Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Need of Age-Appropriate Cardiac Models: Impact of Cell Age on Extracellular Matrix Therapy Outcomes

Aging is the main risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). As the world’s population ages rapidly and CVD rates rise, there is a growing need for physiologically relevant models of aging hearts to better understand cardiac aging. Translational research relies heavily on young animal models, however, these models correspond to early ages in human life, therefore cannot fully capture the pathophysiology of age-related CVD. Here, we chronologically aged human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iCMs) and compared in vitro iCM aging to native human cardiac tissue aging. We showed that 14-month-old advanced aged iCMs had an aging profile similar to the aged human heart and recapitulated age-related disease hallmarks. We then used aged iCMs to study the effect of cell age on the young extracellular matrix (ECM) therapy, an emerging approach for myocardial infarction (MI) treatment and prevention. Young ECM decreased oxidative stress, improved survival, and post-MI beating in aged iCMs. In the absence of stress, young ECM improved beating and reversed aging-associated expressions in 3-month-old iCMs while causing the opposite effect on 14-month-old iCMs. The same young ECM treatment surprisingly increased SASP and impaired beating in advanced aged iCMs. Overall, we showed that young ECM therapy had a positive effect on post-MI recovery, however, cell age was determinant in the treatment outcomes without any stress conditions. Therefore, “one-size-fits-all” approaches to ECM treatments fail, and cardiac tissue engineered models with age-matched human iCMs are valuable in translational basic research for determining the appropriate treatment, particularly for the elderly.
On fault tolerance for IPM-FSCW machines adopting a modular converter

This paper investigates the fault-tolerant capability of a number of 30 kW permanent magnet (PM) machines with fractional-slot concentrated windings (FSCWs) when connected to two types of modular type converters recently proposed in the literature. Due to the strong PM rotor magnetization when using NdFeB-type magnets, the resulting short-circuit currents during a converter submodule short-circuit was found to be larger than the rated current which, potentially, may cause the machine to overheat. Reducing the PM rotor magnetization will reduce the short-circuit current but also affect the constant power speed range (CPSR). The results further highlight the importance of a tailored design specification when designing FSCW PM machines in automotive applications.
Rehabilitation challenges for Aboriginal clients recovering from brain injury: A qualitative study engaging health care practitioners

Primary objective: To explore the experiences of health care practitioners working with Aboriginal clients recovering from acquired brain injury (ABI). Research design: Participatory research design using qualitative methods. Methods: Fourteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The Framework Method of analysis was used to uncover emerging themes. Findings: Five main categories emerged: practitioners’ experience with brain injury, practitioners’ experience with Aboriginal clients, specialized needs of Aboriginal clients recovering from brain injury, culturally sensitive care and traditional healing methods. These categories were then further divided into emergent themes and sub-themes where applicable, with particular emphasis on the specialized needs of Aboriginal clients. Discussion: Each emergent theme highlighted key challenges experienced by Aboriginal peoples recovering from ABI. A key challenge was that protocols for rehabilitation and discharge planning are often lacking for clients living on reserves or in remote communities. Other challenges included lack of social support; difficulty of travel and socio-cultural factors associated with post-acute care; and concurrent disorders. Conclusions: Results suggest that developing reasonable protocols for discharge planning of Aboriginal clients living on reserves and/or remote communities should be considered a priority.
Identification of a locus involved in the utilization of iron by Haemophilus influenzae

Haemophilus influenzae has an absolute requirement for heme for aerobic growth. This organism can satisfy this requirement by synthesizing heme from iron and protoporphyrin IX (PPIX). H. influenzae type b (Hib) strain DL42 was found to be unable to form single colonies when grown on a medium containing free iron and PPIX in place of heme. In contrast, the nontypeable H. influenzae (NTHI) strain TN106 grew readily on the same medium. A genomic library from NTHI strain TN106 was used to transform Hib strain DL42, and recombinants were selected on a medium containing iron and PPIX in place of heme. A recombinant plasmid with an 11.5-kb NTHI DNA insert was shown to confer on Hib strain DL42 the ability to grow on iron and PPIX. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that this NTHI DNA insert contained three genes, designated hitA, hitB, and hitC, which encoded products similar to the SfuABC proteins of Serratia marcescens, which have been shown to constitute a periplasmic binding protein-dependent iron transport system in this enteric organism. The NTHI HitA protein also was 69% identical to the ferric-binding protein of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Inactivation of the cloned NTHI hitC gene by insertion of an antibiotic resistance cartridge eliminated the ability of the recombinant plasmid to complement the growth deficiency of Hib DL42. Construction of an isogenic NTHI TN106 mutant lacking a functional hitC gene revealed that this mutation prevented this strain from growing on a medium containing iron and PPIX in place of heme. This NTHI hitC mutant was also unable to utilize either iron bound to transferrin or iron chelates. These results suggest that the products encoded by the hitABC genes are essential for the utilization of iron by NTHI.
Carotid Intima-media Thickness: A Target or a Marker?

Evidence-based medicine requires us to use pharmacological agents that have been tested and that have been showed to reduce the disease in that particular group of affected patients. The choice of the efficacy endpoint is one of the most controversial issues in designing the trials. To reduce the high economic costs resulting by the large-scale trials design and implementation, the substitution of the primary endpoints with a surrogate one, is an optimal opportunity. Carotid intima-media thickness is considered an excellent predictor of cardiovascular events, and it is also seen as a perfect model of surrogate endpoint for pharmacological studies. However, the results from studies using it as a surrogate endpoints could lead to erroneous conclusions and could lead marketing of products with limited or doubt effectiveness on cardiovascular prevention. Studies showed that many interventions targeting the Carotid intima-media thickness not impact the final clinical endpoints of interest, whereas low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level is an excellent biomarker because it can predict the cardiovascular outcomes and interventions therapy can efficaciously reduce it.
Analysis of power ramping schemes for UTRA-FDD random access channel

The random access channel (RACH) in a universal terrestrial radio access frequency division duplex (UTRA-FDD) system is a contention-based channel mainly used to carry control information from mobile stations to base stations. The transmission of a random access request contains two steps, preamble transmission and message transmission. In preamble transmission, a power ramping technique is used to favor the delayed preambles by stepping up the transmission power after each unsuccessful access. In doing so, the success of transmitting a long-delayed preamble is increased due to the power capture effect. We analyze the blocking and throughput performance of preamble transmission under three power ramping schemes with fixed, linear and geometric step sizes. Also, we compare the interference caused by different power ramping schemes.
Radiofrequency-induced thermotherapy in benign prostatic hyperplasia.

INTRODUCTION We evaluated the efficacy and safety of radiofrequency-induced thermotherapy of the prostate in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). MATERIALS AND METHODS Radiofrequency-induced thermotherapy of the prostate was performed under local anesthesia in 24 patients (median age, 67 years) with BPH. The International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) score, maximum flow rate, postvoid residual urine volume, and prostate volume were measured preoperatively and 4 months postoperatively. RESULTS Nine patients (37.5%) had urinary retention preoperatively. One patient (4.2%) required transurethral resection of the prostate due to retention despite improved symptoms, and 2 (8.3%) needed an alpha-blocker, postoperatively. The success rate was 87.5% after 4 months follow-up. All patients were catheter-free after the procedure. The mean IPSS score decreased from 26.08 +/- 3.9 to 13.33 +/- 4.69 (P < .001), and the mean maximum flow rate increased from 4.63 +/- 4.4 mL/s to 13.21 +/- 4.28 mL/s (P < .001). The mean prostate volume and mean residual urine volume were 46.38 +/- 16.8 mL and 160 +/- 57 mL, which decreased to 39.6 +/- 16 mL (P = .009) and 61.46 +/- 17.45 mL (P = .003), respectively. Fever, dysuria, and perineal pain (in 9 patients; 37.5%) were improved with conservative therapy. Retrograde ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, and urinary incontinence were not reported. CONCLUSION Radiofrequency-induced thermotherapy of the prostate is a new, safe, and effective treatment for BPH. This technique is carried out under local anesthesia and mild sedation with little bleeding. It is especially appropriate for patients who present as high risk for general anesthesia.
Cognitive impairment and the use of health services in an elderly rural population: the MoVIES project. Monongahela Valley Independent Elders Survey.

OBJECTIVE To describe the patterns of use of health and human services by elderly rural individuals and to determine whether cognitively impaired persons had a distinctive pattern of service utilization. DESIGN An epidemiological survey and cognitive screening of an age-stratified random community sample. SETTING The mid-Monongahela Valley, a rural community in Southwestern Pennsylvania. PARTICIPANTS 1366 non-institutionalized persons aged 65 years and older, fluent in English, and with at least a sixth grade education. MEASUREMENTS We administered a battery of cognitive screening tests (the Mini-Mental State Examination; Immediate and Delayed Recall of a Story; Immediate and Delayed Recall of a Word List; CERAD modification of the Boston Naming Test; Verbal Fluency for initial letters P and S and for names of Fruits and Animals; Temporal Orientation; Praxis; Clock Drawing; and Trailmaking Tests A and B.) We also obtained basic demographic information and inquired about the use of health and human services in the previous year. RESULTS Approximately 10% of the sample was classified (by operational criteria) as cognitively impaired. In univariate analyses, cognitive impairment was found to be significantly associated with the use of certain health services: hospitalization in the previous 6 months (odds ratio, OR = 2.1; 95% CI = 1.3, 3.3), previous nursing home use (OR = 9.3; 95% CI = 3.8, 22.9), home health care (OR = 4.6; 95% CI = 2.7, 8.0), social services (OR = 6.5; 95% CI = 3.4, 12.4), mental health services (OR = 2.8; 95% CI = 1.2, 6.2), and the regular use of prescription medications (OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.3, 3.2). Visits to physicians were not significantly different between the impaired and unimpaired groups. In a multiple regression model, which included age and educational level, the use of home health care (OR = 3.4; 95% CI = 1.8, 6.4) and social services (OR = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.1, 4.9) remained significantly associated with cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS The association of cognitive impairment with the use of these health and human services underscores the general frailty of the impaired group. These findings also point to potential target groups in the community for further evaluation and services for dementia. The findings support the need for education regarding cognitive impairment and dementia to be made available to providers of these services, particularly informal social services such as those provided by church groups.
Depression, alexithymia, and pain prone disorder: a Rorschach study.

The relationship between depression and chronic low back pain (LBP) is controversial. Theorists differ in the emphasis they place on predisposing versus reactive factors in LBP disability and depression. Alexithymia has been suggested as a predisposing factor in psychosomatic disorders, including chronic LBP. This study addresses the association between depression, alexithymia, and LBP using the Rorschach comprehensive system. LBP patients were hypothesized to be distinguishable from Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed inpatient depressives, to exhibit features of alexithymia, and to resemble a group of DSM-III personality disorders. Subjects were 33 chronic LBP patients. Results supported the hypotheses. On depression measures, LBP patients differed significantly from depressives (p less than .001). LBP patients exhibited Rorschach features consistent with alexithymia. They also exhibited a number of similarities to the personality disorders group. The role of alexithymia as a cognitive-mediating factor in coping and adaptation is discussed.
Ontario's alternate funding arrangements for emergency departments: the impact on the emergency physician workforce.

BACKGROUND Difficulty maintaining physician staffing in emergency departments (EDs) prompted the government of Ontario to offer alternate funding arrangements (AFAs) to replace fee-for-service remuneration for physicians working in EDs. OBJECTIVE To analyze the effect of AFAs on physician staffing and practice patterns. METHODS We obtained Ontario Health Insurance Program fee-for-service and shadow-billing records for all physician services provided in EDs one year before and one year after implementation of an ED AFA. Only sites with reliable billing data were retained. Physicians were assigned to small/rural, community or teaching hospital groups based on their billing claims. For each hospital type, and all hospitals combined, we compared the pre- and post-AFA periods in terms of the number of physicians working regularly in the ED and their workload. As a possible unintended consequence of AFAs, we also compared physicians' involvement in primary care. RESULTS Overall, 76.2% of eligible hospitals adopted an ED AFA, of which 49 (42.6%) were included in our study (16 small/rural, 27 community and 6 teaching hospitals). In the post-AFA period, the number of physicians working in EDs increased by 7, from 674 to 681, representing a 1.0% increase overall in the workforce (p = 0.84). The change varied by hospital type, from a 5.8% increase in teaching hospitals to a 2.2% decrease in community hospitals, though none was significant. In the post-AFA period, the number of physicians working a moderate number of days per month increased from 190 to 214, representing a 3.2% absolute increase (p = 0.39), and the number working few (<5) or many (>10) days per month decreased. Post-AFA, the number of physicians working in EDs who also provided primary care services decreased by 1.7%, from 544 to 535 (p = 0.10). CONCLUSION Emergency department AFAs have been widely adopted in Ontario, but have not been associated with substantial changes in the overall physician workforce in EDs. However, trends toward increased physician numbers were seen in small/rural and teaching hospitals. There was little evidence of any adverse effects on the provision of primary care services by physicians.
The Colorado Sex Offender Risk Scale

ABSTRACT This study documents the development of an adult sex offender risk assessment tool. A sample of 494 sex offenders were followed for an average of 30 months. A risk scale was developed based upon criminal and therapeutic outcomes. The final risk scale included prior juvenile felony convictions, prior adult felony convictions, failure of the first or second grade, not being employed, victim being intoxicated, the perpetrator reporting not being sexually aroused during the crime, possession of a weapon during the crime, denial in therapy, sexual deviance in therapy, and motivation in therapy. The risk scale provided significant relative risk ratios against program failure at 12 and 30 months. Overall, those scoring high on the risk tool were 372% as likely to fail as those scoring low.
Scheduling Parallel Jobs Using Migration and Consolidation in the Cloud

An increasing number of high performance computing parallel applications leverages the power of the cloud for parallel processing. How to schedule the parallel applications to improve the quality of service is the key to the successful host of parallel applications in the cloud. The large scale of the cloud makes the parallel job scheduling more complicated as even simple parallel job scheduling problem is NP-complete. In this paper, we propose a parallel job scheduling algorithm named MEASY. MEASY adopts migration and consolidation to enhance the most popular EASY scheduling algorithm. Our extensive experiments on well-known workloads show that our algorithm takes very good care of the quality of service. For two common parallel job scheduling objectives, our algorithm produces an up to 41.1% and an average of 23.1% improvement on the average response time; an up to 82.9% and an average of 69.3% improvement on the average slowdown. Our algorithm is robust even in terms that it allows inaccurate CPU usage estimation and high migration cost. Our approach involves trivial modification on EASY and requires no additional technique; it is practical and effective in the cloud environment.
Mathématiques de l'Assurance Non-Vie. Tome I: Principes Fondamentaux de Théorie du Risque

Cet ouvrage en deux tomes entend fournir aux etudiants, chercheurs et aux techniciens de l'assurance (qu'ils soient actuaires, economistes, econometres, ingenieurs commerciaux, mathematiciens, polytechniciens, statisticiens ou autre) les methodes permettant de gerer les grands portefeuilles d'assurance LARD. Il aborde ainsi : - les principes de base de la gestion des risques, - les methodes de calcul des primes, les mesures de risque et la determination de la marge de solvabilite ainsi que du capital economique, - la correlation entre risques assures et ses consequences, - l'equilibre a long terme des operations de la compagnie, - la personnalisation des primes a priori et a posteriori (credibilite et systemes bonus-malus), - l'evaluation des provisions techniques, - la resolution de problemes par simulation. Les connaissances requises pour aborder cet ouvrage ont ete reduites au strict minimum : il suffit de posseder de bonnes hases de mathematiques et une maitrise des concepts elementaires du calcul des probabilites.
Optimierung einer auf Grundlage von Floating-Car-Datensätzen basierenden Lichtsignalanlagensteuerung

Mittelpunkt dieser Diplomarbeit ist die Frage, wie eine neuartige Lichtsignalanlagensteuerung zu konzipieren ist, damit diese Floating-Car-Datensatze (FCD) als Steuerungsgrundlage nutzen kann. Anspruch hierbei ist, ein ahnliches Qualitatsniveau bei der Verkehrsabwicklung wie bei bereits heute verwendeten, adaptiven Lichtsignalanlagensteuerungsverfahren zu erreichen. Dafur wird bekanntes Vorwissen zu dieser Thematik zusammengetragen und durch Untersuchungen zu elementaren Funktionsmechanismen von Lichtsignalanlagensteuerungen erganzt. Um auf Grundlage dieser Vorbetrachtungen neu zu entwerfende Steuerungsansatze auf ihre Qualitatstauglichkeit prufen zu konnen, wird eine Simulationsumgebung ausgewahlt und mit dieser ein Testknoten modelliert, welcher Basis fur spatere Simulationslaufe ist. Nach Abwagung des Potentials auf Zielerreichung fur ein bestehendes, FCD-basiertes Steuerungsverfahren, wird ein neuer FCD-basierter Steuerungsalgorithmus unter Verwendung eines bereits heute zur Lichtsignalanlagensteuerung genutzten Wirkprinzips entworfen. Erganzt wird dieser neue FCD-basierte Ansatz um eine zusatzliche Ebene zur Erhohung der Robustheit gegenuber Schwankungen beim FCD-Fahrzeugausstattungsgrad. Der Vergleich von Simulationsergebnissen zwischen dem FCD-basierten Ansatz und etablierten Steuerungsverfahren ermoglicht eine qualitative Einordnung. Fur den Einsatz des FCD-basierten Lichtsignalsteuerungsverfahrens in der Praxis werden einige erganzende Hinweise gegeben.
A Dominant Role of the Juxtamembrane Region of the TrkA Nerve Growth Factor Receptor during Neuronal Cell Differentiation*

All receptor tyrosine kinases share a common intracellular signaling machinery, including rasactivation, whereas cellular responses vary from mitogenesis to cell differentiation. To investigate the structural basis for receptor tyrosine kinase action for nerve growth factor, the juxtamembrane region of TrkA was transferred to a corresponding region of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor. The resulting chimeric receptor contains an additional Shc site, Tyr490, in the juxtamembrane region. In transfected PC12 cell lines, neuronal differentiation was observed with EGF treatment, as evidenced by increased neurite extension. The action of the chimeric receptor was correlated with prolonged activation of MAP kinases and a 3–4-fold increase in phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity. The effect of the juxtamembrane chimera was dependent upon the Shc site at Tyr490, because expression of a chimeric receptor containing a Y490F mutation resulted in a complete loss of neuritogenesis by EGF treatment. These findings indicate that the juxtamembrane region of the TrkA receptor serves as a key functional domain that can confer a dominant effect upon neuronal differentiation.
Economic Analysis Alongside Clinical Trials: Revisiting the Methodological Issues

Abstract Controlled clinical trials are recognized as the best source of data on the efficacy of health care interventions and technologies. Because economic evaluation is dependent on the quality of the underlying medical evidence, clinical trials have increasingly been viewed as a natural vehicle for economic analysis. However, the closer integration of economic and clinical research raises many methodological issues. This paper discusses these issues in trial design, collection of resource use data, collection of outcome data, and interpretation and extrapolation of results. Some guidelines are suggested for economic analysts wishing to undertake evaluations alongside clinical trials.
Improved noise robust automatic speech recognition system with spectral subtraction and minimum statistics algorithm implemented in FPGA

In this study, spectral subtraction speech enhancement is integrated to a two word vocabulary speech recognition system to effectively reduce the effects of background noise and increase the recognition rate. The whole system was implemented in FPGA and was modelled in MATLAB. The preprocessing subsystem contains the spectral subtraction algorithm and acoustic front end speech enhancements while the speech recognition subsystem contains the HMM and Viterbi search algorithms. 10 dirty speech samples of word `stop' and `clockwise' (sampled at 84 dB) were tested in the speech recognition prototype with varying background noise from 44.6 to 85.4 dB and noise floor (β) from 0.01 to 1. At the end of the testing, the system was able to recognize the two words (stop and clockwise) efficiently with accuracy rate of above 80% until a background noise of 68.6 dB. The best average recognition rate (from 44.6 to 85.4 dB background noise) of 48.5% on the other hand was recorded at 0.01 noise floor. The system without spectral subtraction enhancement was noticed to function efficiently only at 56.6 dB.