Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radiofrequency ablation of genicular nerves prior to total knee replacement has no effect on postoperative pain outcomes: a prospective randomized sham-controlled trial with 6-month follow-up

Background and objectives Refractory chronic knee pain from osteoarthritis (OA) is commonly treated with total knee arthroplasty (TKA). TKA can be associated with severe postoperative pain and persistent postsurgical knee pain. Poorly controlled postoperative pain can negatively effect functional outcomes following TKA, and effective opioid-sparing analgesia is key to the ideal recovery. Genicular nerve radiofrequency ablation (GN-RFA) has been shown in several trials to be clinically effective in patients with severe refractory knee pain from OA. We aimed to assess if preoperative GN-RFA would improve postoperative pain outcomes following TKA. Methods This was a sham-control prospective clinical trial in which blinded participants were randomized to image-guided GN-RFA or a simulated sham procedure 2-6 weeks prior to elective TKA. Outcomes were assessed at 48 hours and 1, 3 and 6 months following TKA. Results Seventy participants enrolled in this study. As compared with sham controls, GN-RFA had no treatment effect on postoperative opioid consumption, pain or functional measures at any time point. Conclusions Cooled RFA of the superior lateral, superior medial and inferomedial genicular nerves, when performed 2–6 weeks prior to elective TKA as part of a multimodal postoperative pain management regime, had no measurable effect on postoperative opioid use, analgesia use or function in the 48 hours following surgery. In addition, we found no longer term effect on outcome measures 1, 3 and 6 months after TKA. Trial registration number NCT02746874.
Genetic variants of XRCC1 and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic hepatitis C patients

ABSTRACT Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) related liver cirrhosis occurs in about 20% of chronically infected patients over a duration of 10–20 years, and within 5 years approximately 10–20% of these cirrhotic patients will develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Previous studies report that the X-ray repair cross-complementing group1 gene (XRCC1) is important in the risk of HCC development; however, results obtained from these studies are conflicting rather than conclusive. We hypothesised an association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in XRCC1 with the HCC risk on a background of chronic hepatitis C. Materials and methods: We recruited 210 subjects, 70 with HCC, 70 with cirrhosis and 70 healthy controls. Two SNPs [c.1254C>T(rs2293035) and c.1517G>C(rs139599857)] in XRCC1 were genotyped using created restriction site-polymerase chain reaction (CRS-PCR) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) methods. Results: The TT genotype, CT genotype and T-allele in c.1254C>T (rs2293035) were linked to risk of HCC compared to the CC genotype: OR 3.58 [confidence interval (CI) 95%: 1.19–10.7] p = 0.019; OR 2.16 (CI 95%: 1.04–4.47) p = 0.037 and OR 2.10 (CI 95%: 1.2–3.3) p = 0.006, respectively. Regarding c.1517G>C (rs139599857), the CC genotype, GC genotype and C-allele were linked with higher risk of developing HCC compared to GG genotype: OR 4.77 (CI 95%: 1.3–16.9), p = 0.016; OR 3.02 (CI 95%: 1.46–6.2), p = 0.002 and OR 2.4 (CI 95%: 1.4–4.0), p = 0.001, respectively. Conclusion: We conclude that the T-allele of c.1254C>T (rs2293035) and the C allele of c.1517G>C (rs139599857) genetic variants may be associated with increased HCC risk among chronic hepatitis C patients.
Broad-Spectrum Anti-Adhesive Coating Based on an Extracellular Polymer from a Marine Cyanobacterium

Medical device-associated infections are a major health threat, representing about half of all hospital-acquired infections. Current strategies to prevent this problem based on device coatings with antimicrobial compounds (antibiotics or antiseptics) have proven to be insufficient, often toxic, and even promoting bacterial resistance. Herein, we report the development of an infection-preventive coating (CyanoCoating) produced with an extracellular polymer released by the marine cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. CCY 0110. CyanoCoating was prepared by spin-coating and its bacterial anti-adhesive efficiency was evaluated against relevant etiological agents (Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli) and platelets, both in the presence or absence of human plasma proteins. CyanoCoating cytotoxicity was assessed using the L929 fibroblasts cell line. CyanoCoating exhibited a smooth topography, low thickness and high hydrophilic properties with mild negative charge. The non-cytotoxic CyanoCoating prevented adhesion of all the bacteria tested (≤80%) and platelets (<87%), without inducing platelet activation (even in the presence of plasma proteins). The significant reduction in protein adsorption (<77%) confirmed its anti-adhesive properties. The development of this anti-adhesive coating is an important step towards the establishment of a new technological platform capable of preventing medical device-associated infections, without inducing thrombus formation in blood-contacting applications.
Advances in Knowledge-Based Technologies

We discuss a new construction method for obtaining additive generators of Archimedean copulas of a fixed dimension n (or of any dimension n ≥ 2) proposed by McNeil and Nešlehová [1], the so-called Williamson n-transform (and its limit Laplace transform). These methods are illustrated on several examples. We show that due to equivalence of the weak convergence of positive distance functions, of the pointwise convergence of related additive generators fixed in point 0.5, and of the pointwise convergence of related copulas, we may approximate any n-dimensional Archimedean copula by a transformation of a convex sum of Dirac distance functions concentrated in certain suitably chosen points.
Associations of Fetal and Infant Weight Change With General, Visceral, and Organ Adiposity at School Age

Importance Both fetal and infant growth influence obesity later in life. The association of longitudinal fetal and infant growth patterns with organ fat is unknown. Objective To examine the associations of fetal and infant weight change with general, visceral, and organ adiposity at school age. Design, Setting, and Participants This cohort study was embedded in the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective cohort study in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Pregnant women with a delivery date between April 2002 and January 2006 were eligible to participate. Follow-up measurements were performed for 3205 children. Data analysis of this population was performed from July 26, 2018, to February 7, 2019. Exposures Fetal weight was estimated in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. Infant weight was measured at 6, 12, and 24 months. Fetal and infant weight acceleration or deceleration were defined as a change in standard deviation scores greater than 0.67 between 2 ages. Main Outcomes and Measures Visceral fat index, pericardial fat index, and liver fat fraction were measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Results The sample consisted of 3205 children (1632 girls [50.9%]; mean [SD] age, 9.8 [0.3] years). Children born small for gestational age had the lowest median body mass index compared with children born appropriate for gestational age and large for gestational age (16.4 [90% range, 14.1-23.6] vs 16.9 [90% range, 14.4-22.8] vs 17.4 [90% range, 14.9-22.7]). Compared with children with normal fetal and infant growth (533 of 2370 [22.5%]), those with fetal weight deceleration followed by infant weight acceleration (263 of 2370 [11.1%]) had the highest visceral fat index (standard deviation scores, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.03-0.33; P = .02) and liver fat fraction (standard deviation scores, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.20-0.48; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance Fetal and infant weight change patterns were both associated with childhood body fat, but weight change patterns in infancy tended to have larger effects. Fetal growth restriction followed by infant growth acceleration was associated with increased visceral and liver fat.
A Framework for Big Data Governance to Advance RHINs: A Case Study of China

The emergence of big data presents a serious challenge to the fast growth of regional health information networks (RHINs) globally. In China, many constructors of RHINs have spontaneously and independently created governance measures, which may be valuable as a point of reference for other countries. This paper aimed to propose a big data governance framework for healthcare data based on the governance activities associated with the processing of RHINs in China. Typical methodology for RHIN case studies in China, including rich personal experience in nationwide consulting, literature review, expert consultation, and interpretative structural modeling methods, was adopted. Based on the analysis of ten typical RHIN case studies, healthcare big data governance practices in China were summarized. A framework with 3 domains and 12 elements was proposed, which include a drive domain (big data strategy planning, laws and regulations, open transaction, and industry support), capability domain (healthcare big data organization, collection, storage, process and analysis, and usage), and support domain (healthcare big data resource planning, standards system, and privacy and security protection). We obtained 12 guidelines for healthcare big data governance. A big data governance framework with 3 domains and 12 elements was presented based on Chinese practice, which might serve as valuable references for the cross-dimensional development of RHINs, provide overall guidance for the sustainable development of regional health informatization, and contribute to realizing the business value of healthcare big data.
Rateless Coded Multiplexing for Downlink Transmission With Two Users: Performance Analysis and System Design

This paper presents a non-orthogonal multiplexing scheme using the concept of rateless coding for a downlink broadcast scheme with two users. The proposed approach does not require the inclusion of successive interference cancellation (SIC) techniques for signal detection when compared to the power-domain non-orthogonal multiple access (PD-NOMA) schemes. In various user pair scenarios, it is shown that the proposed scheme not only enhances the user transmission rate but also reduces the overhead required for reliable transmissions when compared to PD-NOMA-based schemes. To further enhance the error performance when considering both unconstrained and constrained inputs, a code design algorithm is proposed based on the transmission rate analysis. It is shown that the designed rateless multiplexing schemes achieve error performances that accurately approach the predicted performance limits.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?

The authors examined team demographic diversity, perceived team efficacy, intrateam conflict, and perceived team performance as predictors of members' intentions to remain in their team, a form of behavioral commitment. Eighty-three second-year MBA students randomly assigned to 28 three-person teams participated in a negotiation simulation. As hypothesized, results from HLM analysis showed team relationship conflict but not task conflict mediated the relationship of age and national diversity with members' intent to remain. Individual members' initial perceptions of their team's negotiation efficacy and negotiation performance were also found to predict their intent to remain as a team member, but team performance did not mediate the team efficacy-intent-to-remain relationship. Hypotheses predicting that team relationship conflict moderates the relationship of team efficacy with intent to remain and team performance were not supported.
Current DB ( RDB ) Transaction-time DB ( XML DB ) Current Update ( SQL ) Current query ( SQL ) Temporal query ( XQuery ) PRIMA Schema Changes ( SMOs ) SMO translation Update translation Temporal query translation

The old problem of managing the history of database information is now made more urgent and complex by fast spreading web information systems, such as Wikipedia. Our PRIMA system addresses this difficult problem by introducing two key pieces of new technology. The first is a method for publishing the history of a relational database in XML, whereby the evolution of the schema and its underlying database are given a unified representation. This temporally grouped representation makes it easy to formulate sophisticated historical queries on any given schema version using standard XQuery. The second key piece of technology is that schema evolution is transparent to the user: she writes queries against the current schema while retrieving the data from one or more schema versions. The system then performs the labor-intensive and error-prone task of rewriting such queries into equivalent ones for the appropriate versions of the schema. This feature is particularly important for historical queries spanning over potentially hundreds of different schema versions and it is realized in PRIMA by (i) introducing Schema Modification Operators (SMOs) to represent the mappings between successive schema versions and (ii) an XML integrity constraint language (XIC) to efficiently rewrite the queries using the constraints established by the SMOs. The scalability of the approach has been tested against both synthetic data and real-world data from the Wikipedia DB schema evolution history.
Perceptions of U.S. and Canadian maple syrup producers toward climate change, its impacts, and potential adaptation measures

The production of maple syrup is an important cultural and economic activity directly related to the climate of northeastern North America. As a result, there are signs that climate change could have negative impacts on maple syrup production in the next decades, particularly for regions located at the southern margins of the sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) range. The purpose of this survey study is to present the beliefs and opinions of maple syrup producers of Canada (N = 241) and the U.S. (N = 113) on climate change in general, its impacts on sugar maple health and maple syrup production, and potential adaptation measures. Using conditional inference classification trees, we examined how the socio-economic profile of respondents and the geographic location and size of respondents’ sugar bushes shaped the responses of survey participants. While a majority (75%) of respondents are confident that the average temperature on Earth is increasing, less than half (46%) believe that climate change will have negative impacts on maple syrup yield in the next 30 years. Political view was a significant predictor of these results, with respondents at the right right and center-right of the political spectrum being less likely to believe in climate change and less likely to anticipate negative effects of climate change on maple syrup production. In addition, 77% of the participants indicated an interest in adopting adaptation strategies if those could increase maple syrup production. This interest was greater for respondents using vacuum tubing for sap collection than other collection methods. However, for many respondents (particularly in Canada), lack of information was identified as a constraint limiting adaptation to climate change.
Design and Implementation of Wireless Smart Intelligent Network System Using Artificial Intelligence for Monitoring Various Weather Parameters

This paper presents the conscientious system in order to make it fully Automated, ceaseless, cost and power effective system. The advanced technologies like wireless smart Intelligent network and Artificial Intelligence being implemented here with the help of Smart algorithms written in microcontroller. Here we have designed and implemented wind speed and direction sensor to provide the real time data gathering from the various nodes and keep track of all child nodes ceaselessly. In this way, the weather parameters like Temperature, Humidity, Wind speed and Wind Directions gets monitored ceaselessly and the faulty nodes can be detected very easily and such sensed data would be directly monitored by the maintenance team for further repairing of the faulty nodes by monitoring the data on the web page.
Spontaneous Cingulate High-Current Spikes Signal Normal and Pathological Pain States

Prominent 7–12 Hz oscillations in frontal cortical networks in rats have been reported. However, the mechanism of generation and the physiological function of this brain rhythm have not yet been clarified. Multichannel extracellular field potentials of the ACC were recorded and analyzed using the current source density method in halothane-anesthetized rats. Spontaneous high-current spikes (HCSs) were localized in the deep part of layer II/III and upper part of layer V of the ACC. The frequency of HCSs in the ACC was 7–12 Hz, with an amplitude of 6.5 ± 0.76 mV/mm2 and duration of 55.24 ± 2.43 ms. The power density significantly decreased (84.56 ± 6.93%, p < 0.05, t test) after pinching the hindpaw and significantly increased (149.28 ± 15.96%) after treatment with morphine. The suppressive effect of pinching was reversed by naloxone (0.7 mg/kg, i.p.). HCSs coincided with initiation of the depolarization of cingulate neurons and remained in a depolarized upstate. The occurrence of cingulate HCSs was persistently preceded by a hyperpolarization phase and a burst of multiunit spike activity in the medial dorsal thalamic nucleus. Spontaneous field-potential oscillations changed from 10 Hz to a lower band (i.e., ∼7.5 Hz) when a central poststroke pain condition was induced. The central poststroke pain group had a higher average coherence coefficient compared with the control group. Our results indicate that spontaneous cingulate cortical HCSs could be initiated by thalamocortical synaptic inputs from the medial dorsal thalamic nucleus and maintained by intracortical neuronal upstate mechanisms in physiological and pathological pain states. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study elucidated the mechanism of generation and physiological function of prominent 7–12 Hz frequency oscillations in frontal cortical networks in rats. Spontaneous cingulate cortical high-current spikes in anesthetized rats could be initiated by thalamocortical synaptic inputs from the medial dorsal thalamic nucleus and maintained by intracortical neuronal upstate mechanisms. Suppression of the anterior cingulate cortex-filtered EEG during noxious stimulation may have resulted from the desynchronization of high-current spikes in the ACC. The enhancement of fast Fourier transform power after a systemic morphine injection suggested that the opioid system may play an important role in synchronizing cingulate cortical neuronal networks. Spontaneous cingulate high-current spikes may also play an important role in thalamocortical dysrhythmia in central poststroke pain.
A cross-sectional national survey of community pharmacy staff: Knowledge and antibiotic provision

Background Pharmacists’ knowledge about the clinical and legal aspects of antibiotic supply has an impact on appropriate dispensing practice. There are limited studies evaluating community pharmacists’ knowledge of antibiotic dispensing in low and middle-income countries, including Sri Lanka. We aimed (i) to evaluate community pharmacy staff’s self-reported knowledge about antibiotics and dispensing behaviour of antibiotics without a prescription, and (ii) to identify possible factors impacting their antibiotic dispensing behaviour. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a random sample (n = 369) of community pharmacies across all nine provinces in Sri Lanka using a self-administered questionnaire on their antibiotic knowledge and dispensing practice. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics including; t-test, one-way ANOVA or chi-square test, and binary and multiple logistic regression. Results A total of 265 pharmacy staff (210 (79%) pharmacists and 55 (21%) assistants) responded. Overall mean antibiotic knowledge score was 26.1 (SD 3.9; range 1–33, max possible score 34). The overall mean knowledge score t(263) = 2.41, p = 0.017, specific knowledge about antibiotic resistance (ABR) t(262) = 4.98, p = 0.021 and legal aspects of antibiotic dispensing χ2(1, N = 265) = 8.55, p = 0.003) were significantly higher among pharmacists than assistants. One in every three pharmacy staff reported that they dispensed antibiotics without a prescription on patient request; however the proportion was close to half when the patient was known to them. About 30% of the staff reported to have supplied antibiotics for minor infections in the week prior to the survey. However, there was no significant difference in the supply between pharmacists and assistants except for acute sore throat (12% vs 23%, respectively; p = 0.040). Those pharmacists with higher ABR knowledge were less likely to give out antibiotics without a prescription for viral infections in adults (Adj. OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.55–0.96; p = 0.027) and children (Adj. OR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.38–0.80; p = 0.002). Awareness of legal aspects of antibiotic supply reduced overall dispensing (Adj. OR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.30–0.75; p = 0.001), and specifically for bacterial infections in adults (Adj. OR = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.20–0.99; p = 0.047). Knowledge about antibiotic use and misuse reduced the likelihood of illegal dispensing for common cold (Adj. OR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.60–0.94; p = 0.011) and acute diarrhoea (Adj. OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.58–0.99; p = 0.048). Conclusion Despite the law prohibiting provision, antibiotic dispensing without a prescription continues in community pharmacies in Sri Lanka. Appropriate antibiotic dispensing was associated with high levels of pharmacists’ legal and clinical knowledge about antibiotics. Strategies to change the current practice are urgently needed.
Multi-Perspective Finger-Vein Biometrics

Most finger vein recognition systems use palmar finger images. There is some work on the dorsal view, but the remaining views have not been sufficiently investigated yet. All major public available finger-vein databases contain only images from the palmar view and only one smaller database has images from the dorsal view. We aim to fill this gap and evaluate the performance using other perspectives than dorsal and palmar. Therefore, we established a new finger vein data set that consists of videos showing the vein structure all around the finger. We carried out several experiments utilizing common finger-vein recognition algorithms to quantify the recognition performance of each single projection. We further analyzed if a fusion of different views can improve the recognition performance of the system.
A Market Impact Game Under Transient Price Impact

We consider a Nash equilibrium between two high-frequency traders in a simple market impact model with transient price impact and additional quadratic transaction costs. Extending a result by Sch\"oneborn (2008), we prove existence and uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium and show that for small transaction costs the high-frequency traders engage in a "hot-potato game", in which the same asset position is sold back and forth. We then identify a critical value for the size of the transaction costs above which all oscillations disappear and strategies become buy-only or sell-only. Numerical simulations show that for both traders the expected costs can be lower with transaction costs than without. Moreover, the costs can increase with the trading frequency when there are no transaction costs, but decrease with the trading frequency when transaction costs are sufficiently high. We argue that these effects occur due to the need of protection against predatory trading in the regime of low transaction costs.