Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial Costs Incurred by Living Kidney Donors: A Prospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND Approximately 40% of the kidneys for transplant worldwide come from living donors. Despite advantages of living donor transplants, rates have stagnated in recent years. One possible barrier may be costs related to the transplant process that potential willing donors may incur for travel, parking, accommodation, and lost productivity. METHODS To better understand and quantify the financial costs incurred by living kidney donors, we conducted a prospective cohort study, recruiting 912 living kidney donors from 12 transplant centers across Canada between 2009 and 2014; 821 of them completed all or a portion of the costing survey. We report microcosted total, out-of-pocket, and lost productivity costs (in 2016 Canadian dollars) for living kidney donors from donor evaluation start to 3 months after donation. We examined costs according to (1) the donor's relationship with their recipient, including spousal (donation to a partner), emotionally related nonspousal (friend, step-parent, in law), or genetically related; and (2) donation type (directed, paired kidney, or nondirected). RESULTS Living kidney donors incurred a median (75th percentile) of $1254 ($2589) in out-of-pocket costs and $0 ($1908) in lost productivity costs. On average, total costs were $2226 higher in spousal compared with emotionally related nonspousal donors (P=0.02) and $1664 higher in directed donors compared with nondirected donors (P<0.001). Total costs (out-of-pocket and lost productivity) exceeded $5500 for 205 (25%) donors. CONCLUSIONS Our results can be used to inform strategies to minimize the financial burden of living donation, which may help improve the donation experience and increase the number of living donor kidney transplants.
In Vitro Cytotoxicity of Halloysite Clay Nanotubes is Effectively Prevented by Surface Coating with PEG

Aim of this work was to investigate whether a surface coating with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) makes halloysite clay nanotubes (HNTs) biocompatible up to a concentration level suitable for their effective employment as ultrasound contrast agents. Such a concentration level has been recently identified in a contrast dose of 1.50 mg/mL. , which has been shown to be particularly suitable for automatic HNT detection within echographic images acquired through a clinically-available ultrasound device employing conventional diagnostic settings. The dose- and time-dependent cytotoxicity of uncoated and PEG-coated HNTs was evaluated in vitro by MTT cell viability assay carried out on two different human cell lines: SKOV-3 (human ovarian carcinoma cells) and MG-63 (human osteosarcoma cells). Cells were each time incubated for 6 to 72 h in the presence of HNTs at a concentration ranging from 0.25 to 1.5 mg/mL before the MTT test was performed. Obtained results showed that, for both the considered cell lines. , viability was substantially unaffected for any tested combination of incubation time and PEG-coated HNT concentration. On the other hand. , when the cells were incubated with uncoated HNTs significant reductions in viability (indicative of cytotoxic effects) were visible after a 48-h incubation for each adopted nanoparticle dose. On these bases. , PEG coating can be considered a highly effective method to improve the biocompatibility of HNTs. , which in turn has a very strong potential for an effective employment as ultrasound contrast and drug delivery agent.
Improving STI and HIV Passive Partner Notification using the Model for Improvement: A Quality Improvement Study in Lilongwe Malawi

Background: In Malawi, passive partner notification is the mainstay method of partner notification (PN). Despite its wide use, the proportion of sexual partners referred for care through this method is very low. We aimed to increase the proportion of sexual partner referral through passive PN. Methods: We implemented a quality improvement (QI) project at Bwaila STI unit in Lilongwe, Malawi between January and June 2017 using a pre- and post- intervention quasi-experimental study design. Pre-intervention, we conducted key-informant interviews and clinic observations and used the findings to design a QI project using expert opinion. The intervention included three change ideas: early start time of the clinic, shortening of the group health talk and expedited clinic flow for sexual partners. Each change idea was tested twice through 1-week long Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles using the model for improvement (MFI) and then combined and tested twice. Process data were collected and monitored using run charts. Post-intervention, we evaluated the proportion of sexual partners who presented to the clinic, to detect a 10% increase at 95% power and α=0.05, between pre- and post-intervention periods. Results: The average duration of the group health talk dropped from 56 minutes to 38 minutes and the duration of clinic stay for sexual partners reduced by 45 minutes (from 1hour 36 minutes to 51 minutes). The average clinic start time improved from 09:02 hours to 08:17 hours. The proportion of sexual partner referral increased by 37% (P=0.04) - from 15.6% to 21.4%. We observed an upward trend in the proportion of sexual partners referred in the post-intervention period. Conclusion: The yield of sexual partners through passive PN was improved using a simple QI intervention implemented using the MFI. However, the proportion of sexual partner referral remains suboptimal. More effort is required to increase the proportion of sexual partner referral in Malawi.
Identification of driver genes associated with chemotherapy resistance of Ewing’s sarcoma

Background The aim of this study was to identify the driver genes associated with chemotherapy resistance of Ewing’s sarcoma and potential targets for Ewing’s sarcoma treatment. Methods Two mRNA microarray datasets, GSE12102 and GSE17679, were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, which contain 94 human Ewing’s sarcoma samples, including 65 from those who experienced a relapse and 29 from those with no evidence of disease. The differen tially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified using LIMMA package R. Subsequently, Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses were performed for DEGs using Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Analysis. The protein–protein interaction network was constructed using Cytoscape software, and module analysis was performed using Molecular Complex Detection. Results A total of 206 upregulated DEGs and 141 downregulated DEGs were identified. Upregulated DEGs were primarily enriched in DNA replication, nucleoplasm and protein kinase binding for biological processes, cellular component and molecular functions, respectively. Downregulated DEGs were predominantly involved in receptor clustering, membrane raft, and ligand-dependent nuclear receptor binding. The protein–protein interaction network of DEGs consisted of 150 nodes and 304 interactions. Thirteen hub genes were identified, and biological analysis revealed that these genes were primarily enriched in cell division, cell cycle, and mitosis. Furthermore, based on closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, and degree centrality, the three most significant genes were identified as GAPDH, AURKA, and EHMT2. Furthermore, the significant network module was composed of nine genes. These genes were primarily enriched in mitotic nuclear division, mitotic chromosome condensation, and nucleoplasm. Conclusion These hub genes, especially GAPDH, AURKA, and EHMT2, may be closely associated with the progression of Ewing’s sarcoma chemotherapy resistance, and further experiments are needed for confirmation.
Synchrotron FTIR and Raman spectroscopy 1 ectroscopy provide unique spectral fingerprints for Arabidopsis floral stem vascular tissues

Cell walls are highly complex structures that are modified during plant growth and development. For example, the development of phloem and xylem vascular cells, which participate in the transport of sugars and water as well as support, can be influenced by cell-specific cell wall composition. Here, we used synchrotron radiation-based infrared (SR-FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy to analyze the cell wall composition of wild-type and double mutant sweet11-1sweet12-1, which impairs sugar transport, Arabidopsis floral stem vascular tissue. The SR-FTIR spectra showed that in addition to modified xylem cell wall composition, phloem cell walls in the double mutant line were characterized by modified hemicellulose composition. Moreover, combining Raman spectroscopy with a Classification and Regression Tree (CART) method identified combinations of Raman shifts that could distinguish xylem vessels and fibers. Additionally, the disruption of SWEET11 and SWEET12 genes impacts xylem cell wall composition in a cell-specific manner, with changes in hemicelluloses and cellulose observed at the xylem vessel interface. These results suggest that the facilitated transport of sugars by transporters that exist between vascular parenchyma cells and conducting cells is important to ensuring correct phloem and xylem cell wall composition. Highlight Combining vibrational spectroscopy techniques and multivariate analysis shows that the disruption of SWEET genes impacts phloem cell wall composition and that the effect on xylem cell wall composition is cell-specific.
Field Testing of the Use of Intake24—An Online 24-Hour Dietary Recall System

Dietary assessment is important for monitoring and evaluating population intakes. Online tools can reduce the level of participant burden and the time taken to complete records, compared with other methods. The study aimed to field test an online dietary recall tool (Intake24) to test the suitability for collecting dietary information in Scottish national surveys and to develop the system based on feedback and emerging issues. Previous Scottish Health Survey participants, aged 11+ years, were invited to complete Intake24 and provide feedback about it. Of those who agreed to take part, 60% completed at least one recall. Intake24 was found to be user-friendly, enjoyable to use, and easy to follow and understand. Users agreed they would like to use Intake24 often, (44% compared with 15% who disagreed) and >75% felt the system accurately captured their dietary intakes. The main challenge reported was finding foods within the database. Of those completing fewer recalls than requested, the majority reported that they believed they had completed the required number or reported not receiving emails requesting they complete a further recall. Intake24 was found to be a user-friendly tool allowing dietary assessment without interviewer presence. Feedback indicated the method for recall reminders needs to be refined and tailored.
Golf Swing Rotational Velocity: The Essential Follow-Through

Objective To evaluate if shoulder and pelvic angular velocities differ at impact or peak magnitude between professional and amateur golfers. Golf swing rotational biomechanics are a key determinant of power generation, driving distance, and injury prevention. We hypothesize that shoulder and pelvic angular velocities would be highly consistent in professionals. Methods Rotational velocities of the upper-torso and pelvis throughout the golf swing and in relation to phases of the golf swing were examined in 11 professionals and compared to 5 amateurs using three-dimensional motion analysis. Results Peak rotational velocities of professionals were highly consistent, demonstrating low variability (coefficient of variation [COV]), particularly upper-torso rotational velocity (COV=0.086) and pelvic rotational velocity (COV=0.079) during down swing. Peak upper-torso rotational velocity and peak X-prime, the relative rotational velocity of uppertorso versus pelvis, occurred after impact in follow-through, were reduced in amateurs compared to professionals (p=0.005 and p=0.005, respectively) and differentiated professionals from most (4/5) amateurs. In contrast, peak pelvic rotational velocity occurred in down swing. Pelvic velocity at impact was reduced in amateurs compared to professionals (p=0.019) and differentiated professionals from most (4/5) amateurs. Conclusion Golf swing rotational velocity of professionals was consistent in pattern and magnitude, offering benchmarks for amateurs. Understanding golf swing rotational biomechanics can guide swing modifications to help optimize performance and prevent injury.
Feasibility of vitamin D supplementation interventions to mitigate HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis-related bone mineral density loss: a cross-sectional survey

Background Daily tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF)/emtricitabine as HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) causes subclinical decreases in bone mineral density (BMD). We surveyed PrEP users to assess feasibility for a clinical trial of vitamin D supplementation to mitigate TDF-induced BMD loss. Methods We recruited participants using or starting PrEP in Toronto and Vancouver. The primary objective was to assess the acceptability of daily or weekly vitamin D supplementation. We also assessed the acceptability of calcium supplementation, existing use of non-pharmacological bone health interventions, prevalence of osteoporosis risk factors, and bone health knowledge (Osteoporosis Knowledge Test, OKT). Results Of 161 participants, 72.1% were current PrEP users, 18.0% were starting PrEP, and 9.9% did not indicate their PrEP status. All identified as males, 88.8% as gays, and 67.1% as Whites. Median (IQR) age was 32.0 (29.0, 40.0) years, and 62.1% reported family income $$60,000/year. Among those not already using the interventions, willingness to supplement with daily vitamin D, weekly vitamin D, or daily calcium was very high at 90.9%, 96.4%, and 93.0 %, respectively. Only 31.0% reported adequate dietary calcium intake, while 42.9% reported $1 osteoporosis risk factor (most commonly, alcohol and smoking). Overall bone health knowledge was low, as median (IQR) OKT score was 16/32. In post hoc comparisons, current PrEP users may have been more likely than new PrEP users to engage in bone loading exercise (Bone-specific Physical Activity Questionnaire score=12.5 vs 3.6, P=0.001) and have greater bone health knowledge (OKT=17 vs 14, P=0.08), but they had similar levels of current vitamin D supplementation (37.4% vs 21.4%, P=0.11), calcium supplementation (11.2% vs 13.8%, P=0.70), and adequate dietary calcium intake (32.7% vs 25.0%, P=0.43). Discussion The high acceptability of vitamin D and calcium supplementation in this cohort suggests that enrollment into a clinical trial of such interventions to mitigate PrEP-induced BMD loss is feasible.
Speaker-adaptive neural vocoders for statistical parametric speech synthesis systems

This paper proposes speaker-adaptive neural vocoders for statistical parametric speech synthesis (SPSS) systems. Recently proposed WaveNet-based neural vocoding systems successfully generate a time sequence of speech signal with an autoregressive framework. However, building high-quality speech synthesis systems with limited training data for a target speaker remains a challenge. To generate more natural speech signals with the constraint of limited training data, we employ a speaker adaptation task with an effective variation of neural vocoding models. In the proposed method, a speaker-independent training method is applied to capture universal attributes embedded in multiple speakers, and the trained model is then fine-tuned to represent the specific characteristics of the target speaker. Experimental results verify that the proposed SPSS systems with speaker-adaptive neural vocoders outperform those with traditional source-filter model-based vocoders and those with WaveNet vocoders, trained either speaker-dependently or speaker-independently.
A Convolutional Neural Networks Approach with Infrared Array Sensor for Bed-Exit Detection

Among various kinds of falling prevention measures, bed exit alarm mechanism has raised serious attention recently. In particular, the recent inflow of innovative ICT advancement from Internet of Things, wearable technology, and artificial intelligence have shed on more possibility in realizing effective bed exit alarm systems. This research proposes a deep learning algorithm to construct the bed exit detection model using monitored behavior information collected from the infrared array sensor. Based on the preliminary experiment results, the bed-exit events can be recognized with 92% accuracy, 99% for precision and 97% for recall rate. This approach also has its advantages in low device costs, less data storage needed, less spacial resolution without privacy and legal concerns, and unaffected performance in various lighting conditions.
Graph-Based Sparse Matrix Regression for 2D Feature Selection

It is common to perform feature selection for pattern recognition and image processing. However, most of conventional methods often convert the image matrix into a vector for feature selection, which fails to consider the spatial location of image. To address this issue, we propose a graph-based sparse matrix regression for feature selection on matrix. We incorporate a graph regularization term into the objective function of the sparse matrix regression model. The role of this graph structure is to make the matrix samples sharing the same labels keep close together in the transformed space. Extensive experimental results can demenstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
MAD roots for large trees

The Minimal Ancestral Deviation (MAD) method is a recently introduced procedure for estimating the root of a phylogenetic tree, based only on the shape and branch lengths of the tree. The method is loosely derived from the midpoint rooting method, but, unlike its predecessor, makes use of all pairs of OTUs when positioning the root. In this note we establish properties of this method and then describe a fast and memory efficient algorithm. As a proof of principle, we use our algorithm to determine the MAD roots for simulated phylogenies with up to 100,000 OTUs. The calculations take a few minutes on a standard laptop.
Personality traits and cognitive function in old-adults with type-2 diabetes

Abstract Objectives: Personality may constitute an important domain of influence on cognitive function in old-adults. We assessed the relationship of personality traits and cognitive performance in individuals with Type-2 Diabetes (T2D), and explored possible mediators. Method: The sample includes 377 dementia-free subjects with T2D participating in the Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline study who underwent assessment of cognition and personality (mean age 72 ± 4y; 42% females). We assessed the relationships of personality traits with episodic memory, semantic categorization, attention/working memory, executive function and overall cognition using linear regression models adjusting for age, education, sex, BMI, T2D duration, Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), hypertension, c-reactive protein, total- to HDL-cholesterol ratio and ApoEɛ4 genotype. A post-hoc mediation analysis was conducted with HbA1C, proportion of days covered (PDC) by T2D prescription claims and depressive symptoms. Results: After adjustment for multiple covariates, high neuroticism levels were associated with poorer performance overall (β= −0.16 ± 0.05; p = 0.001) and with poorer episodic memory, attention/working memory, and semantic categorization (β= −0.14 ± 0.05; p = 0.007, β= −0.12 ± 0.05; p = 0.017 and β= −0.12 ± 0.05; p = 0.018, respectively). High scores on openness to experience were associated with better global cognition (β = 0.11 ± 0.05; p = 0.026), executive functions (β = 0.13 ± 0.05; p = 0.013) and semantic categorization (β = 0.17 ± 0.05; p = 0.001, respectively). Depressive symptoms mediated the association of neuroticism with executive function, and the association of openness with executive function and overall cognition. Conclusion: Personality may play an important role in cognitive health among elderly subjects with T2D. Future studies should address the mechanisms underlying these relationships and specifically the potential role of depressive symptoms which may be in the causal pathway between personality traits and cognitive outcomes.
Tracking of Time-Variant Linear Systems: Influence of Group Delay for Different Excitation Signals

Identification and tracking of time- variant systems is relevant in many applications, such as acoustic echo cancellation, active noise control, or in acoustics, e.g., for fast acquisition of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) via dynamic measurements. Unlike in many other applications, for acoustic measurements the excitation signals can be chosen and optimized for the specific measurement scenario. So far, for this optimization the impact of the group delay on the tracking behavior has not been explicitly considered as a design criterion. In this paper, the influence of time-variance in combination with the temporal properties (envelope, group delay) of the excitation signal is addressed. In simulations and in dynamic binaural room impulse response measurements it is shown how the group delay of the excitation sequence affects the progression in tracking.
Probabilistic Disjoint Principal Component Analysis

Abstract One of the most relevant problems in principal component analysis and factor analysis is the interpretation of the components/factors. In this paper, disjoint principal component analysis model is extended in a maximum-likelihood framework to allow for inference on the model parameters. A coordinate ascent algorithm is proposed to estimate the model parameters. The performance of the methodology is evaluated on simulated and real data sets.