Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Relation between Quasar and Merging Galaxy Luminosity Functions and the Merger-driven Star Formation History of the Universe

Using a model for the self-regulated growth of supermassive BHs in mergers involving gas-rich galaxies, we study the relationship between quasars and the population of merging galaxies and predict the merger-driven SFR density of the universe. Mergers drive gas inflows, fueling starbursts and ``buried'' quasars until feedback disperses the gas, allowing the quasar to be briefly visible as a bright optical source. By simulating the evolution of such events, we demonstrate that the observed statistics of merger rates/fractions, luminosity and mass functions, SFR distributions, quasar (and quasar host) luminosity functions, and elliptical/red galaxy luminosity and mass functions are self-consistent. We use our simulations to deconvolve quasar and merger luminosity functions and determine the birthrate of BHs and merger rates as a function of mass. From this, we predict the merging galaxy luminosity function in various observed wavebands, color-magnitude relations, mass functions, SFR distributions and density, and quasar host galaxy luminosity function, as a function of redshift from z = 0 to 6. We invert this to predict quasar luminosity functions from observed merger luminosity functions or SFR distributions. Our results show good agreement with observations, but idealized models of quasar light curves give inaccurate estimates and are ruled out at >99.9% confidence, provided that quasars are triggered in mergers. Using only quasar observations, we estimate the contribution of mergers to the SFR density of the universe to high redshifts, z ~ 4, and constrain the evolution in the characteristic initial gas fractions of quasar and spheroid-producing mergers.
A Limited Role for AMD3100 Induced Stem Cell Mobilization for Modulation of Thoracic Trauma Outcome

ABSTRACT Thoracic trauma is a major cause of mortality due to the associated inflammatory acute respiratory distress syndrome and morbidity due to impaired tissue regeneration. Trauma-induced lung inflammation is characterized by the early recruitment of cells with pro- or anti-inflammatory activity to the lung. Therapeutic interventions reducing the level of tissue inflammation may result in decreased tissue damage and improved healing and recovery. Stem cells might be able to improve trauma outcome via immunomodulation or by enhancing tissue regeneration. Here, we describe the migratory dynamics of murine mesenchymal, hematopoietic and endothelial stem and progenitor cells (SPCs) as well as mature inflammatory cells (monocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes) to peripheral blood (PB) and lung tissue between 0.2 and 48 h post-blunt chest trauma (TXT). We demonstrate that the kinetics of immune cell and SPC distribution upon trauma are both cell-type and tissue-dependent. We identified a transient, early increase in the number of inflammatory cells in PB and lung at 2 h post-TXT and a second wave of infiltrating SPCs in lungs by 48 h after TXT induction, suggesting a role for SPCs in tissue remodeling after the initial inflammatory phase. Cxcl12/Cxcr4 blockade by AMD3100 within the first 6 h after TXT, while inducing a strong and coordinated mobilization of SPCs and leukocytes to PB and lung tissue, did not significantly affect TXT associated inflammation or tissue damage as determined by inflammatory cytokine levels, plasma markers for organ function, lung cell proliferation and survival, and myofibroblast/fibroblast ratio in the lung. Further understanding the dynamics of the distribution of endogenous SPCs and inflammatory cells will therefore be indispensable for stem cell-based or immunomodulation therapies in trauma.
Association between neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer

Abstract Introduction and Aim: The prognostic role of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been explored extensively in the literature. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the link between NLR and lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer. A method for increasing specificity and sensitivity of pre-treatment staging has implications on treatment algorithms and survival. Search Strategy: The relevant databases were searched as per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flowchart. After selection, 12 full text articles that met the inclusion criteria were included for quantitative analysis. 2 × 2 squares were generated using lymph node positive/negative, and NLR high/low data. The effect size for each study was calculated using the DerSimonian–Laird random effects model. P values were calculated using the chi-square method. Finally publication bias was evaluated. All statistics were calculated using R Studio. Results: Meta-analysis showed a 1.90 times (odds ratio, with 95% CI 1.52–2.38) increase in risk of positive lymph node status with high neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio. This has significant implications for cancer screening and staging, as NLR is a highly reproducible, cost-effective, and widely available prognostic factor for gastric cancer patients. Additionally, high or low NLR values may have implications for management pathways. Patients with lymph node metastasis can be offered neoadjuvant chemotherapy, avoiding salvage therapy in the form of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, which is poorly tolerated. Conclusion: This meta-analysis shows an association between NLR and positive lymph node status in gastric cancer patients with implications for staging, as well as preoperative personalisation of therapy.
Prophylactic Antitubercular Therapy Is Associated With Accelerated Disease Progression in Patients With Crohn's Disease Receiving Anti-TNF Therapy: A Retrospective Multicenter Study

INTRODUCTION: Prophylactic antitubercular therapy (ATT) is widely prescribed in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) receiving antitumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) treatment. However, antitubercular agents have been demonstrated to possess profibrotic effects. We aimed to evaluate whether ATT accelerated disease progression in patients with CD receiving anti-TNF treatment. METHODS: A retrospective, multicenter study was performed in CD patients presented with inflammatory behavior (B1) and treated with anti-TNF agents. Disease progression was defined as the development of a stricturing (B2) or penetrating (B3) phenotype. ATT users were propensity score-matched with non-ATT users. Survival and multivariable Cox analyses were used to identify factors associated with disease progression. RESULTS: We enrolled 441 patients, including 295 ATT users and 146 non-ATT users, with a median follow-up of 3.15 years (interquartile range: 1.6–4.7). The cumulative rates of disease progression in the ATT group were constantly higher than those in the non-ATT group after 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year follow-ups, respectively (P = 0.031). Multivariable Cox analysis identified ATT as an independent risk factor for disease progression using both the whole (hazard ratio = 2.22; 95% confidence interval: 1.11–4.48; P = 0.025) and propensity score-matched cohorts (hazard ratio = 2.35; 95% confidence interval: 1.07–5.14; P = 0.033). In subgroup analysis, patients receiving ATT ≥4.5 months had a significantly higher rate of disease progression compared with patients receiving ATT <4.5 months (P = 0.005) and non-ATT treatment (P = 0.036). DISCUSSION: Prophylactic ATT with duration over 4.5 months was associated with disease progression in patients with CD receiving anti-TNF treatment.
Contribution of interleukin 27 serum level to pathogenesis and prognosis in children with immune thrombocytopenia

Abstract Concepts surrounding the mechanisms of thrombocytopenia in ITP have shifted from the traditional view of autoantibody mediated platelet destruction to more complex mechanisms in which impaired platelet production, T-cell-mediated effects, and disturbed cytokine profiles play a role. Interleukin 27 (IL-27) plays pleiotropic roles in immunomodulation and autoimmune diseases. We aimed to determine the level of IL-27 in patients with ITP and its relationship to patient and disease characteristics as well as disease chronicity and response to treatment. Sixty childrens with primary immune thrombocytopenia were consequetively enrolled in this study as well as 20 age and sex matched healthy controls. ITP patients had significantly higher levels of IL-27 than controls (770.6 and 373.8 pg/ml, respectively). Patients with acute ITP had the highest levels of IL-27 among patient groups, while patients in remission had the lowest IL-27 levels (860.1and 622.9 pg/ml, respectively). Patients who received IVIG and combined steroids plus IVIG had significantly higher IL-27 levels than others. Patients who received Eltrombopag had significantly lower IL-27 levels than others. IL-27 seems to play a role in pathogenesis of childhood ITP. IL-27 can be used as a predictor for disease occurrence as well as responsiveness to treatment.
The analysis of prognostic factors of primary small intestinal gastrointestinal stromal tumors with R0 resection

Abstract Objective: We aim to assess factors that affect overall survival in patients with primary small intestinal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) who had undergone R0 resection. Method: A retrospective analysis reviewed the data of 82 consecutive confirmed GIST patients at a single medical center in China from January 2012 to June 2020. The survival curve was estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method, and independent prognostic factors were confirmed using the Cox regression model. Results: A total of 82 patients were included in the study: 42 men and 40 women, the mean age was 59 years old (23–83 years old). Tumors were commonly found in the jejunum (46.3%), ileum (20.7%), and duodenum (32.9%). The median tumor size was 6.0 cm (range: 1.0–15.0 cm). The number of mitoses per one 50 high-power field was used to define the mitotic rates. In our present study, 56 patients presented a mitotic rate ≤5 (68.3%) and 26 patients showed a rate >5 (31.7%) at the time of diagnosis. All patients accepted tumor resection without lymph node resection. The positivity rate was 97.6% for CD117, 96.3% for delay of germination 1, 65.9% for CD34, 6.1% for S-100, and 59.8% for smooth muscle actin using immunohistochemistry. Tumor size, tumor rupture, Ki67 index, mitotic index, and postoperative imatinib were independent prognostic factors for small intestinal GISTs. Conclusions: In this study, larger tumor size, high Ki67 index, high mitotic index, the occurrence of tumor rupture, and use of imatinib were independent unfavorable prognostic indicators.
Adjuvant therapy for HER2 positive pT1a-b pN0 breast cancer

Abstract Deciding if patients with small (≤1 cm), node-negative, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive breast cancer should receive adjuvant systemic therapy remains a challenge. No randomized clinical trials have examined the efficacy of trastuzumab in this setting. This prospective observational study aimed to investigate the choice of adjuvant systemic therapy in clinical practice in China. We prospectively collected data from patients with HER-2 positive breast cancer (less than 1 cm and node negative) patients who underwent breast cancer surgery at Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital Breast Center from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019, and retrospectively investigated the association between baseline clinicopathological features and treatment strategy, cardiotoxicity, and disease outcome. Of 168 eligible patients, 102 (60.7%) received adjuvant systemic therapy with trastuzumab (AST+T), 47 (28%) received adjuvant systemic therapy without trastuzumab (AST) and 19 (11.3%) did not receive adjuvant systemic therapy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that age, tumor size and hormone receptor status were significantly associated with treatment choice. Three-year invasive disease-free survival probability was 100%, 97.9% and 89.5% with AST+T, AST, and no therapy, respectively (P < .001). The majority of patients (60.7%) with pT1a-b pN0 HER2 positive breast cancer received adjuvant systemic therapy with trastuzumab, whereas only 11.3% did not receive any adjuvant systemic therapy. Tumor size, age and hormone receptor status influenced treatment choice. The 3-year invasive disease-free survival probability was significantly higher for patients who received adjuvant systemic therapy with trastuzumab compared with those who did not receive adjuvant systemic therapy. Cardiac adverse events were rare.
The Career Satisfaction of IT Professionals With Mixed Job Demands

Career demands on the information technology (IT) professional have evolved. No longer do organizations demand strictly managerial or technical competencies. Instead, IT professionals face demands that require the ability to produce technically proficient software or systems while managing projects and stakeholders in a variety of situations. Prior research in desired career demands and job burnout indicates that this will lead to lower levels of career satisfaction and higher levels of turnover. To address this issue, we draw on the career orientation literature to build and test a model of career satisfaction derived from the organizational demands placed on the IT professional. The results suggest that pure managerial demands lead to the highest satisfaction while adding technical demands lessens satisfaction but in a complex pattern that allows potential compromises. Prior models of career paths should be reconsidered in light of newer career demands.
A Bayesian hierarchical model for improving measurement of 5mC and 5hmC levels: Toward revealing associations between phenotypes and methylation states

5‐hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is a methylation state linked with gene regulation, commonly found in cells of the central nervous system. 5hmC is associated with demethylation of cytosines from 5‐methylcytosine (5mC) to the unmethylated state. The presence of 5hmC can be inferred by a paired experiment involving bisulfite and oxidation‐bisulfite treatments on the same sample, followed by a methylation assay using a platform such as the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip (EPIC). Existing methods for analysis of the resulting EPIC data are not ideal. Most approaches ignore the correlation between the two experiments and any imprecision associated with DNA damage from the additional treatment. Estimates of 5mC/5hmC levels free from these limitations are desirable to reveal associations between methylation states and phenotypes. We propose a hierarchical Bayesian method called Constrained HYdroxy Methylation Estimation (CHYME) to simultaneously estimate 5mC/5hmC signals as well as any associations between these signals and covariates or phenotypes, while accounting for the potential impact of DNA damage and dependencies induced by the experimental design. Simulations show that CHYME has valid type 1 error and better power than a range of alternative methods, including the popular OxyBS method and linear models on transformed proportions. Other methods we examined suffer from hugely inflated type 1 error for inference on 5hmC proportions. We use CHYME to explore genome‐wide associations between 5mC/5hmC levels and cause of death in postmortem prefrontal cortex brain tissue samples. These analyses indicate that CHYME is a useful tool to reveal phenotypic associations with 5mC/5hmC levels.
Five Contexts and Three Characteristics of Student Participation and Student Voice – A Literature Review

In current scientific literature a wide variety of definitions and terms are used to describe student participation and student voice. In particular, this article examines how the terms participation, student voice, and their synonyms are used in the current literature to provide a structured overview of how these terms are being used. A systematic literature review led to 325 articles. From this number we selected 126 articles according to the criteria of topic (student participation in school), age group (primary and secondary school) and language (English or German). The results showed that student participation was discussed across five contexts: democratic education, childrenʼs rights, well-being, learning and school practice. A er comparing similarities and di erences between the five contexts, three characteristics which characterize student participation became apparent: considering others, power dynamics between students and teachers, and change that is inherently connected to participation. These five contexts and three characteristics of student participation serve as a possible structure for the discussion surrounding the varied terms and concepts used regarding student participation.
Gender: Evidence from Medical Residents

Are the long, inflexible work hours required by many high-paying professions a barrier to entry for women? I explore this question by studying the introduction of a policy in 2003 that capped the average workweek for medical residents at 80 hours. I leverage the fact that the reform was differentially binding across medical specialties due to pre-existing differences in specialties’ weekly hours. Using administrative data on the universe of U.S. medical school graduates from 1993 to 2010, I find that when a specialty reduces its weekly hours, more women enter the specialty, whereas there is little change in men’s entry. To shed light on why women and men respond differently to the reform, I analyze physicians’ fertility choices during residency. I link female physicians to administrative birth records from two large U.S. states and find that relaxing hours constraints increases the fertility of female residents in California, but has no effect in Texas. There is suggestive evidence that the marginal woman induced to enter a specialty due to the reform has different fertility timing preferences than the average woman, indicating that women make their career choices based in part on their desired fertility timing. I discuss these results in the context of a model in which physicians choose between work and family investments during their early careers.
Responsive Neurostimulation An into

As one of the most common neurological disorders, epilepsy affects approximately 1% of the population. Various reports show that between 30% and 40% of epilepsy patients will be drugresistant, a statistic that has not changed significantly despite the introduction of many new antiepileptic medications. Beginning with the reports of Sir Horsley [1], epilepsy surgery has provided an alternative for those with refractory epilepsy, offering a cure for some cases. The anterior medial temporal lobectomy, for example, offers a 60–75% chance of seizure freedom for properly selected patients with medial temporal lobe (MTL) epilepsy. There are, however, inherent risks with epilepsy surgery, and surgical results for extra-temporal epilepsy are quite variable. In some instances, resective surgery is not feasible due to overlap with functionally eloquent brain tissue and the resulting neurological deficit, and therefore other surgical treatment options are needed. Responsive neurostimulation (RNS) benefitted from serendipitous clinical observations and the advancement of applied technology. Direct application of electrical current to epileptic cortex was first reported in the 1950s [2]. Targeted cortical stimulation arose from the standard clinical investigations in localizing “eloquent” cortices (i.e., language, motor, sensory) in relation to the epileptogenic zone in surgical candidates. As part of the evaluation, cortical and subcortical electrodes are placed as grids and strip electrodes in the subdural space or depth electrodes into subcortical nuclei. A phenomenon known among clinical electrophysiologists was that cortical stimulation in pre-resection patients with brief bursts of pulse stimulations could stop afterdischarges within seconds [3, 4]. Lesser and colleagues quantified the phenomenon after noting that in 19 patients with subdural electrodes, brief pulse stimulations (0.3–2 s train of 300 μs biphasic pulses at 50 Hz) were able to abort prolonged runs of testing stimulation-induced afterdischarges; they prognosticated that brief pulse stimulations may be able to acutely treat seizures [3]. A. Gummadavelli · J. L. Gerrard (*) Department of Neurosurgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
Clinical applications of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) testing

Many claims have been made in recent years regarding the utility of plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentration measurements in the diagnosis, risk stratification and monitoring of patients with heart failure. This paper summarizes the current evidence and provides guidance for practising clinicians. Overall, plasma BNP testing appears to be of most value in the diagnostic arena, where it is likely to improve the performance of non-specialist physicians in diagnosing heart failure. In clinical practice, BNP testing is best used as a ‘rule out’ test for suspected cases of new heart failure in breathless patients presenting to either the outpatient or emergency care settings; it is not a replacement for echocardiography and full cardiological assessment, which will be required for patients with an elevated BNP concentration. Although work is ongoing in establishing the ‘normal’ values of BNP, heart failure appears to be highly unlikely below a plasma concentration of 100 pg/ml. However, as BNP levels rise with age and are affected by gender, comorbidity and drug therapy, the plasma BNP measurement should not be used in isolation from the clinical context. © 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The European Society of Cardiology.
Bullet impacts and built heritage damage 1640–1939

Conflict damage to heritage has been thrust into the global spotlight during recent conflict in the Middle East. While the use of social media has heightened and enhanced public awareness of this ‘cultural terrorism’, the occurrence of this type of vandalism is not new. In fact, as this study demonstrates, evidence of the active targeting of sites, as well as collateral damage when heritage is caught in crossfire, is widely visible around Europe and further afield. Using a variety of case studies ranging from the 1640s to the 1930s, we illustrate and quantify the changing impact of ballis‑ tics on heritage buildings as weaponry and ammunition have increased in both energy and energy density potential. In the first instance, this study highlights the increasing threats to heritage in conflict areas. Second, it argues for the pressing need to quantify and map damage to the stonework in order to respond to these challenges.