Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validation of defibrillator lead performance registry data: insight from the Danish Pacemaker and ICD Register

Aims The validity of registry data on defibrillator lead performance is described only sparsely, despite its clinical importance. This study investigated the validity of defibrillator lead performance registry data in a nationwide and population-based registry. Methods and results We identified all reported surgical interventions due to defibrillator lead events in the Danish Pacemaker and ICD Register (DPIR) from 2000 to 2013. Medical records of all patients (n = 753) were examined blinded for 5 predefined intervention types and 18 reasons for lead intervention. The overall level of agreement for the types of lead intervention had a positive predictive value (PPV) of 89.4% [95% confidence interval (CI): 87.0-91.5%] and an adjusted agreement (κ value) of 0.81 (95% CI: 0.77-0.85) representing an almost perfect match. Regarding the reasons for lead intervention, the overall PPV was 63.0% (95% CI: 54.8-61.7%) with a κ value of 0.60 (95% CI: 0.55-0.64) representing a moderate match with only few subcategories having low PPV. By redistribution of the specific reasons for lead interventions into three categories commonly used to report lead performance, the overall PPV improved to 87.9% (95% CI: 85.2-90.2%) with a κ value of 0.82 (95% CI:0.78-0.86) representing an almost perfect match. Conclusion The validity of data on defibrillator lead performance recorded in the DPIR is excellent for the specific types of lead intervention and good for the specific reasons for defibrillator lead intervention. The validity of the less detailed overall reasons for lead interventions commonly used to report lead performance is also excellent. These findings indicate high registry data quality appropriate for scientific analysis and industry-independent post-marketing surveillance.
Asn-Gly-Arg-modified polydopamine-coated nanoparticles for dual-targeting therapy of brain glioma in rats

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the major clinical obstacle in the chemotherapeutic management of brain glioma. Here we synthesized a pH-sensitive dual-targeting doxorubicin (DOX) carrier to compromise tumor endothelial cells, enhance BBB transportation, and improve drug accumulation in glioma cells. The drug delivery system was constructed with polydopamine (PDA)-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (NPs, MSNs) and the PDA coating was functionalized with Asn-Gly-Arg (NGR), a ligand with specific affinity for cluster of differentiation 13 (CD13). MSN-DOX-PDA-NGR showed a higher intracellular accumulation in primary brain capillary endothelial cells (BCECs) and C6 cells and greater BBB permeability than the non-targeting NPs (MSN-DOX-PDA) did in vitro. Ex vivo and in vivo tests showed that MSN-DOX-PDA-NGR had a higher accumulation in intracranial tumorous tissue than the undecorated NPs did. Furthermore, the antiangiogenesis and antitumor efficacy of MSN-DOX-PDA-NGR were stronger than that of MSN-DOX-PDA. Therefore, these results indicate that the dual-targeting vehicles are potentially useful in brain glioma therapy.
Effectiveness of Protease Inhibitor/Nucleos(t)ide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor–Based Second-line Antiretroviral Therapy for the Treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

In sub-Saharan Africa, second-line ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor–based antiretroviral therapy led to virological suppression in 69.3% of participants at week 48 and 61.5% at week 96, based on an intention-to-treat meta-analysis of 4558 participants (14 studies) and 2145 participants (8 studies), respectively.
Ranking authors in academic social networks: a survey

Purpose This study reviews the methods found in the literature for the ranking of authors, identifies the pros and cons of these methods, discusses and compares these methods. The purpose of this paper is to study is to find the challenges and future directions of ranking of academic objects, especially authors, for future researchers. Design/methodology/approach This study reviews the methods found in the literature for the ranking of authors, classifies them into subcategories by studying and analyzing their way of achieving the objectives, discusses and compares them. The data sets used in the literature and the evaluation measures applicable in the domain are also presented. Findings The survey identifies the challenges involved in the field of ranking of authors and future directions. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, this is the first survey that studies the author ranking problem in detail and classifies them according to their key functionalities, features and way of achieving the objective according to the requirement of the problem.
Non-toxic dose of liposomal honokiol suppresses metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma through destabilizing EGFR and inhibiting the downstream pathways

At present, there is no specific anti-metastasis drug in HCC treatment. Drugs used for primary HCC tumors and tumor metastasis are very similar, among which cytotoxic drugs are prevalent, such as cisplatin, doxorubicin and 5-FU. The EGFR pathway plays an important role in promoting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis. Hence, development of non-toxic anti-metastasis drugs, such as EGFR or downstream pathways inhibitors, is of great importance. In our present study, we found non-toxic dose of liposomal honokiol (LH) could inhibit the HCC metastasis by destabilizing EGFR and inhibiting the downstream pathways. Non-toxic dose of LH significantly inhibited the motility, migration and lamellipodia formation of HepG2 cells in vitro and decreased extravasation of HepG2 cells in a novel metastasis model of transgenic zebrafish. In two lung metastasis models (HepG2 and B16F10) and a spontaneous metastasis model of HepG2 cells, LH remarkably inhibited pulmonary metastasis and regional lymph nodes metastasis without obvious toxicity. Further study showed that destabilizing EGFR and inhibiting the downstream pathways were the main mechanisms of non-toxic dose of LH on metastasis inhibition. Our results provide the preclinical rationale and the underlying mechanisms of LH to suppress HCC metastasis, implicating LH as a potential therapeutic agent to block HCC metastasis without severe side effects.
Impacts of Antimalarial Drugs on Plasmodium falciparum Drug Resistance Markers, Western Kenya, 2003–2015

Abstract. Antimalarial drug resistance has threatened global malaria control since chloroquine (CQ)-resistant Plasmodium falciparum emerged in Asia in the 1950s. Understanding the impacts of changing antimalarial drug policy on resistance is critical for resistance management. Plasmodium falciparum isolates were collected from 2003 to 2015 in western Kenya and analyzed for genetic markers associated with resistance to CQ (Pfcrt), sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine (SP) (Pfdhfr/Pfdhps), and artemether–lumefantrine (AL) (PfKelch13/Pfmdr1) antimalarials. In addition, household antimalarial drug use surveys were administered. Pfcrt 76T prevalence decreased from 76% to 6% from 2003 to 2015. Pfdhfr/Pfdhps quintuple mutants decreased from 70% in 2003 to 14% in 2008, but increased to near fixation by 2015. SP “super resistant” alleles Pfdhps 581G and 613S/T were not detected in the 2015 samples that were assessed. The Pfmdr1 N86-184F-D1246 haplotype associated with decreased lumefantrine susceptibility increased significantly from 4% in 2005 to 51% in 2015. No PfKelch13 mutations that have been previously associated with artemisinin resistance were detected in the study populations. The increase in Pfdhfr/Pfdhps quintuple mutants that associates with SP resistance may have resulted from the increased usage of SP for intermittent preventative therapy in pregnancy (IPTp) and for malaria treatment in the community. Prevalent Pfdhfr/Pfdhps mutations call for careful monitoring of SP resistance and effectiveness of the current IPTp program in Kenya. In addition, the commonly occurring Pfmdr1 N86-184F-D1246 haplotype associated with increased lumefantrine tolerance calls for surveillance of AL efficacy in Kenya, as well as consideration for a rotating artemisinin-combination therapy regimen.
A New Social Network Sampling Algorithm Based on Temperature Conduction Model

A popular solution to dealing with large-scale social networks is to derive a representative sample from a social network. This sample is expected to represent the original social network well such that the sampled network can be used for simulations and analysis. In this paper, we propose a new social network sampling algorithm based on the Temperature Conduction model. Our sampling approach is able to effectively maintain the topological similarity between the sampled network and its original network. We have evaluated our algorithm on several well-known data sets. The experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF CRACK PATTERNS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS

Based on the tests of 20 simply support reinforced concrete beams, the effects of the longitudinal tensile reinforcement and the concrete cover on the crack distribution are studied. According to the pattern of the crack occurring, the crack elongation and the crack width, cracks are divided into several groups and analyzed statistically, the crack pattern corresponding to the structral design is determined. The method for calculating the effective influencing area of longitudinal tensile reinforcement (that is the effective area of tensile concrete) is proposed, in which the effective depth of normal section and the effective diameter of longitudinal tensile reinforcement are considered. The statistical analyses are carried out to investigate the average crack spacing, the average crack width and the magnifying coefficient of crack width.
Antibody Banding Patterns of the Enzyme-Linked Immunoelectrotransfer Blot and Brain Imaging Findings in Patients With Neurocysticercosis

Background The enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot (EITB) assay is the reference serological test for neurocysticercosis (NCC). A positive result on EITB does not always correlate with the presence of active infections in the central nervous system (CNS), and patients with a single viable brain cyst may be EITB negative. Nonetheless, EITB antibody banding patterns appears to be related with the expression of 3 protein families of Taenia solium, and in turn with the characteristics of NCC in the CNS (type, stage, and burden of viable cysts). Methods We evaluated EITB antibody banding patterns and brain imaging findings of 548 NCC cases. Similar banding patterns were grouped into homogeneous classes using latent class analysis. The association between classes and brain imaging findings was assessed. Results Four classes were identified. Class 1 (patients negative or only positive to the GP50 band, related to the protein family of the same name) was associated with nonviable or single viable parenchymal cysticerci; class 2 (patients positive to bands GP42-39 and GP24, related to the T24-42 protein family, with or without anti-GP50 antibodies) was associated with intraparenchymal viable and nonviable infections; classes 3 and 4 (positive to GP50, GP42-39, and GP24 but also responding to low molecular weight bands GP21, GP18, GP14, and GP13, related to the 8 kDa protein family) were associated with extraparenchymal and intraparenchymal multiple viable cysticerci. Conclusions EITB antibody banding patterns correlate with brain imaging findings and complement imaging information for the diagnosis of NCC and for staging NCC patients.
Evergreen Understory Dynamics in Coweeta Forest, North Carolina

A number of studies have elucidated the distributional patterns of various components of Southern Appalachian forests. The evergreen understory here is composed largely of a dominant ericaceous shrub, Rhododendron maximum L. , which is believed to be expanding and inhibiting the development of other species with consequent impacts on overall forest structure and composition. We use a GIS and logistic regression to examine this less-studied forest element in the Coweeta Hydrological Laboratory, North Carolina, over a 17-year period to determine whether expansion is occurring and, if so, whether it can be predicted based on terrain characteristics. We examine two adjacent, physically similar basins with differing degrees of experimental manipulation in the 20th century in an attempt to examine the role of environmental and historical factors in determining spatial patterns of persistence, expansion, and decline of the evergreen understory. Results indicate that significant expansion of the evergreen understory occurred in both basins during the period 1976-1993, and that stream proximity, topographic setting, and elevation are related to patterns of evergreen-understory dynamics. Patterns differ between the two basins, suggesting that disturbance and differing land-use histories are also influential. Predictive power of models based on terrain factors alone ranges from <10% to >50%.
Metabarcoding reveals environmental factors influencing spatio‐temporal variation in pelagic micro‐eukaryotes

Marine environments harbour a vast diversity of micro‐eukaryotic organisms (protists and other small eukaryotes) that play important roles in structuring marine ecosystems. However, micro‐eukaryote diversity is not well understood. Likewise, knowledge is limited regarding micro‐eukaryote spatial and seasonal distribution, especially over long temporal scales. Given the importance of this group for mobilizing energy from lower trophic levels near the base of the food chain to larger organisms, assessing community stability, diversity and resilience is important to understand ecosystem health. Herein, we use a metabarcoding approach to examine pelagic micro‐eukaryote communities over a 2.5‐year time series. Bimonthly surface sampling (July 2009 to December 2011) was conducted at four locations within Mobile Bay (Bay) and along the Alabama continental shelf (Shelf). Alpha‐diversity only showed significant differences in Shelf sites, with the greatest differences observed between summer and winter. Beta‐diversity showed significant differences in community composition in relation to season and the Bay was dominated by diatoms, while the Shelf was characterized by dinoflagellates and copepods. The northern Gulf of Mexico is heavily influenced by the Mobile River Basin, which brings low‐salinity nutrient‐rich water mostly during winter and spring. Community composition was correlated with salinity, temperature and dissolved silicate. However, species interactions (e.g. predation and parasitism) may also contribute to the observed variation, especially on the Shelf, which warrants further exploration. Metabarcoding revealed clear patterns in surface pelagic micro‐eukaryote communities that were consistent over multiple years, demonstrating how these techniques could be greatly beneficial to ecological monitoring and management over temporal scales.
How many people have sickle cell disease in the UK?

Background Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is now one of the most common serious genetic condition in England. There is no reliable estimate of the total number of people living with SCD in the UK, to support commissioners and providers of services for people with SCD. Aim To obtain reliable data on the total number of people living with SCD in the UK in 2016. Method Information was requested from all national databases known to hold information on the number of people living with SCD in the UK. The information from each data source was first reviewed to estimate likely inaccuracies and then combined to provide a best estimate of people living with SCD in the UK. Conclusion This process indicated there are are about 14000 people living with SCD in the UK. This is equivalent to 1 in 4600 people.
Noise correlations in the human brain and their impact on pattern classification

Multivariate decoding methods, such as multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA), are highly effective at extracting information from brain imaging data. Yet, the precise nature of the information that MVPA draws upon remains controversial. Most current theories emphasize the enhanced sensitivity imparted by aggregating across voxels that have mixed and weak selectivity. However, beyond the selectivity of individual voxels, neural variability is correlated across voxels, and such noise correlations may contribute importantly to accurate decoding. Indeed, a recent computational theory proposed that noise correlations enhance multivariate decoding from heterogeneous neural populations. Here we extend this theory from the scale of neurons to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and show that noise correlations between heterogeneous populations of voxels (i.e., voxels selective for different stimulus variables) contribute to the success of MVPA. Specifically, decoding performance is enhanced when voxels with high vs. low noise correlations (measured during rest or in the background of the task) are selected during classifier training. Conversely, voxels that are strongly selective for one class in a GLM or that receive high classification weights in MVPA tend to exhibit high noise correlations with voxels selective for the other class being discriminated against. Furthermore, we use simulations to show that this is a general property of fMRI data and that selectivity and noise correlations can have distinguishable influences on decoding. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that if there is signal in the data, the resulting above-chance classification accuracy is modulated by the magnitude of noise correlations.
Towards Location Approximation of Typhoon Related Discourse: On Region Definition and Temporal Segmentation

Tweets have augmented disaster information in variety of ways. Different tools employ tweets as a data source to aid in disaster event detection, knowledge extraction and situational awareness. A constant problem faced by these efforts, however, is the lack of geospatial information in majority of tweets leaving only less than 1% of tweets useful for data mining. Though studies have devised methods to approximate the location of non-geotagged tweets, applying these same methods on disaster tweets may not be the optimal choice given that disaster tweets contain domain specific characteristics. A model for approximating the location of disaster tweets must take into account how human discourse changes as the typhoon progresses, and therefore, how tweet content is affected by the location of the eye of the typhoon and the disaster affected areas. This study seeks to find the geospatial characteristics of disaster tweets in relation to typhoon relevant locations and to present initial models for predicting disaster related tweet locations through region definition relative to disaster relevant locations such as the disaster affected area and the eye of the typhoon. The first explores characteristics and relationships between the path of the typhoon, the location of the affected area and the location of the tweets pertaining to the typhoon. The second part presents two new disaster relative region definition schemes, namely: regions defined based on relative distance to the disaster affected area and regions defined based on relative distance to the eye of the typhoon. Tweets can then be geotagged to these defined regions. Based on the results, the location of the disaster related tweets are significantly related to both the location of the typhoon and an identified affected area. Furthermore, models that predict location relative to the disaster area outperform models that predict location relative to the eye of the typhoon both in accuracy and error distance. The results also show that for geospatial modeling, there is a need to consider creating models for each specific and smaller timespan instead of a single model for the whole coorpus to increase accuracy and lower error distance.
Picocyanobacterial community structure and space-time dynamics in the subalpine Lake Maggiore (N. Italy)

We investigated the community structure of freshwater picocyanobacteria (Pcy) in the oligotrophic subalpine Lake Maggiore (Northern Italy) using the least conserved sequences of the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS-1) fragment. The aim was to characterize the succession of Pcy Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) during a seasonal cycle at two environmental niches with distinctive light, temperature and mixing characteristics. ITS fragment length outlined a succession of OTUs from spring to summer, even in the absence of a pronounced spring peak. The vertical partitioning of Pcy OTUs down the water column, more evident in summer, indicates different community composition at the two depths. Redundancy Data Analysis (RDA) was carried out using temperature, pH and depth of mixing layer (Zm), which passed the Monte Carlo test (p<0.05). A correlation between axis 1 and temperature, pH and Zm of respectively 0.85, 0.64 and 0.61 was found. Our results indicate that lake thermal structure, defined by temperature and Zm, has a significant influence on the succession of Pcy OTUs and on their dynamics in colonizing different ecological niches in the vertical gradient.
Health of Elderly Mexican American Adults and Family Caregiver Distress

Using newly available data on family caregivers from a large epidemiological study of elderly Mexican-origin adults (Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly [HEPESE], 2010/2011), we identify which types of impairment (functional, psychological, and cognitive) in the elderly individual are associated with family caregiver depressive symptoms. Results from ordinary least squares regressions using 626 caregiver–care recipient dyads demonstrate that more severe mobility limitations (Performance-Oriented Mobility Assessment), social disability (instrumental activities of daily living), neuropsychiatric disturbances related to cognitive decline (Neuropsychiatric Inventory), and depressive symptoms in the elderly subject are positively associated with caregiver psychological distress. Perceived social stress partially accounts for these associations. We also identify certain segments of this caregiver population that are especially vulnerable to burden when caring for a family member with high levels of impairment, namely female and low-income caregivers. These vulnerabilities should be the focus of intervention efforts to reduce stress and improve the emotional and psychological well-being of Mexican-origin caregivers.
Suppressing False Recognition in Younger and Older Adults: The Distinctiveness Heuristic ☆ ☆☆ ★

False recognition can occur at high levels after participants study lists of associated words and are tested with semantically related lures. Israel and Schacter (1997) reported that robust false recognition effects are reduced substantially when young adults also study pictures representing each associate. In Experiment 1, we found that older adults, who have previously shown increased susceptibility to false recognition of semantic associates, also exhibit substantial suppression of false recognition after pictorial encoding. In Experiment 2, we tested the hypothesis that suppression effects in Experiment 1 are attributable to the operation of what we call adistinctiveness heuristic:a response mode in which participants demand access to detailed recollections to support a positive recognition decision. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that when encoding conditions were manipulated to render a distinctiveness heuristic ineffective, false recognition suppression after pictorial encoding was eliminated in younger and older adults.