Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short Term Prognosis of Renal Artery Stenosis Secondary to Acute Type B Aortic Dissection With TEVAR

Objective: To determine the effect of renal artery stenosis (RAS) resulting from acute type B aortic dissection (ATBAD) with thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) on early prognosis in patients with ATBAD. Methods: A total of 129 ATBAD patients in the National Acute Aortic Syndrome Database (AASCN) who underwent TEVAR between 2019 and 2020 were enrolled in our study. Patients were divided into two groups: the RAS group and the non-RAS group. Results: There were 21 RAS patients (16.3%) and 108 non-RAS patients (83.7%) in our cohort. No patient in our cohort died during the 1-month follow-up. There was no significant difference in preoperative creatinine clearance rate (CCr) between the two groups (90.6 ± 46.1 μmol/L in the RAS group vs. 78.7 ± 39.2 μmol/L in the non-RAS group, P = 0.303) but the RAS group had a significantly lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) than the non-RAS group (83.3 ± 25.0 vs. 101.9 ± 26.9 ml/min, respectively; P = 0.028). One month after TEVAR, CCr was significantly higher (99.0 ± 68.1 vs. 78.5 ± 25.8 ml/min, P = 0.043) and eGFR (81.7 ± 23.8 vs. 96.0 ± 20.0 ml/min, P = 0.017) was significantly lower in the RAS group than in the non-RAS group. Conclusions: In ATBAD, RAS could result in acute kidney injury (AKI) in the early stage after TEVAR. The RAS group had a high incidence of hypertension. These results suggest that patients with RAS may need further treatment.
Mycoplankton Biome Structure and Assemblage Processes Differ Along a Transect From the Elbe River Down to the River Plume and the Adjacent Marine Waters

Rivers are transport systems and supply adjacent ecosystems with nutrients. They also serve human well-being, for example as a source of food. Microorganism biodiversity is an important parameter for the ecological balance of river ecosystems. Despite the knowledge that fungi are key players in freshwater nutrient cycling and food webs, data on planktonic fungi of streams with higher stream order are scarce. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by a fungi-specific 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene tag sequencing approach, investigating mycoplankton diversity in the Elbe River along a transect from shallow freshwater, to the estuary and river plume down to the adjacent marine waters (sections of seventh stream order number). Using multivariate analyses and the quantitative process estimates (QPEs) method, questions (i) of how mycoplankton communities as part of the river continuum change along the transect, (ii) what factors, spatial and environmental, play a role, and (iii) what assembly processes, such as selection or dispersion, operate along the transect, were addressed. The partitioning of mycoplankton communities into three significant distant biomes was mainly driven by local environmental conditions that were partly under spatial control. The assembly processes underlying the biomes also differed significantly. Thus, variable selection dominated the upstream sections, while undominated processes like ecological drift dominated the sections close to the river mouth and beyond. Dispersal played a minor role. The results suggest that the ecological versatility of the mycoplankton communities changes along the transect as response, for example, to a drastic change from an autotrophic to a heterotrophic system caused by an abrupt increase in the river depth. Furthermore, a significant salinity-dependent occurrence of diverse basal fungal groups was observed, with no clade found exclusively in marine waters. These results provide an important framework to help understand patterns of riverine mycoplankton communities and serve as basis for a further in-depth work so that fungi, as an important ecological organism group, can be integrated into models of, e.g., usage-balance considerations of rivers.
Clinical Relevance of CD4 Cytotoxic T Cells in High-Risk Neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial childhood solid tumor. The majority of high-risk neuroblastoma is resistant/refractory to the current high intensity therapy, and the survival of these patients remains poor for the last three decades. To effectively treat these extremely unfavorable neuroblastomas, innovative immunotherapy approaches would be the most promising. In this article, we discuss the identity of tumor-infiltrating effector cells and immunosuppressive cells in high-risk neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is unique in that it expresses little or no classical HLA Class I and II. In contrast, high-risk neuroblastomas express the stress-responsive non-classical Class I, HLA-E molecule. HLA-E is the ligand of activating receptors NKG2C/E that are expressed on memory NK cells, CD8+T cells and CD4 CTLs. By examining a comprehensive RNA-seq gene expression dataset, we detected relatively high levels of CD4 expression in high-risk neuroblastoma tissues. The majority of CD4+ cells were CD3+, and thus they were likely tumor-associated CD4+T cells. In addition, high-level of both CD4 and NKG2C/E expression was associated with prolonged survival of the high-risk neuroblastoma patients, but CD8 levels were not, further suggesting that the CD4+ NKG2C/E+ T cells or CD4 CTL conferred cytotoxicity against the neuroblastoma cells. However, this T cell mediated- “protective effect” declined over time, in part due to the progressive formation of immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. These observations suggest that to improve survival of high-risk neuroblastoma patients, it is essential to gain insights into how to enhance CD4 CTL cytotoxicity and control the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment during the course of the disease.
Impact of Time to Castration Resistance on Survival in Metastatic Hormone Sensitive Prostate Cancer Patients in the Era of Combination Therapies

Background To evaluate the impact of time to castration resistance (TTCR) in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) patients on overall survival (OS) in the era of combination therapies for mHSPC. Material and Methods Of 213 mHSPC patients diagnosed between 01/2013-12/2020 who subsequently developed metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), 204 eligible patients were analyzed after having applied exclusion criteria. mHSPC patients were classified into TTCR <12, 12-18, 18-24, and >24 months and analyzed regarding OS. Moreover, further OS analyses were performed after having developed mCRPC status according to TTCR. Logistic regression models predicted the value of TTCR on OS. Results Median follow-up was 34 months. Among 204 mHSPC patients, 41.2% harbored TTCR <12 months, 18.1% for 12-18 months, 15.2% for 18-24 months, and 25.5% for >24 months. Median age was 67 years and median PSA at prostate cancer diagnosis was 61 ng/ml. No differences in patient characteristics were observed (all p>0.05). According to OS, TTCR <12 months patients had the worst OS, followed by TTCR 12-18 months, 18-24 months, and >24 months, in that order (p<0.001). After multivariable adjustment, a 4.07-, 3.31-, and 6.40-fold higher mortality was observed for TTCR 18-24 months, 12-18 months, and <12 months patients, relative to TTCR >24 months (all p<0.05). Conversely, OS after development of mCRPC was not influenced by TTCR stratification (all p>0.05). Conclusion Patients with TTCR <12 months are at the highest OS disadvantage in mHSPC. This OS disadvantage persisted even after multivariable adjustment. Interestingly, TTCR stratified analyses did not influence OS in mCRPC patients.
BRCA1 and BRCA2 Tumor Suppressor Function in Meiosis

Meiosis is a specialized cell cycle that results in the production of haploid gametes for sexual reproduction. During meiosis, homologous chromosomes are connected by chiasmata, the physical manifestation of crossovers. Crossovers are formed by the repair of intentionally induced double strand breaks by homologous recombination and facilitate chromosome alignment on the meiotic spindle and proper chromosome segregation. While it is well established that the tumor suppressors BRCA1 and BRCA2 function in DNA repair and homologous recombination in somatic cells, the functions of BRCA1 and BRCA2 in meiosis have received less attention. Recent studies in both mice and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have provided insight into the roles of these tumor suppressors in a number of meiotic processes, revealing both conserved and organism-specific functions. BRCA1 forms an E3 ubiquitin ligase as a heterodimer with BARD1 and appears to have regulatory roles in a number of key meiotic processes. BRCA2 is a very large protein that plays an intimate role in homologous recombination. As women with no indication of cancer but carrying BRCA mutations show decreased ovarian reserve and accumulated oocyte DNA damage, studies in these systems may provide insight into why BRCA mutations impact reproductive success in addition to their established roles in cancer.
APC Promoter Methylation in Gastrointestinal Cancer

The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene, known as tumor suppressor gene, has the two promoters 1A and 1B. Researches on APC have usually focused on its loss-of-function variants causing familial adenomatous polyposis. Hypermethylation, however, which is one of the key epigenetic alterations of the APC CpG sequence, is also associated with carcinogenesis in various cancers. Accumulating studies have successively explored the role of APC hypermethylation in gastrointestinal (GI) tumors, such as in esophageal, colorectal, gastric, pancreatic, and hepatic cancer. In sporadic colorectal cancer, the hypermethylation of CpG island in APC is even considered as one of the primary causative factors. In this review, we systematically summarized the distribution of APC gene methylation in various GI tumors, and attempted to provide an improved general understanding of DNA methylation in GI tumors. In addition, we included a robust overview of demethylating agents available for both basic and clinical researches. Finally, we elaborated our findings and perspectives on the overall situation of APC gene methylation in GI tumors, aiming to explore the potential research directions and clinical values.
Some factors controlling stomatal uptake

In this study the influence of air humidity, light, concentration and position on the leaf blade on the uptake of the anionic fluorescent dye uranine (sodium fluoresceinate) was investigated, using isolated epidermal strips (ES) of Allium porrum and of the ornamental plant Sedum telephium. The dye was applied in aqueous solution as single droplets at a defined relative humidity (rh). The proportion that penetrated the ES was immobilised on the inner side by ion exchange membranes (IEM). Uptake patterns were examined microscopically and uptake rates were quantified fluorimetrically. The distribution of the dye on the IEM indicated that uptake was restricted to stomatal areas. Uptake of the dye increased with increasing rh and was particularly high when rh was above the deliquescence point of uranine. Pre-illumination of S. telephium leaf sections increased uptake rates by a factor of 1.5 to 36 compared with leaves kept in darkness prior to the experiments. Increasing the concentration of uranine at a constant droplet volume increased overall penetration rates but decreased uptake relative to the applied dose. This decrease was most distinctive at high rh (93%). This is attributed to the extremely slow evaporation of the droplets at high solute concentrations and high rh. With both plant species variability was considerably high, even if ES were obtained from proximate regions of the same leaf. It is concluded that stomata can be an important pathway for the uptake of foliar applied substances.
Using a General Prior Knowledge Graph to Improve Data-Driven Causal Network Learning

We describe a method “Kg2Causal” for using a large-scale, general-purpose biomedical knowledge graph as a prior for data-driven causal network structure learning. Given a set of observed nodes in a dataset, and some relationship edges between the nodes derived from a knowledge graph, Kg2Causal uses the knowledge graph-derived edges to guide the data-driven inference of a causal Bayesian network. We tested Kg2Causal on several real-world biological datasets with known ground-truth networks and demonstrate improvement in network learning accuracy, relative to a baseline of an uninformative network structure prior. We also demonstrate the application of our method if data are collected under different experimental conditions including interventions on the observed variables.
Design Guidelines for Socio-Domestic Systems Supporting Informal Elderly Caregiving

Current communication practices broadly rely on social media services and instant messaging. However, in the context of intergenerational interaction, this paradigm has not been deeply studied from a holistic perspective, i.e., considering the attitudes, expectations, viewpoints, and concerns of all involved stakeholders. Therefore, there is still a broad amount of open research questions in exploring the potential and implications of designing, developing, and deploying computer-supported solutions in this domain. In this paper, we aim to model---in a comprehensive manner---the structure and dynamics of informal elderly caregiving and intergenerational communication, as a way to understand their socio-technical nuances as a way to support the design of novel computer-supported mechanisms to mediate these processes. More precisely, this implies identifying key design aspects, considering the perspective raised by older adults and how other family members articulate themselves in this context. By addressing the proposed design guidelines, social computing researchers, designers, and practitioners would be able to better understand the complexity of informal elderly caregiving, and identify plausible solutions that would improve user experience and the effectiveness of computer-supported mediation strategies.
Exploring the Hyperparameters of XGBoost Through 3D Visualizations

Optimizing the hyperparameters is one of the most important and time-consuming activities to do when training machine learning models. But the lack of guidance available to optimization algorithms means that finding values for these hyperparameters is left to black-box methods. Black-box methods can be made more efficient by incorporating an understanding of where good hyperparameter values might be located for a specific model. In this paper, we visualize hyperparameter performance-landscapes in several datasets to discover how the XGBoost algorithm behaves for many combinations of hyperpa-rameter values across these datasets. Using this knowledge, it might be possible to design more efficient search strategies for optimizing the hyperparameters of XGBoost.
Healthcare system impacts of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing: evidence from a national trauma registry patient case series and hospital performance data

Introduction In response to detonation of an improvised explosive device at the Manchester Arena on 22 May 2017, we aimed to use detailed information about injured patients flowing through hospital healthcare to objectively evaluate the preplanned responses of a regional trauma care system and to show how routinely collected hospital performance data can be used to assess impact on regional healthcare. Methods Data about injury severity, management and outcome for patients presenting to hospitals were collated using England’s major trauma registry for 30 days following hospital attendance. System-wide data about hospital performance were collated by National Health Service England’s North West Utilisation Management Unit and presented as Shewhart charts from 15 April 2017 to 25 June 2017. Results Detailed information was obtained on 153 patients (109 adults and 44 children) who attended hospital emergency departments after the incident. Within 6 hours, a network of 11 regional trauma care hospitals received a total of 138 patients (90%). For the whole patient cohort, median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 1 (IQR 1–10) and median New ISS (NISS) was 2 (IQR 1–14). For the 75 patients (49%) attending a major trauma centre, median ISS was 7.5 (IQR 1–14) and NISS was 10 (IQR 3–22). Limb and torso body regions predominated when injuries were classified as major life threatening (Abbreviated Injury Scale>3). Ninety-three patients (61%) required hospital admission following emergency department management, with 21 (14%) requiring emergency damage control surgery and 24 (16%) requiring critical care. Three fatalities occurred during early resuscitative treatment and 150 (98%) survived to day 30. The increased system-wide hospital admissions and care activity was linked to increases in regional hospital care capacity through cancellations of elective surgery and increased community care. Consequently, there were sustained system-wide hospital service improvements over the following weeks. Conclusions The systematic collation of injured patient and healthcare system data has provided an objective evaluation of a regional major incident plan and provided insight into healthcare system resilience. Hospital patient care data indicated that a prerehearsed patient dispersal plan at incident scene was implemented effectively.
Improving and Assessing Student Hands-On Laboratory Skills through Digital Badging

Building on previous success with a digital pipet badge, an evidence-centered design approach was used to develop new digital badges for measuring the volume of liquids with a buret and making a solution in a volumetric flask. These badges were implemented and assessed in two general chemistry courses. To earn the badges, students created videos of their techniques at the end of lab and uploaded them using the Passport app. Students received individual feedback from their instructors and were able to attempt the technique again if their first performance was unsatisfactory. To evaluate the badge as a laboratory assessment tool, students completed surveys about their knowledge, confidence, and experience using each technique with a retrospective-pre then post survey design. Analysis of these surveys showed statistically significant gains in student knowledge, confidence, and experience across both courses and both badges. Student performance on exams and procedural questions within the badges supports the .
Vorkommen von polaren organischen Kontaminanten im Berliner Trinkwasser

Clofibric acid and N-(phenylsulfonyl)-sarcosine, two polar organic compounds, were detected as contaminants at maximum concentrations of 270 ng/l and 105 ng/l, respectively, during analyses of drinking water samples from the Berlin water works carried out from 1992 to 1994. The results obtained correlate well with the percentage values of artificial groundwater enrichment and bank filtrate used by any particular water treatment plant in drinking water production. The geographical situation of the water works and the relative contamination of any neighbouring watercourse used as a source for ground water enrichment are decisive for the level of measured content of clofibric acid and N-(phenylsulfonyl)-sarcosine. Both polar contaminants, according to present results, leach into drinking water and are not eliminated by the drinking-water treatment used by the Berlin water works.
PFA-GAN: Pose Face Augmentation Based on Generative Adversarial Network

In this work, we propose a novel framework based on Generative Adversarial Networks for pose face augmentation (PFA-GAN). It enables a controlled pose synthesis of a new face image from a source face given a driving one while preserving the identity of the source face. We introduce a method for training the framework in a fully self-supervised mode using a large-scale dataset of unconstrained face images. Besides, some augmentation strategies are presented to expand the training set. The face verification experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented augmentation strategies as all augmented datasets outperform the baseline.
Mathematical Analyses of Mandibular Arch Form in a Sudanese Adult with Normal Occlusion

Aims: This study aimed to analyze the mandibular dental arch forms of Sudanese adults with normal occlusion and provide practical method for orthodontists to determine different arch forms. Materials and Methods: This descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study determined the mandibular arch in a sample of 104 Sudanese university students. The measurements were collected from the mandibular dental cast, established three arch width and three arch length measurements, and determined five ratios. The arch form was analyzed according to Raberin’s polynomial method. Results: The mid arch form was the most prevalent (75%), followed by the narrow arch form (11.54%), wide arch form (6.73%), and pointed arch form (6.73%). No case had flat arch form. Conclusion: Four types of arch forms were recognized in Sudanese subjects. Norms of transverse and sagittal dimensions of the mandibular arch to determine types of the mandibular arch form in Sudanese orthodontic patients were established.
Wild and farmed burbot Lota lota: differences in energy consumption and behavior during the spawning season

Farmed fish released in a native environment can display different spawning behaviour compared to their wild conspecifics. In our study, farmed and wild burbot, a species recently introduced for aquacultural production, were equipped with electromyogram (EMG) radio tags. EMG biotelemetry allows a description of the spatial distribution of fish together with simultaneous measurements of individual energy consumption. Farmed burbot were released into the wild to simulate stocking or hatchery escape and were observed over a nocturnal phase during November to January. The observational period was assumed to cover the whole spawning season, including an expected peak of spawning activity determined according to egg production by naturally spawning burbot in an experimental seminatural river channel. We detected increased energy consumption and lower movement activity at the time of expected peak spawning for wild burbot only. Across the whole spawning season, farmed females showed lower movement activity and energy consumption than wild females, whereas the opposite results were found for farmed males. Farmed and wild fish kept larger distances between each other than the individuals within a group (farmed and wild) across the whole spawning season. The closest positions occurred between males and females in the wild group, while for farmed fish, the closest position was found within the same sex. Sexually conditioned energy consumption and spatial distribution differed between wild and farmed fish.
Breast cancer in adolescent and young adult Ivory coast women: epidemiological and clinical features and molecular subdivision

Breast cancer is the first female cancer worldwide. According to the report GLOBOCAN 2012, it represents 1,671,149 over annual new cases whose 133,890 cases in Africa. This cancer accounts for about 23% of all malignant tumors of women, and its incidence is increasing. In Ivory Coast, Breast cancer has become the first female cancer. According to data by the Ivoirian cancer registry, the incidence and mortality from breast cancer are rising steadily from 21.4 to 33.7 for 100,000 women and from 11 to 18.5% from 1997 to 2012. It is most frequently diagnosed cancer among in adolescent and young adult (AJA) women 15 to 39 years of age. It represents approximately 14% of all AYA cancer diagnoses and 7% of all breast cancer diagnoses. Several studies suggesting that breast cancer in this age group is more aggressive and associated with worse prognosis than their older counterparts. This specificity may be related to delayed diagnosis due to low socio-economic level of the ABSTRACT