Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive Value of Echocardiographic Abnormalities and the Impact of Diastolic Dysfunction on In-hospital Major Cardiovascular Complications after Living Donor Kidney Transplantation

Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) show characteristic abnormalities in cardiac structure and function. We evaluated the influence of these abnormalities on adverse cardiopulmonary outcomes after living donor kidney transplantation in patients with valid preoperative transthoracic echocardiographic evaluation. We then observed any development of major postoperative cardiovascular complications and pulmonary edema until hospital discharge. In-hospital major cardiovascular complications were defined as acute myocardial infarction, ventricular fibrillation/tachycardia, cardiogenic shock, newly-onset atrial fibrillation, clinical pulmonary edema requiring endotracheal intubation or dialysis. Among the 242 ESRD study patients, 9 patients (4%) developed major cardiovascular complications, and 39 patients (16%) developed pulmonary edema. Diabetes, ischemia-reperfusion time, left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd), left ventricular mass index (LVMI), right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP), left atrium volume index (LAVI), and high E/E' ratios were risk factors of major cardiovascular complications, while age, LVEDd, LVMI, LAVI, and high E/E' ratios were risk factors of pulmonary edema. The optimal E/E' cut-off value for predicting major cardiovascular complications was 13.0, showing 77.8% sensitivity and 78.5% specificity. Thus, the patient's E/E' ratio is useful for predicting in-hospital major cardiovascular complications after kidney transplantation. We recommend that goal-directed therapy employing E/E' ratio be enacted in kidney recipients with baseline diastolic dysfunction to avert postoperative morbidity. (http://Clinical Trials.gov number: NCT02322567)
What Robots Could Teach Us about Perspective-Taking

A distinctly social ability that underlies shared meaning, empathy, and cooperation is taking the perspective of another person during conversation. Research on communication has explored the manner in which human speakers account for their listeners’ perspectives and adjust their communications in their attempts to be understood (e.g., Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs, 1986; Fussell & Krauss, 1992; Krauss, Vivekananthan & Weinheimer, 1969). Speakers attend to their listeners’ group memberships and likely areas of expertise as they construct their messages (e.g., Clark & Marshall, 1981; Fussell & Krauss, 1992; Hupet, Chantraine & Neff, 1993; Isaacs & Clark, 1987). Speakers attend to what their partners can see, that is, their spatial perspective within the environment (e.g., Gergle, Kraut, & Fussell, 2004; Kraut, Miller & Siegel, 1996; Lockridge & Brennan, 2002; Schober, 1993). In addition, speakers attend to the verbal and nonverbal responses of their listeners to assess whether their message is comprehended and to make appropriate repairs and adjustments (e.g., Clark and Wilkes-Gibbs, 1986; Krauss & Bricker, 1966; Krauss & Weinheimer, 1966, 1968). These adjustments produce communication that is more effective, whether in the context of a single message (e.g., Fussell & Krauss, 1989) or over the course of an ongoing conversation (Kraut, Lewis & Swezey, 1982; Schober & Clark, 1989). There now exists considerable evidence on the information people use in perspective taking (for a recent review, see Schober & Brennan, 2003), but we know very little about failures in perspective taking and how conversationalists cope with inaccurate or inadequate perspective taking. We suggest that the specific nature of perspective taking in effective communication becomes particularly visible in conversations between humans and machines. Currently, the most common experience people have conversing with a machine is when they make a phone call to a customer service department and are greeted by an automated representative. These computer-driven speakers communicate with limited, if any, perspectivetaking abilities. These speakers have no sense for the caller’s familiarity with the task in question or with the number of times the caller has already been forced to listen to the complete set of instructions. Nearly everyone has a frustrating story to tell about these automated helpers. Many of these frustrations can be traced AU: Krauss et al is 1968 in refs. Which is correct?
Alleviation of Motor Impairments in Patients with Cerebral Palsy: Acute Effects of Whole-body Vibration on Stretch Reflex Response, Voluntary Muscle Activation and Mobility

Introduction Individuals suffering from cerebral palsy (CP) often have involuntary, reflex-evoked muscle activity resulting in spastic hyperreflexia. Whole-body vibration (WBV) has been demonstrated to reduce reflex activity in healthy subjects, but evidence in CP patients is still limited. Therefore, this study aimed to establish the acute neuromuscular and kinematic effects of WBV in subjects with spastic CP. Methods 44 children with spastic CP were tested on neuromuscular activation and kinematics before and immediately after a 1-min bout of WBV (16–25 Hz, 1.5–3 mm). Assessment included (1) recordings of stretch reflex (SR) activity of the triceps surae, (2) electromyography (EMG) measurements of maximal voluntary muscle activation of lower limb muscles, and (3) neuromuscular activation during active range of motion (aROM). We recorded EMG of m. soleus (SOL), m. gastrocnemius medialis (GM), m. tibialis anterior, m. vastus medialis, m. rectus femoris, and m. biceps femoris. Angular excursion was recorded by goniometry of the ankle and knee joint. Results After WBV, (1) SOL SRs were decreased (p < 0.01) while (2) maximal voluntary activation (p < 0.05) and (3) angular excursion in the knee joint (p < 0.01) were significantly increased. No changes could be observed for GM SR amplitudes or ankle joint excursion. Neuromuscular coordination expressed by greater agonist–antagonist ratios during aROM was significantly enhanced (p < 0.05). Discussion The findings point toward acute neuromuscular and kinematic effects following one bout of WBV. Protocols demonstrate that pathological reflex responses are reduced (spinal level), while the execution of voluntary movement (supraspinal level) is improved in regards to kinematic and neuromuscular control. This facilitation of muscle and joint control is probably due to a reduction of spasticity-associated spinal excitability in favor of giving access for greater supraspinal input during voluntary motor control.
The EarthCARE mission BBR instrument: ground testing of radiometric performance

In the EarthCARE mission the BBR (Broad Band Radiometer) has the role of measuring the net earth radiance (i.e. total reflected-solar and thermally-emitted radiances), from the same earth scene as viewed by the other instruments (aerosol lidar, cloud radar and spectral imager). It does this measurement at 10km scene size and in 3 view angles. It is an imaging radiometer in that it uses micro-bolometer linear-array detector (pushbroom orientation), to over-sample these required scenes, with the samples being binned on-ground to produce the 10km radiance data. For the measurements of total earth radiance, the BBR is based on the heritage of Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) instruments. The ground calibration methods of this type of sensor is technically very similar to other EO instruments that measure in the thermalIR, but with added challenges: (1) The thermal-IR measurement has to have a much wider spectral range than normal thermal-IR channels to cover the whole earth-emission spectrum i.e. ~4 to >50microns; (2) The 2nd channel (reflected solar radiance) must also have a broad response to cover almost the whole solar spectrum, i.e. ~0.3 to 4microns. And this solar channel must be measured on the same radiometric calibration as the thermal channel, which in practice is best done by using the same radiometer for both channels. The radiometer is designed to be very broad-band i.e. 0.3 to 50microns (i.e. more than two decades), to cover both ranges, and a switchable spectral filter (short-pass cutoff at 4μm) is used to separate the channels. The on-ground measurements which are required to link the calibration of these channels will be described. A calibration of absolute responsivity in each of the two bands is needed; in the thermal-IR channel this is by the normal method of using a calibrated blackbody test source, and in the solar channel it is by means of a narrow-band (laser) and a reference radiometer (from NPL). A calibration of relative spectral response is also needed, across this wide range, for the purpose of linking the two channels, and for converting the narrow-band solar channel measurement to broad-band.
Anti‐Tumorigenic Potential of a Novel Orlistat‐AICAR Combination in Prostate Cancer Cells

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of cancer‐related deaths in men worldwide. Fatty acid synthase (FASN) is reported to be overexpressed in several cancers including PCa, and this has led to clinical cancer treatments that utilize various FASN inhibitors such as the anti‐obesity drug, Orlistat. However, pharmacological limitations have impeded the progress in cancer treatments expected thus far with FASN inhibition. In this study, we investigated a novel therapeutic combination to enhance the toxic potential of Orlistat in three different PCa cell‐lines (DU145, PC3, and LNCaP). We show that Orlistat and 5‐Aminoimidazole‐4‐carboxamide ribonucleotide (AICAR) (AMP‐activated protein kinase [AMPK] activator) co‐treatment induces significant downregulation of two key fatty acid synthesis regulatory proteins (FASN, Sterol regulatory element‐binding protein 1 [SREBP‐1c]) as compared to control and Orlistat alone. Orlistat and AICAR co‐treatment induced a significant decrease in cell viability and proliferation, and a significant increase in apoptosis in all three PCa cell‐lines. Apoptosis induction was preceded by a marked increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production followed by G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and activation of pro‐apoptotic caspases. We also observed a significant decrease in migration potential and VEGF expression in Orlistat and AICAR co‐treated samples in all three PCa cell‐lines. Compound C (AMPK inhibitor) negatively affected some of the enhanced anti‐cancer effects observed with Orlistat treatment. We conclude that AICAR co‐treatment potentiates the anti‐proliferative effects of Orlistat at a low dose (100 µM), and this combination has the potential to be a viable and effective therapeutic option in PCa treatment. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 3834–3845, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Effect of Sodium Selenite Administration and Procalcitonin-Guided Therapy on Mortality in Patients With Severe Sepsis or Septic Shock: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

IMPORTANCE High-dose intravenous administration of sodium selenite has been proposed to improve outcome in sepsis by attenuating oxidative stress. Procalcitonin-guided antimicrobial therapy may hasten the diagnosis of sepsis, but effect on outcome is unclear. OBJECTIVE To determine whether high-dose intravenous sodium selenite treatment and procalcitonin-guided anti-infectious therapy in patients with severe sepsis affect mortality. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The Placebo-Controlled Trial of Sodium Selenite and Procalcitonin Guided Antimicrobial Therapy in Severe Sepsis (SISPCT), a multicenter, randomized, clinical, 2 × 2 factorial trial performed in 33 intensive care units in Germany, was conducted from November 6, 2009, to June 6, 2013, including a 90-day follow-up period. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomly assigned to receive an initial intravenous loading dose of sodium selenite, 1000 µg, followed by a continuous intravenous infusion of sodium selenite, 1000 µg, daily until discharge from the intensive care unit, but not longer than 21 days, or placebo. Patients also were randomized to receive anti-infectious therapy guided by a procalcitonin algorithm or without procalcitonin guidance. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary end point was 28-day mortality. Secondary outcomes included 90-day all-cause mortality, intervention-free days, antimicrobial costs, antimicrobial-free days, and secondary infections. RESULTS Of 8174 eligible patients, 1089 patients (13.3%) with severe sepsis or septic shock were included in an intention-to-treat analysis comparing sodium selenite (543 patients [49.9%]) with placebo (546 [50.1%]) and procalcitonin guidance (552 [50.7%]) vs no procalcitonin guidance (537 [49.3%]). The 28-day mortality rate was 28.3% (95% CI, 24.5%-32.3%) in the sodium selenite group and 25.5% (95% CI, 21.8%-29.4%) (P = .30) in the placebo group. There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality between patients assigned to procalcitonin guidance (25.6% [95% CI, 22.0%-29.5%]) vs no procalcitonin guidance (28.2% [95% CI, 24.4%-32.2%]) (P = .34). Procalcitonin guidance did not affect frequency of diagnostic or therapeutic procedures but did result in a 4.5% reduction of antimicrobial exposure. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Neither high-dose intravenous administration of sodium selenite nor anti-infectious therapy guided by a procalcitonin algorithm was associated with an improved outcome in patients with severe sepsis. These findings do not support administration of high-dose sodium selenite in these patients; the application of a procalcitonin-guided algorithm needs further evaluation. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00832039.
Frontal EEG alpha band asymmetry as a predictor of reasoning deficiency in depressed people

ABSTRACT Cognitive deficits in depression are mostly apparent in executive functions, especially when integration of information and reasoning is required. In parallel, there are also numerous studies pointing to the frontal alpha band asymmetry as a psychophysiological marker of depression. In this study, we explored the role of frontal alpha asymmetry as a potential factor explaining the cognitive problems accompanying depression. Twenty-six depressed and 26 control participants completed a reasoning task and underwent 5 minutes of electroencephalography recording. In line with the previous studies, depressed people showed difficulties with reasoning but we did not observe the relationship between frontal asymmetry in the alpha band and depression. However, we found that in the depressed group the frontal alpha asymmetry index was characterised by larger variance than in the control group, and it was also a strong predictor of cognitive functioning exclusively in the depressed group. Our results point to the disruption of a psychophysiological balance, reflected in changed frontal alpha asymmetry (into more left-sided frontal asymmetry in the alpha band, reflecting more right-sided cortical activity) as a possible brain correlate of cognitive disturbances present in depressive disorders.
Generation of Small 32P-Labeled Peptides as a Potential Approach to Colorectal Cancer Therapy

Cancers have been revealed to be extremely heterogenous in terms of the frequency and types of mutations present in cells from different malignant tumors. Thus, it is likely that uniform clinical treatment is not optimal for all patients, and that the development of individualized therapeutic regimens may be beneficial. We describe the generation of multiple, unique small peptides nine to thirty-four amino acids in length which, when labeled with the radioisotope 32P, bind with vastly differing efficiencies to cell lines derived from different colon adenocarcinomas. In addition, the most effective of these peptides permanently transfers the 32P radioisotope to colorectal cancer cellular proteins within two hours at a rate that is more than 150 times higher than in cell lines derived from other cancers or from the normal tissues tested. Currently, the only two FDA-approved radioimmunotherapeutic agents in use both employ antibodies directed against the B cell marker CD20 for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. By using the method described herein, large numbers of different 32P-labeled peptides can be readily produced and assayed against a broad spectrum of cancer types. This report proposes the development and use of 32P-labeled peptides as potential individualized peptide-binding therapies for the treatment of colon adenocarcinoma patients.
Liquid Embolic Agents for Endovascular Embolization: Evaluation of an Established (Onyx) and a Novel (PHIL) Embolic Agent in an In Vitro AVM Model

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Embolization plays a key role in the treatment of arteriovenous malformations. The aim of this study was to evaluate an established (Onyx) and a novel (precipitating hydrophobic injectable liquid [PHIL]) liquid embolic agent in an in vitro AVM model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An AVM model was integrated into a circuit system. The artificial nidus (subdivided into 28 honeycomb-like sections) was embolized with Onyx 18 (group Onyx; n = 8) or PHIL 25 (group PHIL; n = 8) with different pause times between the injections (30 and 60 seconds, n = 4 per study group) by using a 1.3F microcatheter. Procedure times, number of injections, embolization success (defined as the number of filled sections of the artificial nidus), volume of embolic agent, and frequency and extent of reflux and draining vein embolization were assessed. RESULTS: Embolization success was comparable between Onyx and PHIL. Shorter pause times resulted in a significantly higher embolization success for PHIL (median embolization score, 28 versus 18; P = .011). Compared with Onyx, lower volumes of PHIL were required for the same extent of embolization (median volume per section of the artificial nidus, 15.5 versus 3.6 μL; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: While the embolization success was comparable for Onyx and PHIL, pause time had a considerable effect on the embolization success in an in vitro AVM model. Compared with Onyx, lower volumes of PHIL were required for the same extent of embolization.
Extracting bilingual terms from the Web

In this paper we make two contributions. First, we describe a multi-component system called BiTES (Bilingual Term Extraction System) designed to automatically gather domain-specific bilingual term pairs from Web data. BiTES components consist of data gathering tools, domain classifiers, monolingual text extraction systems and bilingual term aligners. BiTES is readily extendable to new language pairs and has been successfully used to gather bilingual terminology for 24 language pairs, including English and all official EU languages, save Irish. Second, we describe a novel set of methods for evaluating the main components of BiTES and present the results of our evaluation for six language pairs. Results show that the BiTES approach can be used to successfully harvest quality bilingual term pairs from the Web. Our evaluation method delivers significant insights about the strengths and weaknesses of our techniques. It can be straightforwardly reused to evaluate other bilingual term extraction systems and makes a novel contribution to the study of how to evaluate bilingual terminology extraction systems.
Understanding Job Satisfaction of Crowd Workers: An Empirical Analysis of Its Determinants and Effects

Crowd work has emerged as new pattern of digitally mediated collaboration. In this paper, we focus on the determinants and effects of crowd workers’ job satisfaction – a perspective that has been largely neglected by current crowdsourcing research. We report results from a survey of 161 crowd workers participating in crowdsourced software testing. Our research shows that job satisfaction mediates the effects of monetary rewards, hedonic value, and cognitive stimulation on the intention to participate in future testing tasks. By contrast, factors of work context (i.e., flexibility and provided information) have no effects. We contribute to the literature by unraveling job satisfaction as causal mechanism influencing future participation. For practice, our results help to design more effective tasks in crowd work.
Waste mechanics: Recent findings and unanswered questions

Significant advances have been made in our understanding of the mechanical properties of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the past 15 years. Recent findings with respect to MSW properties have included development of characteristic unit weight profiles, measurement of the at rest lateral earth pressure coefficient in the field and laboratory, reconciliation of shear strength values from different types of laboratory tests and from back analyses of landfill failures, insight into the role of liquids and pore pressures on shear strength, and the dynamic modulus and damping in isotropically consolidated triaxial tests. Despite this progress, many unanswered questions on waste properties remain, including the effects of waste composition, waste processing, and waste degradation on most waste properties, the values of active and passive earth pressure coefficients, the cyclic behavior of saturated waste, and quantitative evaluation of the secondary compressibility of waste. Changes in waste streams, waste processing, and landfill operations suggest that typical values for waste properties will continue to evolve over time.
Peripheral Mechanisms of Ischemic Myalgia

Musculoskeletal pain due to ischemia is present in a variety of clinical conditions including peripheral vascular disease (PVD), sickle cell disease (SCD), complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), and even fibromyalgia (FM). The clinical features associated with deep tissue ischemia are unique because although the subjective description of pain is common to other forms of myalgia, patients with ischemic muscle pain often respond poorly to conventional analgesic therapies. Moreover, these patients also display increased cardiovascular responses to muscle contraction, which often leads to exercise intolerance or exacerbation of underlying cardiovascular conditions. This suggests that the mechanisms of myalgia development and the role of altered cardiovascular function under conditions of ischemia may be distinct compared to other injuries/diseases of the muscles. It is widely accepted that group III and IV muscle afferents play an important role in the development of pain due to ischemia. These same muscle afferents also form the sensory component of the exercise pressor reflex (EPR), which is the increase in heart rate and blood pressure (BP) experienced after muscle contraction. Studies suggest that afferent sensitization after ischemia depends on interactions between purinergic (P2X and P2Y) receptors, transient receptor potential (TRP) channels, and acid sensing ion channels (ASICs) in individual populations of peripheral sensory neurons. Specific alterations in primary afferent function through these receptor mechanisms correlate with increased pain related behaviors and altered EPRs. Recent evidence suggests that factors within the muscles during ischemic conditions including upregulation of growth factors and cytokines, and microvascular changes may be linked to the overexpression of these different receptor molecules in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) that in turn modulate pain and sympathetic reflexes. In this review article, we will discuss the peripheral mechanisms involved in the development of ischemic myalgia and the role that primary sensory neurons play in EPR modulation.