Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outcomes of a Multidisciplinary Approach to the Management of the Metabolic Syndrome

Background: Patients with the metabolic syndrome (determined by NCEP ATPIII criteria) are at increased risk for the development of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Objectives: We sought to determine whether treating patients at a dedicated community-based clinic using a multidisciplinary program would result in positive changes in predetermined clinical indicators of the metabolic syndrome. Methods: Patients were referred to the clinic by either family physicians or specialists. They were seen individually by a health care team consisting of a registered dietitian, a registered nurse, a pharmacist, and an endocrinologist. Patients were counselled with regard to lifestyle changes and pharmacotherapy in order to achieve targets for glucose, lipids, blood pressure, and weight. Patients remained on the program for a maximum of 6 months. Results: There were statistically significant changes for the first 76 patients who completed at least 4 of 6 monthly visits. The following parameters decreased: waist circumference 122.4 to 117.9 cm (p ≤ 0.001), systolic blood pressure 140.8 to 130.6 mmHg (p ≤ 0.001), diastolic blood pressure 79.2 to 74.0 mmHg (p ≤ 0.001), fasting blood glucose 9.0 to 8.1 mmol/L (p ≤ 0.001), triglycerides 2.5 to 2.0 mmol/L (p ≤ 0.003), LDL cholesterol 2.6 to 2.2 mmol/L (p ≤ 0.001), TC/HDL ratio 4.5 to 3.9 (p ≤ 0.001), BMI 37.4 to 35.8 kg/m2 (p ≤ 0.001), and HbA1C 7.0 to 6.7% (p ≤ 0.004). There was no change in HDL cholesterol. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates a significant improvement in most parameters of the metabolic syndrome in patients who attended a dedicated 6-month, community-based, multidisciplinary program.
Bias in computer systems

From an analysis of actual cases, three categories of bias in computer systems have been developed: preexisting, technical, and emergent. Preexisting bias has its roots in social institutions, practices, and attitudes. Technical bias arises from technical constraints of considerations. Emergent bias arises in a context of use. Although others have pointed to bias inparticular computer systems and have noted the general problem, we know of no comparable work that examines this phenomenon comprehensively and which offers a framework for understanding and remedying it. We conclude by suggesting that freedom from bias should by counted amoung the select set of criteria—including reliability, accuracy, and efficiency—according to which the quality of systems in use in society should be judged.
How do primary care physicians respond when patients cry during routine ambulatory visits?

Abstract Although crying is universally recognized as a sign of distress in adults, its role in assessing and diagnosing depression in medical settings has received little attention. We sought to describe the interactional circumstances surrounding patients who cry during routine periodic health examinations and the subsequent actions of their physicians. Qualitative content analysis of audio-recorded visits and administrative claims data for adult primary care patients for one year before and after an index visit were used to explore the context of patients’ crying and how physicians responded. Most patients began to cry while discussing emotional pain over the loss or illness of a loved one. While physicians generally responded with immediate expressions of empathy, the intensity of their responses varied. Some patients received minimal assessment regarding their mental health, whereas others were assessed more extensively. Although most physicians did express empathy in response to patients’ tears, some did not systematically assess patients’ mental health status and overall functioning. Physicians may want to view crying as a sign of distress and more fully evaluate whether it fits into a more complex clinical presentation of depression.
Node-based memory management for scalable NUMA architectures

Large state-of-the-art NUMA systems may offer more than two levels of node distances. The result is a hierarchical architecture with significant differences in memory access bandwidth and latency. Consequently, NUMA-aware memory management and the reduction of remote memory accesses becomes more and more the key challenge for the operating system and its applications. In this paper, we will show that traditional, centralized concepts to realize paging are not longer an adequate approach for these architectures. We present a prototype of new node-based memory management for the Linux kernel and prove its scalability and usability. The hardware architecture is reflected by managing one page mapping table per NUMA node and the kernel's page fault handler is extended to create node-local references. Based on this prototype, we suggest extensions to simplify the detection of performance issues, which will increase the usability of such architectures.
Gold nanoparticles and vaccine development

Mucosal vaccines constitute an advantageous immunization approach to achieve broad immunization against widespread diseases; however, improvements in this field are still required to expand their exploitation. As gold nanoparticles are biocompatible and can be easily functionalized with antigens, they have been proposed as carriers for the delivery of vaccines. The study of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in vaccinology has been of interest for a number of research groups in recent years and important advances have been made. This review provides a summary of the AuNPs synthesis methodologies and an updated overview of the current AuNPs-based vaccines under development. The implications of these advances for the development of new mucosal vaccines as well as future prospects for the field are discussed.
High-performance low-energy STT MRAM based on balanced write scheme

It is well known that high write time/energy in STT MRAM are aggravated by the asymmetry in write currents for '0'→'1' and '1'→'0' transitions. This asymmetry is primarily due to the source degeneration of the access transistor during write. In this work, we propose a design methodology which avoids the source degeneration of the access transistor, leading to balanced switching times for '0'→'1' and '1'→'0' transitions. This is achieved by using an additional (negative) bit-line voltage and reduced word-line voltage. The proposed method reduces write time (by ~40%) and write energy (by 65%), enhances reliability of MTJ, and significantly improves tolerance to process variation. In the proposed scheme, source-line can be directly connected to ground signal leading to a compact cell layout.
The Pursuit Domain Package

The pursuit (or Predator/Prey) domain is a widely used environment to test single or multiagent systems techniques. It consists of a grid world in which two types of agents, predators and prey, move around. It is the goal of the predators to capture the prey as quickly as possible. This report describes our 'pursuit' software package, which can be used to implement and test the predator behavior in several scenarios without having to worry about other details involved in this domain. We describe the following programs, which are all provided with the package: pursuit (main program), pursuit monitor (visualization), pursuit logplayer (playback tool) and the agent skeletons.
Circle-based recommendation in online social networks

Online social network information promises to increase recommendation accuracy beyond the capabilities of purely rating/feedback-driven recommender systems (RS). As to better serve users' activities across different domains, many online social networks now support a new feature of "Friends Circles", which refines the domain-oblivious "Friends" concept. RS should also benefit from domain-specific "Trust Circles". Intuitively, a user may trust different subsets of friends regarding different domains. Unfortunately, in most existing multi-category rating datasets, a user's social connections from all categories are mixed together. This paper presents an effort to develop circle-based RS. We focus on inferring category-specific social trust circles from available rating data combined with social network data. We outline several variants of weighting friends within circles based on their inferred expertise levels. Through experiments on publicly available data, we demonstrate that the proposed circle-based recommendation models can better utilize user's social trust information, resulting in increased recommendation accuracy.
Clinical Application and Challenges of Blood Glucose Measurement Technology for Self-Monitoring

ABSTRACT Patients and many physicians believe that modern blood glucose meters provide reliable results under all circumstances. The aim of this (mini-)review is to critically review a number of aspects that should be taken into account for successful self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). Usage and practical knowledge of patients about the optimal knowledge of SMBG appear to be lower than one expects. A number of factors like coding and calibration have an impact on the reliability of the measurement. Unfortunately, we have no standard procedure to evaluate the quality of the glucose measurement by the meters. In practice, SMBG is more than simply the glucose measurement; it involves many steps that also have a critical impact on the final outcome. We will also highlight that the digital number provided at the end of this diagnostics procedure is of no help per se; it requires a translation in an adequate therapeutic action. Most of the aspects mentioned have not gained thorough scientific interest in .
Molecular Mechanisms of Membrane Curvature Sensing by a Disordered Protein.

The ability of proteins to sense membrane curvature is essential for the initiation and assembly of curved membrane structures. Established mechanisms of curvature sensing rely on proteins with specific structural features. In contrast, it has recently been discovered that intrinsically disordered proteins, which lack a defined three-dimensional fold, can also be potent sensors of membrane curvature. How can an unstructured protein sense the structure of the membrane surface? Many disordered proteins that associate with membranes have two key physical features - a high degree of conformational entropy and a high net negative charge. Binding of such proteins to membrane surfaces results simultaneously in a decrease in conformational entropy and an increase in electrostatic repulsion by anionic lipids. Here we show that each of these effects gives rise to a distinct mechanism of curvature sensing. Specifically, as the curvature of the membrane increases, the steric hindrance between the disordered protein and membrane is reduced, leading to an increase in chain entropy. At the same time, increasing membrane curvature increases the average separation between anionic amino acids and lipids, creating an electrostatic preference for curved membranes. Using quantitative imaging of membrane vesicles, our results demonstrate that long disordered amino acid chains with low net charge sense curvature predominately through the entropic mechanism. In contrast, shorter, more highly charged amino acid chains rely largely on the electrostatic mechanism. These findings provide a roadmap for predicting and testing the curvature sensitivity of the large and diverse set of disordered proteins that function at cellular membranes.
Targeted molecular brachytherapy

A new approach for the treatment of solid tumor cancers that utilizes aspects of bionanotechnology to deposit a short‐lived radioisotope throughout the tumor mass is described. Selectively Targeted Amplified Radiotherapy (STAR) is a multi‐step therapy in which an insoluble nano‐platform is first built inside neoplastic cells from a soluble precursor. The nano‐platform is then released into the extra‐cellular space throughout the tumor by disruption of some of the neoplastic cells. The nano‐platform is constructed so that it can selectively attach a reagent incorporating an exogenous enzyme, thereby transforming the insoluble nano‐platform into a nano‐factory. Finally, the enzymatic activity of the nano‐factory is used to convert a soluble radioactive substrate into a water‐insoluble nano‐precipitate throughout the tumor. The remaining soluble radiochemical is cleared from the body while the radioactive nano‐precipitate remains throughout the tumor, irradiating the surrounding tumor cells and providing what can be called molecular brachytherapy. This report discusses how the STAR technology overcomes tumor heterogeneity and metastases, the two major obstacles to successful treatment of solid tumor cancers. Drug Dev. Res. 67:94–106, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Positive Aspects of the Caregiving Journey With Dementia: Using a Strengths-Based Perspective to Reveal Opportunities

The increasing prevalence of dementia in older adults will increase the demands for care from families and the health care system. Caring for a relative with dementia is often viewed as burdensome and stressful in nature; however, of late, attention has been given to the positive aspects of the caregiving journey. The purpose of this article is to discuss the qualitative findings related to the positive aspects of family caregiving from a mixed methods study. A strengths-based perspective was used in the secondary analysis of six focus groups (N = 36) and three personal interview transcripts of family caregivers to persons with dementia. Findings reveal that family caregivers can view their role as an opportunity to give back, to discover personal strengths, and to become closer to the care receiver. The results suggest that identifying and mobilizing caregiver strengths can be an effective strategy for supporting family caregivers in their role.
Evolving dungeon crawler levels with relative placement

Procedural Content Generation (PCG) is the process of automating the construction of media types for use in game development, the movie industry, and other creative fields. By approaching the process of media creation as a search for content which is evaluated to express desirable features in a well-defined manner, we are able to apply evolutionary techniques such as genetic programming. This can greatly decrease the effort required to bring a project to completion by allowing artists and developers to focus on guiding the creation process. The specific generation process addressed is that of map creation for dungeon crawler video games. The search method proposed allows artists and developers to guide the generation process by specifying a set of tiles that define the composition of each map, and a fitness function that defines its structure.
Empowering developers to estimate app energy consumption

Battery life is a critical performance and user experience metric on mobile devices. However, it is difficult for app developers to measure the energy used by their apps, and to explore how energy use might change with conditions that vary outside of the developer's control such as network congestion, choice of mobile operator, and user settings for screen brightness. We present an energy emulation tool that allows developers to estimate the energy use for their mobile apps on their development workstation itself. The proposed techniques scale the emulated resources including the processing speed and network characteristics to match the app behavior to that on a real mobile device. We also enable exploring multiple operating conditions that the developers cannot easily reproduce in their lab. The estimation of energy relies on power models for various components, and we also add new power models for components not modeled in prior works such as AMOLED displays. We also present a prototype implementation of this tool and evaluate it through comparisons with real device energy measurements.
Enterococcus faecalis infective endocarditis: focus on clinical aspects

Enterococcus faecalis infective endocarditis (IE) is a disease of increasing importance, with more patients infected, increasing frequency of health-care associated infections and increasing incidence of antimicrobial resistances. The typical clinical presentation is a subacute course with fever, malaise and generalized aches, difficult to distinguish from other more common diseases. Of paramount importance is transthoracic- and transesophageal-echocardiography to establish the diagnosis. At the moment, the predominant strategies recommend ampicillin in combination with either gentamicin or ceftriaxone. E. faecalis infective endocarditis continues to be a very serious disease with considerable percentages of high-level gentamicin resistant strains and in-hospital mortality around 20%. Strategies to prevent E. faecalis IE, improve diagnostics, optimize treatment and reduce morbidity will be necessary to improve the overall prognosis.
Effectiveness of Aquatic Physiotherapy in Clinical Practice

Current healthcare provision demands evidence of clinical effectiveness. Since 2007, The Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP2) questionnaire has been used in the Aquatic Physiotherapy (AP) Department at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. This service evaluation presents a snapshot of preand post-MYMOP2 scores for a 3-month period. All patients (n = 125) attending for AP between January and March 2012 completed a MYMOP2 before and after treatment. AP was given according to Aquatic Therapy Association of Chartered Physiotherapists Guidance on Good Practice in Hydrotherapy. The MYMOP2 Profile score was calculated from the mean of the prepost differences of the 4 item scores. The majority of patients had musculoskeletal conditions; mean age was 56.8 years (SD: 16.5) and mean number of treatments was 5.21 (SD: 1.6). MYMOP2 profile score decreased in 90.8% of patients, signifying improvement. In real terms there was a median and significant improvement of 1.5 points (IQR:1.5) on the 7-point MYMOP2 profile score (p = .0001). The majority of patients (77.3%) met or exceeded “the index of responsiveness, relating to the minimal clinically important difference” of 0.85 reported by Paterson (1996). The results demonstrate clinical effectiveness of AP for patients, who present with a diversity of conditions and provides real-world evidence of outcome. The MYMOP2 tool has been shown to be a feasible and responsive measure for use in AP.
A Nested-PCR Assay for Detection of Cryptosporidium parvum Oocysts in Water Samples

Cryptosporidiosis is a gastroenteric disease caused by the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium parvum. Water–borne transmission of this organism has become more prevalent in recent years. Current method for detection of C. parvum oocysts in water is immunofluoresence assay (IFA). The method is time consuming, laborious and particularly not–specific. It cannot determine the infectivity of detected oocysts. We have evaluated a nested- PCR assay for sensitive detection of C. parvum oocysts in water samples. Water sample concentrates were spiked with Cryptosporidium oocysts and after DNA extraction and purification by QIAamp DNA mini kit, detection was achieved by nested PCR amplification of a 200 bp region of hsp70 gene specific for C. Parvum. The method could detect as few as one oocyst in seeded tap water samples. On the basis of these results, PCR could be a useful tool in the monitoring of water samples for the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts.
Novel biomarkers in heart failure: usefulness in clinical practice

Biomarkers have become an increasingly important tool in clinical practice, helping to improve patient care. In heart failure (HF), brain natriuretic peptide and N-terminal prohormone of the brain natriuretic peptide have been widely applied in prognosis, clinical diagnosis and treatment. Recently, several novel biomarkers have been examined on their efficacy to improve diagnosis, determine the pathophysiologic state of HF, improve clinical decision making, clinical outcome, guide treatment and assess prognosis of HF patients. In this special report, the authors summarize the usefulness and significance of the most promising novel biomarkers in patients with HF.
Expectations and limitations of contemporary intravascular imaging: lessons learned from pathology

Acute coronary syndrome is the leading cause of death worldwide and plaque rupture is the most common underlying mechanism of coronary thrombosis. During the last 2 decades the understanding of atherosclerotic plaque progression advanced dramatically and pathology studies provided fundamental insights of underlying plaque morphology, which paved the way for invasive imaging modalities, which bring a new area of atherosclerotic plaque characterization in vivo. The development of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) allowed the field to evaluate the principles of vascular anatomy, which is often underestimated by coronary angiography. Furthermore, IVUS image technologies were developed to obtain improved characterization of plaque composition. However, since spatial resolution of IVUS is insufficient to distinguish details of plaque morphology, a broad adoption of this technology in clinical practice was missing. Optical coherence tomography is a light-based imaging modality with higher spatial resolution compared to IVUS, which enables the assessment of vascular anatomy with great detail.
Currently available methodologies for the processing of intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography images

Optical coherence tomography and intravascular ultrasound are the most widely used methodologies in clinical practice as they provide high resolution cross-sectional images that allow comprehensive visualization of the lumen and plaque morphology. Several methods have been developed in recent years to process the output of these imaging modalities, which allow fast, reliable and reproducible detection of the luminal borders and characterization of plaque composition. These methods have proven useful in the study of the atherosclerotic process as they have facilitated analysis of a vast amount of data. This review presents currently available intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography processing methodologies for segmenting and characterizing the plaque area, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages, and discusses the future trends in intravascular imaging.
Heat Stress and Heat Disorders

and metric terminology in drug dosage is an anomaly. Many will be surprised to find short total diastole time in the arrhythmias quoted as a cause of peripheral circulatory failure, and it is not representative of current opinion to describe restenosis after mitral valvotomy as 'rare'. Limitations of space impose limitations of content, but it seems a pity in a clinical guide to find little or no reference to the management of the patient, despite adequate descriptions of the management of diseases. The subject of long-term anticoagulant therapy in ischaemic heart disease is, perhaps wisely, largely evaded. But these are details for, in general, this is a sound introduction to clinical aspects of cardiology, and it can be confidently recommended to medical students and others seeking a compact, clearly written, and comparatively inexpensive guide to the essentials of the subject. A. MORGAN JONES