Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I and risk of heart failure in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome: a cohort study

Abstract Aims Heart failure may occur following acute myocardial infarction, but with the use of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays we increasingly diagnose patients with minor myocardial injury. Whether troponin concentrations remain a useful predictor of heart failure in patients with acute coronary syndrome is uncertain. Methods and results We identified all consecutive patients (n = 4748) with suspected acute coronary syndrome (61 ± 16 years, 57% male) presenting to three secondary and tertiary care hospitals. Cox-regression models were used to evaluate the association between high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I concentration and subsequent heart failure hospitalization. C-statistics were estimated to evaluate the predictive value of troponin for heart failure hospitalization. Over 2071 years of follow-up there were 83 heart failure hospitalizations. Patients with troponin concentrations above the upper reference limit (URL) were more likely to be hospitalized with heart failure than patients below the URL (118/1000 vs. 17/1000 person years, adjusted hazard ratio: 7.0). Among patients with troponin concentrations <URL the rate of heart failure hospitalization was 2.80-fold higher [95% confidence interval (95% CI 1.81–4.31)] per doubling of troponin concentration. On adding troponin to a model with demographic, cardiovascular risk factor, and clinical variables, the prediction of heart failure hospitalization improved considerably (C-statistic 0.80 vs. 0.86, P < 0.001). Conclusion Cardiac troponin is an excellent predictor of heart failure hospitalization in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome. The strongest associations were observed in patients with troponin concentrations in the normal reference range, in whom high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays identify those at increased risk of heart failure who may benefit from further investigation and treatment.
Effect of additional administration of tacrolimus in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with biologics.

OBJECTIVE To explore the effect of additional administration of tacrolimus to rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with biologics, in whom the effect of biologics is unsatisfactory. METHODS Tacrolimus was administered if the effect of biologics was unsatisfactory for 24 weeks at least in terms of laboratory data or DAS28 level: ESR, CRP level and DAS28 level were not below 15 mm/h, 0.2 mg/dl or 2.6, respectively. RESULTS Tacrolimus administered in addition to biologics was significantly effective for suppressing the activity of rheumatoid arthritis in our study. The significant effect of tacrolimus appeared at the 4th week. The effect of tacrolimus achieved quite significant level at the 54th week (p< 0.0001). CONCLUSION Tacrolimus may be a promising candidate to suppress the disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis refractory to the conventional treatment with biologics.
THREE DIMENSIONAL PREDICTIONS OF FIBER ORIENTATION FOR INJECTION MOLDING OF LONG FIBER REINFORCED THERMOPLASTICS

Long fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites have more critical requirements in automotive industry than short FRTS. FRT products' mechanical properties and warpage are highly dependent upon fiber orientation within the part. We recently proposed a new fiber orientation model for improving the prior developed models regarding interaction and diffusion of the fibers immersed in a matrix, namely, iARD-RPR (Improved Anisotropic Rotary Diffusion model combined with Retarding Principal Rate model) [U.S. Patent Pending in USPTO with Application No. US-2012-0330627-A1 (2012)]. The iARD-RPR model has been demonstrated to describe changes in fiber orientations, whether treating short fibers or long fibers. In this study, we performed injection molding of a center gated disk for the 40wt%glass-fiber immersed in polypropylene matrix, and then predicted the fiber orientation distribution. As a result, the shellcore structure of the orientation assessments at three regions of the near-entry, the lubrication, and the near-end-of-filling were in good agreement with experimental observations.
Pathologic Impact of Insulin Resistance and Sensitivity on the Severity of Liver Histopathology in Pediatric Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis

Purpose Insulin resistance (IR) has an important role in the development of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We aimed to analyze the association between liver histopathology and IR in pediatric patients with NASH. Materials and Methods In 24 children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), we investigated whether the hepatic pathologic characteristics have relations with following three biochemical indices; IR index including homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR), quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), and insulin sensitivity indices-free fatty acid (ISI-FFA). Results Among 24 patients, 16 (66.6%) had a high NAFLD activity score (NAS), which is diagnostic of NASH. Higher serum triglyceride level was significantly correlated with a high NAS. Higher steatosis grades were significantly associated with low insulin sensitivity (p=0.023). In addition, severe lobular inflammation was associated with higher IR: HOMA-IR (p=0.014) and QUICKI (p=0.023). Severe fibrosis correlated with low insulin sensitivity and high IR indexes: ISI-FFA (p=0.049), HOMA-IR (p=0.028), and QUICKI (p=0.007). Conclusion Patients with high IR had more severe lobular inflammation and hepatic fibrosis. Analyses of biochemical and endocrine parameters can be applied to determine the severity of the hepatic pathologic status in patients with NASH, especially in children who cannot undergo a liver biopsy.
A selective role for ventromedial subthalamic nucleus in inhibitory control

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is hypothesized to play a central role in the rapid stopping of movement in reaction to a stop signal. Single-unit recording evidence for such a role is sparse, however, and it remains uncertain how that role relates to the disparate functions described for anatomic subdivisions of the STN. Here we address that gap in knowledge using non-human primates and a task that distinguishes reactive and proactive action inhibition, switching and skeletomotor functions. We found that specific subsets of STN neurons have activity consistent with causal roles in reactive action stopping or switching. Importantly, these neurons were strictly segregated to a ventromedial region of STN. Neurons in other subdivisions encoded task dimensions such as movement per se and proactive control. We propose that the involvement of STN in reactive control is restricted to its ventromedial portion, further implicating this STN subdivision in impulse control disorders.
Role of Kisspeptin and Neurokinin B in Puberty in Female Non-Human Primates

In human patients, loss-of-function mutations in the genes encoding kisspeptin (KISS1) and neurokinin B (NKB) and their receptors (KISS1R and NK3R, respectively) result in an abnormal timing of puberty or the absence of puberty. To understand the neuroendocrine mechanism of puberty, we investigated the contribution of kisspeptin and NKB signaling to the pubertal increase in GnRH release using rhesus monkeys as a model. Direct measurements of GnRH and kisspeptin in the median eminence of the hypothalamus with infusion of agonists and antagonists for kisspeptin and NKB reveal that kisspeptin and NKB signaling stimulate GnRH release independently or collaboratively by forming kisspeptin and NKB neuronal networks depending on the developmental age. For example, while in prepubertal females, kisspeptin and NKB signaling independently stimulate GnRH release, in pubertal females, the formation of a collaborative kisspeptin and NKB network further accelerates the pubertal increase in GnRH release. It is speculated that the collaborative mechanism between kisspeptin and NKB signaling to GnRH neurons is necessary for the complex reproductive function in females.
Vessel pattern enhancement based on Weber's law for sclera recognition

The blood vessel patterns of the sclera show rich and unique details in the visible spectrum. In this paper, an efficient vessel enhancement method is proposed based on Weber's law in order to make the blood vessel patterns clearly visible. Then, the Speeded Up Robust Features is used for feature extraction. Experimental results on the UBIRIS version 1 dataset showed that the proposed method is useful to reveal the vague vessel patterns, and Equal Error Rate (EER) is 2.27% including all poor quality images (e.g. blurred or blinked images).
Towards heart sound classification without segmentation using convolutional neural network

Heart sound classification is an effective and convenient method for the preliminary diagnosis of heart diseases, it provides physiology and pathology information to determine whether further expert diagnosis is needed. However, one of the most difficult problems for heart sound classification is heart sound segmentation. In this study, we proposed a method for heart sound classification without segmentation using convolutional neural network (CNN). In the proposed method, the heart cycles with different start positions are intercepted from the heart sound signals during the training phase. Then the spectrograms of the intercepted heart cycles are scaled to a fixed size and input to the designed CNN architecture. Thus, the trained CNN is able to generate features of different start positions in the testing phase. Therefore, heart sound segmentation is not necessary for prediction in the proposed method. At last, the classification task is completed by support vector machine (SVM). Moreover, the proposed method is evaluated on two public datasets offered by the PASCAL classifying heart sounds challenge. The results show that the proposed method is competitive compared with the methods using heart sound segmentation information, especially that the performance improvement is not obvious when the segmentation information is used in the testing phase of the proposed method.
Triple boundary multiphase with predictive interleaving technique for switched capacitor DC-DC converter regulation

In this paper, we propose a new technique to regulate multi-phase interleaved switched-capacitor DC-DC converters. Traditionally, SC converters are either regulated by modulating the switching frequencies directly through a voltage-controlled-oscillator or by using hysteretic control where separate control loops are used for each converter core. Achieving fast regulation by modulating VCO is difficult because it requires a high speed error amplifier and proper loop compensation. Conventional hysteretic controller achieves fast regulation, but it uses N comparators or one shared comparator that operates at N times the single phase switching frequency, where N is the level of interleaving. The proposed technique avoids these problems by using triple boundary hysteretic control, where one comparator is used for defining the reference voltage, and the other two comparators enable coarse/fine operation to achieve both fast recovery and tight regulation.
Low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet impairs anaerobic exercise performance in exercise-trained women and men: a randomized-sequence crossover trial.

BACKGROUND Low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diets cause mild, subclinical systemic acidosis. Anaerobic exercise performance is limited by acidosis. Therefore, we evaluated the hypothesis that a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet impairs anaerobic exercise performance, as compared to a high-carbohydrate diet. METHODS Sixteen men and women (BMI, 23±1 kg/m2, age 23±1 years) participated in a randomized-sequence, counterbalanced crossover study in which they underwent exercise testing after 4 days of either a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet (LC; <50 g/day and <10% of energy from carbohydrates) or a high-carbohydrate diet (HC; 6-10 g/kg/day carbohydrate). Dietary compliance was assessed with nutrient analysis of diet records, and with measures of urine pH and ketones. Anaerobic exercise performance was evaluated with the Wingate anaerobic cycling test and the yo-yo intermittent recovery test. RESULTS The diets were matched for total energy (LC: 2333±158 kcal/d; HC: 2280±160 kcal/d; P=0.65) but differed in carbohydrate content (9±1% vs. 63±2% of energy intake; P<0.001). LC resulted in lower urine pH (5.9±0.1 vs. 6.3±0.2, P=0.004) and the appearance of urine ketones in every participant. LC resulted in 7% lower peak power (801±58 watts vs. 857±61 watts, P=0.008) and 6% lower mean power (564±50 watts vs. 598±51 watts, P=0.01) during the Wingate Test. Total distance ran in the yo-yo intermittent recovery test was 15% less after LC diet (887±139 vs. 1045±145 meters, P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS Short-term low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diets reduce exercise performance in activities that are heavily dependent on anaerobic energy systems. These findings have clear performance implications for athletes, especially for high-intensity, short duration activities and sports.
Clinical effectiveness of telemedicine for chronic heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure (HF). The present study is an updated analysis (as of June 30, 2016) of randomized controlled trials, where patients with HF underwent telemedicine care or the usual standard care. Data were extracted from 39 eligible studies for all-cause and HF-related hospital admission rate, length of stay, and mortality. The overall all-cause mortality (pooled OR=0.80, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.91, p<0.001), HF-related admission rate (pooled OR=0.63, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.76, p<0.001), and HF-related length of stay (pooled standardized difference in means=−0.37, 95% CI −0.72 to −0.02, p=0.041) were significantly lower in the telemedicine group (teletransmission and telephone-supported care), as compared with the control group. In subgroup analysis, all-cause mortality (pooled OR=0.69, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.86, p=0.001), HF-related admission rate (OR=0.61, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.88, p=0.008), HF-related length of stay (pooled standardized difference in means=−0.96, 95% CI −1.88 to −0.05, p=0.039) and HF-related mortality (OR=0.68, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.85, p=0.001) were significantly lower in the teletransmission group, as opposed to the standard care group, whereas only HF-related admission rate (OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.79, p<0.001) was lower in the telephone-supported care group. Overall, telemedicine was shown to be beneficial, with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission, length of stay and mortality in patients with HF.
Applying Model Driven Engineering Techniques and Tools to the Planets Game Learning Scenario

CPM (Cooperative Problem-Based learning Metamodel) is a visual language for the instructional design of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) situations. This language is a UML profile implemented on top of the Objecteering UML Case tool. In this article, we first present the way we used CPM language to bring about the pedagogical transposition of the planets game learning scenario. Then, we propose some related works conducted to improve CPM usability: on the one hand, we outline a MOF solution and an Eclipse GMF solution instead of the UML profile approach. On the other hand, we propose some explanations about transforming CPM models into LMS compliant data, and tool functionality.
Precision of EM Simulation Based Wireless Location Estimation in Multi-Sensor Capsule Endoscopy

In this paper, we compute and examine two-way localization limits for an RF endoscopy pill as it passes through an individuals gastrointestinal (GI) tract. We obtain finite-difference time-domain and finite element method-based simulation results position assessment employing time of arrival (TOA). By means of a 3-D human body representation from a full-wave simulation software and lognormal models for TOA propagation from implant organs to body surface, we calculate bounds on location estimators in three digestive organs: stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. We present an investigation of the causes influencing localization precision, consisting of a range of organ properties; peripheral sensor array arrangements, number of pills in cooperation, and the random variations in transmit power of sensor nodes. We also perform a localization precision investigation for the situation where the transmission signal of the antenna is arbitrary with a known probability distribution. The computational solver outcome shows that the number of receiver antennas on the exterior of the body has higher impact on the precision of the location than the amount of capsules in collaboration within the GI region. The large intestine is influenced the most by the transmitter power probability distribution.
Neural mechanisms of the rejection–aggression link

Abstract Social rejection is a painful event that often increases aggression. However, the neural mechanisms of this rejection–aggression link remain unclear. A potential clue may be that rejected people often recruit the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex’s (VLPFC) self-regulatory processes to manage the pain of rejection. Using functional MRI, we replicated previous links between rejection and activity in the brain’s mentalizing network, social pain network and VLPFC. VLPFC recruitment during rejection was associated with greater activity in the brain’s reward network (i.e. the ventral striatum) when individuals were given an opportunity to retaliate. This retaliation-related striatal response was associated with greater levels of retaliatory aggression. Dispositionally aggressive individuals exhibited less functional connectivity between the ventral striatum and the right VLPFC during aggression. This connectivity exerted a suppressing effect on dispositionally aggressive individuals’ greater aggressive responses to rejection. These results help explain how the pain of rejection and reward of revenge motivate rejected people to behave aggressively.
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form: Factorial Invariance and Optimistic and Pessimistic Affective Profiles in Spanish Children

The distinction in recent years between positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) is becoming increasingly important due to their relationship with depression and anxiety. This work is composed of two studies. The first study aimed to validate the brief version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children-Short Form (PANAS-C-SF) in a Spanish child sample. The second study sought to check the existence of four affective profiles: self-fulfilling (high PA and low NA), low affective (low PA and NA), high affective (high PA and NA), and self-destructive (low PA and high NA) and to relate them to optimism and pessimism. Samples for both studies were composed of 647 and 1,296 Spanish students (between 8 and 11 years), respectively. Through various multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MCA), the invariance of the PANAS-SF and the lack of significant gender differences in the latent means were verified. In addition, cluster analysis confirmed the existence of the appropriate profiles. In this case, the self-fulfilling profile correlated with high scores in optimism and low scores pessimism, whereas the self-destructive profile correlated in the opposite direction. These contributions represent an advance in the study of child affect.
Effect of Educational Intervention on General Health and Depression in Temporary Employees

Background: Mental health disorders and depression are pervasive and costly problems for workplaces. The aim of this study was to examine the general health and depression in temporary employees and the effect of educational intervention on general health and depression in temporary employees in Isfahan steel company. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used to examine the effect of intervention among temporary employees of Isfahan steel company. All temporary employees of blast furnaces were studied by census method. Data were collected by questionnaires including GHQ-28, BDI-II before and after a brief three-session CB educational intervention and were analyzed by SPSS12. Results: According to the GHQ-28 scores; 16.9% were suspected to psychological disorders; 3.4% also recorded severe depression. Mean depression scores decreased significantly after the intervention (CI: 3.21-6.94). General health scores also decreased significantly after the intervention (CI: .97-5.03). Conclusion: Brief cognitive behavior educational intervention can be considered as a preliminary education for employees to develop skills to cope with depression, and included in a more extensive education to attain longer-term results.
Exogenous Melatonin Application Delays Senescence of Kiwifruit Leaves by Regulating the Antioxidant Capacity and Biosynthesis of Flavonoids

Melatonin, a multiple signal molecule, plays important roles in delaying senescence during the development of plants. Because few species have been studied for the effect of exogenous melatonin on anti-aging, the plausible mechanism of melatonin of anti-aging effects on other plant species has remained largely unknown. In the present study, the effects of exogenous melatonin on leaf senescence in kiwifruit were examined during natural aging after melatonin (200 μM) or water (Control) pretreatment. The decreased membrane damage and lower hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content due to the enhanced scavenging activity of antioxidant enzymes peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) demonstrated that melatonin effectively delayed the aging of kiwifruit leaves. Likewise, owing to up-regulated expression of chlorophyll a/b-binding protein (CAB) gene in the sampled leaves pretreated with melatonin, chlorophyll degradation decreased. Therefore, osmoregulatory substances in sampled leaves accumulated (e.g., soluble sugar and soluble protein) and seedling cell environment stability was maintained. Simultaneously, melatonin decreased H2O2 concentration owing to increased glutathione (GSH) and ascorbate (AsA) content, and the expression levels of glutathione reductase (GR), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDAR), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) were up-regulated by melatonin application, indicating that the increase of GSH and AsA was attributed to the expression of these genes. In addition, a large amount of flavonoids accumulated in seedlings pretreated with melatonin, and transcript levels of eight genes involved in flavonoid synthesis, including phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), cinnamate-4-hydroxymate (C4H), chalcone synthase (CHS), flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H), flavonol synthase (FNS), leucoanthocyanin reductase (LAR), anthocyanin reductase (ANR), flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase (UFGT) were enhanced in response to melatonin application. These results indicated that melatonin delayed aging of kiwifruit leaves by activating the antioxidant capacity and enhancing flavonoid biosynthesis. All of these results can provide clear proof that melatonin plays a key roles in delaying leaf senescence.
Behavior of Consolidated Trees when using Resampling Techniques

Many machine learning areas use subsampling techniques with different objectives: reducing the size of the training set, equilibrate the class imbalance or non-uniform cost error, etc. Subsampling affects severely to the behavior of classification algorithms. Decision trees induced from different subsamples of the same data set are very different in accuracy and structure. This affects the explanation of the classification; very important in some domains. This paper presents a new methodology for building decision trees. The final classifier is a single decision tree, so that it maintains the explaining capacity of the classification. A comparison in error and structural stability of our algorithm and the C4.5 algorithm is done. The decision trees generated using the new algorithm, achieve smaller error rates and structurally more steady trees than C4.5 when using subsampling techniques.