Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The decision‐making threshold and the factors that affect it: A qualitative study of patients' decision‐making in knee replacement surgery

BACKGROUND Osteoarthritis is a significant cause of burden to the ageing population and knee replacement is a common operation for treatment of end-stage disease. We aimed to explore these factors to help understand patients' decision-making, which is critical in informing patient-centred care. These can be used to enhance decision-making and dialogue between clinicians and patients, allowing a more informed choice. METHODS The study consisted of two focus groups, in a patient cohort after total knee replacement followed by more in-depth interviews to further test and explore themes from the focus groups, in patients in either the deliberation stage or the decision-making stage. RESULTS Using qualitative research methods (iterative thematic analysis) reviewing decision-making and deliberation phases of making informed choices we found nine key themes that emerged from the study groups. CONCLUSIONS An awareness of the deliberation phase, the factors that influence it, the stress associated with it, preferred models of care, and the influence of the decision-making threshold will aid useful communication between doctors and patients.
Exploiting Value Prediction With Quasi-Unlimited Resources

Recent trends regarding general purpose microprocessors have focused on Thread-Level Parallelism (TLP), and in general, on parallel architectures such as multicores. However, due to Amdahl's law, the gain to be had from the parallelization of a program is limited since there will always be an incompressible sequential part in the program. The execution time of this part only depends on the sequential performance of the processor the program is executed on. Value Prediction was proposed in the late 90's as a way to improve sequential performance by predicting instructions results, allowing the hardware to break data dependencies between instructions and thus extract more Instruction Level Parallelism (ILP) from the code. In the meantime, very accurate Geometric Length indirect branch target predictor such as ITTAGE were proposed. Indirect Branch Target Prediction and Value Prediction exhibit some similarities in concept, which is why we present a value predictor borrowing from both the Geometric Length indirect target branch predictor ITTAGE and existing work in the field of Value Prediction. As transistor budget is not expected to be a problem for future microprocessors, we study the behavior of the Value TAGE predictor for both finite and ''infinite'' sizes. We evaluate VTAGE performance on standard integer and floating-point workloads as well as on vectorized code.
Plasma Amino Acids Stimulate Uncoupled Respiration of Muscle Subsarcolemmal Mitochondria in Lean but Not Obese Humans

Context Obesity is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle. Increasing the plasma amino acid (AA) concentrations stimulates mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production in lean individuals. Objective To determine whether acute elevation in plasma AAs enhances muscle mitochondrial respiration and ATP production in subsarcolemmal (SS) and intermyofibrillar (IMF) mitochondria in obese adults. Design Assessment of SS and IMF mitochondrial function during saline (i.e., control) and AA infusions. Participants Eligible participants were healthy lean (body mass index, <25 kg/m2; age, 37 ± 3 years; n = 10) and obese (body mass index >30 kg/m2; age 35 ± 3 years; n = 11) subjects. Intervention Single trial of saline infusion followed by AA infusion. SS and IMF mitochondria were isolated from muscle biopsies collected at the end of the saline and AA infusions. Main Outcomes Mitochondrial respiration and ATP production. Results AA infusion increased adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP)-stimulated respiration and ATP production rates of SS mitochondria in the lean (P < 0.05), but not obese, subjects. Furthermore, AA infusion increased the uncoupled (i.e., non-ADP-stimulated) respiration of SS mitochondria in the lean subjects only (P < 0.05). AA infusion had no effect on any of these parameters in IMF mitochondria in either lean or obese subjects (P > 0.05). Conclusions Increasing the plasma AA concentrations enhances the capacity for respiration and ATP production of muscle SS, but not IMF, mitochondria in lean individuals, in parallel with increases in uncoupled respiration. However, neither of these parameters increases in muscle SS or IMF mitochondria in obese individuals.
Distributed Computation of Wasserstein Barycenters Over Networks

We propose a new class-optimal algorithm for the distributed computation of Wasserstein Barycenters over networks. Assuming that each node in a graph has a probability distribution, we prove that every node reaches the barycenter of all distributions held in the network by using local interactions compliant with the topology of the graph. We provide an estimate for the minimum number of communication rounds required for the proposed method to achieve arbitrary relative precision both in the optimality of the solution and the consensus among all agents for undirected fixed networks.
Health Evaluation and Referral Assistant: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Web-Based Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment System to Reduce Risky Alcohol Use Among Emergency Department Patients

Background Computer technologies hold promise for implementing alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT). Questions concerning the most effective and appropriate SBIRT model remain. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a computerized SBIRT system called the Health Evaluation and Referral Assistant (HERA) on risky alcohol use treatment initiation. Methods Alcohol users (N=319) presenting to an emergency department (ED) were considered for enrollment. Those enrolled (n=212) were randomly assigned to the HERA, to complete a patient-administered assessment using a tablet computer, or a minimal-treatment control, and were followed for 3 months. Analyses compared alcohol treatment provider contact, treatment initiation, treatment completion, and alcohol use across condition using univariate comparisons, generalized estimating equations (GEEs), and post hoc chi-square analyses. Results HERA participants (n=212; control=115; intervention=97) did not differ between conditions on initial contact with an alcohol treatment provider, treatment initiation, treatment completion, or change in risky alcohol use behavior. Subanalyses indicated that HERA participants, who accepted a faxed referral, were more likely to initiate contact with a treatment provider and initiate treatment for risky alcohol use, but were not more likely to continue engaging in treatment, or to complete treatment and change risky alcohol use behavior over the 3-month period following the ED visit. Conclusions The HERA promoted initial contact with an alcohol treatment provider and initiation of treatment for those who accepted the faxed referral, but it did not lead to reduced risky alcohol use behavior. Factors which may have limited the HERA’s impact include lack of support for the intervention by clinical staff, the low intensity of the brief and stand-alone design of the intervention, and barriers related to patient follow-through, (eg, a lack of transportation or childcare, fees for services, or schedule conflicts). Trial Registration International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN): NCT01153373; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01153373 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6pHQEpuIF)
Flaxseed supplementation on glucose control and insulin sensitivity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 25 randomized, placebo-controlled trials

Context The results of human clinical trials investigating the effects of flaxseed on glucose control and insulin sensitivity are inconsistent. Objective The present study aimed to systematically review and analyze randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of flaxseed consumption on glycemic control. Data Sources PubMed, Medline via Ovid, SCOPUS, EMBASE, and ISI Web of Sciences databases were searched up to November 2016. Study Selection Clinical trials in which flaxseed or its products were administered as an intervention were included. Data Extraction The outcomes were fasting blood glucose, insulin concentration, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), insulin sensitivity (QUIKI), and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Results A total of 25 randomized clinical trials (30 treatment arms) were included. Meta-analysis suggested a significant association between flaxseed supplementation and a reduction in blood glucose (weighted mean difference [WMD], -2.94 mg/dL; 95%CI, -5.31 to - 0.56; P = 0.015), insulin levels (WMD, -7.32 pmol/L; 95%CI, -11.66 to -2.97; P = 0.001), and HOMA-IR index (WMD, -0.49; 95%CI,: -0.78 to - 0.20; P = 0.001) and an increase in QUIKI index (WMD, 0.019; 95%CI, 0.008-0.031; P = 0.001). No significant effect on HbA1c (WMD, -0.045%; 95%CI, -0.16 to - 0.07; P = 0.468) was found. In subgroup analysis, a significant reduction in blood glucose, insulin, and HOMA-IR and a significant increase in QUIKI were found only in studies using whole flaxseed but not flaxseed oil and lignan extract. Furthermore, a significant reduction was observed in insulin levels and insulin sensitivity indexes only in the subset of trials lasting ≥12 weeks. Conclusions Whole flaxseed, but not flaxseed oil and lignan extract, has significant effects on improving glycemic control. Further studies are needed to determine the benefits of flaxseed on glycemic parameters.
Compressed Data Separation With Redundant Dictionaries

Most of the data scientists face today might be classified as multimodal data, i.e., being composed of distinct subcomponents. One common task is to separate such data into appropriate single components for further analysis. In this paper, we consider data separation from fewer, linear, nonadaptive, and noisy measurements. We show that the distinct subcomponents, which are (approximately) sparse in morphologically different (redundant) dictionaries, can be reconstructed by solving the split-analysis algorithm, provided that the dictionaries satisfy a mutual coherence (between the different dictionaries) condition and the measurement matrix satisfies a restricted isometry property adapted to a composed dictionary. These conditions impose no incoherence restriction on the dictionaries themselves, and our main result may be the first of this kind.
Effects of multidomain lifestyle intervention, omega-3 supplementation or their combination on physical activity levels in older adults: secondary analysis of the Multidomain Alzheimer Preventive Trial (MAPT) randomised controlled trial

Background/objectives to investigate the effects of a 3-year multidomain lifestyle intervention, omega-3 supplementation or both on physical activity (PA) in older adults with subjective memory complaints. Design/settings/subjects the Multidomain Alzheimer Preventive Trial was a 3-year randomised controlled trial that enroled 1,680 community-dwelling adults aged 70 years or over, with subjective memory complaints. Participants were randomised to omega-3 supplementation (total daily dose of 800 mg docosahexanoic acid and up to 225 mg eicosapentanoic acid), multidomain intervention (nutritional and exercise counselling and cognitive training), omega-3 plus multidomain intervention or placebo with usual care. Methods PA was assessed using a self-reported questionnaire. From this, global moderate-to-vigorous PA, leisure-time PA, non-leisure-time PA and light PA were measured in metabolic equivalent tasks-minutes per week (MET-min/week). Results in the multidomain groups, participants significantly increased their moderate-to-vigorous and leisure-time PA at 6 months (≥300 MET-min/week for both in the multidomain groups; P ≤ 0.002) before returning to baseline by the end of the trial. Activity in the placebo/usual care and omega-3/usual care groups declined overtime. Between-group differences remained significant for both multidomain groups for leisure-time physical activity at 2- and 3-year follow-ups. Compared to placebo/usual care, interventions had no significant effects on non-leisure-time PA and light PA. Omega-3 supplementation alone had no effects on PA. Conclusions a multidomain intervention focused on cognitive training, and nutritional and PA counselling increased PA in the short-term and limited its decline in the long-term among older adults with memory complaints. ClinicalTrials.gov-Registration number: NCT0067268.
Low-Quality Housing Is Associated With Increased Risk of Malaria Infection: A National Population-Based Study From the Low Transmission Setting of Swaziland

Abstract Background Low-quality housing may confer risk of malaria infection, but evidence in low transmission settings is limited. Methods To examine the relationship between individual level housing quality and locally acquired infection in children and adults, a population-based cross-sectional analysis was performed using existing surveillance data from the low transmission setting of Swaziland. From 2012 to 2015, cases were identified through standard diagnostics in health facilities and by loop-mediated isothermal amplification in active surveillance, with uninfected subjects being household members and neighbors. Housing was visually assessed in a home visit and then classified as low, high, or medium quality, based on housing components being traditional, modern, or both, respectively. Results Overall, 11426 individuals were included in the study: 10960 uninfected and 466 infected (301 symptomatic and 165 asymptomatic). Six percent resided in low-quality houses, 26% in medium-quality houses, and 68% in high-quality houses. In adjusted models, low- and medium-quality construction was associated with increased risk of malaria compared with high-quality construction (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 2.11 and 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26–3.53 for low vs high; AOR, 1.56 and 95% CI, 1.15–2.11 for medium vs high). The relationship was independent of vector control, which also conferred a protective effect (AOR, 0.67; 95% CI, .50–.90) for sleeping under an insecticide-treated bed net or a sprayed structure compared with neither. Conclusions Our study adds to the limited literature on housing quality and malaria risk from low transmission settings. Housing improvements may offer an attractive and sustainable additional strategy to support countries in malaria elimination.
Sequential inference as a mode of cognition and its correlates in fronto-parietal and hippocampal brain regions

Normative models of human cognition often appeal to Bayesian filtering, which provides optimal online estimates of unknown or hidden states of the world, based on previous observations. However, in many cases it is necessary to optimise beliefs about sequences of states rather than just the current state. Importantly, Bayesian filtering and sequential inference strategies make different predictions about beliefs and subsequent choices, rendering them behaviourally dissociable. Taking data from a probabilistic reversal task we show that subjects’ choices provide strong evidence that they are representing short sequences of states. Between-subject measures of this implicit sequential inference strategy had a neurobiological underpinning and correlated with grey matter density in prefrontal and parietal cortex, as well as the hippocampus. Our findings provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence for sequential inference in human cognition, and by exploiting between-subject variation in this measure we provide pointers to its neuronal substrates.
Effects of arterial load variations on dynamic arterial elastance: an experimental study

Background. Dynamic arterial elastance (Ea dyn ), the relationship between pulse pressure variation (PPV) and stroke volume variation (SVV), has been suggested as a functional assessment of arterial load. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of arterial load changes during acute pharmacological changes, fluid administration, and haemorrhage on Ea dyn . Methods. Eighteen anaesthetized, mechanically ventilated New Zealand rabbits were studied. Arterial load changes were induced by phenylephrine ( n =9) or nitroprusside ( n =9). Thereafter, animals received a fluid bolus (10 ml kg -1 ), followed by stepwise bleeding (blood loss: 15 ml kg -1 ). The influence of arterial load and cardiac variables on PPV, SVV, and Ea dyn was analysed using a linear mixed-effects model analysis. Results. After phenylephrine infusion, mean ( sd ) Ea dyn decreased from 0.89 (0.14) to 0.49 (0.12), P <0.001; whereas after administration of nitroprusside, Ea dyn increased from 0.80 (0.23) to 1.28 (0.21), P <0.0001. Overall, the fluid bolus decreased Ea dyn [from 0.89 (0.44) to 0.73 (0.35); P <0.01], and haemorrhage increased it [from 0.78 (0.23) to 0.95 (0.26), P =0.03]. Both PPV and SVV were associated with similar arterial factors (effective arterial elastance, arterial compliance, and resistance) and heart rate. Furthermore, PPV was also related to the acceleration and peak velocity of aortic blood flow. Both arterial and cardiac factors contributed to the evolution of Ea dyn throughout the experiment. Conclusions. Acute modifications of arterial load induced significant changes on Ea dyn ; vasodilatation increased Ea dyn , whereas vasoconstriction decreased it. The Ea dyn was associated with both arterial load and cardiac factors, suggesting that Ea dyn should be more properly considered as a ventriculo-arterial coupling index.
How Do You #relax When You’re #stressed? A Content Analysis and Infodemiology Study of Stress-Related Tweets

Background Stress is a contributing factor to many major health problems in the United States, such as heart disease, depression, and autoimmune diseases. Relaxation is often recommended in mental health treatment as a frontline strategy to reduce stress, thereby improving health conditions. Twitter is a microblog platform that allows users to post their own personal messages (tweets), including their expressions about feelings and actions related to stress and stress management (eg, relaxing). While Twitter is increasingly used as a source of data for understanding mental health from a population perspective, the specific issue of stress—as manifested on Twitter—has not yet been the focus of any systematic study. Objective The objective of our study was to understand how people express their feelings of stress and relaxation through Twitter messages. In addition, we aimed at investigating automated natural language processing methods to (1) classify stress versus nonstress and relaxation versus nonrelaxation tweets, and (2) identify first-hand experience—that is, who is the experiencer—in stress and relaxation tweets. Methods We first performed a qualitative content analysis of 1326 and 781 tweets containing the keywords “stress” and “relax,” respectively. We then investigated the use of machine learning algorithms—in particular naive Bayes and support vector machines—to automatically classify tweets as stress versus nonstress and relaxation versus nonrelaxation. Finally, we applied these classifiers to sample datasets drawn from 4 cities in the United States (Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco) obtained from Twitter’s streaming application programming interface, with the goal of evaluating the extent of any correlation between our automatic classification of tweets and results from public stress surveys. Results Content analysis showed that the most frequent topic of stress tweets was education, followed by work and social relationships. The most frequent topic of relaxation tweets was rest & vacation, followed by nature and water. When we applied the classifiers to the cities dataset, the proportion of stress tweets in New York and San Diego was substantially higher than that in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In addition, we found that characteristic expressions of stress and relaxation varied for each city based on its geolocation. Conclusions This content analysis and infodemiology study revealed that Twitter, when used in conjunction with natural language processing techniques, is a useful data source for understanding stress and stress management strategies, and can potentially supplement infrequently collected survey-based stress data.
QuantUn: Quantification of uncertainty for the reassessment of requirements

Self-adaptive systems (SASs) should be able to adapt to new environmental contexts dynamically. The uncertainty that demands this runtime self-adaptive capability makes it hard to formulate, validate and manage their requirements. QuantUn is part of our longer-term vision of requirements reflection, that is, the ability of a system to dynamically observe and reason about its own requirements. QuantUn's contribution to the achievement of this vision is the development of novel techniques to explicitly quantify uncertainty to support dynamic re-assessment of requirements and therefore improve decision-making for self-adaption. This short paper discusses the research gap we want to fill, present partial results and also the plan we propose to fill the gap.
Successful targeting of the NRG1 pathway indicates novel treatment strategy for metastatic cancer

Background NRG1 fusion-positive lung cancers have emerged as potentially actionable events in lung cancer, but clinical support is currently limited and no evidence of efficacy of this approach in cancers beyond lung has been shown. Patients and methods Here, we describe two patients with advanced cancers refractory to standard therapies. Patient 1 had lung adenocarcinoma and patient 2 cholangiocarcinoma. Whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing were carried out for these cases with select findings validated by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Results Both tumors were found to be positive for NRG1 gene fusions. In patient 1, an SDC4-NRG1 gene fusion was detected, similar gene fusions having been described in lung cancers previously. In patient 2, a novel ATP1B1-NRG1 gene fusion was detected. Cholangiocarcinoma is not a disease type in which NRG1 fusions had been described previously. Integrative genome analysis was used to assess the potential functional significance of the detected genomic events including the gene fusions, prioritizing therapeutic strategies targeting the HER-family of growth factor receptors. Both patients were treated with the pan HER-family kinase inhibitor afatinib and both displayed significant and durable response to treatment. Upon progression sites of disease were sequenced. The lack of obvious genomic events to describe the disease progression indicated that broad transcriptomic or epigenetic mechanisms could be attributed to the lack of prolonged response to afatinib. Conclusion These observations lend further support to the use of pan HER-tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of NRG1 fusion-positive in both cancers of lung and hepatocellular origin and indicate more broadly that cancers found to be NRG1 fusion-positive may benefit from such a clinical approach regardless of their site of origin. Clinical trial information Personalized Oncogenomics (POG) Program of British Columbia: Utilization of Genomic Analysis to Better Understand Tumour Heterogeneity and Evolution (NCT02155621).