbA1c 5.6% (38 mmol/mol). Conclusions In terms of identifying individuals at greatest risk of developing diabetes within 5 years, using prediabetes definitions that have lower values produced non-significant gain. Therefore, deciding which definition to use will ultimately depend on the goal for identifying individuals at risk of diabetes.
The potential mechanism, recognition and clinical significance of tumor pseudoprogression after immunotherapy

As immunotherapy has gained increasing interest as a new foundation for cancer therapy, some atypical response patterns, such as pseudoprogression and hyperprogression, have garnered the attention of physicians. Pseudoprogression is a phenomenon in which an initial increase in tumor size is observed or new lesions appear, followed by a decrease in tumor burden; this phenomenon can benefit patients receiving immunotherapy but often leads to premature discontinuation of treatment owing to the false judgment of progression. Accurately recognizing pseudoprogression is also a challenge for physicians. Because of the extensive attention on pseudoprogression, significant progress has been made. Some new criteria for immunotherapy, such as irRC, iRECIST and imRECIST, were proposed to accurately evaluate the response to immunotherapy. Many new detection indexes, such as ctDNA and IL-8, have also been used to identify pseudoprogression. In this review, the definition, evaluation criteria, mechanism, monitoring, management and prognosis of pseudoprogression are summarized, and diagnostic and treatment processes for patients with progression but with a suspicion of pseudoprogression are proposed; these processes could be helpful for physicians in clinical practice and enhances the understanding of pseudoprogression.
The Effect Of Dexmedetomidine As Adjuvant To Ropivacaine 0.1% For Femoral Nerve Block On Strength Of Quadriceps Muscle In Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Femoral nerve block (FNB) has been considered as an excellent analgesic modality in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) pain control. However, relatively high concentration of ropivacaine could lead to quadriceps muscle weakness and increase the risk of postoperative falls. Objective This double-blinded randomized controlled study was designed to investigate the effect of a combination of dexmedetomidine with a lower concentration of ropivacaine on quadriceps muscle strength and analgesic effect in FNB. Methods A total of 90 patients scheduled for TKA were randomized to receive continuous FNB postoperatively using 0.2% ropivacaine (H group), 0.1% ropivacaine (L group) or 0.1% ropivacaine combined with 2 μg/kg dexmedetomidine (LD group). Meanwhile, intravenous patient-controlled analgesia with morphine was administered to patients. The primary endpoint was the strength of quadriceps muscle evaluated by manual muscle testing (MMT) and Timed Up and Go test (TUG). The secondary endpoint was the pain scores and morphine consumption among different groups. Results For MMT, LD group showed higher quadriceps muscle strength than the other two groups (P<0.05) at 12 hrs postoperatively. TUG test was conducted to measure the walking ability, and showed that scores were significantly better in LD group than those in H group and L group (P<0.05) at 24 and 48 hrs postoperatively. There was no significant difference between H and LD group in the numeric rating scales (NRS) scores both at rest and at 45° flexion. The total morphine consumption in L group was significantly higher than in H or LD group (P<0.001). Conclusion Collectively, the addition of dexmedetomidine 2 μg/kg to 0.1% ropivacaine preoperatively would preserve quadriceps muscle strength with satisfactory analgesia in patients undergoing TKA. (This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT03658421).
Baicalin Inhibits Cell Viability, Migration and Invasion in Breast Cancer by Regulating miR-338-3p and MORC4

Background Baicalin is a natural compound from the roots of Scutellaria lateriflora Georgi, which plays anti-cancer role in multiple cancers. However, the exact role and potential underlying mechanism of baicalin in breast cancer (BC) remain poorly understood. Methods Thirty BC patients were recruited in this study. MCF-10A, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells were used to investigate the anti-cancer role of baicalin in vitro. Cell viability, migration, invasion and apoptosis were measured by MTT, trans-well and flow cytometry, respectively. The expression levels of microRNA-338-3p (miR-338-3p) and microrchidia family CW-type zinc-finger 4 (MORC4) were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction or Western blot. The interaction between miR-338-3p and MORC4 was explored by luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation. Results We found that Baicalin treatment inhibited cell viability, migration and invasion but promoted apoptosis of BC cells. The expression of miR-338-3p was decreased in BC tissues and cells and miR-338-3p overexpression suppressed cell viability, migration and invasion but induced apoptosis. MiR-338-3p expression was reversed by baicalin exposure and inhibition of miR-338-3p attenuated the role of baicalin in viability, apoptosis, migration and invasion. MORC4 mRNA level was increased in BC tissues and cells, which was decreased by baicalin exposure. MORC4 was a target of miR-338-3p and its overexpression alleviated the effect of miR-338-3p on cell viability, apoptosis, migration and invasion. Conclusion In conclusion, baicalin suppressed cell viability, migration and invasion but promoted apoptosis in BC cells by regulating miR-338-3p and MORC4, indicating the promising pharmacological value of baicalin in BC treatment.
Memory Impairment Induced by Chronic Psychosocial Stress Is Prevented by L-Carnitine

Introduction Psychosocial stress (STS) negatively influences memory. This might be associated to oxidative stress-induced progressive destruction of numerous brain structures and functions. L-carnitine (L-CAR) is a widely used antioxidant compound that is endogenously made in mammalian species. The current study investigated the effect of L-CAR on STS-induced memory impairment in the rat hippocampus. Methods The STS was induced using intruder model, where two rats were randomly switched from each one cage to another, once/day for 6 weeks. Concurrently, L-CAR (300mg/kg/day) was intraperitoneally administered for 6 weeks. After that, radial arm water maze (RAWM) was used to assess spatial learning memory in rats. Hippocampal biomarkers of oxidative stress, including thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARs), oxidized glutathione (GSSG), reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase, and superoxide dismutase (SOD), and Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were examined. Results The results showed impairment of short-term memory (P < 0.05) during STS, whereas L-CAR treatment protected against this effect. Furthermore, while no change was observed in GSH, GSSG, GPx, catalase, and SOD, L-carnitine normalized STS-induced reduction in the hippocampal BDNF levels and increase in TBARS levels. Discussion Chronic psychosocial stress-induced memory impairment was prevented via L-CAR administration, which could have been achieved via normalizing changes in lipid peroxidation (TBARs) and BDNF levels in the hippocampus.