Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Review of the immunosuppressant enteric-coated mycophenolate sodium

Enteric-coated mycophenolate sodium (EC-MPS; myfortic®, Novartis Pharma AG) is an advanced formulation delivering mycophenolic acid (MPA). EC-MPS was designed to improve MPA-related upper gastrointestinal adverse events by delaying the release of MPA until reaching the small intestine. At a dose of 720 mg, EC-MPS exhibits equivalent MPA exposure (area under the concentration curve [AUC]) and maximal MPA concentration (Cmax) to mycophenolate mofetil (MMF; CellCept®, Roche AG) 1000 mg. The time to maximal MPA concentration (Tmax) for EC-MPS is delayed relative to that for MMF, consistent with a functioning enteric coating. EC-MPS 720 mg b.i. d. has demonstrated therapeutic equivalence to MMF 1000 mg b.i. d. in renal transplant patients. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated that EC-MPS is as effective and safe as MMF in both de novo and maintenance renal transplant patients. Furthermore, studies have confirmed that maintenance patients can be safely converted from MMF to EC-MPS with no compromise of efficacy or safety. EC-MPS therefore presents physicians and patients with a valid alternative MPA therapy with a comparable efficacy and safety profile to MMF.
Cloning and characterization of elastase genes from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

A gene bank was constructed from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and used to complement three P. aeruginosa elastase-deficient strains. One clone, pRF1, contained a gene which restored elastase production in two P. aeruginosa isolates deficient in elastase production (PA-E15 and PAO-E105). This gene also encoded production of elastase antigen and activity in Escherichia coli and is the structural gene for Pseudomonas elastase. A second clone, pHN13, contained a 20-kilobase (kb) EcoRI insert which was not related to the 8-kb EcoRI insert of pRF1 as determined by restriction analysis and DNA hybridization. A 2.2-kb SalI-HindIII fragment from pHN3 was subcloned into pUC18, forming pRB1822-1. Plasmid pRB1822-1 restored normal elastolytic activity to PAO-E64, a mutant for elastase activity. Clones derived from pHN13 failed to elicit elastase antigen or enzymatic activity in E. coli.
Effect of Anesthesia of the Sinus Tarsi on Peroneal Reaction Time in Patients with Functional Instability of the Ankle

We investigated peroneal reaction time (PRT) of 18 patients (21 ankles) with functional instability of the ankle and 8 healthy volunteer controls (9 ankles) before and after injecting local anesthetic into the sinus tarsi. The median PRT in patients before the injection was 82.0 ms, a significant delay from 71.0 ms in controls. After the injection, PRT in controls did not change, but PRT in patients significantly shortened to 69.3 ms. The sense of instability and the functional instability improved simultaneously. A disorder of the gamma-muscle-spindle system, induced by proprioceptive deficit after damage to a ligament, has been advocated as a cause of prolonged PRT. We suggest that irritability of mechanoreceptors or nociceptors or both, induced by inflammation at the sinus tarsi, may suppress the activities of gamma motor neurons of peroneal muscles, which in turn might cause the symptoms of functional instability and prolonged PRT.
Temporal trends in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in a rural community in Sri Lanka

In developing countries the prevalence of diabetes mellitus is reported to be lower in rural areas compared to urban areas. This difference has been attributed to lifestyle factors associated with the higher socio-economic status of those living in urban areas. However, recent clinical observations indicate that the prevalence of diabetes is on the increase even in the rural sector. The aims of the present study were to objectively assess whether the prevalence of diabetes has increased in a named rural community in Sri Lanka during a period of ten years and whether there has been a change in the socio-economic status of the community during this period. The study was conducted on a sample of 220 subjects randomly selected from an adult population of 25,605 residents in a rural area in central Sri Lanka. Each of these subjects had the fasting blood sugar estimated and the height, weight, resting blood pressure and socio-economic parameters, such as the level of education, occupation and monthly income, recorded. These data were compared with those of a similar study conducted by the main author in the same community ten years ago. The results revealed that the age-standardised prevalence of diabetes had increased from 2.5% in 1990 to 8.5% in 2000 (p=0.008) and that this was accompanied by an increase in the monthly income, level of education and body mass indices. Since nearly 70% of all Sri Lankans live in villages, continuation of the present trend would result in a dramatic increase in the number of patients with diabetes in the future. Suitable strategies should be implemented to arrest this trend and manage a large number of patients with diabetes in the future.
Forecasting long-lived Lagrangian vortices from their objective Eulerian footprints

We derive a non-dimensional metric to quantify the expected Lagrangian persistence of objectively defined Eulerian vortices in two-dimensional unsteady flows. This persistence metric is the averaged deviation of the vorticity from its spatial mean over the Eulerian vortex, normalized by the instantaneous material leakage from the Eulerian vortex. The metric offers a model- and frame-independent tool for uncovering the instantaneous Eulerian signature of long-lived Lagrangian vortices. Using satellite-derived ocean velocity data, we show that Lagrangian vortex-persistence predictions by our metric significantly outperform those inferred from other customary Eulerian diagnostics, such as the potential vorticity gradient and the Okubo–Weiss criterion.
Aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index as a prospective predictor of hepatocellular carcinoma risk in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

APRI (aspartate aminotransferase [AST] to platelet ratio index) is widely used to assess fibrosis and cirrhosis risk, especially in hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐infected patients. Few studies have evaluated APRI and hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk. Prospective evidence is needed to assess whether APRI predicts HCC risk in HBV patients.
Detection of multiple gains and losses of genetic material in ten glioma cell lines by comparative genomic hybridization

A protocol for comparative genomic hybridization by use of nucleotides directly labeled with fluorochromes was used to map regions of deletion and amplification in ten glioma cell lines. The protocol greatly reduced experimental artifacts. We detected several genetic aberrations, including whole chromosome loss and gain, partial loss and gain, possible isochromosome, and higher level DNA amplification. The most frequent losses (in order of frequency) occurred on chromosomes 10, 18, 13, 11, 9, 14, 4, 6, 1, and X. The most common gain occurred on chromosome 7. Several sites of previously known and unknown amplifications were observed. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) Receptor 1-IIIb Is a Naturally Occurring Functional Receptor for FGFs That Is Preferentially Expressed in the Skin and the Brain*

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) transmit their signals through four transmembrane receptors that are designated FGFR1–4. Alternative splicing in the extracellular region of FGFR1–3 generates receptor variants with different ligand binding affinities. Thus two types of transmembrane receptors (IIIb and IIIc isoforms) have been identified for FGFR2 and FGFR3, and the existence of analogous variants has been postulated for FGFR1 based on its genomic structure. However, only a single full-length transmembrane FGFR1 variant (FGFR1-IIIc) has been identified so far. Here we describe the cloning of a full-length cDNA encoding FGFR1-IIIb from a mouse skin wound cDNA library. This receptor isoform was expressed at the highest levels in a subset of sebaceous glands of the skin and in neurons of the hippocampus and the cerebellum. FGFR1-IIIb was expressed in L6 rat skeletal muscle myoblasts and used in cross-linking and receptor binding studies. FGF-1 was found to bind the receptor with high affinity, whereas FGF-2, -10, and -7 bound with significantly lower affinities. Despite their apparently similar but low affinities, FGF-10 but not FGF-7 induced the activation of p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase in FGFR1-IIIb-expressing L6 myoblasts and stimulated mitogenesis in these cells, demonstrating that this new receptor variant is a functional transmembrane receptor for FGF-10.
Industry Clusters and Regional Economic Performance: A Study Across U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas

Cluster theory provides a framework for analyzing regional industry dynamics. Definitions and categorizations of clusters vary, however, hindering the development of econometric models for cluster analysis. The authors propose empirical measures relevant to researchers and practitioners for cluster strength/specialization, cluster diversity/diversification, and identifying regional growth clusters. The latter measure uses location quotients, shift-share analysis, and other criteria to identify robust clusters that are important for thriving regions. These measures are calculated for local and traded clusters using employment data for 366 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. Additionally, the authors estimated the relationship of their cluster performance measures to four traditional measures of economic performance: growth in gross domestic product, productivity per employee, compensation per employee, and personal income. The authors find traded cluster strength is positively related to compensation per employee growth and positively related to productivity growth, the latter being consistent with expected Marshall–Arrow–Romer externalities. Traded growth clusters are positively related to gross domestic product growth.
Lack of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Leads to Impaired Activation of AKT/Protein Kinase B and Enhanced Sensitivity to Apoptosis Induced via the Intrinsic Pathway

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a ligand activated transcription factor that is best known for its role in mediating the toxicity of many environmental contaminants such as 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. However, the endogenous role of AHR, especially with respect to the apoptotic process, is largely unknown and contradictory. In this report, we have used a mouse hepatoma cell line (Hepa1c1c7) and its AHR-deficient derivative (LA1) to examine the effect of differing AHR levels on apoptosis susceptibility, in particular, apoptosis regulated by the intrinsic pathway. Toward this end, the cells were subjected to UV irradiation, hydrogen peroxide, and serum starvation. Analyses of a number of different endpoints of apoptosis revealed that the LA1 cells were more sensitive to these stresses than the wild-type cells, indicating that the AHR plays a cytoprotective role in the face of stimuli that initiate the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. A direct role of the AHR in mediating this effect was confirmed using both pharmacological and molecular approaches. Further analyses imply that lack of the AHR leads to an impaired survival response mediated by phosphatidylinositol 3′-OH kinase-Akt/protein kinase B and, to a lesser degree, epidermal growth factor receptor activation. These findings indicate that exploring the use of the AHR antagonist as agents that enhance the proapoptotic actions of cancer therapies may be a valid approach.
Do Conditionalities Increase Support for Government Transfers?

Abstract Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) have spread through the developing world in the past two decades. It is often assumed that CCTs enjoy political support in the population precisely because they impose conditions on beneficiaries. This article employs survey experiments in Brazil and Turkey to determine whether, and in what contexts, making government transfers conditional on behaviour of beneficiaries increases political support for the programmes. Results show that conditional transfers are only marginally more popular than similar unconditional transfers in nationally representative samples, but that this difference is substantially larger among the better-off and among those primed to think of themselves as different from beneficiaries. These findings imply that conditionalities per se are not as strong a determinant of support for transfers as the literature suggests, but that they can still be helpful in building support for transfers among subsets of the population that are least likely to support them.
Does Adaptation of Motion-Direction Detectors Affect Bias or Sensitivity of Direction Judgments?

The question how channels tuned to different motion directions contribute to motion perception has been investigated by using motion adaptation to silence certain channels, and then measuring performance in a fine motion-discrimination task. To help constrain models of how the channels become integrated, we examined whether changes in performance stem from reduced accuracy (bias) or from reduced precision (sensitivity) in direction judgments. On a given trial, the observer first adapted to a field of dots moving coherently in a given direction (ranging ±180° from upward), then judged whether the motion of an ensuing test stimulus (ranging ±3°) was left or right of reference. Bias and sensitivity of the psychometric fits were computed for each adapter direction. Relative to baseline performance, post-adaptation judgments showed significant changes in sensitivity that were tightly correlated with overall performance. Meanwhile, bias shifts were found to be weaker and less systematic. Both performance and sensitivity suffered the largest losses at ±60°, with some enhancement at 180°. No similar trends were found in the domain of bias. A regression model, with precision as the sole predictor, captured 97% of the variation in performance; no gains were found in adding bias to the model. Our findings on fine motion-discrimination question the idealized notion of a pure feature detector, as the main impact of adaptation in such a system would be to bias direction judgments away from the adapted direction.
Systemic infection related to endocarditis on pacemaker leads: clinical presentation and management.

BACKGROUND Endocarditis related to pacemaker (PM)-lead infection is a rare but serious complication of permanent transvenous pacing. To determine in which situations the diagnosis should be evoked and to determine optimal management, we reviewed our experience with endocarditis related to PM-lead infection. METHODS AND RESULTS Fifty-two patients were admitted for endocarditis related to PM-lead infection. The presentation was acute in 14 patients, with onset of symptoms in the first 6 weeks after the last procedure on the implant site, and chronic in 38 patients. Fever occurred in 86.5%. Clinical and/or radiological evidences of pulmonary involvement were observed in 38.4%. Pulmonary scintigraphy disclosed pulmonary infarcts in 31.2%. Local complications were found in 51.9%. Elevated C-reactive protein was found in 96.2%. A germ was isolated in 88.4% of patients and was a Staphylococcus in 93.5%. Transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated vegetations in only 23% of patients, whereas transesophageal echocardiography disclosed abnormal appearances on the PM lead in 94%. We systematically tried to ablate all the material. Two techniques were used: percutaneous ablation or surgical removal during extracorporeal circulation. All patients were treated with antibiotics after removal of the infected material. Two patients died before lead removal and 2 after surgical removal; the predischarge mortality was 7.6%, and the overall mortality was 26.9% after a follow-up of 20.1+/-13 months. CONCLUSIONS The diagnosis of endocarditis related to PM-lead infection should be suspected in the presence of fever, complications, or pulmonary lesions after PM insertion. Transesophageal echocardiography should be performed to look for vegetations. Staphylococci are involved in the majority of these infections. The endocardial system must be entirely removed and appropriate antibiotic therapy pursued for 6 weeks.
Iron and the liver.

Iron is essential for life, but iron overload is toxic and potentially fatal. The liver is a major site of iron storage and is particularly susceptible to injury from iron overload, especially when (as in primary hemochromatosis) the iron accumulates in hepatocytes. Iron can be taken up by the liver in several forms and by several pathways including: (1) receptor-mediated endocytosis of diferric or monoferric transferrin or ferritin, (2) reduction and carrier-facilitated internalization of iron from transferrin without internalization of the protein moiety of transferrin, (3) electrogenic uptake of low molecular weight, non-protein bound forms of iron, and (4) uptake of heme from heme-albumin, heme-hemopexin, or hemoglobin-haptoglobin complexes. Normally, pathway 2 is probably the major one for uptake of iron by hepatocytes. Iron is stored in the liver in the cores of ferritin shells and as hemosiderin, an insoluble product derived from iron-rich ferritin. Iron in hepatocytes stimulates translation of ferritin mRNA and represses transcription of DNA for transferrin and transferrin receptors. The major pathologic effects of chronic hepatic iron overload are: (1) fibrosis and cirrhosis, (2) porphyria cutanea tarda, and (3) hepatocellular carcinoma. Although precise pathogenetic mechanisms remain unknown, iron probably produces these and other toxic effects by increasing oxidative stress and lysosomal lability. Vigorous efforts at diagnosis and treatment of iron overload are essential since the pathologic effects of iron are totally preventable by early vigorous iron removal and prevention of iron re-accumulation.
Effects of Different Blood Alcohol Concentrations and Post-Alcohol Impairment on Driving Behavior and Task Performance

Objective: A study using simulator methodology was conducted to investigate the effects of (1) different blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 0, 0.05, 0.08, and 0.10 percent and (2) post-alcohol impairment (where BAC ∼ 0%) on driving behavior and subsidiary cognitive task performance. Methods: Two driving sessions were investigated, that is, drunk driving and post-alcohol driving, with each requiring approximately 20 min of driving. In addition to driving safely, participants were instructed to perform the critical flicker fusion (CFF) test and completed the NASA-TLX mental workload questionnaire. Eight licensed drivers (6 males, 2 females) participated in this 2 (road complexities) × 2 (simulated driving sessions) × 4 (levels of BAC) within-subjects experiment. Results: The study revealed that higher BAC levels were associated with lower performing driving behavior. The driver's mental workload reached the highest values in the post-alcohol session. In terms of tasks involving divided attention, the traffic sign distance estimation showed significant deterioration with increased BAC levels. Conclusions: The relationship between drunk-driving behavior and alcohol dosage was supported in this study. Noticeably, no significant difference was found between drunk driving and post-alcohol driving, indicating that even in the post-alcohol situation, the impairment still remained significant enough to jeopardize traffic safety as much as it does in the case of drunk driving. In real-life situations, adopting a rest-time strategy to avoid post-alcohol impairment effects may not be the most appropriate solution by drivers; rather, drivers should be given some tests to verify the probability of post-alcohol effects on driving.
Multi-modal affect detection for learning applications

Affect detection is a key factor needed for automated Human Computer Interaction(HCI) applications. Affective computing helps understand the user's state of mind or emotions and hence helps to provide a better service. In this paper, we propose the use of multimodal affect detection to capture human attention for learning environment. For capturing affective state, we use facial features and brain signal of the user. To identify the human attention level, machine learning was used. The system is an assistant tool to identify attention levels of user for distant learning courses as well as for any e-learning applications. Experiments were conducted with volunteers to understand user affective state with different course materials. Results indicate that the proposed system can be used to detect affective state automatically. The proposed approach can be extended to other HCI applications where attention detection is needed.
Building an IoT Data Hub with Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana

The goal of this publication is to describe the implementation of an Elastisearch, Logstash and Kibana (ELK) stack to process IoT data. Although, those tools were designed to be used mainly for handling large number of log data, they can be applied also to store, search and visualise other type of information - including IoT data. In order to show practical implementation of the idea, selected devices installed in thebuilding of ABB Corporate Research in Krakow has been used. In prepared system, real data generated by various subsystems in this building has been integrated into one Elasticsearch based solution for further processing. Later on, this data will be used to develop data analytics to extract and visualize meaningful insights about building operations. In addition, selected data is sent to the Azure cloud to use its abilities in big data processing and machine learning.
Intraoperative factors associated with surgical outcome in patients with unruptured cerebral aneurysms: the experience of a single surgeon.

OBJECT Some well-known predictors of clinical outcomes in patients with ruptured aneurysms are not useful for forecasting outcome in patients with unruptured aneurysms. The goal of this study was to analyze outcomes in patients harboring unruptured cerebral aneurysms in different locations and to create a predictive tool for assessing both favorable outcome and morbidity in a large series of unruptured aneurysms. METHODS The authors analyzed data from 387 patients with nonruptured intracranial cerebral aneurysms who underwent surgery for clip placement. Intraoperative data were reviewed and seven factors that might influence outcomes were identified. These included the following: 1) aneurysm size larger than 10 mm; 2) presence of a broad aneurysm neck; 3) presence of plaque calcification near the aneurysm neck; 4) application of clips to more than one aneurysm during the same surgery; 5) temporary occlusion; 6) multiple clip applications and repositioning; and 7) use of multiple clips. The entire group of patients with unruptured aneurysms was divided into two subgroups on the basis of outcome. Each patient was subsequently assessed to formulate the factor accumulation index (FAI), the sum of different factors observed in a given patient. The subgroup of patients with expected outcomes was composed of 312 patients, whereas the subgroup of unexpected outcomes consisted of 31 patients. Depending on the anatomical locations of the aneurysms, the combined mortality-morbidity rate ranged from 5.7 to 25%, with the best results for patients harboring ophthalmic artery aneurysms and the worst results for those with vertebrobasilar system (VBS) aneurysms. The majority of patients with expected outcomes who harbored aneurysms of the middle cerebral artery, the internal carotid artery, and the VBS had a lower FAI, whereas the majority of patients with unexpected outcomes had a higher FAI. CONCLUSIONS It is possible to predict outcomes in patients with unruptured cerebral artery aneurysms by calculating the FAI. The rate of postoperative morbidity increases with the FAI within the range of three to four factors.