Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring the costs and benefits of heart disease monitoring

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative systems of coronary heart disease monitoring in Scotland. DESIGN An option appraisal was conducted to evaluate the costs and benefits of implementing a coronary heart disease monitoring system. This involved a review of existing Scottish datasets and relevant reports, specification of options, definition and weighting of benefit criteria by key stakeholders, assessment of options by experts, and costing of options. The options were assessed by 33 stakeholders (grouped as cardiologists, patient representatives, general practitioners, public health physicians, and policy makers), plus 13 topic experts. SETTING Scotland (population 5.1 million). RESULTS Between group mean benefit weights were: mortality rates and case fatality (10.6), quality of life (9.8), patient function (8.8), hospital activity (7.8), primary care activity (9.25), prescribing (5.72), socioeconomic impact (4.0), risk factors (7.4), prevalence (5.0), incidence (6.0), case registration (6.82), international comparability (4.2), breadth of coverage (8.8), and frequency (5.8). Differences between group weights were significant for prevalence (p = 0.048) and international comparability (p = 0.032). Four monitoring options were identified: acommunity epidemiology model, based on MONICA (monitoring trends and determinants in cardiovascular disease) study methodology applied to a series of eight representative communities, had the highest benefits, at an average annual discounted cost of approximately £360 000; models based on theAustralian cardiovascular disease monitoring scheme and on enhanced routine dataoffered fewer benefits at discounted average annual costs ranging from £165 000 to £195 000; finally, a coronary heart disease registry modelled on the Scottish Cancer Registry scheme would have had fewer benefits and substantially higher costs than the other options. CONCLUSIONS The most beneficial coronary heart disease monitoring system is the community epidemiology model, based on MONICA methodology. Option appraisal potentially offers an explicit and transparent methodology for evidence based policy development.
Modelling the role of tissue heterogeneity in epileptic rhythms

Epileptic seizure activity manifests as complex spatio‐temporal dynamics on the clinically relevant macroscopic scale. These dynamics are known to arise from spatially heterogeneous tissue, but the relationship between specific spatial abnormalities and epileptic rhythm generation is not well understood. We formulate a simplified macroscopic modelling framework with which to study the role of spatial heterogeneity in the generation of epileptiform spatio‐temporal rhythms. We characterize the overall model dynamics in terms of spontaneous activity and excitability and demonstrate normal and abnormal spreading of activity. We introduce a means to systematically investigate the topology of abnormal sub‐networks and explore its impact on spontaneous and stimulus‐evoked rhythmic dynamics. This computationally efficient framework complements results from detailed biophysical models, and allows the testing of specific hypotheses about epileptic dynamics on the macroscopic scale.
New Approach to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Other Forms of Anovulatory Infertility

Anovulation can be classified in the clinic on the basis of serum hormone assays. Low gonadotropins along with low estrogen concentrations are suggestive of a central origin of the disease, whereas low estrogen levels along with elevated gonadotropins indicate a primary defect at the ovarian level. Most anovulatory patients (approximately 80%) present with serum FSH and estradiol levels within the normal range (World Health Organization class II). Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common but poorly defined heterogeneous clinical entity. Historically, characteristic ovarian abnormalities represented a hallmark of the syndrome. Because several etiological factors may lead to a similar end point (i.e., polycystic ovaries), the development of a clinically applicable classification of the syndrome has proven difficult. Clinical, morphological, biochemical, endocrine, and, more recently, molecular studies have identified an array of underlying abnormalities and added to the confusion concerning the pathophysiology of the disease. Despite the vast literature regarding the etiology and classification of PCOS, no consensus has been reached regarding the validity of criteria used to diagnose the syndrome. For instance, the significance of elevated serum luteinizing hormone (LH) concentrations, insulin resistance or polycystic-appearing ovaries assessed by ultrasound for PCOS diagnosis remains uncertain. In contrast, hyperandrogenism and chronic anovulation generally are believed to be mandatory diagnostic features. Patients with PCOS might visit a dermatologist for hirsutism, a generalist, or internist for complaints related to obesity or a gynecologist for irregular or absent bleeding. However, most patients seek the care of a gynecologist because of cycle abnormalities (oligomenorrhea) and infertility. In PCOS, serum FSH and estradiol (E2) levels are usually found to be within the (broad) normal ranges, whereas LH may either be normal or elevated. Because PCOS with normal or high LH does not seem to represent different clinical entities, it seems justifiable to consider this syndrome as a subgroup of WHO II patients, although estrogen levels may be tonically elevated in these patients. This review will focus on characteristics of the heterogeneous group of WHO–II patients in an attempt to identify factors involved in the etiology and possible ovulation induction outcome of PCOS. Target Audience: Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Family Physicians Learning Objectives: After completion of this article, the reader will be able to outline the current classification of anovulatory infertility and to explain the characteristics and features used for classification.
Validity of a parent vocabulary checklist for young Spanish speaking children of Mexican immigrants

The primary objective of the current investigation was to examine the concurrent and predictive validity of a parent vocabulary checklist with young Spanish speaking children of Mexican immigrants. This study implemented a longitudinal approach. Nineteen families participated when children were 15–16 months of age, and then again at 30–32 months of age. The Spanish version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Inventarios del Desarrollo de Habilidades Communicativas, INV) and spontaneous language samples collected during naturalistic play were used to examine the relationship between observed and reported vocabulary. Vocabulary reported through the INV-II and vocabulary observed at 30–32 months were significantly correlated, suggesting that the INV-II captures a valid representation of vocabulary at this age. Comparatively, vocabulary reported on the INV-I, was not correlated with observed vocabulary at 15–16 months of age or reported or observed vocabulary at 30–32 months of age. These results suggest that the INV-I, when used with 14–16-month-olds, demonstrates limited concurrent and predictive validity. Implications for the clinical use of the INV-I and INV-II are presented.
Reductions in Goal-Directed Cognition as a Consequence of Being the Target of Empathy

Although empathy is widely promoted as a beneficial practice across both intergroup and interpersonal contexts, the implications of being the target of empathy for the target’s own psychological state are unclear. Three experiments examined how being the target of empathy affects goal-directed cognition outcomes related to a psychological sense of power, namely, the ability to maintain goal focus and readiness to ask for more in negotiations. We reasoned that because individuals typically empathize with others they perceive as disadvantaged and needing support, trying to empathize would raise individuals up in terms of such outcomes at the same time as it pushed the targets of their empathy down in a complementary fashion. Results were consistent with these predictions across intergroup and intragroup interaction. The findings thus suggest that individuals’ efforts to empathize can undermine the targets of their empathy in a subtle manner by hindering their ability to pursue their goals.
The hydrochloride salt of l-ecgonine, a congener of cocaine

The title compound, (1R,2R,3S,5S,8S)-3-hydroxy-8-methyl-8-azoniabicyclo[3.2. 1]octane-2-carboxylic acid chloride, C9H16NO3 +·Cl−, is both a metabolite and a precursor of the tropane alkaloid l-cocaine. The carboxyl group is not involved in dimerization, but instead donates a hydrogen bond to the chloride counter-ion, which participates in two additional hydrogen bonds. The chloride ion is thus trigonally hydrogen bonded to three l-ecgonine cations. The quarternary N proton is intramolecularly hydrogen bonded to the carboxyl C=O group, an arrangement identical to that reported for both (−)-norcocaine and the tetrachloroaurate(III) salt of l-cocaine. One close intermolecular C—H⋯O contact exists.
Deficiency of the AIM2–ASC Signal Uncovers the STING-Driven Overreactive Response of Type I IFN and Reciprocal Depression of Protective IFN-γ Immunity in Mycobacterial Infection

The nucleic acids of Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be detected by intracellular DNA sensors, such as cyclic GMP-AMP synthase and absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2), which results in the release of type I IFN and the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β. However, whether cross-talk occurs between AIM2–IL-1β and cyclic GMP-AMP synthase–type I IFN signaling upon M. tuberculosis infection in vivo is unclear. In this article, we demonstrate that mycobacterial infection of AIM2−/− mice reciprocally induces overreactive IFN-β and depressive IFN-γ responses, leading to higher infection burdens and more severe pathology. We also describe the underlying mechanism whereby activated apoptosis-associated speck-like protein interacts with a key adaptor, known as stimulator of IFN genes (STING), and inhibits the interaction between STING and downstream TANK-binding kinase 1 in bone marrow–derived macrophages and bone marrow–derived dendritic cells, consequently reducing the induction of type I IFN. Of note, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein expression is inversely correlated with IFN-β levels in PBMCs from tuberculosis patients. These data demonstrate that the AIM2–IL-1β signaling pathway negatively regulates the STING–type I IFN signaling pathway by impeding the association between STING and TANK-binding kinase 1, which protects the host from M. tuberculosis infection. This finding has potential clinical significance.
Randomized controlled trial of the effect of the Royal College of Radiologists' guidelines on general practitioners' referrals for radiographic examination.

BACKGROUND The Royal College of Radiologists' guidelines aim to encourage more appropriate use of diagnostic radiology and so reduce the use of clinically unhelpful x-ray examinations. AIM The object of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled trial of the introduction of the guidelines into general practice. METHOD A total of 62 practices (170 general practitioners) referring patients to St George's Hospital, London for diagnostic radiology were randomly allocated into two groups. Guidelines were sent to the 30 practices in the intervention group. Radiological referral patterns were compared in both groups before and after the introduction of guidelines. RESULTS Practices which had received guidelines requested significantly fewer examinations of the spine, and made a significantly higher proportion of requests which conformed to the guidelines compared with practices which had not received the guidelines. There were no significant differences in the proportion of forms giving physical findings or in the proportion of positive findings at radiology. CONCLUSION Introduction of guidelines can influence general practitioners' radiological referrals in the short term. Wider use of guidelines might help to reduce unnecessary irradiation of patients.
Mapping the Gene Causing Hereditary Primary Hyperparathyroidism in a Portuguese Kindred to Chromosome 1q22‐q31

A Portuguese kindred with autosomal dominant isolated primary hyperparathyroidism (HPT) that was associated with parathyroid adenomas and carcinomas was investigated with the aim of determining the chromosomal location of this gene, designated HPTPort. Leukocyte DNA from 9 affected and 16 unaffected members and 7 parathyroid tumors from 4 patients was used in comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), tumor loss of heterozygosity (LOH), and family linkage studies. The CGH studies revealed abnormalities of chromosomes 1 and 13, and the results of LOH studies were consistent with the involvements of tumor suppressor genes from these regions. Family segregation studies mapped HPTPort to chromosome 1q22‐q31 by establishing linkage with eight loci (D1S254, D1S222, D1S202, D1S238, D1S428, D1S2877, D1S422, and D1S412) (peak two‐point LOD scores = 3. 46–5.14 at 0% recombination), and defined the location of HPT Port to a 21 cM region flanked centromerically by D1S215 and telomerically by D1S306. Thus, HPTPort has been mapped to chromosome 1q22‐q31, and a characterization of this gene will help to elucidate further the mechanisms that are involved in the development of parathyroid tumors.
The Rational Choice Model in Family Decision Making at the End of Life

Background Most end-of-life decisions are made by family members. Current ethical guidelines for family decision making are based on a hierarchical model that emphasizes the patient’s wishes over his or her best interests. Evidence suggests that the model poorly reflects the strategies and priorities of many families. Methods Researchers observed and recorded 26 decision-making meetings between hospital staff and family members. Semi-structured follow-up interviews were conducted. Transcriptions were analyzed using qualitative techniques. Results For both staff and families, consideration of a patient’s best interests generally took priority over the patient’s wishes. Staff generally introduced discussion of the patient’s wishes for rhetorical purposes, such as persuasion. Competing moral frameworks, which de-emphasized the salience of patients’ autonomy and “right to choose,” played a role in family decision making. Conclusions The priority given to the patients’ wishes in the hierarchical model does not reflect the priorities of staff and families in making decisions about end-of-life care.
Targeting thioredoxin reductase is a basis for cancer therapy by arsenic trioxide

Arsenic trioxide (ATO) is an effective cancer therapeutic drug for acute promyelocytic leukemia and has potential anticancer activity against a wide range of solid tumors. ATO exerts its effect mainly through elevated oxidative stress, but the exact molecular mechanism remains elusive. The thioredoxin (Trx) system comprising NADPH, thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), and Trx and the glutathione (GSH) system composed of NADPH, glutathione reductase, and GSH supported by glutaredoxin are the two electron donor systems that control cellular proliferation, viability, and apoptosis. Recently, the selenocysteine-dependent TrxR enzyme has emerged as an important molecular target for anticancer drug development. Here, we have discovered that ATO irreversibly inhibits mammalian TrxR with an IC50 of 0.25 μM. Both the N-terminal redox-active dithiol and the C-terminal selenothiol-active site of reduced TrxR may participate in the reaction with ATO. The inhibition of MCF-7 cell growth by ATO was correlated with irreversible inactivation of TrxR, which subsequently led to Trx oxidation. Furthermore, the inhibition of TrxR by ATO was attenuated by GSH, and GSH depletion by buthionine sulfoximine enhanced ATO-induced cell death. These results strongly suggest that the ATO anticancer activity is by means of a Trx system-mediated apoptosis. Blocking cancer cell DNA replication and repair and induction of oxidative stress by the inhibition of both Trx and GSH systems are suggested as cancer chemotherapeutic strategies.
Commande optimale appliquée aux systèmes d'imagerie ultrasonore. (Optimal Control Applied to Ultrasound Imaging System)

Les systemes d'imagerie medicale ultrasonore ont considerablement ameliore le diagnostic clinique par une meilleure qualite des images grâce a des systemes plus sensibles et des post-traitements. La communaute scientifique de l'imagerie ultrasonore a consenti a un tres grand effort de recherche sur les post-traitements et sur le codage de l'excitation sans s'interesser, outre mesure, aux methodes de commande optimale. Ce travail s'est donc legitimement tourne vers les methodes optimales basees sur l'utilisation d'une retroaction de la sortie sur l'entree. Pour rendre applicable ces methodes, ce probleme complexe de commande optimale a ete transforme en un probleme d'optimisation parametrique sous-optimal et plus simple. Nous avons applique ce principe au domaine de l'imagerie ultrasonore : l'echographie, l'imagerie harmonique native et l'imagerie harmonique de contraste avec ou sans codage de la commande. La simplicite de l'approche nous a permis, par une modification de la fonction de cout, de l'adapter a l'imagerie harmonique. Cette adaptation montre que la methode peut etre appliquee a l'imagerie ultrasonore en generale. Aujourd'hui, les enjeux de l'imagerie ultrasonore portent non seulement sur les traitements des excitations ou des images mais aussi sur les capteurs. Ce point nous a conduit naturellement a rechercher la commande optimale des transducteurs capacitifs (cMUT) afin de les adapter a une utilisation plus large en imagerie ultrasonore codee. Nos methodes de compensation et de codage par commande optimale procurent des resultats tres prometteurs qui vont au dela de nos esperances. Le champ d'applications de nos methodes de codage optimal est large et nous n'en voyons pas forcement encore toutes les limites. L'atout majeur de nos approches est leur simplicite d'utilisation et d'implementation. En effet, elles ne necessitent pas d'informations a priori difficilement accessibles sur les outils utilises ou milieux explores. Notre systeme s'adapte automatiquement aux variations qui peuvent etre liees au vieillissement du capteur ou a la modification du milieu explore.
Nickel-Induced Changes in Lipid Peroxidation, Antioxidative Enzymes, and Metal Accumulation in Lemna Gibba

In this study, an experiment was carried out to study the process of stress adaptation in Lemna gibba grown under nickel stress (0–20 mg Ni L−1). The results showed that Ni concentrations in plants increased with increasing Ni supply levels and reached a maximum of 142.82 mg.kg1 DW at 0.5 mg.L−1 Ni treatments. The level of photosynthetic pigments (Chl a, Chl b, and total Chl) and soluble proteins increased upon exposure to high Ni concentrations. At the same time, the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased with increasing Ni concentration. These results suggested an alleviation of stress that was presumably the results of antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) which generally increased linearly with increasing Ni levels. In addition, the proline content in L. gibba increased with increasing nickel levels.Our present work concluded that Lemna gibba has a high level of nickel tolerance and accumulation. We also found that moderate nickel treatment (0.05–5 mg.L−1) alleviated oxidative stress in plants, while the addition of higher amounts of nickel (10–20 mg.L−1) could cause an increasing generation of ROS, which was effectively scavenged by the antioxidative system. Therefore, L. gibba may be used as a phytoremediator in moderately polluted aquatic ecosystems.
Gain scheduling based backstepping control for motion balance adjusting of a power-line inspection robot

This paper presents a gain scheduling backstepping control (GSBC) for motion balance adjusting of a power-line inspection (PLI) robot, which is an underactuted mechanical system of two degrees of freedom with one control input. First, a dynamic model of the motion balance adjusting of the PLI robot is constructed. Second, this model is linearized at a nominal operating point to overcome the computation infeasibility of the conventional backstepping technique. Finally, to extend the operation area of the closed-loop system further from the nominal operating point, an equilibrium manifold linearization model (EML model) is developed using a scheduling variable, and then the GSBC scheme is designed based on the EML model. The robust stability of the closed-loop system is ensured by the Lyapunov theorem. Simulation results show that the GSBC gives much better performance than that of the backstepping control, these results illustrate the feasibility of the proposed control scheme.
FEED: Fault tolerant, energy efficient, distributed Clustering for WSN

Increasing network lifetime, scalability and load balancing are important factors for wireless sensor networks. Clustering is a useful technique through which we can effect these factors. In this paper, we propose a new method of clustering which prolongs network lifetime by using energy, density and centrality factors and also the distances between nodes for making clusters. We assume a supervisor node for every cluster head which is to be its replacement when the cluster head fails. This property causes an increase in network lifetime and also helps the network to be fault tolerant. Simulation results demonstrate that using the proposed method offers significant improvement in clustering especially in network lifetime in comparison with the LEACH and HEED methods.
Evaluating Music Recommender Systems for Groups

Recommendation to groups of users is a challenging and currently only passingly studied task. Especially the evaluation aspect often appears ad-hoc and instead of truly evaluating on groups of users, synthesizes groups by merging individual preferences. In this paper, we present a user study, recording the individual and shared preferences of actual groups of participants, resulting in a robust, standardized evaluation benchmark. Using this benchmarking dataset, that we share with the research community, we compare the respective performance of a wide range of music group recommendation techniques proposed in the
Beyond IID: Learning to Combine Non-IID Metrics for Vision Tasks

Metric learning has been widely employed, especially in various computer vision tasks, with the fundamental assumption that all samples (e.g., regions/superpixels in images/videos) are independent and identically distributed (IID). However, since the samples are usually spatially-connected or temporally-correlated with their physically-connected neighbours, they are not IID (non-IID for short), which cannot be directly handled by existing methods. Thus, we propose to learn and integrate non-IID metrics (NIME). To incorporate the non-IID spatial/temporal relations, instead of directly using non-IID features and metric learning as previous methods, NIME first builds several non-IID representations on original (non-IID) features by various graph kernel functions, and then automatically learns the metric under the best combination of various non-IID representations. NIME is applied to solve two typical computer vision tasks: interactive image segmentation and histology image identification. The results show that learning and integrating non-IID metrics improves the performance, compared to the IID methods. Moreover, our method achieves results comparable or better than that of the state-of-the-arts.
An efficient real-time emotion detection using camera and facial landmarks

Emotion recognition has many useful applications in daily lives. In this paper, we present a potential approach to detect human emotion in real time. For any face detected in camera, we extract the corresponding facial landmarks and examine different kinds of features and models for predicting human emotion. The experiments show that our proposed system can naturally detect human emotion in real time and achieve an average accuracy about 70.65%.