Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An evaluation of the clinical and cost-effectiveness of alternative care locations for critically ill adult patients with acute traumatic brain injury

Abstract Background: For critically ill adult patients with acute traumatic brain injury (TBI), we assessed the clinical and cost-effectiveness of: (a) Management in dedicated neurocritical care units versus combined neuro/general critical care units within neuroscience centres. (b) ‘Early’ transfer to a neuroscience centre versus ‘no or late’ transfer for those who present at a non-neuroscience centre. Methods: The Risk Adjustment In Neurocritical care (RAIN) Study included prospective admissions following acute TBI to 67 UK adult critical care units during 2009–11. Data were collected on baseline case-mix, mortality, resource use, and at six months, Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE), and quality of life (QOL) (EuroQol 5D-3L). We report incremental effectiveness, costs and cost per Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) of the alternative care locations, adjusting for baseline differences with validated risk prediction models. We tested the robustness of results in sensitivity analyses. Findings: Dedicated neurocritical care unit patients (N = 1324) had similar six-month mortality, higher QOL (mean gain 0.048, 95% CI −0.002 to 0.099) and increased average costs compared with those managed in combined neuro/general units (N = 1341), with a lifetime cost per QALY gained of £14,000. ‘Early’ transfer to a neuroscience centre (N = 584) was associated with lower mortality (odds ratio 0.52, 0.34–0.80), higher QOL for survivors (mean gain 0.13, 0.032–0.225), but positive incremental costs (£15,001, £11,123 to £18,880) compared with ‘late or no transfer’ (N = 263). The lifetime cost per QALY gained for ‘early’ transfer was £11,000. Conclusions: For critically ill adult patients with acute TBI, within neuroscience centres management in dedicated neurocritical care units versus combined neuro/general units led to improved QoL and higher costs, on average, but these differences were not statistically significant. This study finds that ‘early’ transfer to a neuroscience centre is associated with reduced mortality, improvement in QOL and is cost-effective.
The South Asian Genome

The genetic sequence variation of people from the Indian subcontinent who comprise one-quarter of the world's population, is not well described. We carried out whole genome sequencing of 168 South Asians, along with whole-exome sequencing of 147 South Asians to provide deeper characterisation of coding regions. We identify 12,962,155 autosomal sequence variants, including 2,946,861 new SNPs and 312,738 novel indels. This catalogue of SNPs and indels amongst South Asians provides the first comprehensive map of genetic variation in this major human population, and reveals evidence for selective pressures on genes involved in skin biology, metabolism, infection and immunity. Our results will accelerate the search for the genetic variants underlying susceptibility to disorders such as type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease which are highly prevalent amongst South Asians.
Fruit and vegetable intake and prostate cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

Several dietary factors have been studied in relation to prostate cancer; however, most studies have not reported on subtypes of fruit and vegetables or tumor characteristics, and results obtained so far are inconclusive. This study aimed to examine the prospective association of total and subtypes of fruit and vegetable intake with the incidence of prostate cancer overall, by grade and stage of disease, and prostate cancer death. Lifestyle information for 142,239 men participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition from 8 European countries was collected at baseline. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). After an average follow‐up time of 13.9 years, 7,036 prostate cancer cases were identified. Compared with the lowest fifth, those in the highest fifth of total fruit intake had a significantly reduced prostate cancer risk (HR = 0.91; 95% CI = 0.83–0.99; p‐trend = 0.01). No associations between fruit subtypes and prostate cancer risk were observed, except for citrus fruits, where a significant trend was found (HR = 0.94; 95% CI = 0.86–1.02; p‐trend = 0.01). No associations between total and subtypes of vegetables and prostate cancer risk were observed. We found no evidence of heterogeneity in these associations by tumor grade and stage, with the exception of significant heterogeneity by tumor grade (pheterogeneity<0.001) for leafy vegetables. No significant associations with prostate cancer death were observed. The main finding of this prospective study was that a higher fruit intake was associated with a small reduction in prostate cancer risk. Whether this association is causal remains unclear.
A Robust Infrared Small Target Detection Algorithm Based on Human Visual System

Robust human visual system (HVS) properties can effectively improve the infrared (IR) small target detection capabilities, such as detection rate, false alarm rate, speed, etc. However, current algorithms based on HVS usually improve one or two of the aforementioned detection capabilities while sacrificing the others. In this letter, a robust IR small target detection algorithm based on HVS is proposed to pursue good performance in detection rate, false alarm rate, and speed simultaneously. First, an HVS size-adaptation process is used, and the IR image after preprocessing is divided into subblocks to improve detection speed. Then, based on HVS contrast mechanism, the improved local contrast measure, which can improve detection rate and reduce false alarm rate, is proposed to calculate the saliency map, and a threshold operation along with a rapid traversal mechanism based on HVS attention shift mechanism is used to get the target subblocks quickly. Experimental results show the proposed algorithm has good robustness and efficiency for real IR small target detection applications.
Improving Schoolchildren's Knowledge of Methods for the Prevention and Management of Low Back Pain: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Study Design. Cluster randomized controlled trial. Objective. To evaluate the effect of a very simple education campaign among community-dwelling 8-year-old schoolchildren. Summary of Background Data. Information has a positive effect on low back pain (LBP) prevention and management. There is sparse evidence on the feasibility and effectiveness of education campaigns focusing on LBP among young schoolchildren. Methods. A stratified random sample of 12 schools was randomized to an intervention and a control group. Eight-year-old schoolchildren from these schools were given a questionnaire on LBP prevention and management at baseline, and 15 and 98 days later. On day 8, teachers in the intervention group gave the schoolchildren a Comic Book of the Back, while no intervention was carried out in the control group. After adjusting by possible confounders, generalized estimating equations (GEE) models were developed to calculate the probability of “success” (a score over 80% of the maximum possible one). Results. Six schools (231 children, 46.5%) were assigned to the control group, and 6 (266 children, 53.5%) to the intervention one. At baseline, the percentage of correct answers was above 73% in both groups, with 8 as a median total score in the control group and 7 in the intervention group. GEE showed that the odds ratio for success in the intervention group, when compared with the control group, was 1.61 (95% CI: 1.03–2.52, P = 0.038). Conclusion. The handing out of a Comic Book of the Back slightly improves children's knowledge of appropriate methods for the prevention and management of LBP, and the effect remains significant 3 months after intervention.
Évaluation de la qualité des comportements des agents en simulation : application à un simulateur de conduite en environnement virtuel

Cette these se situe dans le contexte de la Simulation Multi-Agent et s'interesse a l'evaluation de la capacite des agents a reproduire des comportements humains. Cette problematique se retrouve dans de nombreux domaines comme la Realite Virtuelle et les Agents Conversationnels Animes. L'approche dominante s'appuie sur l'utilisation de questionnaires de Sciences Humaines et Sociales (SHS). Il existe peu d'approches exploitant l'analyse automatique de donnees utilisee en Intelligence Artificielle (IA) a l'echelle microscopique. Nous montrons dans cette these que l'evaluation gagne a exploiter conjointement ces deux approches. Nous exposons une methode d'evaluation de la qualite des comportements des agents qui combine l'approche d'IA et celle de SHS. La premiere est basee sur la classification de traces de simulation. La seconde evalue les utilisateurs par une annotation des comportements. Nous presentons ensuite un algorithme de comparaison des agents par rapport aux humains afin d'evaluer les capacites, les manques et les erreurs du modele d'agent et fournissons des metriques. Puis nous explicitons ces comportements en nous appuyant sur les categories d'utilisateur. Enfin, nous exposons un cycle de calibration automatique des agents et une exploration de l'espace des parametres. Notre methode d'evaluation est utilisable dans le but d'analyser un modele d'agent et de comparer plusieurs modeles d'agent. Nous avons applique cette methodologie sur plusieurs etudes du comportement de conduite en vue d'analyser la simulation de trafic routier ARCHISIM et nous presentons les resultats obtenus.
An accelerated senescence response to radiation in wild-type p53 glioblastoma multiforme cells.

OBJECT Radiotherapy is one of the few treatment options available for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM); however, the basis for its overall ineffectiveness in GBM is not fully understood. The present study was designed to explore the nature of the response to ionizing radiation in GBM cells to gain insight into the basis for the general failure of radiotherapy in the treatment of this disease. METHODS The response to fractionated radiotherapy was examined in GBM cell lines with differing p53 status. A viable cell number was determined during an 8-day period; accelerated senescence was based on beta-galactosidase staining and cell morphology; apoptosis was evaluated by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick-end labeling assay and fluorescence-activated cell-sorter analysis, whereas the expression of cell-cycle regulatory proteins was monitored by Western blot analysis. Based on clonogenic survival, the wild-type p53 U87 cells and mutant p53 T98 cells demonstrated essentially identical sensitivity to fractionated radiotherapy; however, neither cell line underwent apoptosis, and the primary response to irradiation was growth arrest. The wild-type p53 GBM cells showed clear evidence of accelerated senescence in response to irradiation. In contrast, senescence was not evident in mutant p53 GBM cells or GBM cells in which p53 function was abrogated by the viral E6 protein. The T98 (mutant p53) cells demonstrated a relatively robust proliferative recovery whereas both the rate and extent of recovery were attenuated in the wild-type p53 U87 cells. CONCLUSIONS Both accelerated senescence and conventional growth arrest are likely to represent alternative responses to apoptosis in irradiated GBM cells.
A Multicenter Study of BRD2 as a Risk Factor for Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy

Summary: Purpose: Although complex idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGEs) are recognized to have a significant genetic component, as yet there are no known common susceptibility variants. It has recently been suggested that variation in the BRD2 gene confers increased risk of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), which accounts for around a quarter of all IGE. Here we examine the association between the candidate causal SNP (the promoter variant rs3918149) and JME in five independent cohorts comprising in total 531 JME cases and 1,390 healthy controls.
Droop Compensation Technique with Simple Structure for OFDM mobile transmitter

Generally the system clock is same to OFDM time sample rate at OFDM mobile systems to reduce the power consumption of handheld systems. For this reason, the droop phenomena that both edges of frequency channel band fall down is occurred by the sample-and-hold operation of digital to analog converters. In this paper, we have proposed the compensation technique to predistort the OFDM subcarriers with the inverse sine before the inverse fast Fourier transformation operation. The proposed technique can be implemented with the one multiplier and look-up table to save inverse sine weighting values operating to the low frequency. We have presented the simulation results on the droop compensation with WiBro standard based on OFDMA in Korea and the measurement results on the droop compensated frequency response
Tracking Monocyte Recruitment and Macrophage Accumulation in Atherosclerotic Plaque Progression Using a Novel hCD68GFP/ApoE−/− Reporter Mouse—Brief Report

Objective— To create a model of atherosclerosis using green fluorescent protein (GFP)–targeted monocytes/macrophages, allowing analysis of both endogenous GFP+ and adoptively transferred GFP+ myeloid cells in arterial inflammation. Approach and Results— hCD68GFP reporter mice were crossed with ApoE−/− mice. Expression of GFP was localized to macrophages in atherosclerotic plaques and in angiotensin II–induced aortic aneurysms and correlated with galectin 3 and mCD68 expression. Flow cytometry confirmed GFP+ expression in CD11b+/CD64+, CD11c+/MHC-IIHI, and CD11b+/F4/80+ myeloid cells. Adoptive transfer of GFP+ monocytes demonstrated monocyte recruitment to both adventitia and atherosclerotic plaque, throughout the aortic root, within 72 hours. We demonstrated the biological utility of hCD68GFP monocytes by comparing the recruitment of wild-type and CCR2−/− monocytes to sites of inflammation. Conclusions— hCD68GFP/ApoE−/− mice provide a new approach to study macrophage accumulation in atherosclerotic plaque progression and to identify cells recruited from adoptively transferred monocytes.
Pathogen analysis and genetic predisposition testing using microelectronic arrays and isothermal amplification.

BACKGROUND A simple yet powerful tool for providing for rapid gene identification in the clinic would be the combination of isothermal gene amplification with electronic microchip analysis. This is a first report of such a union of these technologies. METHODS The first assay demonstrates discrimination between four bacterial pathogens. For this, one portion of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene encompassing a microheterogeneous region was isothermally amplified using Strand Displacement Amplification (SDA). Type identification was then made by "sandwich" assay format either using selective electronic hybridization of amplicons to sequence-specific capture oligonucleotides and a universal, fluorescently labeled reporter oligonucleotide, or, alternatively, sequence-specific reporters and a universal capture oligonucleotide. The second assay tested for the presence or absence of the Factor V Leiden point mutation using DNA obtained from 18 patients in a blind assay. For this, allele-specific SDA was developed. Following amplification using a sense-biotinylated primer and either the corresponding antisense wild type or mutant primer, multiple patient amplicons were targeted to specified locations on the microarray and visualized using a fluorescently labeled reporter oligonucleotide. Positive signals were scored as greater than or equal to two times the background. RESULTS Bacterial type-specific signals were between 3- to 10-fold greater than nonspecific in both assay formats. Using allele-specific SDA, 100% agreement was observed between PAGE analysis, microarray results, and clinical diagnosis in Factor V mutation analysis. CONCLUSIONS We demonstrated two model clinical assays combining amplified materials and microelectronic arrays, one potentially suitable for pathogen screening and the other for a deleterious genetic mutation.
Mtss1 Promotes Cell-Cell Junction Assembly and Stability through the Small GTPase Rac1

Cell-cell junctions are an integral part of epithelia and are often disrupted in cancer cells during epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is a main driver of metastatic spread. We show here that Metastasis suppressor-1 (Mtss1; Missing in Metastasis, MIM), a member of the IMD-family of proteins, inhibits cell-cell junction disassembly in wound healing or HGF-induced scatter assays by enhancing cell-cell junction strength. Mtss1 not only makes cells more resistant to cell-cell junction disassembly, but also accelerates the kinetics of adherens junction assembly. Mtss1 drives enhanced junction formation specifically by elevating Rac-GTP. Lastly, we show that Mtss1 depletion reduces recruitment of F-actin at cell-cell junctions. We thus propose that Mtss1 promotes Rac1 activation and actin recruitment driving junction maintenance. We suggest that the observed loss of Mtss1 in cancers may compromise junction stability and thus promote EMT and metastasis.
Schizophrenia genetic variants are not associated with intelligence

Background Schizophrenia is associated with lower pre-morbid intelligence (IQ) in addition to (pre-morbid) cognitive decline. Both schizophrenia and IQ are highly heritable traits. Therefore, we hypothesized that genetic variants associated with schizophrenia, including copy number variants (CNVs) and a polygenic schizophrenia (risk) score (PSS), may influence intelligence. Method IQ was estimated with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). CNVs were determined from single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data using the QuantiSNP and PennCNV algorithms. For the PSS, odds ratios for genome-wide SNP data were calculated in a sample collected by the Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) Consortium (8690 schizophrenia patients and 11 831 controls). These were used to calculate individual PSSs in our independent sample of 350 schizophrenia patients and 322 healthy controls. Results Although significantly more genes were disrupted by deletions in schizophrenia patients compared to controls (p = 0.009), there was no effect of CNV measures on IQ. The PSS was associated with disease status (R2 = 0.055, p = 2.1 × 10−7) and with IQ in the entire sample (R2 = 0.018, p = 0.0008) but the effect on IQ disappeared after correction for disease status. Conclusions Our data suggest that rare and common schizophrenia-associated variants do not explain the variation in IQ in healthy subjects or in schizophrenia patients. Thus, reductions in IQ in schizophrenia patients may be secondary to other processes related to schizophrenia risk.
The Detection of Visual Contrast in the Behaving Mouse

The mouse is becoming a key species for research on the neural circuits of the early visual system. To relate such circuits to perception, one must measure visually guided behavior and ask how it depends on fundamental stimulus attributes such as visual contrast. Using operant conditioning, we trained mice to detect visual contrast in a two-alternative forced-choice task. After 3–4 weeks of training, mice performed hundreds of trials in each session. Numerous sessions yielded high-quality psychometric curves from which we inferred measures of contrast sensitivity. In multiple sessions, however, choices were influenced not only by contrast, but also by estimates of reward value and by irrelevant factors such as recent failures and rewards. This behavior was captured by a generalized linear model involving not only the visual responses to the current stimulus but also a bias term and history terms depending on the outcome of the previous trial. We compared the behavioral performance of the mice to predictions of a simple decoder applied to neural responses measured in primary visual cortex of awake mice during passive viewing. The decoder performed better than the animal, suggesting that mice might not use optimally the information contained in the activity of visual cortex.
Effects of feeding polyphenol-rich winery wastes on digestibility, nitrogen utilization, ruminal fermentation, antioxidant status and oxidative stress in wethers.

Four wethers were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design experiment to evaluate the availability of two types of winery wastes, winery sediment and grape pomace, as ruminant feeds possessing antioxidant activities. Each wether was assigned to one of the following four treatments: (i) 75 g/kg winery sediment (WS) on a dry matter (DM) basis; (ii) 166 g/kg DM winery grape pomace (WP); (iii) control diet (CD; 17 g/kg DM soybean meal);and (iv) only tall fescue hay (TFH; no additive). Winery sediment and grape pomace had high levels of polyphenols and of radical scavenging activities. Feeding with winery sediment and grape pomace did not negatively affect the intake, but it depressed crude protein (CP) digestibility compared with CD (P = 0.052 and P < 0.01 for WS and WP, respectively). Polyphenols in winery wastes decreased ruminal ammonia production (P = 0.089 and P < 0.05), likely due to their inhibitive effect on microbial activities in the rumen. The addition of winery sediment and grape pomace decreased urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG; an index of oxidative damages) excretion per day (P < 0.05 and P = 0.059). The results indicated that winery sediment and grape pomace could alter nitrogen metabolism and/or act as new antioxidants for ruminants.
Enhancing Mathematics Achievement of Elementary School Students through Homework Assignments Enriched with Metacognitive Questions

Background:This study investigates the effect of homework assignments enriched with metacognitive questions on students’ mathematics achievement and homework behaviors.Materials and methods:A quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-test measures and two groups (experimental and control) was employed to investigate the effect of the enriched homework. Forty-four students participated in the study. Data were obtained through the Mathematics Homework Behaviors Scale. First semester mathematics scores taken from students’ report cards were used as a pre-test of mathematics achievement; the mean of second and third examination scores were used as a post-test.Results:The results revealed a significant difference between the mathematics scores of students in the experimental and the control groups. No significant differences were found between the homework behavior scores of the experimental group and the control group.Conclusions:The results were thought to be useful for mathematics teachers.
Interpersonal–Psychological Theory, Alexithymia, and Personality Predict Suicide Ideation among Maladjusted Soldiers in Taiwan

This case-control study enrolled 226 maladjusted soldiers and 229 controls to investigate the impact of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide, alexithymia, personality, and childhood trauma on suicide risk among Taiwanese soldiers. Assessments included the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Eysenck Personality Inventory, Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and Brief Symptom Rating Scale. In addition to thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness, other risks included less extraversion with higher neuroticism, higher alexithymia, poor academic performance, domestic violence, and life-threatening events. Our study demonstrates the interaction of the interpersonal-psychological theory and other suicide risk factors in Taiwanese soldiers.