Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Home bias and local equity portfolio decisions of Chinese insurance institutional investors

Our paper explores whether Chinese insurance companies exhibit a local preference in deciding their equity portfolios and the incentive of this preference. Our research finds that Chinese insurance institutional investors significantly tilt to invest in local firms geographically close to them, and local investments do not significantly outperform non-local investments. The results indicate that the behavioral aspect of home bias, rather than information advantage, play a more significant role in deciding equity holdings of China’s insurance companies. Additionally, local equity preference is more pronounced in dialect-segmented areas and life insurance firms. This paper incorporates hometown identification into the analysis framework of insurance companies’ portfolio decision-making and enriches the research of their investing strategies from the perspective of behavioral finance.
Understanding the physics behind the correlations of Gamma-ray bursts data

GRBs are ashes of gamma-rays coming from cosmos. They are one of the most mysteriousevents we have been able to observe since their discovery. GRBs are classified into two groups: long/soft GRBs and short/hard GRBs. Their emission mechanism consists of two phases: prompt emission and afterglow emission. The launch of the Swift satellite opened a New Era in the GRBs research. Swift is able to provide accurate position for more GRBs than previous missions, thanks to its fast capabilities of slewing. Furthermore, the Swift shows that GRBs have a canonical behaviour for the X-ray afterglow light curves. The data analysis process remains the key point of GRBs studies. I present a detailed study of the peculiar GRB 141221A at different wavelengths. GRB 141221A shows an unusual steep rise in the optical light curve of the afterglow. The broad band spectral energy distribution, taken near the maximum of the optical emission, presents either a thermal component or a behaviourbreak. This burst displays unusual feature in the optical band, whereas the X-ray data is more common. GRB 141221A is one of the challenging bursts that excludes a stellar wind from the progenitor of the GRBs. A clustering in the X-ray afterglow light curves was observed before the launch of the Swift satellite. This feature has been debated after the launch of the Swift. We have built a sample which consists of 254 GRBs that shows a scattering of the data for the flux distribution at one day. This distribution was investigated with a normalization of light curves at redshift one. We have investigated the problem into three different directions
Using Artificial Intelligence to Diagnose Osteoporotic Vertebral Fractures on Plain Radiographs

Osteoporotic vertebral fracture (OVF) is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality in elderly population, and accurate diagnosis is important for improving treatment outcomes. OVF diagnosis suffers from high misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis rates, as well as high workload. Deep learning methods applied to plain radiographs, a simple, fast, and inexpensive examination, might solve this problem. We developed and validated a deep‐learning‐based vertebral fracture diagnostic system using area loss ratio, which assisted a multitasking network to perform skeletal position detection and segmentation and identify and grade vertebral fractures. As the training set and internal validation set, we used 11,397 plain radiographs from six community centers in Shanghai. For the external validation set, 1276 participants were recruited from the outpatient clinic of the Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital (1276 plain radiographs). Radiologists performed all X‐ray images and used the Genant semiquantitative tool for fracture diagnosis and grading as the ground truth data. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were used to evaluate diagnostic performance. The AI_OVF_SH system demonstrated high accuracy and computational speed in skeletal position detection and segmentation. In the internal validation set, the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity with the AI_OVF_SH model were 97.41%, 84.08%, and 97.25%, respectively, for all fractures. The sensitivity and specificity for moderate fractures were 88.55% and 99.74%, respectively, and for severe fractures, they were 92.30% and 99.92%. In the external validation set, the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for all fractures were 96.85%, 83.35%, and 94.70%, respectively. For moderate fractures, the sensitivity and specificity were 85.61% and 99.85%, respectively, and 93.46% and 99.92% for severe fractures. Therefore, the AI_OVF_SH system is an efficient tool to assist radiologists and clinicians to improve the diagnosing of vertebral fractures. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).
Transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma: 2023 expert consensus-based practical recommendations of the Korean Liver Cancer Association

Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) was introduced in 1977 with the administration of chemotherapeutic agent to gelatin sponge particles through the hepatic artery in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and was established as conventional TACE using Lipiodol in the 1980s. In the 2000s, drug-eluting beads were developed and applied clinically. Currently, TACE is a commonly used non-surgical treatment modality for patients with HCC who are unsuitable for curative treatment. Considering the vital role of TACE in the management of HCC, it is crucial to organize current knowledge and expert opinions regarding patient preparation, procedural techniques, and post-treatment care in TACE, which can enhance therapeutic efficacy and safety. A group of 12 experts in the fields of interventional radiology and hepatology, convened by the Research Committee of the Korean Liver Cancer Association (KLCA), has developed expert consensus-based practical recommendations in TACE. These recommendations have been endorsed by the Korean Society of Interventional Radiology and provide useful information and direction in performing TACE procedure as well as pre- and post- procedural patient care.
High rate of early recurrence of peritonsillar abscess among adolescents and young adults

Abstract Background Peritonsillar abscess (PTA) can be treated with aspiration or incision for drainage, but a subsequent PTA can occur if tonsillectomy is not performed. Better understanding is needed of when tonsillectomy should be performed to avoid PTA recurrence. Objective This study investigated the recurrence rate of PTA following aspiration or incision for drainage and evaluated the risk factors for recurrence. Methods The medical records of 292 patients treated for PTA were reviewed. Recurrence of PTA and elective or quinsy tonsillectomy were the primary endpoints. A Cox proportional hazards regression model for PTA recurrence was constructed with sex, age, and PTA history as predictors. Results Young age was the only significant predictor of PTA recurrence. Patients aged 15 to 24 years had a 30-day recurrence rate of 15.5% and a total recurrence rate of 26.6%. The total recurrence rate among patients over 30 years of age was significantly less at 4.0% (Fisher’s exact test, p < .05). Conclusion and Significance Based on our results, tonsillectomy should be considered for PTA patients between 15 and 25 years of age and, to effectively avoid future recurrence of PTA, should be performed urgently.
Negative regulation of MurZ and MurA underlies the essentiality of GpsB‐ and StkP‐mediated protein phosphorylation in Streptococcus pneumoniae D39

GpsB links peptidoglycan synthases to other proteins that determine the shape of the respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus; Spn) and other low‐GC Gram‐positive bacteria. GpsB is also required for phosphorylation of proteins by the essential StkP(Spn) Ser/Thr protein kinase. Here we report three classes of frequently arising chromosomal duplications (≈21–176 genes) containing murZ (MurZ‐family homolog of MurA) or murA that suppress ΔgpsB or ΔstkP. These duplications arose from three different repeated sequences and demonstrate the facility of pneumococcus to modulate gene dosage of numerous genes. Overproduction of MurZ or MurA alone or overproduction of MurZ caused by ΔkhpAB mutations suppressed ΔgpsB or ΔstkP phenotypes to varying extents. ΔgpsB and ΔstkP were also suppressed by MurZ amino‐acid changes distant from the active site, including one in commonly studied laboratory strains, and by truncation or deletion of the homolog of IreB(ReoM). Unlike in other Gram‐positive bacteria, MurZ is predominant to MurA in pneumococcal cells. However, ΔgpsB and ΔstkP were not suppressed by ΔclpCP, which did not alter MurZ or MurA amounts. These results support a model in which regulation of MurZ and MurA activity, likely by IreB(Spn), is the only essential requirement for StkP‐mediated protein phosphorylation in exponentially growing D39 pneumococcal cells.
Levodopa improved different motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease by reducing the functional connectivity of specific thalamic subregions

Abstract Background The thalamus is an important relay station for the motor circuit of human. Levodopa can reverse the clinical manifestations by modulating the function of motor circuits, but its detailed mechanisms are still not fully understood. We aimed to explore (1) the mechanism by which levodopa modulates the functional connectivity (FC) in the subregions of the thalamus; (2) the relationship between the changed FC and the improvement of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Methods Resting‐state functional MRI was used to scan 36 PD patients and 37 healthy controls. The FC between the subregions in the thalamus and the whole brain was measured and compared under different medication states of PD patients. The correlation between the improvement of motor symptoms and changes in FC in the thalamus subregions was examined. Results The PD on state exhibited decreased FC between the right pre‐motor thalamus and the right postcentral gyrus, as well as the right lateral pre‐frontal thalamus and the right postcentral gyrus. These decreases were positively correlated with the improvement of resting tremor. The PD on state also exhibited decreased FC between the left lateral pre‐frontal thalamus and right paracentral lobule, which was positively correlated with the improvement of bradykinesia. Conclusions This study demonstrates that levodopa treats PD by decreasing the FC between the thalamus subregions and pre/post‐central cortex. Our results provide a basis for further exploration of the functional activity of thalamic subregions and offer new insights into the precision treatment in PD patients
Lagrangians of the (2+1)-dimensional KP equation with variable coefficients and cross terms

Zhang constructed a Lagrangian for the (2 + 1)-dimensional KP equation with variable coefficients and cross terms [L. H. Zhang, Appl. Math. Comput. , 219 (2013), 4865–4879]. This paper suggests a simple method to construct a needed Lagrangian using the semi-inverse by introducing a simple auxiliary function, the presented method is simpler than Zhang’s method to construct a Lagrangian. c ©2016 All rights reserved.
Inferring cancer disease response from radiology reports using large language models with data augmentation and prompting

Abstract Objective To assess large language models on their ability to accurately infer cancer disease response from free-text radiology reports. Materials and Methods We assembled 10 602 computed tomography reports from cancer patients seen at a single institution. All reports were classified into: no evidence of disease, partial response, stable disease, or progressive disease. We applied transformer models, a bidirectional long short-term memory model, a convolutional neural network model, and conventional machine learning methods to this task. Data augmentation using sentence permutation with consistency loss as well as prompt-based fine-tuning were used on the best-performing models. Models were validated on a hold-out test set and an external validation set based on Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) classifications. Results The best-performing model was the GatorTron transformer which achieved an accuracy of 0.8916 on the test set and 0.8919 on the RECIST validation set. Data augmentation further improved the accuracy to 0.8976. Prompt-based fine-tuning did not further improve accuracy but was able to reduce the number of training reports to 500 while still achieving good performance. Discussion These models could be used by researchers to derive progression-free survival in large datasets. It may also serve as a decision support tool by providing clinicians an automated second opinion of disease response. Conclusions Large clinical language models demonstrate potential to infer cancer disease response from radiology reports at scale. Data augmentation techniques are useful to further improve performance. Prompt-based fine-tuning can significantly reduce the size of the training dataset.
Human placenta‐derived mesenchymal stem cell administration protects against acute lung injury in a mouse model

This study aims to investigate the effect of placenta‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (PMSCs) administration on tissue repair following acute lung injury (ALI). PMSCs were transplanted intravenously to a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide‐induced ALI. The therapeutic effects were determined by evaluating several indicators, including pathology; the wet/dry ratio of the lungs; blood gas analysis; the total protein content, cell numbers, and the activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO) in bronchial alveolar lavage fluid (BALF); and the levels of anti‐inflammatory and proinflammatory cytokines in serum and BALF. To investigate the underlying mechanism, PMSC‐derived exosomes were used for ALI treatment. Administration of PMSCs improved the degree of lung injury, reduced inflammation, increased the expression levels of anti‐inflammatory cytokines, and protected lung function. As expected, the effects of PMSC‐derived exosomes in the ALI model were similar to those of PMSCs, both in terms of improved lung function and reduced inflammation. These findings suggest that PMSCs have ameliorating effects on ALI that are potentially mediated via their secreted exosomes.
The 2023 MANCTRA Acute Biliary Pancreatitis Care Bundle

Objective: To generate an up-to-date bundle to manage acute biliary pancreatitis using an evidence-based, artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted GRADE method. Background: A care bundle is a set of core elements of care that are distilled from the most solid evidence-based practice guidelines and recommendations. Methods: The research questions were addressed in this bundle following the PICO criteria. The working group summarized the effects of interventions with the strength of recommendation and quality of evidence applying the GRADE methodology. ChatGPT AI system was used to independently assess the quality of evidence of each element in the bundle, together with the strength of the recommendations. Results: The 7 elements of the bundle discourage antibiotic prophylaxis in patients with acute biliary pancreatitis, support the use of a full-solid diet in patients with mild to moderately severe acute biliary pancreatitis, and recommend early enteral nutrition in patients unable to feed by mouth. The bundle states that endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography should be performed within the first 48 to 72 hours of hospital admission in patients with cholangitis. Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy should be performed in patients with mild acute biliary pancreatitis. When operative intervention is needed for necrotizing pancreatitis, this should start with the endoscopic step-up approach. Conclusions: We have developed a new care bundle with 7 key elements for managing patients with acute biliary pancreatitis. This new bundle, whose scientific strength has been increased thanks to the alliance between human knowledge and AI from the new ChatGPT software, should be introduced to emergency departments, wards, and intensive care units.
Whole‐brain connectivity to the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis calretinin‐expressing interneurons in male mice

The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a neuropeptide‐enriched brain region that modulates a wide variety of emotional behaviours and states, including stress, anxiety, reward and social interaction. The BNST consists of diverse subregions and neuronal ensembles; however, because of the high molecular heterogeneity within BNST neurons, the mechanisms through which the BNST regulates distinct emotional behaviours remain largely unclear. Prior studies have identified BNST calretinin (CR)‐expressing neurons, which lack neuropeptides. Here, employing virus‐based cell‐type‐specific retrograde and anterograde tracing systems, we mapped the whole‐brain monosynaptic inputs and axonal projections of BNST CR‐expressing neurons in male mice. We found that BNST CR‐expressing neurons received inputs mainly from the amygdalopiriform transition area, central amygdala and hippocampus and moderately from the medial preoptic area, basolateral amygdala, paraventricular thalamus and lateral hypothalamus. Within the BNST, plenty of input neurons were primarily located in the oval and interfascicular subregions. Furthermore, numerous BNST CR‐expressing neuronal boutons were observed within the BNST but not in other brain regions, thus suggesting that these neurons are a type of interneuron. These results will help further elucidate the neuronal circuits underlying the elaborate and distinct functions of the BNST.
Mechanisms of Development of Orbital Fractures: A Review

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to review the mechanisms in the development of orbital fractures. Methods: This is a comprehensive literature review that summarizes the mechanisms of developing orbital fractures. Results: There are 3 proposed mechanisms in the development of orbital fractures, which include the buckling, hydraulic, and globe-to-wall contact mechanisms. These mechanisms, as well as patient age, causes of injuries, and periorbital anatomy, influence the extent, sites, and patterns of orbital fractures. Conclusion: A deeper understanding of these mechanisms helps us to detect and properly manage orbital fractures in the clinical setting. The buckling, hydraulic, and globe-to-wall contact mechanisms are the main proposed mechanisms in the development of orbital fractures and influence the extent, sites, and patterns of orbital fractures.
Missing Puzzle Pieces in Dementia Research: HCN Channels and Theta Oscillations

Increasing evidence indicates a role of hyperpolarization activated cation (HCN) channels in controlling the resting membrane potential, pacemaker activity, memory formation, sleep, and arousal. Their disfunction may be associated with the development of epilepsy and age-related memory decline. Neuronal hyperexcitability involved in epileptogenesis and EEG desynchronization occur in the course of dementia in human Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and animal models, nevertheless the underlying ionic and cellular mechanisms of these effects are not well understood. Some suggest that theta rhythms involved in memory formation could be used as a marker of memory disturbances in the course of neurogenerative diseases, including AD. This review focusses on the interplay between hyperpolarization HCN channels, theta oscillations, memory formation and their role(s) in dementias, including AD. While individually, each of these factors have been linked to each other with strong supportive evidence, we hope here to expand this linkage to a more inclusive picture. Thus, HCN channels could provide a molecular target for developing new therapeutic agents for preventing and/or treating dementia.
Anti-phospholipase A2 receptor positive membranous nephropathy: investigating the link between electron microscopy stages and clinical outcome

ABSTRACT This retrospective, observational study sought to examine the relationship between Ehrenreich-Churg electron microscopy (EM) stages and long-term outcomes in anti-PLA2R membranous nephropathy (MN). Seventy-one patients with anti-PLA2R MN (median titer 185.7RU/mL) were followed for a median of 46 months, with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) as the primary endpoint, and response to treatment as a secondary endpoint. Patients were grouped into stages I-II (41 patients) and stages III-IV (30 patients) for analytical purposes. Notably, the III-IV group demonstrated a lower eGFR, lower anti-PLA2R titer, but a higher chronicity score. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed shorter mean kidney survival time in stages III-IV compared to I-II (p 0.03). However, multivariate analysis using Cox regression indicated that Ehrenreich-Churg stages did not significantly influence kidney survival, but lower eGFR at diagnosis and higher histopathological chronicity score did. Remission was achieved by 64% of patients and no relationship between Ehrenreich-Churg stages and treatment response was found. The only identified risk factor for not achieving remission was the severity of hyposerinemia at diagnosis. In conclusion, while EM stages III-IV are associated with more chronic lesions and stages I-II with more active immunologic disease, the histological chronicity score seems to be a stronger predictor of long-term outcomes.
On the Uniqueness of Signature Problem through a Strengthened Le Jan-Qian Approximation Scheme

The goal of this paper is to simplify and strengthen the Le Jan-Qian approximation scheme of studying the uniqueness of signature problem to a non-Markov setting. We establish a general framework for a class of multidimensional stochastic processes over [0, 1] under which for almost surely, the signature (the collection of iterated path integrals in the sense of rough paths) is well-defined and determines the sample paths of the process up to reparametrization. In particular, by using the Malliavin calculus we show that the fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H > 1/4 is included in our framework, so that the uniqueness of signature is established.
Oteseconazole: a long-awaited diversification of the antifungal arsenal to manage recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC)

ABSTRACT Introduction Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) affects women worldwide and has far-reaching implications for a patient’s quality of life. For decades, maintenance treatment using the azole antifungal fluconazole was the preferred treatment. Although efficient in controlling the symptoms, the development of azole resistance and high rates of recurrence after therapy cessation have emerged as significant limitations. Nevertheless, persistent efforts have delivered novel treatment options. Oteseconazole (VT-1161), marketed as VIVJOA, is an oral, tetrazole antifungal with unprecedented specificity toward the fungal lanosterol 14α-demethylase. Areas covered We reviewed literature data on oteseconazole with a focus on the management of RVVC. Expert opinion Therapeutic options for RVVC are limited, and novel, innovative approaches are needed to treat this debilitating condition. These therapies need to be well-tolerated and prevent RVVC recurrence. The available clinical data show excellent safety and efficacy, with an unprecedentedly low recurrence rate. However, we believe health-care providers should be mindful to monitor for the development of resistance, as this may result in treatment failure. Further, the availability and cost may, like for most novel drugs, affect the widespread clinical implementation of VIVJOA. Altogether, we are convinced that VIVJOA is a significant advance in RVVC management.