Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Clinical Risk Factors in the Conversion from Acute Lung Injury to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Severe Multiple Trauma Patients

Acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are different stages of the same disease, the aggravated stage of ALI leading to ARDS. Patients with ARDS have higher hospital mortality rates and reduced long-term pulmonary function and quality of life. It is, therefore, important to prevent ALI converting to ARDS. This study evaluated 17 risk factors potentially associated with the conversion from ALI to ARDS in severe multiple trauma. The results indicate that the impact of pulmonary contusion, APACHE II score, gastrointestinal haemorrhage and disseminated intravascular coagulation may help to predict conversion from ALI to ARDS in the early phase after multiple-trauma injury. Trauma duration, in particular, strongly impacted the short- and long-term development of ALI. Being elderly (aged ≥ 65 years) and undergoing multiple blood transfusions in the early phase were independent risk factors correlated with secondary sepsis, deterioration of pulmonary function and transfusion-related acute lung injury due to early multiple fluid resuscitation.
Beyond Phenotypical Forms of Family Behaviors: The Developmental Utility of a Boundary Conceptualization of Triadic Relationship Processes

Although some progress has been made in applying the concept of family boundaries to understand triadic family functioning, researchers continue to define family dynamics largely on the basis of the form or physical characteristics of a set of behaviors or processes. Consequently, relatively little attention has been devoted to elaborating on the function of behaviors within the context of triadic family relationships. To bridge this gap in the field, this study examined the developmental and incremental utility of a novel triadic observational system that captures both the form and function of family interactions characterized by cohesion, enmeshment, and disengagement. Accordingly, family cohesion, enmeshment, and disengagement were examined as predictors of a host of adolescent adjustment factors in a sample of 275 fathers, mothers, and adolescents (M age = 12.6 years). The whole family participated in a family problem solving task to assess family boundary processes. Both parents, adolescents, and teachers reported on adolescents’ adjustment problems across two annual waves of assessment. Demonstrating some support for the incremental utility of a boundary conceptualization of triadic family relationships, results of autoregressive structural equation modeling indicated that coder ratings of family cohesion uniquely predicted lower levels of adolescent adjustment difficulties concurrently and prospectively while enmeshment uniquely predicted greater adolescent adjustment difficulties at the first assessment occasion and over time after taking into account broad indices of family functioning (i.e., positive affect, negativity and conflict) and family structural characteristics (i.e., birth order, number
Subclinical right ventricle systolic dysfunction in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: insights from two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography

Objective The objective of this article is to evaluate right ventricle strain imaging by two-dimensional speckle-tracking (2DST) in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (c-SLE). Methods Thirty-five c-SLE patients with no signs or symptoms of heart failure and 33 healthy volunteers were evaluated by standard echocardiogram and 2DST. Conventional parameters included tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), RV tissue-Doppler-derived Tei index and systolic pulmonary artery pressure. Global peak longitudinal systolic strain (PLSS) and strain rate (PLSSR) of RV were obtained by 2DST. Demographic/clinical features, SLEDAI-2K/SLICC/ACR-DI and treatment were also assessed. Results The median current age was similar in patients and controls (14.75 vs. 14.88 years, p = 0.62). RV PLSS was significantly reduced in c-SLE (−24.5 ± 5.09 vs. −27.62 ± 3.02%, p = 0.003). Similar findings were observed after excluding patients with pulmonary hypertension (−24.62 ± 4.87% vs. −27.62 ± 3.02%, p = 0.0041). RV PLSS was positively correlated with TAPSE (r = +0.49, p = 0.0027) and negatively correlated with Tei index (r = −0.34, p = 0.04) in c-SLE. RV PLSSR was not different comparing patients and controls (−0.65 s−1 ± 0.47 vs. −1.87 ± 0.49 s−1, p = 0.07). Further analysis of c-SLE patients revealed higher frequencies of neuropsychiatric manifestations (39% vs. 0%, p = 0.007) and antiphospholipid antibodies (55% vs. 18%, p = 0.035) in those with RV PLSS ≤ −23.7% vs >−23.7%. No differences were evidenced in demographic data, disease activity/damage or treatments (p > 0.05). Conclusions The present study, using a new and more sensitive technique, revealed subclinical RV systolic dysfunction in c-SLE patients that may have future prognostic implications. The novel association of asymptomatic RV dysfunction with neuropsychiatric manifestations and antiphospholipid antibodies may suggest common physiopathological pathways.
Does height influence progression through primary school grades?

AIM To examine the relation between a child's height and grade progression in primary school. METHODS Height was measured in a representative cross sectional sample of children from 24 primary schools in Victoria in late 1997. Height measurements were transformed to standardised scores using Cole's “LMS” method to allow for comparison across ages and genders. Children within each grade were divided into three equal groups based on age (youngest third, middle third, oldest third), again to allow for cross age comparison. RESULTS A total of 2848 children aged 5–12 years (51% male) were included, with approximately 400 children in each of the seven grades from preparatory to grade 6. Analysis of variance showed a significant relation overall between age and height, with a sequential decrease in height from the youngest to the oldest third. When genders were considered separately, the relation remained significant for boys but not for girls. A total of 133 children (66% male) repeated a grade in primary school. When this group of grade repeaters was removed from the sample, analysis of variance showed no significant relation between standardised height score and age tertile for boys. Although birth weight category and maternal education were independent predictors of height scores overall, they did not appear to influence decisions to retain pupils in grades. CONCLUSIONS Older boys within grades, notably those who have repeated a grade, are shorter than their peers. Decisions to retain pupils, particularly boys who are experiencing school difficulties, may be influenced by their height.
Cascade control of the moto-compressor of a PEM fuel cell via second order sliding mode

This paper presents a cascade control of the moto-compressor of a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). The control objective is to optimize the net power by maintaining the oxygen excess ratio between 2 and 2.4. The proposed control strategy is based on two cascaded super twisting second order sliding mode controllers (Fig.1), which regulate the moto-compressor supplying air to the cathode side of the fuel cell. Simulation results show that the proposed controller has a good transient performance under load variations and parametric uncertainties.
Optimization of the parallel technique for compiled unit-delay simulation

The parallel technique is a purely compiled method for unit-delay simulation that is based on levelized compiled simulation and bit parallel simulation. The parallel technique provides rapid simulations with a reasonable amount of code, but there are opportunities for optimization. The author presents two schemes: bit-field trimming and shift-elimination. Performance results are presented that demonstrate an average performance improvement of 47%. <<ETX>>
The Theoretical Construction of a Classification of Clinical Somatic Symptoms in Psychosomatic Medicine Theory

Objective This article adopts the perspective of psychosomatic medicine to present and test a theoretical model of the classification of clinical somatic symptoms. The theoretical model consists of four dimensions: emotional somatic symptoms, biological somatic symptoms, imaginative somatic symptoms, and cognitive somatic symptoms. Method A clinical somatic symptom classification scale was developed according to the theoretical model. A total of 542 participants completed the clinical somatic symptoms classification scale. The data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Results The results confirmed the theoretical model. The analyses found that the proposed theoretical structure of the scale was good, as indicated by factor loadings and fit indices, and that the scale had good reliability and construct validity. Conclusions Based on the interpretation of the clinical symptoms of psychosomatic medicine, the treatment of chronic non-infectious diseases includes at least three dimensions: the first is the etiological treatment, the second is the pathophysiological and pathopsychological dimension, and the third is symptomatic treatment. The unified psychosomatic point of view and diverse clinical thinking modes are aimed at identifying different classes of somatic symptoms and important prerequisites for the treatment of these symptoms. We registered the study with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry and it was approved by the West China Hospital, Sichuan University ethics committee. Trial registration: The registration number is ChiCTR-OCS-14004632 (time: 2014-05-12).
High Performance FFT Based Poisson Solver on a CPU-GPU Heterogeneous Platform

We develop an optimized FFT based Poisson solver on a CPU-GPU heterogeneous platform for the case when the input is too large to fit on the GPU global memory. The solver involves memory bound computations such as 3D FFT in which the large 3D data may have to be transferred over the PCIe bus several times during the computation. We develop a new strategy to decompose and allocate the computation between the GPU and the CPU such that the 3D data is transferred only once to the device memory, and the executions of the GPU kernels are almost completely overlapped with the PCI data transfer. We were able to achieve significantly better performance than what has been reported in previous related work, including over 50 GFLOPS for the three periodic boundary conditions, and over 40 GFLOPS for the two periodic, one Neumann boundary conditions. The PCIe bus bandwidth achieved is over 5GB/s, which is close to the best possible on our platform. For all the cases tested, the single 3D PCIe transfer time, which constitutes a lower bound on what is possible on our platform, takes almost 70% of the total execution time of the Poisson solver.
Comparative analysis of differential colpitts and cross-coupled VCOs in 180 nm Si-Ge HBT technology

It has been shown in the literature that a cross-coupled CMOS LC VCO will outperform an equivalent Colpitts VCO. In the case of bipolar devices, the jury is still out. This paper reports a comparative analysis of phase noise (PN), tuning range (TR), dissipated DC power and Figure of Merit (FoM) in cross-coupled and differential Colpitts LC VCOs topologies designed in 180 nm Si-Ge HBT technology for operation around 5 GHz. SpectreRF simulations show that the cross-coupled topology exhibits a minimum PN equal to -108 dBc/Hz, a tuning range of 17.5% and a dissipated DC power of 12.6 mW, with a FoM equal to 204 dB, while the Colpitts topology exhibits a minimum PN over the tuning range equal to -113 dBc/Hz, a tuning range of 21.6% and a dissipated DC power of 14.1 mW, with a FoM equal to 212 dB. This suggests that, for the considered technology, the differential Colpitts can exhibit better overall performance than the cross-coupled VCO.
Elucidating the role of DEPTOR in Alzheimer’s disease

The mammalian or mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a Ser/Thr protein kinase that, in response to nutrient stimulation, regulates cellular growth, proliferation, survival, protein synthesis and gene transcription. It has also been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with neuronal cells and hippocampal slices of AD transgenic mice experiencing dysregulated mTOR and synaptic plasticity in response to treatment with the toxic amyloid β (Aβ1–42) peptide, which has been implicated in AD. DEP domain-containing mTOR-interacting protein (DEPTOR) is a protein which can bind to mTOR and cause its inhibition, and functions as a regulatory protein of mTOR to control its activity. The inhibition of mTOR has been shown to have a neuroprotective effect; in an animal model, it was shown to protect against Aβ-induced neurotoxicity. In the present study, to investigate to role of DEPTOR in a model of AD, we neuronally differentiated the SH-SY5Y cell line and examined the effects of treatment with an Aβ42 peptide, thus mimicking plaque formation. This resulted in a significant increase in mTOR and a significant decrease in DEPTOR expression compared to the unstimulated controls. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate for the first time a reduction in the protein level of DEPTOR in the precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus and occipital lobe of a brain with AD compared to a normal control, as well as a significant reduction in DEPTOR expression in samples from late-onset AD (LOAD) compared to early-onset familial AD (EOFAD). The reduction in DEPTOR expression in cases of AD compared to healthy controls can lead to an augmentation of mTOR signalling, leading to Aβ accumulation, which in turn leads to a further reduction in DEPTOR expression. This results in the accumulation of amyloid plaque, shifting the balance from neuroprotection to neurodegeneration.
MPRL: Multiple-Periodic Reinforcement Learning for difficulty adjustment in rehabilitation games

Generally, the difficulty level of a therapeutic game is regulated manually by a therapist. However, home-based rehabilitation games require a technique for automatic difficulty adjustment. This paper proposes a personalized difficulty adjustment technique for a rehabilitation game that automatically regulates difficulty settings based on a patient's skills in real-time. To this end, ideas from reinforcement learning are used to dynamically adjust the difficulty of a game. We show that difficulty adjustment is a multiple-objective problem, in which some objectives might be evaluated at different periods. To address this problem, we propose and use Multiple-Periodic Reinforcement Learning (MPRL) that makes it possible to evaluate different objectives of difficulty adjustment in separate periods. The results of experiments show that MPRL outperforms traditional Multiple-Objective Reinforcement Learning (MORL) in terms of user satisfaction parameters as well as improving the movement skills of patients.
Collagenase is a major gene product of induced rabbit synovial fibroblasts

We have investigated the effects of the tumor-promoting phorbol diester, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), on rabbit synovial fibroblasts, and found that this agent induced a major switch in gene expression in these cells that was marked by the specific induction of the neutral proteinase, collagenase, and was always accompanied by alterations in cell morphology. Procollagenase synthesis and secretion was first observed 6-12 h after the addition of TPA. The rate of collagenase production (1-5 U, or approximately 0.2-1 micrograms secreted procollagenase protein per 10(5) cells per 24 h) depended on the TPA concentration (1-400 ng/ml) and time of exposure (1-72 h). Procollagenase was the most prominent protein visible by direct silver staining or by autoradiography after SDS PAGE of [35S]methionine- labeled proteins. The two procollagenase bands of Mr 53,000 and 57,000, which migrated as a family of spots on two-dimensional gels and were immunoprecipitated by antibodies to purified rabbit collagenase, accounted for 23% of the newly synthesized, secreted protein in TPA- treated cells. Cell-free translation of mRNA from TPA-treated cells in rabbit reticulocyte lysate produced a single band of immunoprecipitable preprocollagenase (Mr 55,000) as a major product (5% of total) that migrated as a single spot on two-dimensional gels. Secreted procollagenase, preprocollagenase , and active collagenase (purified to homogeneity; specific activity 1.2 X 10(4) U/mg protein) had related peptide maps. Two other major secreted proteins, a neutral metalloproteinase of Mr 51,000 and a polypeptide of Mr 47,000, were also induced by TPA. In contrast to the induction of these four polypeptides, TPA decreased synthesis and secretion of a number of proteins, including collagen and fibronectin. Thus, collagenase is a convenient marker for major alterations in the pattern of protein synthesis and secretion by rabbit synovial fibroblasts treated with TPA.
Metabolic diversity and niche structure in sponges from the Miskito Cays, Honduras

Hosting symbionts provides many eukaryotes with access to the products of microbial metabolism that are crucial for host performance. On tropical coral reefs, many (High Microbial Abundance [HMA]) but not all (Low Microbial Abundance [LMA]) marine sponges host abundant symbiont communities. Although recent research has revealed substantial variation in these sponge-microbe associations (termed holobionts), little is known about the ecological implications of this diversity. We investigated the expansion of diverse sponge species across isotopic niche space by calculating niche size (as standard ellipse area [SEAc]) and assessing the relative placement of common sponge species in bivariate (δ13C and δ15N) plots. Sponges for this study were collected from the relatively isolated reefs within the Miskito Cays of Honduras. These reefs support diverse communities of HMA and LMA species that together span a gradient of photosymbiont abundance, as revealed by chlorophyll a analysis. HMA sponges occupied unique niche space compared to LMA species, but the placement of some HMA sponges was driven by photosymbiont abundance. In addition, photosymbiont abundance explained a significant portion of the variation in isotope values, suggesting that access to autotrophic metabolism provided by photosymbionts is an important predictor in the location of species within isotopic space. Host identity accounted for over 70% of the variation in isotope values within the Miskito Cays and there was substantial variation in the placement of individual species within isotopic niche space, suggesting that holobiont metabolic diversity may allow taxonomically diverse sponge species to utilize unique sources of nutrients within a reef system. This study provides initial evidence that microbial symbionts allow sponges to expand into novel physiochemical niche space. This expansion may reduce competitive interactions within coral reefs and promote diversification of these communities.
Automatic Summary Evaluation without Human Models

We present a fully automatic approach for summarization evaluation that does not require the creation of human model summaries. Our work capitalizes on the fact that a summary contains the most representative information from the input and so it is reasonable to expect that the distribution of terms in the input and a good summary are similar to each other. To compare the term distributions, we use KL and Jensen-Shannon divergence, cosine similarity, as well as unigram and multinomial models of text. Our results on a large scale evaluation from the Text Analysis Conference show that input-summary comparisons can be very effective. They can be used to rank participating systems very similarly to manual model-based evaluations (pyramid evaluation) as well as to manual human judgments of summary quality without reference to a model. Our best feature, Jensen-Shannon divergence, leads to a correlation as high as 0.9 with manual evaluations.
Cyst-induced toxoplasmosis in cats.

SYNOPSIS. The life cycle of Toxoplasma gondii is described from cats orally inoculated with Toxoplasma cysts. Five new structural stages of Toxoplasma designated as “types” A-E were found in the epithelial cells of the small and large intestine. Type A is the smallest of all 5 intestinal Toxoplasma types. It occurs as collections of 2-3 organisms in the jejunum 12–18 hr after infection. Type B organisms are characterized by a centrally located nucleus, a prominent nucleolus and dark blue cytoplasm giving rise to the appearance of bipolar staining with Giemsa. Type B occurs 12–54 hr after infection and appears to divide by simple endodyogeny and by multiple endodyogeny (endopolygeny). Type C organisms are elongate with subterminal nuclei and strongly PAS-positive cytoplasm. They occur at 24–54 hr and divide by schizogony. Type D organisms are smaller than type C and contain only a few PAS-positive granules. They occur from 32 hr to 15 days after inoculation and account for over 90% of all parasites in the small intestine during this time. Three subtypes divide by endodyogeny, schizogony and by splitting of their merozoites from the main nucleated mass without leaving a residual body. Type E organisms resemble one of the subtype D which divide by schizogony, but they leave a residual body. They occur from 3–15 days after inoculation. Gametocytes occur thruout the small intestine but more commonly in the ileum 3-15 days after infection. Male gametocytes contain on an average of 12 microgametes and comprise 2–4% of the gametocyte population. The prepatent period after cystinduced infection is 3–5 days with the peak oocyst production between 5–8 days and a patent period varying from 7–20 days. Variable numbers of trophozoites are present in the lamina propria of the small intestine and in the extra-intestinal tissues within a few hr after inoculation. After 9–10 days cysts were seen in the heart and later in the brain. The lesions of toxoplasmosis are compared in newborn and weanling kittens and in adult cats after oral and subcutaneous inoculation with cysts. After the ingestion of cysts, newborn kittens developed enteritis, hepatitis, myocarditis, myositis, pneumonitis and encephalitis and were moribund by the 9th day. Kittens aged 2 weeks and older developed enteritis, myocarditis, encephalitis and myositis but often survived; adult cats usually remained asymptomatic. After subcutaneous inoculation of cysts, newborn and weanling kittens died of acute toxoplasmosis with severe pneumonia, myocarditis, encephalitis and hepatitis.
Computer-based cognitive rehabilitation research in a military treatment facility: Recruitment, compliance, and lessons learned.

BACKGROUND Evidence-based approaches to cognitive rehabilitation are limited; however, new technologies such as brain-training computer programs provide opportunities for novel interventions. OBJECTIVE This paper describes a randomized controlled training study in a military treatment facility with service members who had combat-related cognitive symptoms. It examines challenges in study design and implementation, and provides "lessons learned" with proposed solutions. METHODS Participants were randomly assigned to one of two 6-week computer-based cognitive training (CBCT) programs or a treatment-as-usual (TAU) control group. Feasibility assessments included reasons for consent refusal, compliance, and drop-out rates. RESULTS The intended sample size for the study was 114 participants before attrition. Of 291 patients referred over 2.5 years, 120 were eligible, 38 consented to participate, and 18 completed the study. Forty-two percent of the participants assigned to CBCT groups completed the required 30 sessions in 6.5 to 32 weeks. Study-design factors that affected enrollment and compliance included eligibility restrictions, lack of a computer-based control condition, and inflexible scheduling. CONCLUSIONS Successful implementation of a high-dose computer-based clinical trial will require design changes such as expanded inclusion criteria, control by sham computer program or wait-list, dosing flexibility, and web-based options.