Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A systematic monitoring approach to biologic therapies in inflammatory bowel disease: patients’ and physicians’ preferences and adherence

Abstract Objectives Treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) should aim at achieving mucosal healing. However, monitoring schedules to support this goal remain undefined. We aimed to identify patients’ and physicians’ preferences regarding monitoring strategy and investigated the feasibility of such a strategy. Methods Elements considered relevant for monitoring were identified in questionnaire surveys among 1) patients with IBD receiving biologic agents (n = 172) and 2) their physicians (n = 87). Adherence to a monitoring strategy incorporating these elements was investigated in a retrospective cohort of patients with IBD treated with biologic agents (n = 139). Results Patients considered blood and stool samples, endoscopies, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to be relevant aspects of monitoring their disease. However, patients also considered stool samples and endoscopies unpleasant. Physicians considered blood samples (99%), medical consultations (99%), fecal calprotectin (85%), endoscopy (78%), and MRI (71%) to be important aspects of IBD monitoring but considered endoscopies and MRI relevant only at clinical signs of relapse. A review of the clinical use of monitoring strategies including the elements identified above revealed high adherence for blood samples and disease activity indices (92%), but low adherence for fecal calprotectin (38%), therapeutic drug monitoring (38%), and endoscopies (32%). Conclusion Important tools for evaluating mucosal healing (e.g., endoscopy) were rated highly unpleasant by patients, and physicians found endoscopies/MRI relevant only in case of relapse. These findings were reflected by low rates of adherence to use of these monitoring tools. In defining monitoring schedules to help achieve treatment goals, these important barriers must be addressed.
Reducing the peak-to-average power ratio using turbo coding

Owing to the susceptibility to the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, the authors introduce a novel approach based on turbo coding to improve OFDM (PAPR) performance. In the paper, it is shown that even for different types of modulation methods and coding rates, the technique is still applicable and gives better performance comparing to the conventional techniques being used (such as the clipping technique and the partial transmit sequence (PTS) technique).
Low-frequency somatic copy number alterations in normal human lymphocytes revealed by large-scale single-cell whole-genome profiling

Genomic-scale somatic copy number alterations in healthy humans are difficult to investigate because of low occurrence rates and the structural variations’ stochastic natures. Using a Tn5-transposase assisted single-cell whole genome sequencing method, we sequenced over 20,000 single lymphocytes from 16 individuals. Then, with the scale increased to a few thousand single cells per individual, we found that about 7.5% of the cells had large-size copy number alterations. Trisomy 21 was the most prevalent aneuploid event among all autosomal copy number alterations, while monosomy X occurred most frequently in over-30-year-old females. In the monosomy X single cells from individuals with phased genomes and identified X-inactivation ratios in bulk, the inactive X Chromosomes were lost more often than were the active ones.
Combining Enhanced and Synthetic Vision for Autonomous All-Weather Approach and Landing

This article is about the design and evaluation of the human–machine interface of an enhanced and synthetic vision system. Several tunnel-in-the-sky and pathway-in-the-sky concepts including scene-linking elements have been evaluated. Pathway-in-the-sky displays enable pilots to accurately fly difficult trajectories. However, these displays may drive pilots' attention to the aircraft guidance task at the expense of other tasks, particularly when the pathway display is located head-down. A pathway head-up display (HUD) might be a viable solution to overcome this disadvantage. Moreover, the pathway might mitigate the perceptual segregation between the static near domain and the dynamic far domain and hence might improve attention switching between both sources. To more comprehensively overcome the perceptual near-to-far domain disconnect, alphanumeric symbols could be attached to the pathway leading to an HUD design concept called scene linking. A scene-linked pathway-predictor concept was implemented on a monocular retinal scanning head-mounted device (HMD) in combination with an optical head tracker. The evaluation comprises low-fidelity part-task simulations, high-fidelity simulator runs, and flight trials. Where laboratory experiments found evidence in favor of scene-linked pathway HUDs or HMDs, the real flight tests could not fully support this display concept. Even so, in all studies evidence has been found that the head-up pathway concept could be superior to current head-up solutions.
Finerenone Reduces Risk of Incident Heart Failure in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease and Type 2 Diabetes: Analyses From the FIGARO-DKD Trial

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes are independently associated with heart failure (HF), a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. In the FIDELIO-DKD (Finerenone in Reducing Kidney Failure and Disease Progression in Diabetic Kidney Disease) and FIGARO-DKD (Finerenone in Reducing Cardiovascular Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease) trials, finerenone (a selective, nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist) improved cardiovascular outcomes in patients with albuminuric chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes. These prespecified analyses from FIGARO-DKD assessed the effect of finerenone on clinically important HF outcomes. Methods: Patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio ≥30 to <300 mg/g and estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥25 to ≤90 mL per min per 1.73 m2, or urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio ≥300 to ≤5000 mg/g and estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥60 mL per min per 1.73 m2), without symptomatic HF with reduced ejection fraction, were randomized to finerenone or placebo. Time-to-first-event outcomes included new-onset HF (first hospitalization for HF [HHF] in patients without a history of HF at baseline); cardiovascular death or first HHF; HF-related death or first HHF; first HHF; cardiovascular death or total (first or recurrent) HHF; HF-related death or total HHF; and total HHF. Outcomes were evaluated in the overall population and in prespecified subgroups categorized by baseline HF history (as reported by the investigators). Results: Overall, 7352 patients were included in these analyses; 571 (7.8%) had a history of HF at baseline. New-onset HF was significantly reduced with finerenone versus placebo (1.9% versus 2.8%; hazard ratio [HR], 0.68 [95% CI, 0.50–0.93]; P=0.0162). In the overall population, the incidences of all HF outcomes analyzed were significantly lower with finerenone than placebo, including an 18% lower risk of cardiovascular death or first HHF (HR, 0.82 [95% CI, 0.70–0.95]; P=0.011), a 29% lower risk of first HHF (HR, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.56–0.90]; P=0.0043) and a 30% lower rate of total HHF (rate ratio, 0.70 [95% CI, 0.52–0.94]). The effects of finerenone on improving HF outcomes were not modified by a history of HF. The incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events was balanced between treatment groups. Conclusions: The results from these FIGARO-DKD analyses demonstrate that finerenone reduces new-onset HF and improves other HF outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes, irrespective of a history of HF. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials. gov; Unique identifier: NCT02545049.
Femtosecond laser-assisted deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty: A safer option in keratoconus surgery

Purpose To evaluate postoperative safety of femtosecond laser deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty performed with an innovative anvil profile in keratoconus patients. Methods This is a single-center, retrospective cohort study. We reviewed medical records of 89 keratoconus patients that underwent femtosecond laser deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty surgery (46 eyes) and manual deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (47 eyes). Inclusion criteria required: age > 18 years old, best-corrected visual acuity < 0.3 LogMAR, continuous suture of the graft, postoperative immunomodulant regimen with dexamethasone 0.1% for 6 months and at least 12 months follow-up. Previous eye surgery, hydrops, and other ocular disease were excluded. The main outcome measures were postoperative events: rejections, persistent epithelial defects, and graft failures. Results During the follow-up (20 ± 6 months) graft rejection was diagnosed in 0 of femtosecond laser deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty versus 6 (17%) of manual deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty [p 0.027], persistent epithelial defect in 0 of femtosecond laser deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty versus in 4 (11%) of manual deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty [p 0.048] and graft failure occurred in 4 (11%) of manual deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty. The best-corrected visual acuity, after removal of sutures, was better in the femtosecond laser deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty group 0.09 ± 0.08 LogMAR versus 0.16 ± 0.13 LogMAR in manual deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty [p 0.035] group although refractive spherical equivalent and cylinder, topographic average keratometry and cylinder were similar. Conclusions Anvil-shaped femtosecond laser deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty in keratoconus surgery increases safety and readiness of recovery, decreasing the incidence of corneal rejection, epithelial defects, graft failures, and producing better best-corrected visual acuity after removal of sutures.
Performance Analysis of Electricity Theft Detection for the Smart Grid: An Overview

Electricity theft has been a growing concern for the smart grid. It can be defined as follows: illegal customers use energy from electric utilities without a contract or manipulate their meter readings to pay less or not pay the electricity bill. Over the past decade, significant studies have been done to prevent and combat theft. This article aims to provide a general overview of the progress of electricity theft detection, including threat models, datasets and input features adopted, methodologies and techniques, and evaluation metrics. We also make a performance comparison for each detection method. Finally, the challenges and future research directions are presented in this article.
Transmitted Reference Ultra Wideband Transceivers for Multiuser Communication

Abstract : A conventional transmitted reference (TR) modulation scheme is an effective means to combat severe multipath distortion in an ultra wideband (UWB) system, significantly relaxing the equalization requirements at a cost in performance. However, it suffers from multiple access and other interference, and a rate loss of 50%. In this paper we extend TR modulation to the multiuser case, while boosting data transmission to near full rate. To enable multiple access, the proposed multiuser TR (MTR) scheme assigns a pair of frame rate pseudo-random (PN) sequences to each user, modulating the amplitude of each of two consecutive pulses, respectively. Given a user's reference-pulse modulating PN sequence, mean-based estimation is proposed to obtain a clean waveform template, which is appropriate for both pulseamplitude (PAM) or pulse-position modulation (PPM). Along with interference reduction, this method enables arbitrarily small spacing of pulse pairs, leading to near full rate transmission. Using the waveform template and the data-pulse modulating PN sequence, any reference pulse interference is subtracted and data demodulation carried out. Aided by the PN sequences, the proposed estimation and data detection scheme is able to mitigate both inter-pulse and multi-access interference. To further reduce interference a time-hopping code can also be employed. Waveform estimation and bit error rate analysis are provided for the multi-user case, and confirmed with simulations. Substantial detection improvements over conventional TR detectors are observed.
Structural Behavior of Tension Members in Ultra High Performance Concrete

The paper presents a study on the tensile behavior of UHPC conducted at the structural concrete laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Material tests and tests on structural members with reinforcement bars have been performed. A schematic representation of the material behavior allows a general description of the behavior of structural members in tension. The mechanical behavior for tension members and a simple model are presented.
Explaining the relational mechanisms and outcomes of multi‐modal leader–member‐exchange differentiation

Research suggests that multi‐modal leader–member‐exchange (LMX) differentiation could be the most problematic pattern of differentiation. Therefore, we outline a conceptual model to explain how multi‐modal LMX differentiation can manifest as an LMX faultline—a special type of group faultline representing leader‐sourced social divides between a leader's preferred subgroup and nonpreferred subgroup(s) within a specified collective. LMX faultlines have dimensions of perceived multi‐modal LMX differentiation as well as faultline potency components of compositional diversity, unfairness of differentiation, and faultline agreement. We use LMX faultlines to explain how group members coalesce into subgroups based on concurrent forces of intra‐ subgroup cohesion and inter‐subgroup polarization. Cohesion and polarization explain group‐level outcomes (coordination, performance, and viability), subgroup‐level insulation, and individual‐level outcomes (performance, well‐ being, and conformity to the subgroup)
When New York City was the COVID-19 pandemic epicenter: The impact on trauma care

A large multicenter study shows an increased mortality risk to trauma patients during a time when NYC was considered the epicenter for COVID-19. Non-COVID patients with ISS<15 were more likely to die compared to the same subgroup in 2018/2019. BACKGROUND During early spring 2020, New York City (NYC) rapidly became the first US epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. With an unparalleled strain on health care resources, we sought to investigate the impact of the pandemic on trauma visits and mortality in the United States' largest municipal hospital system. METHODS We conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort study of the five level 1 trauma centers in NYC's public health care system, New York City's Health and Hospitals Corporation. Clinical characteristics, mechanism of injury, and mortality of trauma patients presenting during the early pandemic (March 1, 2020, to May 31, 2020) were compared with a similar period in the previous 2 years. To account for important patient and hospital-level confounding variables, we created a propensity score for treatment and applied inverse probability weighting. RESULTS In March to May 2020, there was a 25% decrease in median number of monthly trauma visits (693 vs. 528; p = 0.02) but a 50% increase (15% vs. 22%; p = <0.001) in patients presenting for penetrating injuries, compared with the same period for 2018 and 2019. Injured patients with COVID were significantly more likely to die compared with those without COVID-19 (10.5% vs. 3.6%; p < 0.001). Overall, there was no significant difference in mortality for non–COVID-injured New Yorkers cared for in 2020 compared with 2018 and 2019. Less severely injured non-COVID patients (Injury Severity Score, <15), however, were significantly more likely to die compared with this same subgroup in 2018 and 2019 (adjusted relative risk, 2.7 [95% confidence interval, 1.5–4.7]). CONCLUSION Despite a decline in overall trauma visits during the early part of the COVID pandemic in NYC, there was a significant increase in the proportion of penetrating mechanisms. Less-injured non-COVID patients experienced an increase in mortality in the early pandemic, possibly from a depletion of human and hospital resources from the large influx of COVID patients. These data lend support to the safeguarding of trauma system resources in the event of a future pandemic. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic and Epidemiologic; Level III.
'Constituent length' effects in fMRI do not provide evidence for abstract syntactic processing

How are syntactically and semantically connected word sequences, or constituents, represented in the human language system? An influential fMRI study, Pallier et al. (2011, PNAS), manipulated the length of constituents in sequences of words or pseudowords. They reported that some language regions (in the anterior temporal cortex and near the temporo-parietal junction) were sensitive to constituent length only for sequences of real words but not pseudowords. In contrast, language regions in the inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortex showed the same pattern of increased response to longer constituents - and similar overall response magnitudes - for word and pseudoword sequences. Based on these results, Pallier et al. argued that the latter regions represent abstract sentence structure. Here we identify methodological and theoretical concerns with the Pallier et al. study and conduct a replication across two fMRI experiments. Our results do not support Pallier et al.'s critical claim of distinct neural specialization for abstract syntactic representations. Instead, we find that all language regions show a similar profile of sensitivity to both constituent length and lexicality (stronger responses to real-word than pseudoword stimuli). In addition, we argue that the constituent length effect in these experiments i) is not readily grounded in established theories of sentence processing, and ii) may not actually derive from syntactic structure building, but may instead reflect the temporal receptive window of the human language system.
An Integrated Probability-Based Propulsor-Hull Matching Methodology

Traditionally, designers of marine propulsors select a discrete number of critical design points for which to optimize the propulsor geometry. The design procedure carefully weighs the needs to be fuel efficient, to minimize cavitation, to maintain structural integrity, and to provide enough thrust to reach the desired speed, including the need to overcome any resistance humps. The current work proposes a new, alternative propulsor-hull matching methodology that is able to systematically consider the full range of expected operating conditions. A joint probability density function is used to represent the probabilistic operational space as a function of ship speed and sea state, and is used as a weighting function to select the propulsor that will minimize the annual fuel consumption while satisfying a set of constraints. The new probabilistic design approach is able to automatically locate the globally optimal solution by considering the probability of occurrence along with system performance characteristics. Hence, it is able to avoid the inherent ambiguity of selecting the proper design points. The proposed methodology is general to the design of marine propulsors for any type of vessel and engine system. It is applied in the current study for the sizing of waterjets for a surface effect ship.
The use of principal component and factor analysis to measure fundamental cognitive processes in neuropsychological data

For years, dissociation studies on neurological single cases with brain lesions were the dominant method to infer fundamental cognitive functions in neuropsychology. In contrast, the association between deficits was considered to be of less epistemological value and even misleading. Still, principal component analysis (PCA) – an associational method for dimensionality reduction – recently became popular for the identification of fundamental functions. The current study evaluated the ability of PCA and factor analysis (FA) to overcome the association problem in behavioural data of neurological patients and to identify the fundamental variables underlying a battery of measures. Synthetic data were simulated to resemble neuropsychological data with typical dissociation patterns and, thereby, typical patterns of dependence between variables. In most experiments, PCA and FA succeeded to measure the underlying target variables with high up to almost perfect precision. However, this success was fragile and relied on the success of factor rotation, which failed its intended purpose when no test scores existed that primarily measured each underlying target variable. Further, commonly used strategies to estimate the number of meaningful factors appear to underfactor neuropsychological data, thereby consistently underestimating the dimensionality of the data. Finally, simulations suggested a high potential of PCA to denoise data, with factor rotation providing an additional filter function. This can be invaluable in neuropsychology, where measures are often inherently noisy, and PCA can be superior to common compound measures, such as the arithmetic mean, in the measurement of variables with high reliability. In summary, PCA and FA appear to be powerful tools in neuropsychology that are well capable to infer fundamental cognitive functions with high precision, but the typical structure of neuropsychological data and limited informative value of associations in neuropsychology place clear limitations and a risk of a complete failure on the methods.
Data Fusion of Total Solar Irradiance Composite Time Series Using 41 Years of Satellite Measurements

Since the late 1970s, successive satellite missions have been monitoring the sun's activity and recording the total solar irradiance (TSI). Some of these measurements have lasted for more than a decade. In order to obtain a seamless record whose duration exceeds that of the individual instruments, the time series have to be merged. Climate models can be better validated using such long TSI time series which can also help to provide stronger constraints on past climate reconstructions (e.g., back to the Maunder minimum). We propose a 3‐step method based on data fusion, including a stochastic noise model to take into account short and long‐term correlations. Compared with previous products scaled at the nominal TSI value of ∼1361 W/m2, the difference is below 0.2 W/m2 in terms of solar minima. Next, we model the frequency spectrum of this 41‐year TSI composite time series with a Generalized Gauss‐Markov model to help describe an observed flattening at high frequencies. It allows us to fit a linear trend into these TSI time series by joint inversion with the stochastic noise model via a maximum‐likelihood estimator. Our results show that the amplitude of such trend is ∼−0.004 ± 0.004 W/(m2yr) for the period 1980–2021. These results are compared with the difference of irradiance values estimated from two consecutive solar minima. We conclude that the trend in these composite time series is mostly an artifact due to the colored noise.
A comparative study of 10 Gb/s RZ-DPSK and RZ-ASK WDM transmission over transoceanic distances

We have experimentally compared RZ-DPSK with RZ-ASK for 100/spl times/10 Gb/s transmission over transoceanic distances. The Q degradation of RZ-DPSK due to nonlinearity effects after transmission over 9180 km was 3 dB larger than that of RZ-ASK.