Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparison of 3 Videolaryngoscopes for Double-Lumen Tube Intubation in Humans by Users With Mixed Experience: A Randomized Controlled Study.

OBJECTIVES To test the hypothesis that laryngoscopy using the Airtraq (Prodol Limited, Viscaya, Spain) or King Vision laryngoscope (KVL) (Ambu A/S, Ballerup, Denmark) would result in a shorter time for successful double-lumen endobronchial tube (DLT) intubation by users with mixed experience than the time required using the Macintosh or GlideScope (Verathon Inc., Bothell, WA) laryngoscopes. DESIGN A randomized, prospective, blind study. SETTING A single university hospital. PARTICIPANTS The study comprised 133 patients undergoing elective thoracic surgery. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomly allocated into the following 4 groups of DLTs: Macintosh (n = 32), GlideScope (n = 34), Airtraq (n = 35), or KVL (n = 32). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The following data were recorded: time required for achieving successful DLT intubation; glottis visualization; optimization maneuvers; first-pass success rate; intubation difficulty; failure to intubate, defined as an attempt taking >150 seconds to perform or if peripheral oxygen saturation <92% was noted; and postoperative sore throat and hoarseness were recorded. Compared with GlideScope, the Airtraq resulted in shorter times for achieving successful DLT intubation (median times: 21 s [95% confidence interval 23.9-70.8 s] v 57.5 s [95% confidence interval 46.2-89.1 s], respectively; p = 0.021); a lower score for difficult intubations (p = 0.023); and fewer optimization maneuvers. The 4 laryngoscopes were associated with comparable glottis visualization; first-pass success rate (100%, 100%, 94.4%, and 100%, respectively; p = 0.522); incidence of oropharyngeal trauma; postoperative sore throat; and hoarseness of voice. There were 2 (5.7%) endobronchial intubation failures using the Airtraq due to the inability to advance the DLT through the glottis opening. The experience of the anesthesiologists in using the 4 devices had a statistically significant negative correlation with the time to confirmation of endobronchial intubation (Spearman r -0.392; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION When used by operators with mixed experience, the channeled Airtraq required less time for DLT intubation and was easier to use than the GlideScope, although failures did occur with the Airtraq, whereas they did not occur with the other systems.
Urinary Retention in Patients with BPH Treated with Finasteride or Placebo over 4 Years

Objectives: Knowledge regarding the incidence and prevalence of acute urinary retention and the ultimate outcome is very limited. The purpose of the present analysis was to document the natural history and outcomes of acute urinary retention (AUR) further specified as being either precipitated or spontaneous, and to evaluate the potential benefit of finasteride therapy.Materials and Methods: Three thousand and forty men with moderate to severe symptoms of BPH and enlarged prostate glands by digital rectal examination were enrolled into the 4–year placebo–controlled PLESS trial and were evaluated for occurrences of AUR and BPH–related surgery. Men in the study were seen every 4 months; discontinued patients were followed up 6 months after discontinuation and again at the end of the 4–year trial. Complete 4–year data on outcomes (occurrence of AUR or BPH–related surgery) was available for 92% of the enrolled subjects in each treatment group. An endpoint committee, blinded to treatment group and center, reviewed and categorized all study–related documentation relating to retention and surgery.Results: Over the 4–year period, 99 of 1,503 placebo–treated patients (6.6%) experienced one or more episodes of AUR in comparison with 42 or 1,513 finasteride–treated patients (2.8%; p<0.001). Approximately half of the episodes of retention were spontaneous and clearly BPH–related, while the other episodes were precipitated by another factor (PAUR). After spontaneous AUR, subsequent surgery was performed in 39 of 52 (75%) placebo–treated patients versus 8 of 20 (40%) finasteride–treated patients (p = 0.01). BPH–related surgery was less common in men who had a prior episode of PAUR (26% in the placebo group and 14% in the finasteride group). Conclusion: There is a continual risk of spontaneous and precipitated acute urinary retention in men with moderate to severe lower urinary tract symptoms and an enlarged prostate gland. Fewer patients who developed precipitated AUR than spontaneous AUR go on to need subsequent BPH–related surgery. Significantly fewer finasteride–than placebo–treated patients developed AUR, and among those men, fewer ultimately needed BPH–related surgery.
Gβγ directly modulates vesicle fusion by competing with synaptotagmin for binding to neuronal SNARE proteins embedded in membranes

Gi/o-coupled G protein-coupled receptors can inhibit neurotransmitter release at synapses via multiple mechanisms. In addition to Gβγ-mediated modulation of voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC), inhibition can also be mediated through the direct interaction of Gβγ subunits with the soluble N-ethylmaleimide attachment protein receptor (SNARE) complex of the vesicle fusion apparatus. Binding studies with soluble SNARE complexes have shown that Gβγ binds to both ternary SNARE complexes, t-SNARE heterodimers, and monomeric SNAREs, competing with synaptotagmin 1(syt1) for binding sites on t-SNARE. However, in secretory cells, Gβγ, SNAREs, and synaptotagmin interact in the lipid environment of a vesicle at the plasma membrane. To approximate this environment, we show that fluorescently labeled Gβγ interacts specifically with lipid-embedded t-SNAREs consisting of full-length syntaxin 1 and SNAP-25B at the membrane, as measured by fluorescence polarization. Fluorescently labeled syt1 undergoes competition with Gβγ for SNARE-binding sites in lipid environments. Mutant Gβγ subunits that were previously shown to be more efficacious at inhibiting Ca2+-triggered exocytotic release than wild-type Gβγ were also shown to bind SNAREs at a higher affinity than wild type in a lipid environment. These mutant Gβγ subunits were unable to inhibit VGCC currents. Specific peptides corresponding to regions on Gβ and Gγ shown to be important for the interaction disrupt the interaction in a concentration-dependent manner. In in vitro fusion assays using full-length t- and v-SNAREs embedded in liposomes, Gβγ inhibited Ca2+/synaptotagmin-dependent fusion. Together, these studies demonstrate the importance of these regions for the Gβγ-SNARE interaction and show that the target of Gβγ, downstream of VGCC, is the membrane-embedded SNARE complex.
Evaluation of the Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptor Type 1 Radioligand 11C-BMT-136088 for Lung Imaging in Rhesus Monkeys

The lysophosphatidic acid receptor type 1 (LPA1) is 1 of 6 known receptors of the extracellular signaling molecule lysophosphatidic acid. It mediates effects such as cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. In the lung, LPA1 is involved in pathways leading, after lung tissue injury, to pulmonary fibrosis instead of normal healing, by mediating fibroblast recruitment and vascular leakage. Thus, a LPA1 PET radiotracer may be useful for studying lung fibrosis or for developing LPA1-targeting drugs. We developed and evaluated the radiotracer 11C-BMT-136088 (1-(4′-(3-methyl-4-(((1(R)-(3-11C-methylphenyl)ethoxy)carbonyl)amino)isoxazol-5-yl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid) in rhesus monkeys to image LPA1 in the lung in vivo with PET. Methods: The study consisted of 3 parts: test–retest scans; self-saturation to estimate the tracer’s in vivo dissociation constant, nondisplaceable volume of distribution (VND), and nondisplaceable binding potential (BPND); and dosimetry. In the first 2 parts, the radiotracer was administered using a bolus-plus-infusion protocol, the arterial input function was measured, and the animals underwent 2 scans per day separated by about 4 h. Lung regions of interest were segmented, and the tissue density estimated, from CT images. A fixed blood volume correction was applied. The tracer volume of distribution (VT) was estimated using multilinear analysis 1 (MA1) or equilibrium analysis (EA). Results: 11C-BMT-136088 baseline VT was 1.83 ± 0.16 (MA1, n = 5) or 2.1 ± 0.55 (EA, n = 7) mL of plasma per gram of tissue in the left and right lung regions of interest, with a test–retest variability of −6% (MA1, n = 1) or −1% ± 14% (EA, n = 2). For the self-saturation study, 11C-BMT-136088 VND and BPND were estimated to be 0.9 ± 0.08 mL of plasma per gram of tissue and 1.1 ± 0.14, respectively. The unlabeled drug dose and plasma concentration leading to a 50% reduction of 11C-BMT-136088 specific binding were 73 ± 30 nmol/kg and 28 ± 12 nM, respectively. The average plasma free fraction was 0.2%; thus, the tracer’s in vivo dissociation constant was estimated to be 55 pM. For the dosimetry study, the highest organ dose was in the liver (43.1 ± 4.9 and 68.9 ± 9.4 μSv/MBq in reference human male and female phantoms, respectively), and the effective dose equivalent was 6.9 ± 0.6 and 8.7 ± 0.6 μSv/MBq, respectively. Conclusion: Specific binding of 11C-BMT-136088 can be reliably measured to quantify LPA1 in the lungs of rhesus monkeys in vivo.
A Learning-Based Framework for Improving Querying on Web Interfaces of Curated Knowledge Bases

Knowledge Bases (KBs) are widely used as one of the fundamental components in Semantic Web applications as they provide facts and relationships that can be automatically understood by machines. Curated knowledge bases usually use Resource Description Framework (RDF) as the data representation model. To query the RDF-presented knowledge in curated KBs, Web interfaces are built via SPARQL Endpoints. Currently, querying SPARQL Endpoints has problems like network instability and latency, which affect the query efficiency. To address these issues, we propose a client-side caching framework, SPARQL Endpoint Caching Framework (SECF), aiming at accelerating the overall querying speed over SPARQL Endpoints. SECF identifies the potential issued queries by leveraging the querying patterns learned from clients’ historical queries and prefecthes/caches these queries. In particular, we develop a distance function based on graph edit distance to measure the similarity of SPARQL queries. We propose a feature modelling method to transform SPARQL queries to vector representation that are fed into machine-learning algorithms. A time-aware smoothing-based method, Modified Simple Exponential Smoothing (MSES), is developed for cache replacement. Extensive experiments performed on real-world queries showcase the effectiveness of our approach, which outperforms the state-of-the-art work in terms of the overall querying speed.
Structural and Hydrogeological Controls on Hydrocarbon and Brine Migration into Drinking Water Aquifers in Southern New York

Environmental concerns regarding the potential for drinking water contamination in shallow aquifers have accompanied unconventional energy development in the northern Appalachian Basin. These activities have also raised several critical questions about the hydrogeological parameters that control the naturally occurring presence and migration of hydrocarbon gases in shallow aquifers within petroliferous basins. To interrogate these factors, we analyzed the noble gas, dissolved ion, and hydrocarbon gas (molecular and isotopic composition) geochemistry of 98 groundwater samples from south‐central New York. All samples were collected ≫1km from unconventional drilling activities and sample locations were intentionally targeted based on their proximity to various types of documented fault systems. In agreement with studies from other petroliferous basins, our results show significant correlations between elevated levels of radiogenic [4He], thermogenic [CH4], and dissolved ions (e.g., Cl, Br, Sr, Ba). In combination, our data suggest that faults have facilitated the transport of exogenous hydrocarbon‐rich brines from Devonian source rocks into overlying Upper Devonian aquifer lithologies over geologic time. These data conflict with previous reports, which conclude that hydrodynamic focusing regulates the occurrence of methane and salt in shallow aquifers and leads to elevated levels of these species in restricted flow zones within valley bottoms. Instead, our data suggest that faults in Paleozoic rocks play a fundamental role in gas and brine transport from depth, regulate the distribution of their occurrence in shallow aquifers, and influence the geochemistry of shallow groundwater in this petroliferous basin.
Steady-state analysis of a series resonant converter with modified PWM control

In this work, a modified pulse-width modulation (PWM) control is adapted for a series resonant converter (SRC). Steady-state analysis of the SRC working in discontinuous-current mode (DCM) is presented. It is found that with the modified PWM control the SRC is able to maintain soft-switching in a wide range of voltage gain and load level, which is advantageous over the conventional PWM control. Based on the analysis, a design example of a 100kHz, 120V input, 48V output 200W converter is presented. Computer simulation and experimental test are included for the purpose of validation.
Antitumor Activity of Entrectinib, a Pan-TRK, ROS1, and ALK Inhibitor, in ETV6-NTRK3–Positive Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Activation of tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) family tyrosine kinases by chromosomal rearrangement has been shown to drive a wide range of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. TRK fusions are actionable targets as evidenced by recent clinical trial results in solid tumors. Entrectinib (RXDX-101) is an investigational, orally available, CNS-active, highly potent, and selective kinase inhibitor against TRKA/B/C, ROS1, and ALK kinase activities. Here, we demonstrate that TRK kinase inhibition by entrectinib selectively targets preclinical models of TRK fusion–driven hematologic malignancies. In acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) cell lines with endogenous expression of the ETV6–NTRK3 fusion gene, entrectinib treatment blocked cell proliferation and induced apoptotic cell death in vitro with subnanomolar IC50 values. Phosphorylation of the ETV6–TRKC fusion protein and its downstream signaling effectors was inhibited by entrectinib treatment in a dose-dependent manner. In animal models, entrectinib treatment at clinically relevant doses resulted in tumor regression that was accompanied by elimination of residual cancer cells from the bone marrow. Our preclinical data demonstrate the potential of entrectinib as an effective treatment for patients with TRK fusion–driven AML and other hematologic malignancies. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(2); 455–63. ©2017 AACR.
How Seniors in Taiwan Use Information Technology: Computer and Cell Phones

ABSTRACT In most developed and developing nations seniors lag behind the general population in information technology (IT) adoption and use. This phenomenon has been labeled the “gray divide” by various authors. This study examines the use of IT by seniors in Taiwan. We conducted a survey to examine Taiwanese seniors’ computer and cell phone ownership and use as well as attitudes and behaviors that result from and influence use, to better understand the extent to which Taiwanese seniors have and will utilize IT. We found that seniors in Taiwan had generally high usage and access to computers and cell phones; however, the duration of use these two devices was relatively low. Our focus was on computers and mobile phones because they are the most commonly used personal IT appliances. These devices are the “face” of IT to users. This study also examined self-efficacy, satisfaction, and comfort with these devices, as well as positive and negative attitudes, because research has shown these to influence the use of IT. Taiwanese seniors had generally positively attitudes and beliefs toward information technology.
Zoonotic Potential of Escherichia coli Isolates from Retail Chicken Meat Products and Eggs

ABSTRACT Chicken products are suspected as a source of extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC), which causes diseases in humans. The zoonotic risk to humans from chicken-source E. coli is not fully elucidated. To clarify the zoonotic risk posed by ExPEC in chicken products and to fill existing knowledge gaps regarding ExPEC zoonosis, we evaluated the prevalence of ExPEC on shell eggs and compared virulence-associated phenotypes between ExPEC and non-ExPEC isolates from both chicken meat and eggs. The prevalence of ExPEC among egg-source isolates was low, i.e., 5/108 (4.7%). Based on combined genotypic and phenotypic screening results, multiple human and avian pathotypes were represented among the chicken-source ExPEC isolates, including avian-pathogenic E. coli (APEC), uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), neonatal meningitis E. coli (NMEC), and sepsis-associated E. coli (SEPEC), as well as an undefined ExPEC group, which included isolates with fewer virulence factors than the APEC, UPEC, and NMEC isolates. These findings document a substantial prevalence of human-pathogenic ExPEC-associated genes and phenotypes among E. coli isolates from retail chicken products and identify key virulence traits that could be used for screening.
High dietary fat intake increases fat oxidation and reduces skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration in trained humans

High‐fat, low‐carbohydrate (CHO) diets increase whole‐body rates of fat oxidation and down‐regulate CHO metabolism. We measured substrate utilization and skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration to determine whether these adaptations are driven by high fat or low CHO availability. In a randomized crossover design, 8 male cyclists consumed 5 d of a high‐CHO diet [>70% energy intake (EI)], followed by 5 d of either an isoenergetic high‐fat (HFAT; >65% EI) or high‐protein diet (HPRO; >65% EI) with CHO intake clamped at <20% EI. During the intervention, participants undertook daily exercise training. On d 6, participants consumed a high‐CHO diet before performing 100 min of submaximal steady‐state cycling plus an ~30‐min time trial. After 5 d of HFAT, skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration supported by octanoylcarnitine and pyruvate, as well as uncoupled respiration, was decreased at rest, and rates of whole‐body fat oxidation were higher during exercise compared with HPRO. After 1 d of high‐CHO diet intake, mitochondrial respiration returned to baseline values in HFAT, whereas rates of substrate oxidation returned toward baseline in both conditions. These findings demonstrate that high dietary fat intake, rather than low‐CHO intake, contributes to reductions in mitochondrial respiration and increases in whole‐body rates of fat oxidation after a consuming a high‐fat, low‐CHO diet. —Leckey, J. J., Hoffman, N. J., Parr, E. B. , Devlin, B. L. , Trewin, A. J., Stepto, N. K. , Morton, J. P., Burke, L. M. , Hawley, J. A. High dietary fat intake increases fat oxidation and reduces skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration in trained humans. FASEB J. 32, 2979–2991 (2018). www.fasebj. org
Adoption of in vitro systems and zebrafish embryos as alternative models for reducing rodent use in assessments of immunological and oxidative stress responses to nanomaterials

Abstract Assessing the safety of engineered nanomaterials (NMs) is paramount to the responsible and sustainable development of nanotechnology, which provides huge societal benefits. Currently, there is no evidence that engineered NMs cause detrimental health effects in humans. However, investigation of NM toxicity using in vivo, in vitro, in chemico, and in silico models has demonstrated that some NMs stimulate oxidative stress and inflammation, which may lead to adverse health effects. Accordingly, investigation of these responses currently dominates NM safety assessments. There is a need to reduce reliance on rodent testing in nanotoxicology for ethical, financial and legislative reasons, and due to evidence that rodent models do not always predict the human response. We advocate that in vitro models and zebrafish embryos should have greater prominence in screening for NM safety, to better align nanotoxicology with the 3Rs principles. Zebrafish are accepted for use by regulatory agencies in chemical safety assessments (e.g. developmental biology) and there is growing acceptance of their use in biomedical research, providing strong foundations for their use in nanotoxicology. We suggest that investigation of the response of phagocytic cells (e.g. neutrophils, macrophages) in vitro should also form a key part of NM safety assessments, due to their prominent role in the first line of defense. The development of a tiered testing strategy for NM hazard assessment that promotes the more widespread adoption of non-rodent, alternative models and focuses on investigation of inflammation and oxidative stress could make nanotoxicology testing more ethical, relevant, and cost and time efficient.
Learning the number of nodes in DNNs with activation mask

Recently, very deep and wide neural networks become indispensable to achieve pleasant accuracy in speech recognition. However, the heavy memory and computation costs for computing deep neural networks (DNNs) tend to be an obstacle for the low resource consumer applications such as mobile devices. It is well known that there are lots of redundant connections and nodes in large scale DNNs, and therefore, it is possible to reduce the scale by pruning nodes and connections of well-trained DNNs or reducing the node and connection redundancy of DNNs during training. In this paper, we introduce an activation mask based method to automatically learn the number of nodes in each hidden layer of DNNs during training, which achieves more compact and reasonable structures. Experimental results on the Switchboard task have shown that the proposed method can reduce the number of nodes in DNNs to 59.7% without accuracy loss.
Changes of blood pressure patterns and target organ damage in patients with chronic kidney disease: results of the APrODiTe-2 study

Objective: Blood pressure (BP) control is the most established practice for preventing the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We examined the BP control and nocturnal dipping pattern changes in hypertensive patients with CKD and their effects on target organ damages. Methods: We recruited 378 hypertensive CKD patients from four centers in Korea. The patients underwent clinic and ambulatory BP monitoring at the time of enrollment and 1 year later. Results: The BP control states at the two time points were as follows: true controlled (16.5, 17.5%), white-coat (2.9, 0.4%), masked (50.0, 53.3%), and sustained uncontrolled (30.6, 28.8%) hypertension. The dipping states at two time points were as follows: extreme-dipping (11.4, 10.8%), dipping (22.2, 20.5%), nondipping (31.3, 34.7%), and reverse-dipping (35.0, 34.0%). When we divided the patients according to the median estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and proteinuria changes, more stable changes in eGFR and proteinuria were associated with better (to true controlled and white-coat) initial and follow-up BP control statuses. Moreover, better BP control and dipping (to dipper) changes were also associated with more stable eGFR and proteinuria changes. Good initial and follow-up BP control statuses were associated with less left ventricular hypertrophy. Also, masked and sustained uncontrolled hypertension was associated with more cardio-cerebrovascular events in the univariate analysis. Conclusions: A large majority of Korean hypertensive CKD patients had uncontrolled BP and abnormal dipping patterns. Furthermore, better BP control and dipping status changes were associated with better renal function and proteinuria, and also less cardio-cerebrovascular damages.