Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reflected rather than forward wave pressures account for brachial pressure-independent relations between aortic pressure and end-organ changes in an African community

Aims: To determine whether brachial blood pressure (BP)-independent relations between aortic pressure and cardiovascular damage are better explained by reflected (backward) (Pb) or forward (Pf) wave pressure effects. Methods: In 1174 participants from a community of African ancestry, we assessed central aortic pulse pressure (PPc), Pb, and Pf (radial applanation tonometry, SphygmoCor) as well as left ventricular mass index (LVMI) (n = 786), aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) (n = 1019), carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) (n = 578), transmitral early-to-late left ventricular diastolic velocity (E/A) (n = 779) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (n = 1174). Results: Independent of mean arterial pressure and confounders, PPc, and both Pb and Pf were associated with end-organ measures or damage (P < 0.05 to P < 0.0001). With adjustments for brachial PP and confounders, Pb remained directly associated with LVMI (partial r = 0.09, P < 0.01), PWV (partial r = 0.28, P < 0.0001), and IMT (partial r = 0.28, P < 0.0001), and inversely associated with E/A (partial r = −0.31, P < 0.0001) and eGFR (partial r = −0.14, P < 0.0001). Similar relations were noted with the presence of end-organ damage (P < 0.05 to P < 0.0001). In contrast, with adjustments for brachial PP and confounders, Pf no longer retained direct relations with LVMI, PWV, and IMT or inverse relations with E/A and eGFR. Adjustments for Pb, but not Pf, diminished brachial PP-independent relationships between PPc and end-organ measures. Independent relations between Pb, but not Pf and end-organ measures, were largely attributed to Pb accounting for most of the variation in brachial-to-aortic PP amplification. Conclusions: In communities of African ancestry, brachial BP-independent relations between aortic pressure and end-organ changes are largely attributed to an impact of reflected rather than forward wave pressures.
Ghost SPH for animating water

We propose a new ghost fluid approach for free surface and solid boundary conditions in Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) liquid simulations. Prior methods either suffer from a spurious numerical surface tension artifact or drift away from the mass conservation constraint, and do not capture realistic cohesion of liquid to solids. Our Ghost SPH scheme resolves this with a new particle sampling algorithm to create a narrow layer of ghost particles in the surrounding air and solid, with careful extrapolation and treatment of fluid variables to reflect the boundary conditions. We also provide a new, simpler form of artificial viscosity based on XSPH. Examples demonstrate how the new approach captures real liquid behaviour previously unattainable by SPH with very little extra cost.
An experience report: porting the MG‐RAST rapid metagenomics analysis pipeline to the cloud

Existing applications in computational biology typically favor a local cluster based integrated computational platform. We present a lessons learned type report for scaling up an existing metagenomics application that outgrew the available local cluster hardware. In our example, removing a number of assumptions linked to tight integration allowed to expand beyond one administrative domain, increase the number and type of machines available for the application, and also improved scaling properties of the application. The assumptions made in designing the computational client make it well suitable for deployment as a virtual machine inside a cloud. This paper discusses the decision process and describes the suitability of deploying various bioinformatics computations to distributed heterogeneous machines. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mastro Studio: a System for Ontology-Based Data Management

Ontology-based data access (OBDA) is a computing paradigm in which access to data is realized through a three-level architecture, constituted by an ontology, a set of data sources, and the mapping between the two. In this paper we present the MASTRO STUDIO system for data management based on the OBDA paradigm [5]. MASTRO STUDIO is based on the MASTRO reasoner for OBDA, and, therefore, inherits from MASTRO the characteristics which we discuss in this and the following paragraph. Ontologies in MASTRO are specified in logics of the DL-Lite family of Description Logics [4, 5]. Such logics, which are at the base of the OWL 2 QL profile, allow to capture the main modeling features of a variety of representation languages, such as basic ontology languages and conceptual data models, and at the same time maintain computational complexity of reasoning low, in particular when computed with respect to the size of the input data only (i.e., in data complexity). Data sources in MASTRO are seen as a single relational database. When more than one source or even non-relational sources need to be accessed, such a database can be obtained through the use of off-the-shelf relational data federation tools. Finally, the mapping is essentially a set of GAV mapping assertions [7], which associate ontology elements with queries specified on the underlying database. By virtue of these design choices, query answering in MASTRO can be done through a very efficient technique that reduces this task, via query rewriting, to standard SQL query evaluation. Besides reasoning capabilities offered by MASTRO, MASTRO STUDIO is also equipped with a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) which allows for advanced mechanisms for the inspection of the components of an OBDA specification, i.e., the ontology, the mapping and the data sources. In particular, it allows for the representation of the ontology in a graphical form, resembling Entity-Relationship modeling, which makes the ontology accessible to non-experts of logical and ontology formalisms. Also, MASTRO STUDIO provides wiki-like documentation in which every element of the ontology is associated with a natural language description, as well as with all ontology axioms and mapping assertions in which it is involved. The MASTRO STUDIO GUI is realized through the Drupal1 content management system.
Clobazam‐treated patients with Lennox‐Gastaut syndrome experienced fewer seizure‐related injuries than placebo patients during trial OV‐1012

Drop seizures are especially problematic in patients with Lennox‐Gastaut syndrome (LGS) because of their potential for serious injury. In this post hoc analysis of phase 3 OV‐1012 data, a medical review was conducted of seizure‐related injuries based on Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) preferred terms from all adverse event (AE) listings. Patients receiving clobazam experienced fewer seizure‐related injuries than those receiving placebo (8.9% all clobazam dosages vs. 27.1% placebo, p ≤ 0.05). Significant differences in the rates of seizure‐related injuries were observed for the medium‐ and high‐dosage clobazam treatment groups (4.8% and 10.2%, respectively, p ≤ 0.05). A total of 50 of 53 AEs considered seizure‐related were mild or moderate in intensity; 3 severe AEs occurred in the placebo group (fall, contusion, and jaw fracture). A single serious AE (jaw fracture, which required hospitalization and surgery) occurred in a placebo‐treated patient. Most injuries resolved by the end of the study. This analysis indicates that the reduction in drop‐seizure frequency achieved with clobazam provides a clinically meaningful benefit, a reduced likelihood of experiencing seizure‐related injuries.
FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE and TECHNOLOGY

Is market-based or bank-based financial system better for fostering technological innovation as an engine of growth? I present evidence that bank-based systems promote rapid technological progress in those industrial sectors that depend heavily on external finance for funding innovation by facilitating credit access to younger firms. On the other hand, I also find evidence of a general positive effect on technical innovation associated with market-oriented financial systems, which impacts all sectors and all firms homogeneously. Hence, contrary to previous research, I find that financial system architecture is not a matter of indifference to economic growth. JEL Classification: G1, G21, G32, E44, O14, O31, O34, O4
Text-to-speech conversion on a personal computer

A system that uses a set of units derived from Arabic syllables to synthesize unlimited-vocabulary speech on PCs is presented. Text-transcription rules operate on input orthography to generate an abstract representation of phonemes and syllables that form synthesis units and speech. General aspects of the problem, such as the synthesis method and the generation of synthesis units, are discussed. The rules and algorithms of speech synthesis and the current PC-based realization of these algorithms are presented. System evaluation results show an average understandability score of 93%. The system requires about 20 s to compose and replay 1 s of speech when using the PC XT and about one third of this figure on the PC AT. <<ETX>>
An operating system framework for reconfigurable systems

Reconfigurable computing have been accepted as vehicles for both achieving potentially much higher performance than software and maintaining a higher level of flexibility than hardware. However, there is still no much operating system support for it. Based on the essential differences between software-tasks and hardware-tasks, this pa-per presents and implements a RTOS for reconfigurable systems using uniform multitask model, called SHUM-UCOS (software-tasks hardware-tasks uniform management UCOS) , which is designed with the UCOSII as prototype. This RTOS traces and manages the usage of re-configurable resources (FPGAs). and can improve the utilization of these resource and the parallelism of the tasks with the hardware-tasks preconfiguration. And it has been proved by experiments that SHUM-UCOS can shorten the migration time from software implements to hardware implements with the performance improvement.
A NEURAL NETWORK APPROACH TO COMPARE PREDICTIVE VALUE OF ACCOUNTING VERSUS MARKET DATA

This research compares the use of accounting data versus market data in the prediction of bankruptcy. Comparison is made through neural networks so that prediction accuracy is model-independent. Results of this study indicate that both market and accounting data provide useful information on corporate bankruptcies. Interestingly, using market and accounting information together can achieve substantial gain in prediction accuracy
5′CAG and 5′CTG Repeats Create Differential Impediment to the Progression of a Minimal Reconstituted T4 Replisome Depending on the Concentration of dNTPs

Instability of repetitive sequences originates from strand misalignment during repair or replicative DNA synthesis. To investigate the activity of reconstituted T4 replisomes across trinucleotide repeats (TNRs) during leading strand DNA synthesis, we developed a method to build replication miniforks containing a TNR unit of defined sequence and length. Each minifork consists of three strands, primer, leading strand template, and lagging strand template with a 5′ single-stranded (ss) tail. Each strand is prepared independently, and the minifork is assembled by hybridization of the three strands. Using these miniforks and a minimal reconstituted T4 replisome, we show that during leading strand DNA synthesis, the dNTP concentration dictates which strand of the structure-forming 5′CAG/5′CTG repeat creates the strongest impediment to the minimal replication complex. We discuss this result in the light of the known fluctuation of dNTP concentration during the cell cycle and cell growth and the known concentration balance among individual dNTPs.
Measurement of Instantaneous Blood Flow Velocity and Pressure in Conscious Man with a Catheter‐Tip Velocity Probe

Twenty-three patients were investigated during diagnostic right and left cardiac catheterization with an electromagnetic catheter-tip velocity probe. The catheter contained a pressure lumen for simultaneous measurements of intravascular pressure. Average peak and mean blood velocities were 66 and 11 cm/sec in the ascending aorta, 57 and 10 cm/sec in the pulmonary artery, 28 and 12 cm/sec in the superior vena cava, and 26 and 13 cm/sec in the inferior vena cava. The velocity pattern in the ascending aorta was similar to that obtained by other methods. Positioning of the catheter in the ascending aorta required care; in one patient with aortic stenosis the recorded blood velocity pattern was unsatisfactory. In the pulmonary artery flicking of the catheter often produced artifacts in the records. The effect of deep respiration on blood velocity in the ascending aorta and pulmonary artery was studied. In the ascending aorta the highest velocities and stroke volumes were achieved during late expiration while in the pulmonary artery blood velocity and stroke volume were greatest in inspiration. In nine patients the cardiac outputs calculated from the product of mean velocity and radiologically measured cross-sectional area of the ascending aorta or pulmonary artery were compared with cardiac outputs determined by the indicator-dilution method; the correlation coefficient was 0.73. There were no complications, and the probe proved reliable.
Improvement in sundowning in dementia with Lewy bodies after treatment with donepezil

Sundowning, manifested as a recurring increase in restlessness and agitation in the evening, is described in a 71‐year‐old man with clinically diagnosed dementia with Lewy bodies. An objective measure of activity using the activity electronic monitoring technique indicated a marked increase in activity level during the evening compared to earlier in the day. After treatment with donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor, ratings of behavioural symptoms improved. In addition, there was a marked reduction in evening activity and an increase in daytime activity. Cognition and parkinsonism also improved. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Systematic Approach to Preclinical Trials in Metastatic Breast Cancer

The process of developing new agents for therapy against breast cancer is inefficient and relies on animal models to screen for efficacy for preclinical studies. However, there has been limited validation of these models, despite the increasing costs in the rapidly growing era of personalized medicine and targeted therapy. Recently, there have been multiple studies which have critically evaluated animal models for breast cancer drug discovery. We recently reviewed the transgenic, xenograft, and syngeneic murine breast cancer models, the ectopic, orthotopic and intravenous methods of cell implantation, tumor gene expression profiles, as well as the ethics of animal experimentation, and we provide important information for investigators in this challenging field. Because of the complexities of treating breast cancer and the increasing costs of developing new agents, the choice of the appropriate murine model must carefully consider each model available, including the tumor gene expression profile. Such a critical approach to the in vivo portion of drug development will further increase the efficiency of breast cancer drug research and development.
The Association between Hospital Volume and Total Shoulder Arthroplasty Outcomes

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between increasing hospital volume and the following outcomes for total shoulder arthroplasties done in the state of New York: length of stay, hospital costs, readmission within 60 days, revision surgery within 24 months, and death within 60 days. The Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) database from the New York State Department of Health, a census of all hospital discharges in the state, was used to evaluate the relationship between hospital volume and outcomes for total shoulder arthroplasties for 1996 to 1999. One thousand three hundred seven total shoulder arthroplasties were done in New York from 1996 to 1999. Nearly ½ were done at the five highest-volume hospitals. Middle-volume hospitals has the least lengths of stay and hospital costs. Independent of age and comorbidities, patients at hospitals with greater volumes of total shoulder arthroplasties were at reduced risk of patients being readmitted within 60 days. No other outcomes were significantly associated with hospital volume. The finding that greater hospital volume decreases risk of readmission may have important public health implications, but additional research is needed before implementing policy changes. Level of Evidence: Prognostic study, Level II-1 (retrospective study). See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Candidate gene analysis of thyroid hormone receptors in metamorphosing vs. nonmetamorphosing salamanders

We used two different experimental approaches to test the hypothesis that thyroid hormone receptor (TR) variation is associated with alternate life cycles modes in ambystomatid salamanders. In the first experiment, the inheritance of TRα and TRβ genotypes was determined for metamorphic and non metamorphic offspring from backcrosses between Ambystoma mexicanum (an obligate metamorphic-failure species) and metamorphic F1 hybrids (A. mexicanum × A. tigrinum tigrinum). The segregation of TR genotype was independent of the expression of life cycle mode phenotype, and neither TR locus was linked to DNA markers that flank a major-effect locus for life cycle mode. In the second experiment, a portion of the ligand-binding domain of TRα and TRβ was cloned and sequenced for DNA samples from 14 different ambystomatid salamander populations, including obligate metamorphic, facultative metamorphic, and obligate metamorphic-failure taxa. Nucleotide sequence variation was found for both TRα and TRβ, with several nonsynonomous substitutions that presumably code for nonconservative amino acid replacements. However, no general relationship was found between TR allelic variation and life cycle mode among populations or species. These data do not implicate TRs as candidate loci involved in the current maintenance or past evolution of alternate life cycle modes in members of the tiger salamander complex.
Collaborative Filtering Recommendation Algorithm Optimization Based on User Attributes

Aiming at the data sparse and cold start problems in collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm, an optimized solution based on user characteristics and user ratings is proposed in this paper. Based on users' basic attributes and users' history score record, the similarity of users and the similarity of items are calculated, and the nearest neighbor users and similar items are obtained. The advantage of the algorithm is that it combines the user's score and personal attributes to calculate the similarity between users and to recommend items. The optimized algorithm is applied to the recommendation of insurance products. Experiments based on real data from insurance company show that this method can reduce the average absolute error and improve the accuracy of recommendation.
Endocytosis of hERG Is Clathrin-Independent and Involves Arf6

The hERG potassium channel is critical for repolarisation of the cardiac action potential. Reduced expression of hERG at the plasma membrane, whether caused by hereditary mutations or drugs, results in long QT syndrome and increases the risk of ventricular arrhythmias. Thus, it is of fundamental importance to understand how the density of this channel at the plasma membrane is regulated. We used antibodies to an extracellular native or engineered epitope, in conjunction with immunofluorescence and ELISA, to investigate the mechanism of hERG endocytosis in recombinant cells and validated the findings in rat neonatal cardiac myocytes. The data reveal that this channel undergoes rapid internalisation, which is inhibited by neither dynasore, an inhibitor of dynamin, nor a dominant negative construct of Rab5a, into endosomes that are largely devoid of the transferrin receptor. These results support a clathrin-independent mechanism of endocytosis and exclude involvement of dynamin-dependent caveolin and RhoA mechanisms. In agreement, internalised hERG displayed marked overlap with glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored GFP, a clathrin-independent cargo. Endocytosis was significantly affected by cholesterol extraction with methyl-β-cyclodextrin and inhibition of Arf6 function with dominant negative Arf6-T27N-eGFP. Taken together, we conclude that hERG undergoes clathrin-independent endocytosis via a mechanism involving Arf6.
Equity in out-of-pocket payment in Chile

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To assess the distribution of financial burden in Chile, with a focus on the burden and progressivity of out-of-pocket payment. METHODS Based on the principle of ability to pay, we explore factors that contribute to inequities in the health system finance and issues about the burden of out-of-pocket payment, as well as the progressivity and redistributive effect of out-of-pocket payment in Chile. Our analysis is based on data from the 2006 National Survey on Satisfaction and Out-of-Pocket Payments. RESULTS Results from this study indicate evidence of inequity, in spite of the progressivity of the healthcare system. Our analysis also identifies relevant policy variables such as education, insurance system, and method of payment that should be taken into consideration in the ongoing debates and research in improving the Chilean system. CONCLUSIONS In order to reduce the detected disparities among income groups, healthcare priorities should target low-income groups. Furthermore, policies should explore changes in the access to education and its impact on equity.
Multi-level patient-specific modelling of the proximal femur. A promising tool to quantify the effect of osteoporosis treatment

Preventing femoral fractures is an important goal in osteoporosis research. In order to evaluate a person's fracture risk and to quantify response to treatment, bone competence is best assessed by bone strength. Finite-element (FE) modelling based on medical imaging is considered a very promising technique for the assessment of in vivo femoral bone strength. Over the past decades, a number of different FE models have been presented focusing on the effect of several methodological aspects, such as mesh type, material properties and loading conditions, on the precision and accuracy of these models. In this paper, a review of this work is presented. We conclude that moderate to good predictions can be made, especially when the models are tuned to specific loading scenarios. However, there is room for improvement when multiple loading conditions need to be evaluated. We hypothesize that including anisotropic material properties is the first target. As a proof of the concept, we demonstrate that the main orientation of the femoral bone structure can be calculated from clinical computed tomography scans. We hypothesize that this structural information can be used to estimate the anisotropic bone material properties, and that in the future this could potentially lead to a greater predictive value of FE models for femoral bone strength.
Robust fault estimation in wind turbine systems using GA optimisation

Wind turbine system is a safety-critical system, which has the demand to improve the operating reliability and reducing the cost caused by the shut-down time and component repairing. As a result, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis have received much attention for wind turbine energy systems. Noticing that environmental disturbances are unavoidable, therefore how to improve the robustness of a fault diagnosis scheme against disturbances/noises has been a key issue in fault diagnosis community. In this investigation, a robust fault estimation approach with the aid of eigenstructure assignment and genetic algorithm (GA) optimization is presented so that the estimation error dynamics has a good robustness against disturbances. A simulation study is carried out for a 5MW wind turbine dynamic model, which has demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.