Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Homocysteine Level and Risk of Hemorrhage in Brain Arteriovenous Malformations

Objective We aimed to investigate the risk factors associated with hemorrhage and clarify the relation of homocysteine (Hcy) with brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs). Method We retrospectively reviewed bAVM patients from Beijing Tiantan Hospital between January 2019 and December 2019. Clinical and laboratory variables were analyzed in enrolled patients with bAVMs. Potential predictors associated with hemorrhage were evaluated by logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 143 bAVM patients were identified in the study, including 69 unruptured and 74 ruptured cases. Patients with hemorrhage were less likely to have hyperhomocysteinemia (P = 0.023). Logistic regression analysis showed that increased maximum diameter of bAVM lesions (odds ratio (OR) 0.634, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.479-0.839; P = 0.001) and serum Hcy level (OR 0.956, 95% CI 0.920-0.993; P = 0.021) were associated with lower risk of hemorrhage in bAVMs. Conclusion The present study provided evidence regarding the association between serum Hcy and hemorrhage in patients with bAVMs. Higher Hcy level was correlated with a lower risk of rupture. Detection of factors for subsequent hemorrhage is necessary to develop therapeutic strategies for bAVMs preferably.
Normal Ocular Protrusion Values in South Indian Population and Effect of Age, Gender and Refractive Status on Ocular Protrusion

Aim To determine the absolute and relative ocular protrusion values in normal south Indian population, and its relation to age, gender and type of refractive error. Methods A total of 387 subjects aged 7–70 years were included in this study. Both right and left absolute ocular protrusion values were measured by a single physician using Luedde exophthalmometer in primary gaze. Right eye ocular protrusion data were used for reporting the absolute ocular protrusion values, and difference between right and left eye absolute ocular protrusion values of the same individual was used to report the relative ocular protrusion values. Subject age was grouped as decades. Measurement values were evaluated by descriptive and inferential statistics. Results The mean absolute ocular protrusion of right eye was 14.67 ± 1.70 mm and left eye was 14.32 ± 1.75 mm. The mean right absolute ocular protrusion values from 1st to 7th decade were 12.73 ± 1.21 mm, 14.8 ± 1.25 mm, 15.79 ± 1.31 mm, 15.77 ± 1.36 mm, 15.87 ± 1.28 mm, 15 ± 1.03 mm and 14.36 ± 0.88 mm respectively. One-way analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference in the ocular protrusion among the age groups (p < 0.005). The mean relative ocular protrusion was 0.35 ± 0.64 mm. The type of refractive error (up to ±6.00D) has no significant effect on the absolute ocular protrusion values and showed a weak correlation between magnitude of myopia and hyperopia on absolute ocular protrusion. There was a statistically significant difference in absolute ocular protrusion among the female and male subjects. Conclusion Age and gender seems to significantly influence the absolute ocular protrusion and need to be considered for clinical evaluation of bilateral proptosis. The refractive error up to ±6.00D seems to have no significant effect on the absolute ocular protrusion.
Optimizing Residual Networks and VGG for Classification of EEG Signals: Identifying Ideal Channels for Emotion Recognition

Emotion is a crucial aspect of human health, and emotion recognition systems serve important roles in the development of neurofeedback applications. Most of the emotion recognition methods proposed in previous research take predefined EEG features as input to the classification algorithms. This paper investigates the less studied method of using plain EEG signals as the classifier input, with the residual networks (ResNet) as the classifier of interest. ResNet having excelled in the automated hierarchical feature extraction in raw data domains with vast number of samples (e.g., image processing) is potentially promising in the future as the amount of publicly available EEG databases has been increasing. Architecture of the original ResNet designed for image processing is restructured for optimal performance on EEG signals. The arrangement of convolutional kernel dimension is demonstrated to largely affect the model's performance on EEG signal processing. The study is conducted on the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Emotion EEG Dataset (SEED), with our proposed ResNet18 architecture achieving 93.42% accuracy on the 3-class emotion classification, compared to the original ResNet18 at 87.06% accuracy. Our proposed ResNet18 architecture has also achieved a model parameter reduction of 52.22% from the original ResNet18. We have also compared the importance of different subsets of EEG channels from a total of 62 channels for emotion recognition. The channels placed near the anterior pole of the temporal lobes appeared to be most emotionally relevant. This agrees with the location of emotion-processing brain structures like the insular cortex and amygdala.
Redefining the Standard for Atrial Fibrillation: A Patient-centric Report

A roundtable discussion with three European clinical experts in AF and one expert patient diagnosed and treated for AF was conducted in London in October 2019. The panel discussed the implications of AF for patients, current patient pathways, what treatment outcomes were relevant for patients and how the recommendations for the management of AF may change in the future, based on the outcomes of recently published and on-going clinical trials. This article summarises the discussion, and draws upon wider sources to detail best practice and optimal patient treatment pathways.
Mass Testing With Contact Tracing Compared to Test and Trace for the Effective Suppression of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom: Systematic Review

Background Making testing available to everyone and tracing contacts might be the gold standard to control COVID-19. Many countries including the United Kingdom have relied on the symptom-based test and trace strategy in bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control. The effectiveness of a test and trace strategy based on symptoms has been questionable and has failed to meet testing and tracing needs. This is further exacerbated by it not being delivered at the point of care, leading to rising cases and deaths. Increases in COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United Kingdom despite performing the highest number of tests in Europe suggest that symptom-based testing and contact tracing might not be effective as a control strategy. An alternative strategy is making testing available to all. Objective The primary objective of this review was to compare mass testing and contact tracing with the conventional test and trace method in the suppression of SARS-CoV-2 infections. The secondary objective was to determine the proportion of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases reported during mass testing interventions. Methods Literature in English was searched from September through December 2020 in Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Mendeley, and PubMed. Search terms included “mass testing,” “test and trace,” “contact tracing,” “COVID-19,” “SARS-CoV-2,” “effectiveness,” “asymptomatic,” “symptomatic,” “community screening,” “UK,” and “2020. ” Search results were synthesized without meta-analysis using the direction of effect as the standardized metric and vote counting as the synthesis metric. A statistical synthesis was performed using Stata 14.2. Tabular and graphical methods were used to present findings. Results The literature search yielded 286 articles from Google Scholar, 20 from ScienceDirect, 14 from Mendeley, 27 from PubMed, and 15 through manual search. A total of 35 articles were included in the review, with a sample size of nearly 1 million participants. We found a 76.9% (10/13, 95% CI 46.2%-95.0%; P=.09) majority vote in favor of the intervention under the primary objective. The overall proportion of asymptomatic cases among those who tested positive and in the tested sample populations under the secondary objective was 40.7% (1084/2661, 95% CI 38.9%-42.6%) and 0.0% (1084/9,942,878, 95% CI 0.0%-0.0%), respectively. Conclusions There was low-level but promising evidence that mass testing and contact tracing could be more effective in bringing the virus under control and even more effective if combined with social distancing and face coverings. The conventional test and trace method should be superseded by decentralized and regular mass rapid testing and contact tracing, championed by general practitioner surgeries and low-cost community services.
Esophageal Variceal Ligation Monotherapy versus Combined Ligation and Sclerotherapy for the Treatment of Esophageal Varices

Currently, endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) monotherapy is the standard therapy for managing esophageal variceal hemorrhage. Patients generally need several sessions of endoscopy to achieve optimal variceal ablation, and the varices can recur afterward. Endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) is an older technique, associated with certain complications. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy of EVL alone versus combined EVL and EIS in the treatment of esophageal varices. This retrospective study included 84 patients, of which 40 patients were treated with EVL monotherapy and 44 patients were treated with combined EVL + EIS. The main outcomes were rebleeding rates, recurrence at six months, number of treatment sessions, length of hospital stay, cost of hospitalization, and procedural complications. At six months, the rebleeding rate and recurrence were significantly lower in the EVL + EIS group compared to the EVL group (2.3% versus 15.0%; and 9.1% versus 27.5%, respectively). The number of treatment sessions, length of hospital stay, and cost of hospitalization were significantly lower in the EVL + EIS group compared to those in the EVL group (2.3 ± 0.6 versus 3.2 ± 0.8 times; 14.5 ± 3.4 versus 23.5 ± 5.9 days; and 23918.6 ± 4220.4 versus 26165.2 ± 4765.1 renminbi, respectively). Chest pain was significantly lower in the EVL + EIS group compared to that in the EVL group (15.9% versus 45.0%). There were no statistically significant differences in the presence of fever or esophageal stricture in both groups. In conclusion, combined EVL + EIS showed less rebleeding rates and recurrence at six months and less chest pain and was more cost effective compared to EVL alone in the treatment of gastroesophageal varices.
Incidence of postoperative hypothermia and its risk factors in adults undergoing orthopedic surgery under brachial plexus block: A retrospective cohort study

Postoperative hypothermia increases patient mortality and morbidity. However, the incidence of, and risk factors for, postoperative hypothermia in patients undergoing surgery under brachial plexus block (BPB) as the primary method of anesthesia remain unclear. This study aimed to determine the incidence of, and risk factors for, postoperative hypothermia in patients undergoing surgery under BPB. We retrospectively analyzed 660 patients aged ≥ 19 years who underwent orthopedic surgery under BPB in our hospital between October 2014 and October 2019. Postoperative hypothermia was defined as a tympanic membrane temperature < 36 °C when the patient arrived in the post-anesthesia care unit. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the independent risk factors for postoperative hypothermia. Postoperative hypothermia was observed in 40.6% (268/660) of patients. Independent risk factors for postoperative hypothermia were lower baseline core temperature before anesthesia (odds ratio [OR] 0.355; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.185-0.682), alcohol abuse (OR 2.658; 95% CI 1.105-6.398), arthroscopic shoulder surgery (OR 2.007; 95% CI 1.428-2.820), use of fentanyl (OR 1.486; 95% CI 1.059-2.087), combined use of midazolam and dexmedetomidine (OR 1.816; 95% CI 1.268-2.599), a larger volume of intravenous fluid (OR 1.001; 95% CI 1.000-1.002), and longer duration of surgery (OR 1.010; 95% CI 1.004-1.017). Postoperative hypothermia is common in adult patients undergoing orthopedic surgery under BPB. The risk factors identified in this study should be considered to avoid postoperative hypothermia in these patients.
Heart-Protective Mechanical Ventilation in Postoperative Cardiosurgical Patients

Background This study compared the hemodynamic effects and gas exchange under several different ventilator settings—with regard to tidal volume, respiratory rate, and end-expiratory pressure—in patients after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods Prospective interventional cohort study with a controlled group in a single cardiosurgical ICU involving 119 patients following on-pump CABG surgery. During the 1st postoperative hour, the intervention group patients were ventilated with Vt 10 ml × kg−1, RR 14/min, PEEP 5 cmH2O (“conventional ventilation”). During the 2nd hour, RR was reduced to 8/min (“reduced RR ventilation”). At 3 hrs, Vt was decreased to 6 ml × kg−1, RR returned to 14/min, and PEEP increased to 10 cmH2O (“low Vt-high PEEP ventilation”). Results Patients in the “low Vt-high PEEP” ventilation period showed significantly lower alveolar ventilation and thoraco-pulmonary compliance than during “reduced RR” ventilation. Mean airway pressure and Vds/Vt peaked during low Vt-high PEEP ventilation; however, driving pressure was lower. Vt decrease and PEEP increase did not lead to oxygenation improvement and worsened CO2 elimination. Hemodynamically, the study revealed significant cardiac output decrease during low Vt-high PEEP ventilation. In 23.2% of patients, catecholamine therapy was initiated. Conclusions In postoperative cardiosurgical patients, MV with Vt 6 ml × kg−1 and PEEP 10 cm H2O is characterized by worsened oxygenation and elimination of CO2 and a less favorable hemodynamic profile than ventilation with Vt 10 ml × kg−1 and PEEP 5 cmH2O. New and Noteworthy. (i) Patients after CABG may be especially sensitive to low tidal volume and increased PEEP as it negatively affects hemodynamic profile by means of the right heart preload decrease and afterload increase. (ii) Mechanical ventilation settings aiming to minimize mean airway pressure reduce the negative effects of positive inspiratory pressure and are favorable for hemodynamics.
Evaluation of Cyanide Content, Volatile Compounds Profile, and Biological Properties of Fresh and Boiled Sliced Thai Bamboo Shoot (Dendrocalamus asper Back.)

This study evaluated the cyanide content, bio-active compounds profile, volatile compounds profile, and biological activity of fresh and boiled sliced bamboo. Cyanide was only detected in fresh bamboo shoots, at a content of 140.40±5.34 mg/kg. Furthermore, the fresh bamboo shoots extracts had free radical scavenging properties, as demonstrated by ABTS･+ and DPPH･ assays, and contained phytochemical compounds, such as flavonoid, terpenoid, and reducing sugar. Indeed, the total phenolic and flavonoid contents were 12.12±0.12 mg gallic acid equivalent/dw and 1.60±0.11 mg quercetin equivalent/dw, respectively. In addition, these extracts demonstrated inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase (61.30±0.45%), α-amylase (37.00±1.82%), and tyrosinase (26.57±0.57%). Some volatile compounds, such as 2-methoxyphenol and 2-pentylfuran, show α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, and these compounds exerted α-amylase inhibitory activity in the fresh sliced bamboo shoots. The major volatile compound 4-methylphenol (68.15%), which exerts tyrosinase inhibitory activity, was also detected in fresh sliced bamboo shoots. The boiled sliced bamboo shoots extracts also contained bio-active compounds and exhibited biological activity similar to those in the fresh sliced bamboo shoots extracts. However, the boiling process and sliced technique reduced the bio-active compounds and biological properties as well as some of volatile compounds.
Performance of entomopathogenic nematodes on the mealybug, Dysmicoccus brevipes (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) and the compatibility of control agents with nematodes

Abstract The performance of nine isolates of Heterorhabditis amazonensis and one of Heterorhabditis indica on the mealybug Dysmicoccus brevipes, (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), were evaluated. The most virulent isolates were evaluated for nematode vertical and horizontal dispersal, and for efficiency at concentrations of 0 (control), 25, 50, 75, and 100 infective juveniles (IJs)/cm2 on adult females of the insect. A compatibility assessment was also carried out with commercial products, registered or in the process of registration, for use in the cassava culture. The isolates that caused the highest mortality rate of D. brevipes were NEPET11 (93.8% ± 4.1) and IBCB-n40 (84.0% ± 8.1), both isolates of Heterorhabditis amazonensis, while the isolate NEPET11 was more virulent than IBCB-n40 at all concentrations evaluated. In the dispersal test, the NEPET11 isolate caused mortality in the mealybug at a depth of up to 20 cm and a horizontal displacement of 7.25 cm. In the compatibility test, the NEPET11 isolate exhibited reduced viability due to the products Poquer, Tiguer 100 EC, Actara 250 WG, and Gaucho FS. The insecticide Curyom 550 EC was the only one that reduced infectivity (reduction of 92%) and is the only product classified as moderately toxic, while all the others were classified as compatible based on E%.
Similarities and differences between two different types of the thermoluminescence dosimeters belonging to the LiF family

The kinetic parameters of the glow-peaks of Harshaw – LiF:Mg, Ti (TLD) and Poland – LiF:Mg,Ti (MTS) dosimeters were investigated at different dose levels using the computerized glow-curve deconvolution (CGCD) algorithm. The results showed that the glow-curve structure and the kinetic parameters of the MTS – 6 and the TLD dosimeter are identical. In addition, the glow-curve structure and the kinetic parameters of the MTS – N and MTS – 7 dosimeters. However, unusual low activation energy (∼1.67 eV) and frequency factor (∼1015 s–1) values were detected for peak 5 of MTS – N, and MTS – 7 at the 50 Gy dose-level. Moreover, unlike the activation energy and the frequency factor of peak 5 of the TLD dosimeters, the activation energy and the frequency factor of peak 5 of MTS – N and MTS – 7 are substantially dependent on the absorbed dose level. The results also showed that peak 2 of the same dosimeters has also unusual low activation energy and frequency factor values. However, these values showed high stability over the different dose levels. The explanations of these unusual behaviors of peak 5 were discussed and a correlation between peak 2 and peak 5 was pointed out. (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein is an early marker of amyloid pathology in Alzheimer's disease

Although recent clinical trials targeting amyloid in Alzheimers disease (AD) have shown promising results, there is increasing evidence suggesting that understanding alternative disease pathways that interact with amyloid metabolism and amyloid pathology might be important to halt the clinical deterioration. In particular, there is evidence supporting a critical role of astroglial activation and astrocytosis in AD. However, to this date, no studies have assessed whether astrocytosis is independently related to amyloid or tau pathology, respectively, in vivo. To address this question, we determined the levels of the astrocytic marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 217 amyloid-negative cognitively unimpaired individuals, 71 amyloid-positive cognitively unimpaired individuals, 78 amyloid-positive cognitively impaired individuals, 63 amyloid-negative cognitively impaired individuals and 75 patients with a non-AD neurodegenerative disorder from the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study. Subjects underwent longitudinal amyloid (18F-flutemetamol) and tau (18F-RO948) positron emission tomography (PET) as well as cognitive testing. We found that plasma GFAP concentration was significantly increased in all amyloid-positive groups compared with subjects without amyloid pathology (p<0.01). In addition, there were significant associations between plasma GFAP with higher amyloid-PET signal in all amyloid-positive groups, but also in cognitively normal individuals with normal amyloid values (p<0.001), which remained significant after controlling for tau-PET signal. Furthermore, plasma GFAP could predict amyloid-PET positivity with an area under the curve of 0.76, which was greater than the performance achieved by CSF GFAP (0.69) and other glial markers (CSF YKL-40: 0.64, sTREM2: 0.71). Although correlations were also observed between tau-PET and plasma GFAP, these were no longer significant after controlling for amyloid-PET. In contrast to plasma GFAP, CSF GFAP concentration was significantly increased in non-AD patients compared to other groups (p<0.05) and correlated with amyloid-PET only in amyloid-positive cognitively impaired individuals (p=0.005). Finally, plasma GFAP was associated with both longitudinal amyloid-PET and cognitive decline, and mediated the effect of amyloid-PET on tau-PET burden, suggesting that astrocytosis secondary to amyloid aggregation might promote tau accumulation. Altogether, these findings indicate that plasma GFAP is an early marker associated with brain amyloid pathology but not tau aggregation, even in cognitively normal individuals with a normal amyloid status. This suggests that plasma GFAP should be incorporated in current hypothetical models of AD pathogenesis and be used as a non-invasive and accessible tool to detect early astrocytosis secondary to amyloid pathology.
Effect of COVID-19 on Lipid Profile and its Correlation with Acute Phase Reactants

Background and Objective Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifests as multiple clinical and pathological organ dysfunctions. It also disrupts metabolic profile due to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines causing a systemic inflammation reaction. However, the development and correlation of dyslipidemia with acute phase reactants is unknown. This investigation was performed to assess the pathological alterations of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides, and total cholesterol levels in COVID-19 patients. Methods This was a prospective study performed on real-world patients to assess serum levels of LDL-C, HDL, TG, TC on COVID-19 patients (mild: 319; moderate: 391; critical: 357) hospitalized at our center between April 2020 through January 2021. Age- and gender-matched controls who had their lipid profiles in the same period were included as the control group. Results LDL-C, HDL, TG, and TC levels were significantly lower in COVID-19 patients when compared with the control group (P < 0.001, 0.047, 0.045, < 0.001, respectively). All parameters decreased gradually with COVID-19 disease severity (LDL-C: median (IQR), mild: 98 (91,134); moderate: 97 (81,113); critical: 68 (68,83); HDL: mild: 45 (37,50); moderate: 46 (41,50); critical: 40 (37,46); TG: mild: 186 (150,245); moderate: 156 (109,198); critical: 111 (98,154); TC: mild: 224 (212,238); moderate: 212 (203,213); critical: 154 (125,187)). LDL-C, TC, and TG were inversely correlated with acute phase reactants (interleukin-6 (IL-6), Procalcitonin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and D-dimers). Logistic regression demonstrated lipid profile, thyroid profile, and acute phase reactants as predictors of severity of COVID-19 disease. Conclusion Hypolipidemia develops in increasing frequency with severe COVID-19 disease. It inversely correlates with levels of acute-phase reactants, indicating SARS-COV-2 as the causative agent for alteration in lipid and thyroid levels.