Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered cingulate and insular cortex activation during risk-taking in methamphetamine dependence: losses lose impact.

AIMS To determine if methamphetamine-dependent (MD) individuals exhibit behavioral or neural processing differences in risk-taking relative to healthy comparison participants (CTL). DESIGN This was a cross-sectional study comparing two groups' behavior on a risk-taking task and neural processing as assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). SETTINGS The study was conducted in an in-patient treatment center and a research fMRI facility in the United States. PARTICIPANTS Sixty-eight recently abstinent MD individuals recruited from a treatment program and 40 CTL recruited from the community completed the study. MEASUREMENTS The study assessed risk-taking behavior (overall and post-loss) using the Risky Gains Task (RGT), sensation-seeking, impulsivity and blood-oxygenation-level-dependent activation in the brain during the decision phase of the RGT. FINDINGS Relative to CTL, MD displayed decreased activation in the bilateral rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and greater activation in the left insula across risky and safe decisions (P < 0.05). Right mid-insula activation among CTL did not vary between risky and safe decisions, but among MD it was higher during risky relative to safe decisions (P < 0.05). Among MD, lower activation in the right rostral ACC (r = -0.39, P < 0.01) and higher activation in the right mid-insula (r = 0.35, P < 0.01) during risky decisions were linked to a higher likelihood of choosing a risky option following a loss. CONCLUSIONS Methamphetamine-dependent individuals show disrupted risk-related processing in both anterior cingulate and insula, brain areas that have been implicated in cognitive control and interoceptive processing. Attenuated neural processing of risky options may lead to risk-taking despite experiencing negative consequences.
Association of suboptimal health status with psychosocial stress, plasma cortisol and mRNA expression of glucocorticoid receptor α/β in lymphocyte

Abstract Suboptimal health status (SHS) has become a new public health challenge in China. This study investigated whether high SHS is associated with psychosocial stress, changes in cortisol level and/or glucocorticoid receptor (GR) isoform expression. Three-hundred eighty-six workers employed in three companies in Beijing were recruited. The SHS score was derived from data collection in the SHS questionnaire (SHSQ-25). The short standard version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) was used to assess job-related psychosocial stress. The mean value of the five scales of COPSOQ and distribution of plasma cortisol and mRNA expression of GRα/GRβ between the high level of SHS group and the low level of SHS group were compared using a general linear model procedure. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the effect of psychosocial stress on SHS. We identified three factors that were predictive of SHS, including “demands at work”, “interpersonal relations and leadership” and “insecurity at work”. Significantly higher levels of plasma cortisol and GRβ/GRα mRNA ratio were observed among the high SHS group. High level of SHS is associated with decreased mRNA expression of GRα. This study confirmed the association between chronic psychosocial stress and SHS, indicating that improving the psychosocial work environment may reduce SHS and then prevent chronic diseases effectively.
Chronic and acute stressors among military personnel: do coping styles buffer their negative impact on health?

This study examined the moderating impact of positive and negative coping styles on the relationship of acute and chronic job stressors with self-reported health symptoms of 521 military personnel. The number of acute work-related events was associated with a high frequency of self-reported symptoms. Similarly, role ambiguity, overload, and lack of job stimulation were associated with increased symptoms. Only the negative coping styles (i.e., venting of negative emotions and denial/disengagement) were uniquely associated with symptoms. Only 5 of the 13 proposed Stressor x Coping interactions were significant, and they all involved the negative coping styles. That is, instead of alleviating the negative outcomes of work stressors, these coping styles were associated with high strain, regardless of the amount of stressor, and, in some cases, these coping styles exacerbated the negative effect of the stressor on the strain outcomes.
Isolation of Campylobacter from Feral Swine (Sus scrofa) on the Ranch Associated with the 2006 Escherichia coli O157:H7 Spinach Outbreak Investigation in California

We report the isolation of Campylobacter species from the same population of feral swine that was investigated in San Benito County, California, during the 2006 spinach‐related Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak. This is the first survey of Campylobacter in a free‐ranging feral swine population in the United States. Campylobacter species were cultured from buccal and rectal‐anal swabs, colonic faeces and tonsils using a combination of selective enrichment and antibiotic‐free membrane filtration methods. Matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF‐MS, Bruker Daltonics, Inc., Billerica, MA, USA) was used to identify species followed by confirmatory multiplex PCR or 16S rRNA sequencing. Genetic relatedness of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli strains was determined by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and porA allele sequencing. Altogether, 12 (40%) of 30 feral swine gastrointestinal and oral cavity specimens were positive, and six species were isolated: Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter fetus, Campylobacter hyointestinalsis, Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter lanienae and Campylobacter sputorum. Campylobacter jejuni subtypes were closely related to MLST sequence type 21 (ST‐21) and had identical porA sequences. Campylobacter coli subtypes were unrelated to isolates in the pubMLST/porA database. This feral swine population lived in close association with a ‘grassfed’ beef cattle herd adjacent to spinach and other leafy green row crop fields. The findings underscore the importance of protecting raw vegetable crops from faecal contamination by wild or feral animals. The study also illustrates a potential risk of Campylobacter exposure for hunters during handling and processing of wild swine meat.
A Low-Profile Wide-Beamwidth Circularly-Polarized Antenna via Two Pairs of Parallel Dipoles in a Square Contour

A circularly polarized antenna with wide axial-ratio beamwidth is presented by placing two pairs of parallel dipoles in a square contour. Firstly, our study demonstrates that circular polarization can be achieved at the broadside by setting a 90° phase difference between the vertical and horizontal paired-dipoles. Secondly, the principle of wide-beamwidth circularly-polarized radiation is described under the similarity in polar and azimuthal radiation pattern for a pair of parallel dipoles. After the spacing between two parallel dipoles is studied, the similar radiation patterns in these two orthogonal planes are derived. As such, a wide-beamwidth circular polarization can be achieved by placing the two pairs of parallel dipoles vertically and horizontally while setting a 90° phase difference between them. In final, a circularly-polarized printed antenna is designed and fabricated on a single dielectric substrate. The two arms of its four dipoles are formed on the lower and upper interfaces of the substrate, and they are excited by a 1-to-4 probe-to-microstrip feeding network. Experimental results show good agreement with simulated ones in terms of radiation pattern/gain, axial ratio and returned loss. In particular, the 3-dB axial ratio beamwidth at the central frequency of 1.6 GHz has extended to 126 ° in an angular range from -63° to +63°. The fabricated antenna exhibits a low-profile property with the height of 0.0043 free-space wavelength.
A Complete Color Normalization Approach to Histopathology Images Using Color Cues Computed From Saturation-Weighted Statistics

Goal: In digital histopathology, tasks of segmentation and disease diagnosis are achieved by quantitative analysis of image content. However, color variation in image samples makes it challenging to produce reliable results. This paper introduces a complete normalization scheme to address the problem of color variation in histopathology images jointly caused by inconsistent biopsy staining and nonstandard imaging condition. Method : Different from existing normalization methods that either address partial cause of color variation or lump them together, our method identifies causes of color variation based on a microscopic imaging model and addresses inconsistency in biopsy imaging and staining by an illuminant normalization module and a spectral normalization module, respectively. In evaluation, we use two public datasets that are representative of histopathology images commonly received in clinics to examine the proposed method from the aspects of robustness to system settings, performance consistency against achromatic pixels, and normalization effectiveness in terms of histological information preservation. Results: As the saturation-weighted statistics proposed in this study generates stable and reliable color cues for stain normalization, our scheme is robust to system parameters and insensitive to image content and achromatic colors. Conclusion: Extensive experimentation suggests that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art normalization methods as the proposed method is the only approach that succeeds to preserve histological information after normalization. Significance: The proposed color normalization solution would be useful to mitigate effects of color variation in pathology images on subsequent quantitative analysis.
Arylamine N-acetyltransferase 1 (NAT1) and 2 (NAT2) polymorphisms in susceptibility to bladder cancer: the influence of smoking.

Aromatic amines are involved in the etiology of bladder cancer. These compounds are acetylated by N-acetyltransferase 1 (NAT1) and 2 (NAT2), and epidemiological studies have shown that the slow NAT2 acetylator phenotype is associated with increased risk of bladder cancer and may be associated with decreased risk of colorectal cancer. By using PCR-RFLP analyses to identify three known slow acetylator alleles (M1, M2, and M3) and the wild-type, or fast, allele, the NAT2 genotypes were determined. No association between the NAT2 slow acetylator genotype and bladder cancer was found either by crude analyses [odds ratio (OR), 1.32; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.91-1.92) or by logistic regression analyses adjusted for age, gender, and smoking exposure (OR, 1.22; 95% CI, 0.92-1.62). A similar observation was made when the cases were divided into incident and surviving cases. Dividing the cases by pathological classification (benign or malignant) did not alter this finding. Likewise, analyses of the NAT1 and glutathione S-transferase mu 1 (GSTM1) genotypes showed no associations between the NAT1 or GSTM1 genotypes and bladder cancer risk. However, restricting the analysis to people exposed to potential bladder carcinogens (i.e., smokers) among cases and controls, a small but significant association between the slow acetylator genotype and bladder cancer risk was revealed among all cases with malignant tumors (OR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.02-1.80) and among incident cases with malignant tumors (OR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.04-2.16). The allele frequencies in the group consisting of smokers showed an overrepresentation of the NAT2 M1 (NAT2*5) allele in the incident case group. The NAT1 and GSTM1 genotypes were not associated with increased risk of bladder cancer among smokers. Analyses of genetic combinations of NAT1/NAT2 as potential risk factors for bladder cancer seem to indicate that the normal NAT1/fast NAT2 genotype may be a protective genotype compared with the other genotype combinations. Analyses of genetic combinations of NAT2/GSTM1 did not reveal any combination of NAT2 and GSTM1 genotypes associated with increased bladder cancer risk.
The maintained discharge of neurons in the cat lateral geniculate nucleus: Spectral analysis and computational modeling

The maintained discharge of neurons along the early visual pathway in mammals constitutes the “noise” from which the visual signal must be discriminated. The statistics of this background noise in cat retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) have been shown to conform to that of a gamma-distributed renewal process (Kuffler et al., 1957; Barlow & Levick, 1969), and power spectrum analysis reveals that this property allows for low noise levels at the temporal-frequency range (0–10 Hz) most important for visual performance (Troy & Robson, 1992). In this study, we compare the statistics of the maintained discharge of cat lateral geniculate neurons with those of its RGC input by simultaneous recordings of spikes and S-potentials in single relay cells of the cat lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). We demonstrate that, during primarily tonic spiking activity, the LGN maintained discharge preserves the renewal process statistics of its RGC input and also generates relatively little noise at the temporal frequencies important for vision. However, during burst spiking activity, the renewal process model breaks down and increased noise is generated at 2–10 Hz. This suggests that optimization of the visual signal/noise ratio is not a prime consideration in the behavioral states associated with bursting activity in the LGN. The occurrence of burst spikes in LGN relay cells is dependent on the activity of T-type calcium channels in their plasma membranes (Jahnsen & Llinas, 1984a,b). We show that a computational model of LGN relay cells that incorporates T-channel kinetics (Mukherjee & Kaplan, 1995) can correctly simulate LGN maintained discharge statistics during both tonic and bursty firing conditions, and indicates an essential role for this ion channel in determining the dynamic noise properties of the LGN. We also use the computational model to predict how the burstiness of the LGN maintained discharge is affected by the statistics of its RGC input.
The concept of dementia: retain, reframe, rename or replace?

ABSTRACT From antiquity the term “dementia” has denoted a state of severe acquired intellectual deterioration which significantly interferes with the fulfillment of personal, social or occupational roles, and makes the individual dependent on care and supervision by others. The medical concept of dementia refers to a pattern of cognitive and behavioral symptoms which typically arises from chronic and often progressive brain diseases. The quantitative expression of this pattern shows broad variability, and some patients fall within the boundaries of the concept whose intellectual and functional abilities are only mildly impaired. On the other hand, the concept currently has an unduly narrow qualitative bandwidth, because it is modeled after the subtype which occurs in Alzheimer's disease but does not represent a good fit for other important subtypes. In the authors’ view, the concept of dementia should be retained despite its limitations, since it has an important role in directing the physician's attention to a certain group of underlying pathologies. This diagnostic role of the concept will remain important in primary care even if biological indicators for one or several etiologies will become part of the diagnostic routine in research units in the future. The medical construct has further value since it entitles patients to medical treatment, social assistance and legal protection. Although in our opinion the concept of dementia does not need to be replaced, upcoming revisions of the psychiatric classification systems will have to reframe it by emphasizing the heterogeneity of the psychopathological symptom pattern. In view of the increasing importance of early diagnosis and treatment, however, the term “dementia”, which literally means “absence of mind”, is no longer an appropriate and timely designation for the broad range of cognitive and behavioral limitations covered by the concept. It should be renamed, using a terminology which accommodates scientific advance and meets the requirements of medical communication while preserving the benefits for patients and their families.
Salmonella enterica serovar Panama meningitis in exclusive breastfeeding infants

Rationale: The pathway of Nontyphoid Salmonella meningitis, especially in exclusive breastfeeding infants, has not been well characterized. Patient concerns: We analyzed data related to nontyphoid Salmonella meningitis in 4 infants. Diagnoses: No diarrhea was observed and the coproculture was negative for all patients. Interventions: Early diagnosis and treatment with combination of third-generation cephalosporins plus quinolones for a minimum of 3 weeks is necessary to avoid severe sequelae and death. Outcomes: The first 3 patients had a good evolution, whereas the last patient had multiple brain abscesses and hydrocephalus requiring treatment with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt. Lessons: The highlights of our study are that all infants were exclusively breastfed, no diarrhea observed and the negative coproculture for all the 4 patients, which is relatively rare for Salmonella infection.
Image Retrieval Using Multimodal Keywords

In this paper, we propose a technique to retrieve the images using the 'search by similarity' method with the help of multimodal keywords. Multimodal keywords consist of low-level MPEG-7 color descriptors and textual keywords. The visual keywords and textual keywords are combined together and the image collection is represented as a matrix, which is similar in representation to a term-document matrix. Using LSI (latent semantic indexing), we demonstrate that the visual keywords, when combined with textual keywords can improve the retrieval results to a great degree
Improving asthma care through recertification: a cluster randomized trial.

BACKGROUND As part of recertification, the American Board of Internal Medicine requires its diplomats to complete at least 1 practice improvement module (PIM). We assessed whether completing an asthma-specific PIM resulted in improved patient outcomes. METHODS Practices were the unit of randomization in this cluster randomized trial. Physicians in the intervention group were asked to complete the PIM through its planning phase. The primary outcome was the dispensing of an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) after a postintervention visit for asthma. Secondary outcomes included patient reported processes of care, asthma-related heath care use, and asthma severity. Analyses were adjusted for baseline rates at the cluster-level as well as for individual sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS Eight practices (19 internists) were randomized to the intervention group and 8 practices (21 internists) to the control group. For the primary outcome, ICS fill rates, patients seen by intervention group physicians were not more likely to fill an ICS prescription in the postintervention period than patients seen by control group physicians (adjusted odd ratio [AOR], 1.00; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64-1.56). Patients seen for asthma by intervention group physicians were less likely to receive a written action plan than patients seen by control group physicians (AOR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.48-0.93); however, they were more likely to discuss potential asthma triggers (AOR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.08-2.42) and had lower self-reported asthma severity measures (unadjusted P = .03). Per-protocol analysis supported the latter 2 associations. CONCLUSION A PIM designed to improve asthma care did not improve filling of ICS prescriptions but may have lessened asthma severity through an increased discussion of asthma triggers.
Trends in Mortality and Causes of Death Among Women With HIV in the United States: A 10-Year Study

Background:To assess trends in mortality and cause of death for women with HIV, we studied deaths over a 10-year period among participants in the Women's Interagency HIV Study, a representative US cohort. Methods:Deaths were ascertained by National Death Index Plus match, and causes of death determined by death certificate. Results:From 1995 through 2004, 710 of 2792 HIV-infected participants died. During this interval, the standardized mortality ratio fell from a high of 24.7 in 1996 to a plateau with a mean of 10.3 from 2001 to 2004. Over the decade, deaths from non-AIDS causes increased and accounted for the majority of deaths by 2001-2004. The most common non-AIDS causes of death were trauma or overdose, liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and malignancy. Independent predictors of mortality besides HIV-associated variables were depressive symptoms and active hepatitis B or C. Women who were overweight or obese were significantly less likely to die of AIDS than women of normal weight. Conclusions:In the Women's Interagency HIV Study, the death rate has plateaued in recent years. Although HIV-associated factors predicted AIDS and non-AIDS deaths, other treatable conditions predicted mortality. Further gains in reducing mortality among HIV-infected women may require broader access to therapies for depression, viral hepatitis, and HIV itself.
Effects of Multiple Daily Insulin Injections on Peripheral Glucose Disposal in Latin Americans with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective To evaluate the effects of insulin in multiple daily injections (MDI) on peripheral glucose disposal in Latin American patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods and Results Ten Latin American patients (four men and six women) with type 2 diabetes between the ages of 32 and 45 years were evaluated. All women were premenopausal and had regular menstrual periods. A hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp procedure was performed at baseline and was repeated approximately 2 years after insulin monotherapy on MDI was initiated. Both genders had comparable baseline anthropometric and laboratory features, including a mean body mass index > 30 kg/m 2 and percent body fat > 30%. Baseline percent hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c%) was 9.5 ± 1.5%, and post-intervention HbA1c% was 7.0 ± 1.2%. The peripheral glucose disposal rate at baseline was 4.5 ± 2.2 mg/kg/min fat-free mass and at postintervention was 3.6 ± 2.3 mg/kg/min fat-free mass. Conclusions Despite a significant improvement in glycemic control, MDI did not seem to increase the insulin-mediated glucose disposal rate. Underlying obesity and increased percent body fat may have been the most counteracting factors on the potential improvement in insulin sensitivity expected with insulin monotherapy.
Supply chain coordination for"company+farmer"contract-farming with CVaR criterion

The"company + farmer"contract-farming supply chain model consisting of one risk-neutral company and one risk-averse farmer is proposed and the conditional value-at-risk(CVaR) method is utilized to describe the objective decision function of risk-averse farmer.The farmer's optimal decision making behavior under decentralized supply chain is analyzed.The results show that the risk-averse farmer's optimal production quantity will be increased with the increasing of contract purchasing price and definitely less than that of risk-neutral farmer.In addition,the results also show that the farmer's optimal production quantity under decentralized decision mode will be less than that of centralized decision mode,which gives further need to develop a kind of"purchasing subsidy + market protection price + guarantee money"coordination mechanism to realize supply chain coordination.The satisfaction conditions for company's optimal subsidy coefficient and ordering price are also provided.The feasibility and efficiency of the proposed models are manifested by numerical examples.