Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients Admitted to a Tertiary Care Hospital in Pune, India and Predictors of Requirement for Intensive Care Treatment.

OBJECTIVES 1. To study associations of severity of COVID-19 disease with clinical features and laboratory markers. 2. To develop a model to predict the need for ICU treatment. METHODS This is an analysis of clinical course in 800 consecutive patients from a dedicated COVID-19 tertiary care hospital in Pune, India (8th April to 15th June 2020). We obtained clinical and laboratory information, severity grading and progress from hospital records. We studied associations of these characteristics with need for ICU management. We developed a predictive model of need for ICU treatment among first 500 patients and tested its sensitivity and specificity in the following 300 patients. RESULTS Average age was 41 years, 16% were 20 years of age, 55% were male, 50% were asymptomatic and 16% had at least one comorbidity. Using MoHFW India severity guidelines, 73% patients had mild, 6% moderate and 20% severe disease. Severity was associated with higher age, symptomatic presentation, elevated neutrophil and reduced lymphocyte counts and elevated inflammatory markers. Seventy-seven patients needed ICU treatment: they were older (56 years), more symptomatic and had lower SpO2 and abnormal chest X-ray and deranged hematology and biochemistry at admission. A model trained on the first 500 patients, using above variables predicted need for ICU treatment with sensitivity 80%, specificity 88% in subsequent 300 patients; exclusion of expensive laboratory tests (Ferritin, C- Reactive Protein) did not affect accuracy. CONCLUSION In the early phase of COVID- 19 pendemic, a significant proportion of hospitalized patients were young and asymptomatic. Need for ICU treatment was predicted by simple measures including higher age, symptomatic onset, low SpO2 and abnormal chest X-ray. We propose a simple model for referring patients for treatment at specialized COVID-19 hospitals.
Vericiguat: A Novel Oral Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Stimulator for the Treatment of Heart Failure

Objective To review the efficacy and safety of vericiguat indicated to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and heart failure (HF) hospitalization following hospitalization or need for outpatient intravenous diuretics in adult patients with chronic symptomatic HF and ejection fraction (EF) less than 45%. Data Sources A literature search through MEDLINE with search terms MK1242, BAY 1021189, and vericiguat was conducted. Product labeling and English-language studies assessing pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, efficacy, or safety of vericiguat were included. Study Selection and Data Extraction Preclinical and clinical studies describing the efficacy and safety of vericiguat were included. Data Synthesis The phase 3 VICTORIA clinical trial demonstrated a lower composite primary outcome of death from cardiovascular causes or first hospitalization in the vericiguat group compared to placebo. Total hospitalizations for HF in the vericiguat group were significantly less compared to placebo. The composite secondary outcome of death from any cause or first HF hospitalization was significantly less in the vericiguat group. Relevance to Patient Care and Clinical Practice The addition of vericiguat offers a new treatment option for those in whom rehospitalization or recurrent outpatient intravenous diuretic treatment is a concern. Given high rates of nonadherence in HF patients, vericiguat represents an additional treatment option, especially for patients who do not tolerate available HF therapies. Conclusion Vericiguat is a novel soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator that is safe and effective for reducing the risk of cardiovascular death and HF hospitalization in adults with symptomatic chronic HF and reduced EF.
Distribution-Guided Network Thresholding for Functional Connectivity Analysis in fMRI-Based Brain Disorder Identification

Functional connectivity (FC) networks derived from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) have been widely used in automated identification of brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To generate compact representations of FC networks, various thresholding methods have been designed for FC network analysis. However, these studies usually use a pre-defined threshold or connection percentage to threshold whole FC networks, thus ignoring the diversity of temporal correlation (e.g., strong associations) between brain regions in subject groups. In this work, we propose a distribution-guided network thresholding learning (DNTL) method for FC network analysis in brain disorder identification with rs-fMRI. Specifically, for each connection of a pair of brain regions, we propose to determine its specific threshold based on the distribution of connection strength (i.e., temporal correlation) between subject groups (e.g., patients and normal controls). The proposed DNTL can adaptively yield an FC-specific threshold for each connection in an FC network, thus preserving diversity of temporal correlation among different brain regions. Experiment results on $ 365$ subjects from two datasets (i.e., ADNI and ADHD-200) suggest that the DNT method outperforms state-of-the-art methods in brain disorder identification with rs-fMRI data.
Para‐aminosalicylic acid significantly reduced tenofovir exposure in human subjects: Mismatched findings from in vitro to in vivo translational research

Tenofovir and para‐aminosalicylic acid (PAS) may be coprescribed to treat patients with concomitant infections of human immunodeficiency virus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. Both drugs are known to have remarkable renal uptake transporter‐mediated clearance. Owing to the lack of clinical studies on drug–drug interaction between the 2 drugs, we conducted a translational clinical study to investigate the effect of PAS on tenofovir pharmacokinetics (PK).
Histone H3K27 methylation–mediated repression of Hairy regulates insect developmental transition by modulating ecdysone biosynthesis

Significance PRC2-mediated H3K27 methylation functions in epigenetic transcriptional repression and is involved in various developmental processes in eukaryotes. Insect developmental transitions are regulated by juvenile hormone (JH) and ecdysone in an antagonistic manner. Here, we used Bombyx and Drosophila to show that PRC2-mediated H3K27 methylation at the Hairy gene involved in JH signaling suppresses Hairy transcription in the prothoracic gland (PG), which is required for steroidogenic enzyme transcription, ecdysone biosynthesis, and the larval–pupal transition. JH impairs PRC2-mediated H3K27 methylation in the PG. Our findings establish an essential role for PRC2-mediated H3K27 methylation in hormone-mediated developmental transitions and further deepen our understanding of epigenetic regulatory mechanisms underlying the antagonistic actions of JH and ecdysone in insects. Insect development is cooperatively orchestrated by the steroid hormone ecdysone and juvenile hormone (JH). The polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2)–mediated histone H3K27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) epigenetically silences gene transcription and is essential for a range of biological processes, but the functions of H3K27 methylation in insect hormone action are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that H3K27 methylation–mediated repression of Hairy transcription in the larval prothoracic gland (PG) is required for ecdysone biosynthesis in Bombyx and Drosophila. H3K27me3 levels in the PG are dynamically increased during the last larval instar. H3K27me3 reduction induced by the down-regulation of PRC2 activity via inhibitor treatment in Bombyx or PG-specific knockdown of the PRC2 component Su(z)12 in Drosophila diminishes ecdysone biosynthesis and disturbs the larval–pupal transition. Mechanistically, H3K27 methylation targets the JH signal transducer Hairy to repress its transcription in the PG; PG-specific knockdown or overexpression of the Hairy gene disrupts ecdysone biosynthesis and developmental transition; and developmental defects caused by PG-specific Su(z)12 knockdown can be partially rescued by Hairy down-regulation. The application of JH mimic to the PG decreases both H3K27me3 levels and Su(z)12 expression. Altogether, our study reveals that PRC2-mediated H3K27 methylation at Hairy in the PG during the larval period is required for ecdysone biosynthesis and the larval–pupal transition and provides insights into epigenetic regulation of the crosstalk between JH and ecdysone during insect development.
Cost-effectiveness of Anbainuo plus methotrexate compared to conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis patients in China

Background This study aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of Anbainuo (ABN) plus methotrexate (MTX) vs. conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (cDMARDs) in Chinese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Methods A total of 90 RA patients who underwent ABN + MTX [assigned as ABN + MTX group (n=47)] or cDMARDs [assigned as control group (n=43)] treatment were analyzed. Disease activity was assessed at baseline (M0), 3rd month (M3), 6th month (M6), and 12th month (M12) after treatment. Drug, other medical, indirect, and total costs were calculated. Then, pharmacoeconomic analyses were performed with the threshold of cost-effectiveness set as 3 times of the mean gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in China during the study period. Results Treatment response rate was similar between the 2 groups, while disease remission and low disease activity (LDA) rates were increased in the ABN + MTX group compared to control group. Drug cost, other medical costs, and total cost were higher in the ABN + MTX group than control group, while indirect cost was similar between the 2 groups. Meanwhile, the quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) in ABN + MTX group and control group were 0.72 and 0.48 years, respectively. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) of ABN + MTX group compared to control group among the entire participant cohort, moderate-disease-activity participants, and severe-disease-activity participants were ¥135,486.7, ¥146,450.4, and ¥124,987.2/QALY, respectively, which were all below the cost-effectiveness threshold. Further sensitivity analyses revealed that the cost-effectiveness of ABN + MTX vs. cDMARDs was relatively robust, while among all the indexes, ABN price and Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) score change for the ABN + MTX group affected ICER most. Conclusions Treatment with ABN + MTX offers acceptable cost-effectiveness compared to cDMARDs treatment in Chinese RA patients.
Dysbiosis in the Gut Microbiome in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes Rats and Follow-Up During Retinal Changes

Purpose To analyze the gut bacterial microbiome of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and rats with retinal changes. Methods Induction of diabetes was confirmed by an increase in blood sugar (>150 mg/dL), and the progression of diabetes with retinal changes was assessed by histology and immunohistochemistry of retinal sections. Microbiomes were generated using fecal DNA, and the V3–V4 amplicons were sequenced and analyzed by QIIME and R. Results Dysbiosis in the gut microbiome of diabetic rats and diabetic rats with retinal changes was observed at the phylum and genus levels compared with the control rats. Heat-map analysis based on the differentially abundant genera indicated that the microbiomes of controls and diabetic rats separated into two distinct clusters. The majority of the microbiomes in diabetic rats with retinal changes also formed a distinct cluster from the control rats. β-diversity analysis separated the microbiome of control rats from the microbiome of diabetic rats and diabetic rats with retinal changes, but the microbiomes of diabetic rats and diabetic rats with retinal changes showed an overlap. Functional analysis indicated that the enhanced inflammation in diabetic rats showing retinal changes could be ascribed to a decrease in anti-inflammatory bacteria and an increase in pathogenic and proinflammatory bacteria. Conclusions This study showed that the gut bacterial microbiome in diabetic rats with retinal changes was different compared with control rats. The results could help develop novel therapeutics for diabetics and diabetic individuals with retinal changes.
Correlation between the presumed pterygium with dry eye and with systemic and ocular risk factors.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the epidemiology of the pterygium and its correlation with dry eye symptoms and with the potential systemic and ocular predictors. METHODS This study is a population-based, cross-sectional study in which random visits were made to the 600 households of 600 participants of age ≥40 years in Ribeirão Preto-SP (n=420) and Cassia dos Coqueiros-SP (n=180) in Brazil. The participants were subjected to a structured interview with a detailed questionnaire to collect information on demography and the potential risk factors. Next, random participants with pterygium (n=63) or not (n=110) were evaluated for the ocular surface changes. RESULTS The frequency of pterygium in Ribeirão Preto was 21% (15.7% among women and 32.1% among men; p=0.0002). In Cássia dos Coqueiros, the corresponding frequency was 19.4% (17.3% among women and 25.5% among men; p=0.28). The mean age of the affected individuals was higher than that of the unaffected ones (65.6 ± 10.5 years vs. 61.2 ± 12.0 years, p=0.02). A positive correlation was noted between pterygium and any prior radiotherapy and chemotherapy (p<0.0001, for both). A higher score on corneal fluorescein and conjunctival lissamine green staining was asso ciated with pterygium (p=0.0003 and 0.0001, respectively). CONCLUSION We noted a high frequency of pterygium in two Brazilian adult populations, mainly among the men and elderly. Ocular surface damage and a previous history of radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy were found to be associated with pterygium.
Assessment of patient safety culture in Brazilian hospitals through HSOPSC: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVES to describe, from literature, the characteristics of patient safety culture in Brazilian hospitals that applied the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. METHODS this is a scoping review. A search was performed in the databases LILACS, PubMed, SciELO, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus and in the CAPES Dissertations and Theses Database in September and October 2020. RESULTS thirty-six studies were identified. Nine studies identified strengthened areas such as: "teamwork within the units", "expectations of supervisor/boss and actions promoting safety", "organizational learning", "support of hospital management for patient safety" and "frequency of report of events". As a critical area, the dimension "non-punitive response to error" was evidenced in 30 of 36 studies. CONCLUSIONS the identification of areas of strength and critical areas of safety culture is relevant to encourage improvement of patient safety problems in an institution.
Biomechanical modeling of spinal ligaments: finite element analysis of L4-L5 spinal segment

Abstract The complex mechanical structure of spine is usually simplified in finite element (FE) modes. In this study, different 3D models of L4-L5 spinal segment distinguished by their ligament modelling were developed (1D truss, 2D shell and 3D space truss elements). All models could be considered validated with respect to range of motion and intradiscal pressure, although their ligament stresses/forces were substantially different. The models with 2D shell and 3D space truss ligaments showed the stress distribution and identified the potential failure/injury locations in ligaments. The model with 3D space truss ligaments showed the stress/force direction (representing collagen fiber directions).
Natural history and progression of transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy: insights from ATTR‐ACT

Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR‐CM) is a progressive, fatal disorder that remains underdiagnosed. The Tafamidis in Transthyretin Cardiomyopathy Clinical Trial (ATTR‐ACT) was the first large clinical trial to include both wild‐type (ATTRwt) and hereditary (ATTRv) patients. A description of the natural history of ATTR‐CM, utilizing data from placebo‐treated patients in ATTR‐ACT, will provide a greater understanding of presentation and progression of ATTR‐CM and may aid in disease awareness, earlier diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
Associations Between Neck and Shoulder Pain and Neuropathic Pain in a Middle-aged Community-living Population

The prevalence of neuropathic pain (NeP) was 46.0% (46 of 100) in middle-aged and elderly subjects with neck and shoulder pain (NSP). In the multivariate regression analysis, the prevalence of NeP was associated with lower physical QOL (odds ratio (OR), 3.56) and lower mental QOL (OR, 4.04). Study Design. A cross-sectional study. Objective. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of NeP in subjects suffering from NSP to reveal the impact of NeP on the health-related QOL (HRQOL) in middle-aged and elderly people with NSP in a health checkup. Summary of Background Data. No previous studies have established the relationship between NSP and NeP as potential risk factors contributing to a decreased QOL in the general population. Methods. The present study involved 203 participants (men: 84, women: 119; mean age: 63.3 yr). For each subject, anthro-pometric measurements, physical function examinations, and blood testing were performed. A cut-off score of >0 on the short-form spine painDETECT questionnaire defined the presence of NeP. Subsequently, the NSP (+) subjects were divided into 2 sub-groups: the NeP (+) and NeP (−) groups. For the assessment of QOL, the short form 36 health survey and the EuroQol 5 dimension 5 level version (EQ-5D-5L) tool were used. Results. The study included 100 NSP (+) and 103 NSP (−) subjects. Among the NSP (+) subjects, 46 and 54 subjects were found to be NeP (+) and NeP (−), respectively. For the short form 36 health survey, the multivariate regression analysis revealed that the prevalence of NeP was associated with a lower physical QOL (OR 3.56) and lower mental QOL (OR 4.04). Similarly, the NeP prevalence was found to be the predictor for low QOL scores in EQ-5D-5L (EQ-5D-5L index value <0.875; OR 3.61). Conclusion. The prevalence of NeP was reported to be 46.0% in healthy middle-aged and elderly population suffering from NSP, where it was associated with poor HRQOL. Therefore, strategies aimed at alleviating NeP may contribute significantly to the improvement of QOL in middle-aged and elderly people with NSP. Level of Evidence: 2
Validation of the Finnish FACE-Q for use in patients undergoing surgery for functional problems or malignancy

Abstract The aim of this study was to produce a Finnish version of the FACE-Q scales Satisfaction with Forehead and Eyebrows, Adverse effects: Forehead, Eyebrows and Scalp, and Adverse effects: Cheeks, Lower face and Neck, and assess the performance of these scales and the Satisfaction with Facial Appearance, Satisfaction with Outcome and Appearance-related Psychosocial Distress in patients who had undergone surgery for functional problems or malignancy affecting the forehead or cheeks. The general health-related outcomes instrument 15 D was used as a reference. Patients who had undergone a frontal lift, a direct brow lift, a facelift or an excision of a facial tumor in Helsinki University Hospital plastic surgery department in 2009–2019 were identified. A postal survey study was conducted with 305 patients, of whom 135 (44%) responded. Diagnoses included facial nerve dysfunction (53%), brow ptosis (21%) and skin, mucosal or salivary gland tumor (20%). The FACE-Q scales displayed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alphas ≥0.80) and good reliability on repeat administration. The exploratory factor analysis revealed unifactorial influences for all scales except the Adverse effects: Forehead, Eyebrows and Scalp. Weak correlations with 15 D dimensions were detected. The FACE-Q scales evaluated here are suitable for use in patients with functional problems or malignancy.
Limitations of occasional reinforced extinction to alleviate spontaneous recovery and reinstatement effects: Evidence for a trial-signalling mechanism

Fear extinction is not permanent but is instead more vulnerable than the original fear memory, as traditionally shown by the return of fear phenomena. Because of this, techniques to mitigate the return of fear are needed in the clinical treatment of related psychological conditions. One promising strategy is the occasional reinforced extinction treatment, introducing a gradual and sparse number of conditioned stimulus–unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) pairings within the extinction treatment. We present the results of three experiments in which we used a threat conditioning procedure in humans. Our main aim was to evaluate whether occasional reinforced extinction could reduce two different forms of relapse: spontaneous recovery (Experiments 1 and 2) and reinstatement (Experiment 3). Contrary to our predictions and previous literature, the results indicate that an occasional reinforcement treatment did not mitigate relapse compared with standard extinction. From a theoretical standpoint, these results are more consistent with the idea that extinction entails the acquisition of new knowledge than with the idea that there are conditions in which extinction leads to a weakening of the original fear memory. These findings also question the generality of the potential benefits of using occasional reinforced extinction in clinical settings.
Error analysis in a D(H)/Pd gas-loading system when using isothermal calorimetry

In the field of low energy nuclear reaction, isothermal calorimetry is often used to calculate the excess heat power released in the system. Due to the structure of the reaction chamber and the differences of the thermal conductivities of the gases used in the calibration and triggering experiments, the chamber will have different temperature gradient or distribution which leads to errors when calculating the excess heat power using isothermal calorimetry. Different gas pressure also has an influence on the heat transfer.
Automatic Image Description Generation Using Deep Multimodal Embeddings

An essential research topic at the heart of visual recognition is automatic captioning of images. This involves designing an algorithm that takes the image as input and generates a natural language description succinctly describing all or parts of the image. Such a system has wideranging applications such as annotating images and exploitation natural descriptions to search for images or texts. This changed significantly with the availability of large-scale annotated data, such as the ImageNet dataset and the application of deep learning techniques, specifically convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs). This has led to the successful application of such deep networks to various other tasks including the task of image captioning and image-text retrieval.