Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of the Novel Inflammatory Marker GlycA and Incident Heart Failure and Its Subtypes of Preserved and Reduced Ejection Fraction

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: GlycA, a nuclear magnetic resonance composite marker of systemic inflammation, reflects serum concentration and glycosylation state of main acute phase reactants. Prior studies have shown plasma GlycA levels were associated with cardiovascular disease even after adjusting for other inflammatory markers. However, little is known about the association of GlycA with the heart failure (HF) subtypes: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) or heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. We examined the association of GlycA with incident HF and its subtypes in a multiethnic cohort. Methods: We studied 6507 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants aged 45 to 84 without baseline cardiovascular disease or HF who had data on GlycA and incident hospitalized HF. We used multivariable-adjusted Cox hazards models to evaluate the association of GlycA with incident total HF, HFpEF, and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Models were adjusted for sociodemographics, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and inflammatory biomarkers. Results: The mean (SD) for age was 62 (10) years and for GlycA was 375 (82) μmol/L; 53% women. Over a median follow-up of 14.0 years, participants in the highest quartile of GlycA, compared with the lowest, experienced increased risk of developing any HF (hazard ratio, 1.48 [95% CI, 1.01–2.18]) in fully adjusted models. However, this increased risk was only seen for HFpEF (2.18 [1.15–4.13]) and not heart failure with reduced ejection fraction [1.06 (0.63–1.79)]. There was no significant interaction by sex, age, or race/ethnicity. Conclusions: GlycA was associated with an increased risk of any HF, and in particular, HFpEF. Future studies should examine mechanisms that might explain differential association of GlycA with HF subtypes, and whether therapeutic lowering of GlycA can prevent HFpEF development. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials. gov; Unique identifier: NCT00005487.
In Vitro Evaluation of the Effects of Tamoxifen on Prostate Cancer Cells

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Considering the high prevalence of prostate cancer and the effect of androgens on its progression, this study was conducted to investigate the inhibitory effects of tamoxifen as an anti-androgen on prostate cancer. METHODS: In this experimental study, the human cell line (PC3) was purchased from the Pasteur Institute. The effect of tamoxifen at concentrations of 0, 3.25, 7.5, 15, 30 and 60 μM on cells was evaluated, and the tests of viability, migration, colonization and cell morphological changes were respectively performed using MTT, wound healing, colonization, and giemsa staining methods. FINDINGS: IC50 dosage of tamoxifen of 15 μM with a regression coefficient of 0.90 was obtained within 24 hours. The results showed that tamoxifen significantly inhibited proliferation with 7.3±0.6 colonies compared with 100 colonies of control (p<0.03) and migration with 278.4±1.5 μm groove diameter compared with 89.68 ± 0.9 μm of control (p<0.01) at the dose of 15 μM. Treatment of cells with a dose of 15 μM also causes changes in the nucleus and cytoplasm and causes apoptosis in comparison with the control group. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that tamoxifen has significant inhibitory effects on PC3 prostate cell and can be considered as an appropriate way for the treatment of prostate cancer.
Association Between Elevated suPAR, a New Biomarker of Inflammation, and Accelerated Aging

Abstract Background To understand and measure the association between chronic inflammation, aging, and age-related diseases, broadly applicable standard biomarkers of systemic chronic inflammation are needed. We tested whether elevated blood levels of the emerging chronic inflammation marker soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) were associated with accelerated aging, lower functional capacity, and cognitive decline. Methods We used data from the Dunedin Study, a population-representative 1972–1973 New Zealand birth cohort (n = 1037) that has observed participants to age 45 years. Plasma suPAR levels were analyzed at ages 38 and 45 years. We performed regression analyses adjusted for sex, smoking, C-reactive protein, and current health conditions. Results Of 997 still-living participants, 875 (88%) had plasma suPAR measured at age 45. Elevated suPAR was associated with accelerated pace of biological aging across multiple organ systems, older facial appearance, and with structural signs of older brain age. Moreover, participants with higher suPAR levels had greater decline in physical function and cognitive function from childhood to adulthood compared to those with lower suPAR levels. Finally, improvements in health habits between ages 38 and 45 (smoking cessation or increased physical activity) were associated with less steep increases in suPAR levels over those years. Conclusions Our findings provide initial support for the utility of suPAR in studying the role of chronic inflammation in accelerated aging and functional decline.
Management of bleeding associated with radiofrequency ablation of benign thyroid nodules

Objective This study was performed to explore the effective management of bleeding associated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of benign thyroid nodules. Methods Thirty-five patients with benign thyroid nodules who were treated with ultrasound-guided RFA from July 2015 to December 2016 at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University were retrospectively reviewed. The technique efficacy, bleeding, and other complications were assessed during the follow-up period. Results The mean technique efficacy was 55.6%±22.8% at 1 month and 24.1%±17.1% at 6 months after the procedure. One case of an intranodular haematoma and two cases of voice change (>1 month) were observed. All patients recovered with corresponding treatment. Conclusion Although the incidence of haemorrhage is low, serious haematomas are life-threatening. Therefore, having a comprehensive understanding of the potential complications, an accurate clinical strategy, and adequate technical skills may prevent or help to properly manage these complications.
Reinforcement Learning from Demonstration

Off-the-shelf Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms suffer from slow learning performance, partly because they are expected to learn a task from scratch merely through an agent’s own experience. In this thesis, we show that learning from scratch is a limiting factor for the learning performance, and that when prior knowledge is available RL agents can learn a task faster. We evaluate relevant previous work and our own algorithms in various experiments. Our first contribution is the first implementation and evaluation of an existing interactive RL algorithm in a real-world domain with a humanoid robot. Interactive RL was evaluated in a simulated domain which motivated us for evaluating its practicality on a robot. Our evaluation shows that guidance reduces learning time, and that its positive effects increase with state space size. A natural follow up question after our first evaluation was, how do some other previous works compare to interactive RL. Our second contribution is an analysis of a user study, where naı̈ve human teachers demonstrated a real-world object catching with a humanoid robot. We present the first comparison of several previous works in a common real-world domain with a user study. One conclusion of the user study was the high potential of RL despite poor usability due to slow learning rate. As an effort to improve the learning efficiency of RL learners, our third contribution is a novel human-agent knowledge transfer algorithm. Using demonstrations from three teachers with varying expertise in a simulated domain, we show that regardless of the skill level, human demonstrations can improve the asymptotic performance of an RL agent. As an alternative approach for encoding human knowledge in RL, we investigated the use of reward shaping. Our final contributions are Static Inverse Reinforcement Learning Shaping and Dynamic Inverse Reinforcement Learning Shaping algorithms that use human demonstrations for recovering a shaping reward function. Our experiments in simulated domains show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art in cumulative reward, learning rate and asymptotic performance. Overall we show that human demonstrators with varying skills can help RL agents to learn tasks more efficiently.
The influence ofvermicomposts on plant growth and pest incidence

During the last twenty years, considerable progress has been made in developing methods of breaking down o~ganic wastes, including animal wastes, crop residues, urban and industrial organic refuse. and sewage biosolids;' which has been termed vermicomposting. Vermicomposts have a fine particulate structure, I.ow C:N ratio, with the organic matter oxidized and stabilized and converted into humic· materials. They contain nutrients transformed into plant-available forms and are extremely microbially-active. Additions of low rates of substitution of vermicomposts into greenhouse soil1\ess plant growth media or low application rates to field crops have consistently increased plant germination, growth, flowering, and fruiting, independent of nutrient availability; This can be at least partially, attributed to the production, by the greatly increased microbial pC'pulations, of plant growth regulators, including plant hormones, such as indole-acetic acid, gibberellins and cytokinins and also humic acids, which simulate the effects of hormones.
Abdelsalam, Ibrahim and Adam, Grain Philip and Holliday, Derrick and Williams, Barry W. (2016) Single-stage ac–dc buck–boost converter for medium-voltage high-power applications. IET Renewable Power

This paper proposes three topologies based on single-stage three-phase ac-dc buck-boost converters suitable for medium-voltage high-power applications. The first two topologies are based on a dual three-phase buck-boost converter, with a three-winding phase-shifted transformer to achieve sinusoidal input currents, with relatively small ac filters. The limitation of these two topologies are the switching devices are exposed either to a high voltage beyond that tolerable by a single device. The third topology is based on three single-phase buckboost converters; with their dc output terminals connected in series to generate high voltage. By using this approach, voltage stresses on the switching devices are greatly reduced, and sinusoidal input currents with nearly unity power factor is achieved over the entire operating range when using small ac filters. Analysis, PSCAD/EMTDC simulations and experimentation are used to assess the feasibility of the proposed topologies during normal operation. Major findings of this study are discussed and summarised as a comparison between the three topologies.
3 The Cell Biology of Neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma is the third most common solid tumor in children and is the most common extracranial solid tumor in children (Maris, 2010; Coulter et al., 2008; Wickstrom et al., 2007). It is highly malignant and has a poor outcome despite aggressive treatment, even with autologous stem cell transplantation (Sartelet et al., 2008). It is a disease of the neural crest and the sympathetic nervous system, and most often originates from the adrenal gland. Neuroblastoma occurs as low risk, medium risk, and high risk forms, with the high risk form being difficult to treat even with the most advanced protocols. The prognosis for neuroblastoma is poor in advanced stages of the disease. Low risk forms may regress spontaneously, and may require no surgery and only observation (Kitanaka et al., 2002). Spontaneous remission occurs more commonly in neuroblastoma than in other cancers (Carlsen, 1990; Hero et al., 2008). The reasons for this are not at present understood. The overall cure rate is 40%, which indicates that new therapeutic strategies are needed (Sartelet et al., 2008). This chapter will focus on the cell and molecular biology of neuroblastoma, and the development of therapeutic strategies for its treatment. It will emphasize biologically unfavorable and clinically aggressive neuroblastomas rather than biologically favorable neuroblastomas.
Market driving supplier strategy: IKEA’s global sourcing network in Europé

For more than a decade, market orientation approach has been most prevalent in marketing literature. According to this approach firms reactively respond to market conditions and customer trends. The market driving approach is characterised by an ability of the firm to proactively shape the market structure and offer completely new value propositions through its unique business process, thus changing the existing market conditions. The purpose of this paper is to explore how a global supplier network is developed to support the market driving strategy. IKEA is considered one of the leading market driving firms. We have studied its activities in establishing supplier networks in Russia and Poland. Findings confirm IKEA’s market driving strategy and how it has been able to restructure the market and successfully develop an efficient supplier network as a part of its market driving strategy.
Involvement of the Slayer proteins Hpi and SlpA in the maintenance of cell envelope integrity in Deinococcus radiodurans R 1

Received 3 March 2006 Revised 31 May 2006 Accepted 14 June 2006 The potential functions have been investigated of two proteins in Deinococcus radiodurans R1 predicted to be involved in the maintenance and integrity of the S layer: the hexagonally packed intermediate (Hpi) protein, and SlpA (DR2577), a homologue of an S-layer SlpA protein in Thermus thermophilus. Deletion of the hpi gene had little effect on the structure of the cell envelope or on shearor solvent-induced stress responses. However, deletion of the slpA gene caused substantial alterations in cell envelope structure, and a significant defect in resistance to solvent and shear stresses compared to the wild-type. Ultrastructural analysis of slpA mutant cells indicated loss of much of the outer Hpi protein carbohydrate coat, the ‘pink envelope’, and the membrane-like backing layer. Together these results suggest that the SlpA protein may be involved in attachment of the Hpi surface layer to the inner cell envelope, and that SlpA may play an important role in the maintenance of cell envelope integrity in D. radiodurans.
Prevalence of HLA-DQ 2 and DQ 8 haplotypes that predispose to celiac disease in Mexico Prevalencia de haplotipos HLA-DQ 2 y DQ 8 que predisponen a enfermedad celiaca en México

We have read the article ‘‘Is celiac disease better identified through HLA-DQ8 than through HLA-DQ2 in Mexican subjects? ’’ by Cerda-Contreras et al. with interest, presented as the first exploratory study on the theme conducted in Mexico. The authors evaluated the frequency of those haplotypes in a group of 30 patients with celiac disease (CD) and 19 patients with other diagnoses associated with chronic diarrhea. We consider it pertinent to make a few comments. The results coincide with those we published in 2015, also in the Revista de Gastroenterología de México, in which, in addition to analyzing the distribution of those genetic variants in CD, we compared them with the allelic prevalence in the general population of Northwestern Mexico, calculating a genetic risk gradient associated with HLA for CD in the Mexican population. There is an elevated prevalence of DQ8 in Mexicans with CD. Cerda-Contreras et al. suggest that the HLA-DQ8 haplotype may identify patients with CD better than the HLA-DQ2 haplotype, due to the fact that in their sample, DQ8 was more frequent in the patients with CD than in those without the disease, whereas the difference was less for DQ2. We observed that the joint presence of the two haplotypes or the combination of DQ8 with the DQB1*0201 allele of DQ2, conferred the maximum risk for CD in our population and that did not occur with isolated DQ8. In addition, considering that the prevalence of both haplotypes was similar in the general population studied, it would be expected for the two haplotypes to contribute to genetic risk, and not mainly DQ2, as occurs in Europeans, or mainly DQ8, as would occur in populations with a greater prevalence of Amerindian genes. Furthermore, the typing of haplotypes should not be utilized as a strategy for making the differential diagnosis, given that although it has high sensitivity, its specificity is low. In adult patients, such as those in the study by Cerda-
Prior distributions for variance parameters in a sparse‐event meta‐analysis of a few small trials

In rare diseases, typically only a small number of patients are available for a randomized clinical trial. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon that more than one study is performed to evaluate a (new) treatment. Scarcity of available evidence makes it particularly valuable to pool the data in a meta‐analysis. When the primary outcome is binary, the small sample sizes increase the chance of observing zero events. The frequentist random‐effects model is known to induce bias and to result in improper interval estimation of the overall treatment effect in a meta‐analysis with zero events. Bayesian hierarchical modeling could be a promising alternative. Bayesian models are known for being sensitive to the choice of prior distributions for between‐study variance (heterogeneity) in sparse settings. In a rare disease setting, only limited data will be available to base the prior on, therefore, robustness of estimation is desirable. We performed an extensive and diverse simulation study, aiming to provide practitioners with advice on the choice of a sufficiently robust prior distribution shape for the heterogeneity parameter. Our results show that priors that place some concentrated mass on small τ values but do not restrict the density for example, the Uniform(−10, 10) heterogeneity prior on the log(τ2) scale, show robust 95% coverage combined with less overestimation of the overall treatment effect, across varying degrees of heterogeneity. We illustrate the results with meta‐analyzes of a few small trials.
Hepatic injury induced by radio frequency waves emitted from conventional Wi-Fi devices in Wistar rats

In this study, the impact of standard 2.45 GHz radio frequency source (averaged whole-body specific absorption rate 0.01 W kg−1 24 h−1 daily for 40 consecutive days) on the liver of Wistar female rats was investigated. The rats were randomly divided into control and Wi-Fi–exposed groups. At the end of the exposure, liver samples were dissected from rats. Rats’ livers were inspected through the evaluation of some oxidative stress parameters and the evaluation of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase levels as well as through the molecular investigation using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Histopathological examination in addition to ultrastructure examination was also performed. The present data revealed that Wi-Fi exposure leads to severe oxidative stress in the rat liver. Furthermore, Wi-Fi exposure resulted in deleterious effects in the liver function and alters its molecular structure. Moreover, severe histological and ultrastructural alterations are reported in the hepatic tissues points to hepatotoxic effects induced by Wi-Fi exposure. In conclusion, care must be taken when using Wi-Fi emitting devices due to their severe impact on the liver. Public awareness of the need to decrease exposure time and increase the distance from Wi-Fi exposure sources must be raised wherever possible.
Predictors of outcome during inpatient psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder: a single-treatment, multi-site, practice-based study

Abstract Objective: The aims of this study were to determine the effectiveness of a routine clinical care treatment and to identify predictors of treatment outcome in PTSD inpatients. Methods: A routinely collected data set of 612 PTSD inpatients (M = 42.3 years [SD = 11.6], 75.7% female) having received trauma-focused psychotherapy was analyzed. Primary outcome was the clinical symptom severity change score, secondary outcomes were assessed using functional, anxiety, and depression change scores. Hedges g-corrected pre–post effect sizes (ES) were computed for all outcomes. Elastic net regulation as a data-driven, stability-based machine-learning approach was used to build stable clinical prediction models. Results: Hedges g ES indicated medium to large effects on all outcomes. The results of the predictor analyses suggested that a combined predictor model with sociodemographic, clinical, and psychometric variables contribute to predicting different treatment outcomes. Across the clinical and functional outcome, psychoticism, total number of diagnoses, and bronchial asthma consistently showed a stable negative predictive relationship to treatment outcome. Conclusion: Trauma-focused psychotherapy could effectively be implemented in a routine inpatient setting. Some important prognostic variables could be identified. If the proposed models of predictors are replicated, they may help personalize treatment for patients receiving routine clinical care.
Physical Unclonable Function and Hashing Are All You Need to Mutually Authenticate IoT Devices

Internet of Things (IoT) has become the driving force in modern day technology with an increasing and rapid urge to create an intelligent, efficient, and connected world. IoT is used in manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, education, healthcare and many other business environments as well as home automation. Authentication for IoT devices is essential because many of these devices establish communication with servers through public networks. A rigorous lightweight device authentication scheme is needed to secure its physical hardware from cloning or side-channel attacks and accommodate the limited storage and computational power of IoT devices in an efficient manner. In this paper, we introduce a lightweight mutual two-factor authentication mechanism where an IoT device and the server authenticate each other. The proposed mechanism exploits Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and a hashing algorithm with the purpose of achieving a secure authentication and session key agreement between the IoT device and the server. We conduct a type of formal analysis to validate the protocol’s security. We also validate that the proposed authentication mechanism is secure against different types of attack scenarios and highly efficient in terms of memory storage, server capacity, and energy consumption with its low complexity cost and low communication overhead. In this sense, the proposed authentication mechanism is very appealing and suitable for resource-constrained and security-critical environments.