Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Family letters are an effective way to inform relatives about inherited cardiac disease

Increasing numbers of individuals are being referred to cardiogenetics outpatient clinics with potentially inherited arrhythmia (ARR) or cardiomyopathy (CM). To inform relatives at‐risk, we ask index patients to distribute “family letters” containing information on the risks, possible genetic and other screenings, and preventive options. We assessed the responses to these letters in terms of referrals to a cardiologist and/or clinical geneticist. Fifty‐six index patients were asked to distribute 249 family letters: 85 in the ARR group and 164 in the CM group. Within a mean follow‐up period of 2 years (range 1–5 years) the number of relatives actually referred to the clinical geneticist and/or cardiologist was 57% (142 of 249). There was a significant difference (P < 0.01) between the ARR (80%) and CM groups (45.1%). To verify the results obtained from our files at the cardiogenetics department we sent a questionnaire to 52 index patients (response 50%). This showed that 23/26 (88%) index patients had distributed the letters to their relatives and that for 19/23 index patients one or more relatives had been screened. This is comparable with our files, which showed that 57% of relatives of index patients with a potentially inherited cardiac disease underwent screening, particularly in the ARR group. The actual response was underestimated because some relatives were investigated elsewhere or may still decide to be screened in the future. We conclude that distributing family letters is an effective way to inform and encourage relatives to undergo screening for high‐risk inherited cardiac disease. Am. J. Med. Genet. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Improved purification of hematopoietic stem cells based on their elevated aldehyde dehydrogenase activity

Background and Objectives Primitive human hematopoietic cells contain higher levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity than their terminally differentiating progeny but the particular stages at which ALDH levels change have not been well defined. The objective of this study was to compare ALDH levels among the earliest stages of hematopoietic cell differentiation and to determine whether these could be exploited to obtain improved purity of human cord blood cells with long-term lympho-myeloid repopulating activity in vivo. Design and Methods ALDEFLUOR-stained human cord blood cells displaying different levels of ALDH activity were first analyzed for co-expression of various surface markers. Subsets of these cells were then isolated by multi-parametric flow cytometry and assessed for short-and long-term repopulating activity in sublethally irradiated immunodeficient mice. Result Most short-term myeloid repopulating cells (STRC-M) and all long-term lympho-myeloid repopulating cells (LTRC-ML) stained selectively as ALDH+. Limiting dilution analysis of the frequencies of both STRC-M and LTRC-ML showed that they were similarly and most highly enriched in the 10% top ALDH+ cells. Removal of cells expressing CD2, CD3, CD7, CD14, CD16, CD24, CD36, CD38, CD56, CD66b, or glycophorin A from the ALDH+ low-density fraction of human cord blood cells with low light side-scattering properties yielded a population containing LTRC-ML at a frequency of 1/360. Interpretation and Conclusion Elevated ALDH activity is a broadly inclusive property of primitive human cord blood cells that, in combination with other markers, allows easy isolation of the stem cell fraction at unprecedented purities.
A Note on the W-S Lower Bound of the MEE Estimation

The minimum error entropy (MEE) estimation is concerned with the estimation of a certain random variable (unknown variable) based on another random variable (observation), so that the entropy of the estimation error is minimized. This estimation method may outperform the well-known minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimation especially for non-Gaussian situations. There is an important performance bound on the MEE estimation, namely the W-S lower bound, which is computed as the conditional entropy of the unknown variable given observation. Though it has been known in the literature for a considerable time, up to now there is little study on this performance bound. In this paper, we reexamine the W-S lower bound. Some basic properties of the W-S lower bound are presented, and the characterization of Gaussian distribution using the W-S lower bound is investigated.
Regularized Least-Squares SPECT Image Reconstruction Using Multiresolution Spatial B-Splines and a Negativity Penalty

We investigated the benefit of incorporating a negativity penalty into a least-squares criterion used to reconstruct 3-D radiotracer distributions in cardiac SPECT studies. B-spline spatial basis functions were used to provide a continuous model for the 3-D tracer distribution. Spline coefficients that tended to have negative values were identified and were constrained to stay near zero with use of a quadratic penalty that penalized nonzero contributions to the projection data model. To test the method we used trilinear B-splines to reconstruct volumetric images for a 99mTc-sestamibi cardiac SPECT/CT patient study. Spline coefficients were estimated by minimizing a least-squares criterion by direct matrix inversion via Cholesky decomposition. Volumetric images were reconstructed both with and without the negativity penalty, using (1) a higher-resolution spline basis and (2) a multiresolution basis composed of higher-resolution splines in the heart volume and lower-resolution splines elsewhere. Reduced image noise and good myocardial resolution were obtained with use of the multiresolution basis. Use of the penalty dramatically reduced image noise for the higherresolution basis and yielded good resolution throughout the body. Encouraged by these results, we are using multiresolution 4-D spatiotemporal B-splines and penalized weighted least-squares inversion to reconstruct dynamic SPECT data from rest/stress cardiac patient studies.
A Bottom-Up Approach to Short-Term Immersion in Subsistence Marketplaces

We discuss an international immersion research experience conducted by an interdisciplinary team of business and environmental engineering students and faculty in Tanzania. Using this experience as “data,” we bring out methodological and substantive issues in studying the intersection of poverty and the environment. The approach we describe is bottom-up, beginning with micro-level details of life circumstances. Such micro-level details are often the most challenging to learn and the most neglected in terms of informing practice. Our work speaks to a number of issues such as organizing a short research immersion for effectiveness and efficiency, covering different units of analysis in terms of individuals, households, communities, village-level leadership, and the outside ecosystem of organizations using a bottom-up approach, and combining natural science analytical testing with social science to focus on the substantive domains of environments in subsistence contexts.
Reduced Dopamine Transporter Availability and Neurocognitive Deficits in Male Patients with Alcohol Dependence

Dopamine plays an important role in the development of alcohol dependence, cognitive dysfunction, and is regulated via dopamine transporter activity. Although dopamine transporter activity is critically involved in alcohol dependence, studies observing this relationship are limited. Thus the current study examined whether dopamine transporter availability is associated with developing of alcohol dependence and cognitive dysfunction. Brain imaging with 99mTc-TRODAT-1 as a ligand was used to measure dopamine transporter availability among 26 male patients with pure alcohol dependence and 22 age- and sex- matched healthy volunteers. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) were administered to assess neurocognitive functioning and personality traits, respectively. Compared to healthy controls, patients with alcohol dependence showed a significant reduction in dopamine transporter availability (p < 0.001), as well as diminished performance on the WCST (p < 0.001). Dopamine transporter availability was negatively correlated with both total and perseverative WCST errors among healthy controls, but only patients with alcohol dependence showed a positive correlation between dopamine transporter availability and a harm avoidance personality profile. Thus, reductions in dopamine transporter availability may play a pathophysiological role in the development of pure alcohol dependence, given its association with neurocognitive deficits. Moreover, personality may influence the development of pure alcohol dependence; however, additional clinical subgroups should be examined to confirm this possibility.
Effects of solar radiation on growth, photosynthesis and respiration of marine macroalgae from the Arctic

The effect of artificial ultraviolet (UV) and natural solar radiation on photosynthesis, respiration and growth was investigated in 14 red, green and brown macroalgal species on Spitsbergen (Norway) during summer 1998. In June, maximum mean solar radiation at sea level was 120 W m -2 of visible (370 to 695 nm) and 15 W m -2 of UV radiation (300 to 370 nm), and decreased gradually until the end of the summer. In spite of incident irradiance, levels were low in comparison with other latitudes, and UV radiation stress on growth of Arctic macroalgae was evident. Transplantation experiments of plants from deeper to shallow waters showed, for most algae, an inhibitory effect of both UVA and UVB on growth, except in the intertidal species Fucus distichus. The growth rate of selected macroalgae was directly correlated to the variations in natural solar radiation during the summer. Underwater experiments both in situ and using UV-transparent incubators revealed a linear relationship between the depth distribution and the growth rate of the algae. In almost all species the photosynthetic oxygen production decreased after 2 h incubation in the laboratory under 38 μmol m -2 s -1 photosynthetic active radiation (PAR 400 to 700 nm) supplemented with 8 W m -2 UVA (320 to 400 nm) and 0.36 W m -2 UVB (280 to 320 nm) compared to only PAR without UV. Like in the growth experiments, the only exception was the brown alga F. distichus, in which photosynthesis was not affected by UV. The degree of inhibition of photosynthesis showed a relation to the depth distribution, i.e. algae from deeper waters were more inhibited than species from shallow waters. In general, no inhibitory UV effect on respiratory oxygen consumption in all macroalgae studied was detected under the artificial radiation regimes described above, with the exception of the brown alga Desmarestia aculeata and the green alga Mono-stroma arcticum, both showing a significant stimulation of respiration after 2 h of UV exposure. The ecological relevance of the seasonal variations in the solar radiation and the optical characteristics of the water column with respect to the vertical zonation of the macroalgae is discussed.
The MDM2 promoter polymorphism SNP309T→G and the risk of uterine leiomyosarcoma, colorectal cancer, and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

Background: MDM2 acts as a principal regulator of the tumour suppressor p53 by targeting its destruction through the ubiquitin pathway. A polymorphism in the MDM2 promoter (SNP309) was recently identified. SNP309 was shown to result, via Sp1, in higher levels of MDM2 RNA and protein, and subsequent attenuation of the p53 pathway. Furthermore, SNP309 was proposed to be associated with accelerated soft tissue sarcoma formation in both hereditary (Li-Fraumeni) and sporadic cases in humans. Methods: We evaluated the possible contribution of SNP309 to three tumour types known to be linked with the MDM2/p53 pathway, using genomic sequencing or restriction fragment length polymorphism as screening methods. Three separate Finnish tumour materials (population based sets of 68 patients with early onset uterine leiomyosarcomas and 1042 patients with colorectal cancer, and a series of 162 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck) and a set of 185 healthy Finnish controls were analysed for SNP309. Results: Frequencies of SNP309 were similar in all four cohorts. In the colorectal cancer series, SNP309 was somewhat more frequent in women and in patients with microsatellite stable tumours. Female SNP309 carriers were diagnosed with colorectal cancer approximately 2.7 years earlier than those carrying the wild type gene. However, no statistically significant association of SNP309 with patients’ age at disease onset or to any other clinicopathological parameter was found in these three tumour materials. Conclusion: SNP309 had no significant contribution to tumour formation in our materials. Possible associations of SNP309 with microsatellite stable colorectal cancer and with earlier disease onset in female carriers need to be examined in subsequent studies.
An efficient algorithm for removal of impulse noise in color image through efficient modified decision based unsymmetric trimmed median filter

In the world of image processing domain, removal of high density impulse noise is always a prominent area for research. In this paper, an efficient Modified Decision based unsymmetric trimmed median filter algorithms for the removal of impulse noise has been proposed with color images rather than gray scale images by separation red- green- blue plane of color image. The performance of the system is analyzed in terms of Mean square error (MSE), Peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) image enhancement factor (IEF) and time required for executing the algorithms for different noise densities. Simulation results shows that proposed algorithm outperforms the existing algorithms even at high noise densities for color images. Many experiments are conducted to validate efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
Universal modeling of the bulk acoustic wave devices

Highly efficient self-consistent 1D-model is proposed allowing us to describe arbitrary BAW devices, including the tunable ones. Applying that approach one can analyze, in the frame of the same software, a system with arbitrary number and sequence of dielectric and metal layers under arbitrary inter-electrode connections. It is shown that one can fluently control the resonant frequency of solidly mounted BAW resonator over a fractional frequency range ≫ 1% (being much wider than the system temperature drift).
Expanding the Versatility of Cardiac PET/CT: Feasibility of Delayed Contrast Enhancement CT for Infarct Detection in a Porcine Model

It has recently been suggested that, similar to MRI, CT can be used to detect infarcts at high resolution by delayed myocardial contrast enhancement. In cardiac PET/CT, this ability to detect infarcts may increase the versatility and integrative potential of PET and CT study components. We sought to determine the feasibility of delayed CT-enhancement in the PET/CT environment and compared it with PET-defined rest perfusion for the measurement of infarct size. Methods: Experimental myocardial infarction was induced in 10 young farm pigs by occlusion and reperfusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. After 4–6 wk, the animals underwent 64-slice PET/CT. Rest perfusion was measured by 13N-ammonia PET. Then, 120 mL of contrast were injected, and retrospectively gated helical CT was performed for angiography and after 1.5-, 5-, 10-, and 15-min delays. Two days later, 6 pigs again underwent contrast-enhanced CT, using a low-radiation-dose approach (prospective gating and thicker slices as used for clinical calcium scoring) and the same delay times. Polar maps of PET perfusion and CT myocardial enhancement were created for further analysis. Results: CT Hounsfield units (HUs) in the infarct area started to exceed those of arterial blood at 5–10 min after contrast injection, and the ratios of infarcted myocardium to remote myocardium and of infarcted myocardium to blood plateaued at around 1.9 and 1.2 between 10 and 15 min. Excellent agreement between high- and low-dose CT acquisitions (R = 0.87, P < 0.001) was demonstrated. At 10 min, CT infarct size (area with HU > 3.5 SDs from remote) was 30% ± 8% of the left ventricle, using the low-dose approach. The PET perfusion defect size (area with uptake < 60% of the left ventricular maximum) was comparable at 31% ± 8% of the left ventricle (range, 17%−44%). Using a 16-segment myocardial model, we showed an excellent inverse relationship between regional ammonia retention and contrast enhancement (R = −0.93, P < 0.001). Conclusion: In our animal model, infarct size can be measured accurately and reproducibly using cardiac PET/CT with delayed CT-enhancement. For measurement, a low-dose, prospectively gated acquisition was comparable to higher-dose spiral CT. These results provide a rationale for further clinical work to explore whether delayed CT-enhancement can improve the accuracy of myocardial viability assessment, substitute for rest studies in perfusion imaging, or improve localization of PET-derived molecular signals.
How French Advertising Professionals Develop Creative Strategy

Abstract Content analyses of French advertisements have shown French advertising to be markedly different from American advertising. A qualitative study of French advertising through in-depth interviews with creative directors, analysis of agency documents, and photographic documentation of French advertising revealed four emic descriptors—la seduction, le spectacle, l'amour, l'humour—that characterize French advertising. Suggestions are made for American manufacturers who want to advertise to the French market and implications are drawn for future research in describing the advertising of a particular culture.
Performance based design of high-level language-directed computer architectures

This paper is concerned with the analytical modeling of computer architectures to aid in the design of high-level language-directed computer architectures. High-level language-directed computers are computers that execute programs in a high-level language directly. The design procedure of these computers are at best described as being ad hoc. In order to systematize the design procedure, we introduce analytical models of computers that predict the performance of parallel computations on concurrent computers. We model computers as queueing networks and parallel computations as precedence graphs. The models that we propose are simple and lead to computationally efficient procedures of predicting the performance of parallel computations on concurrent computers. We demonstrate the use of these models in the design of high-level language-directed computer architectures.
A hand-guided flexible laser-scanner for generating photorealistically textured 3D data

In this work we focus on a new technique for digitizing complex free-form surfaces. Our approach is based on a flexible multi-axial laser scanning device and corresponding software algorithms, which allows us to generate textured 3D models of nearly arbitrary objects. The most important advantage compared to conventional reverse engineering methods is that both, the 3D geometry and the surface texture are captured with high spatial resolution. The proposed technique is applicable for a variety of common measuring tasks, for instance in the fields of quality assurance, cultural heritage, and medical imaging. The feasibility of the system is shown at the example of different objects from the real world.
Fluoride Modulates Parathyroid Hormone Secretion in vivo and in vitro

The study objective was to investigate the effects of fluoride on intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) secretion. Thyro-parathyroid complexes (TPC) from C3H (n = 18) and B6 (n = 18) mice were cultured in Ca2+-optimized medium. TPC were treated with 0, 250, or 500 µM NaF for 24 h and secreted iPTH assayed by ELISA. C3H (n = 78) and B6 (n = 78) mice were gavaged once with distilled or fluoride (0.001 mg [F-]/g of body weight) water. At serial time points (0.5-96 h) serum iPTH, fluoride, total calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium levels were determined. Expression of genes involved in mineral regulation via the bone-parathyroid-kidney (BPK) axis, such as parathyroid hormone (Pth), calcium-sensing receptor (Casr), vitamin D receptor (Vdr), parathyroid hormone-like hormone (Pthlh), fibroblast growth factor 23 (Fgf23), α-Klotho (αKlotho), fibroblast growth factor receptor 1c (Fgf1rc), tumor necrosis factor 11 (Tnfs11), parathyroid hormone receptor 1 (Pth1r), solute carrier family 34 member 1 (Slc34a1), solute carrier 9 member 3 regulator 1 (Slc9a3r1), chloride channel 5 (Clcn5), and PDZ domain-containing 1 (Pdzk1), was determined in TPC, humeri, and kidneys at 24 h. An in vitro decrease in iPTH was seen in C3H and B6 TPC at 500 µM (p < 0.001). In vivo levels of serum fluoride peaked at 0.5 h in both C3H (p = 0.002) and B6 (p = 0.01). In C3H, iPTH decreased at 24 h (p < 0.0001), returning to baseline at 48 h. In B6, iPTH increased at 12 h (p < 0.001), returning to baseline at 24 h. Serum total calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium levels did not change significantly. Pth, Casr,αKlotho,Fgf1rc,Vdr, and Pthlh were significantly upregulated in C3H TPC compared to B6. In conclusion, the effects of fluoride on TPC in vitro were equivalent between the 2 mouse strains. However, fluoride demonstrated an early strain-dependent effect on iPTH secretion in vivo. Both strains demonstrated differences in the expression of genes involved in the BPK axis, suggesting a possible role in the physiologic handling of fluoride.
Hearing peristalsis: theory, interpretation and practice in biodynamic psychotherapy

Abstract This article explores the factors affecting how practitioners of biodynamic psychotherapy, body psychotherapy and biodynamic massage understand and interpret peristaltic gut sounds – what psychotherapist Gerda Boyesen referred to as ‘psycho-peristalsis’. I present a thematic analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews, identifying 3 themes: ‘Practitioner background’, ‘Understanding peristalsis’ and ‘Peristalsis in practice’. Practitioners drew upon diverse past experiences, yet reached similar perceptions of mind-body connectivity. Practitioners made use of scientific and psychotherapeutic theory when understanding peristalsis, but found experiential learning and intuition more significant. Finally, practitioners used peristalsis clinically for self-use, building client narratives, practical guidance, evoking images to guide treatment and representing physical and emotional processing. This article shows how the biodynamic bodymind ontology shapes clinical reasoning and the epistemology of peristalsis, advancing understanding and clinical practice to the benefit of clients and therapists.