Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Speckle Tracking-Derived Left Atrial Stiffness Predicts Clinical Outcome in Heart Failure Patients with Reduced to Mid-Range Ejection Fraction

Background and Aim: Left atrial stiffness (LASt) is an important marker of cardiac function, especially in patients with heart failure (HF); it explains symptoms on the basis of pressure transfer to the pulmonary circulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between LASt and cardiac events (CE) in HF patients with reduced to mid-range ejection fraction. Methods: The study included 215 consecutive ambulatory HF patients with ejection fraction (EF) < 50% (162 HF reduced EF and 53 HF mid-range EF) of mean age 66 ± 11 years and 24.4% females. Peak LA strain (PALS) was measured by speckle tracking echocardiography and E/e’ recorded from the apical four-chamber view. Non-invasive LASt was calculated using the equation: LASt = E/e’ ratio/PALS. Documented cardiac events (CE) were HF hospitalization and cardiac death. Results: During a median follow up of 41 ± 34 months, 65 patients (30%) had CE. In multivariate analysis model, only raised LV filling pressure (E/e’) (OR = 0.292, (95% CI 0.099 to 0.859), p = 0.02), peak pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) (OR = 1.050 (1.009 to 1.094), p = 0.01), PALS (OR = 0.932 (0.873 to 0.994), p = 0.02) and LASt (OR = 3.781 (1.144 to 5.122), p = 0.001) independently predicted CE. LASt ≥ 0.76% was the most powerful predictor of CE, with 80% sensitivity and 73% specificity (AUC 0.82, CI = 0.73 to 0.87, p < 0.001) followed by PALS ≤ 16%, with 74% sensitivity and 72% specificity (AUC 0.77, CI = 0.71 to 0.84, p < 0.001). These results were consistent irrespective of EF (p < 0.05). Conclusion: In this cohort of ambulatory HFrEF and HFmrEF patients, LASt proved the most powerful predictor of clinical outcome.
Hot-carrier extraction in nanowire-nanoantenna photovoltaic devices.

Nanowires bring new possibilities to the field of hot-carrier photovoltaics by providing flexibility in combining materials for band engineering and using nanophotonic effects to control light absorption. Previously, an open-circuit voltage beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit was demonstrated in hot-carrier devices based on InAs-InP-InAs nanowire heterostructures. However, in these first experiments, the location of light absorption, and therefore the precise mechanism of hot-carrier extraction, was uncontrolled. In this letter, we combine plasmonic nanoantennas with InAs-InP-InAs nanowire devices to enhance light absorption within a subwavelength region near an InP energy barrier that serves as an energy filter. From photon energy- and irradiance-dependent photocurrent and photovoltage measurements, we find that photocurrent generation is dominated by internal photoemission of non-thermalized hot electrons when the photoexcited electron energy is above the barrier, and by photo-thermionic emission when the energy is below the barrier. We estimate that an internal quantum efficiency up to 0.5-1.2% is achieved. Insights from this study provide guidelines to improve internal quantum efficiencies based on nanowire heterostructures.
Effect of Dexrazoxane on Left Ventricular Systolic Function and Treatment Outcomes in Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Report From the Children's Oncology Group.

PURPOSE To determine whether dexrazoxane provides effective cardioprotection during frontline treatment of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) without increasing relapse risk or noncardiac toxicities of the chemotherapy regimens. PATIENTS AND METHODS This was a multicenter study of all pediatric patients with AML without high allelic ratio FLT3/ITD treated in the Children's Oncology Group trial AAML1031 between 2011 and 2016. Median follow-up was 3.5 years. Dexrazoxane was administered at the discretion of treating physicians and documented at each course. Ejection fraction (EF) and shortening fraction (SF) were recorded after each course and at regular intervals in follow-up. Per protocol, anthracyclines were to be withheld if there was evidence of left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) defined as SF < 28% or EF < 55%. Occurrence of LVSD, trends in EF and SF, 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS), and treatment-related mortality (TRM) were compared by dexrazoxane exposure. RESULTS A total of 1,014 patients were included in the analyses; 96 were exposed to dexrazoxane at every anthracycline course, and 918 were never exposed. Distributions of sex, age, race, presenting WBC count, risk group, treatment arm, and compliance with cardiac monitoring were similar for dexrazoxane-exposed and -unexposed patients. Dexrazoxane-exposed patients had significantly smaller EF and SF declines than unexposed patients across courses and a lower risk for LVSD (26.5% v 42.2%; hazard ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.86; P = .009). Dexrazoxane-exposed patients had similar 5-year EFS (49.0% v 45.1%; P = .534) and OS (65.0% v 61.9%; P = .613) to those unexposed; however, there was a suggestion of lower TRM with dexrazoxane (5.7% v 12.7%; P = .068). CONCLUSION Dexrazoxane preserved cardiac function without compromising EFS and OS or increasing noncardiac toxicities. Dexrazoxane should be considered for cardioprotection during frontline treatment of pediatric AML.
Multiple Group Decision Making for Selecting Emergency Alternatives: A Novel Method Based on the LDWPA Operator and LD-MABAC

When an emergency event occurs, it is critical to respond in the shortest possible time. Therefore, the rationality and effectiveness of emergency decisions are the key links in emergency management. In this paper, with aims to investigate the problem of emergency alternatives selection, in which a large number of experts from multiple groups consider the linguistic evaluations of emergency alternatives and prior orders of criteria, a novel emergency decision method is proposed. First, many experts from multiple subgroups are employed to evaluate the emergency alternatives associated with multiple criteria in the format of linguistic terms. Then, linguistic distribution evaluations for the emergency alternatives of the criteria associated with each subgroup are constructed. With respect to the linguistic distribution evaluations associated with the different subgroups, the linguistic distribution power average (LDPA) and linguistic distribution weighted power average (LDWPA) operators are developed so as to aggregate the subgroups’ evaluations. Next, based on the linguistic distribution multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (LD-MABAC) method, the distance matrix of the emergency alternatives is calculated. Furthermore, the prior weights of the criteria are determined based on the distance values. Finally, the ranking result of the emergency alternatives is derived. A practical example of emergency alternatives selection is adopted to illustrate the availability and practicability of the proposed method.
On the Origin of Species: The Madeira River as a Barrier for Small Mammals in the Amazon

3 INTRODUCTION 4 The Amazon, 4 Marmosa (Micoureus) demerarae, 6 Morphological and Molecular Analyses, 11 METHODS 12 Morphological, 12 Molecular, 15 RESULTS 19 Morphological, 19 Molecular, 19 DISCUSSION 31 REFERENCES 35 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 38
Combined bacterial and fungal targeted amplicon sequencing of respiratory samples: Does the DNA extraction method matter?

Background High-throughput sequencing techniques are used to analyse the diversity of the respiratory microbiota in health and disease. Although extensive data are available regarding bacterial respiratory microbiota, its fungal component remains poorly studied. This is partly due to the technical issues associated with fungal metagenomics analyses. In this study, we compared two DNA extraction protocols and two fungal amplification targets for combined bacterial and fungal targeted amplicon sequencing analyses of the respiratory microbiota. Methods Six sputa, randomly selected from routine samples in Mondor Hospital (Creteil, France) and treated anonymously, were tested after bacterial and fungal routine culture. Two of which were spiked with Aspergillus Fumigati and Aspergillus Nigri (105 conidia/mL). After mechanical lysis, DNA was extracted using automated QIAsymphony® extraction (AQE) or manual PowerSoil® MoBio extraction (MPE). DNA yield and purity were compared. DNA extracted from spiked sputa was subjected to (i) real-time PCR for Aspergillus DNA detection and (ii) combined metagenomic analyses targeting barcoded primers for fungal ITS1 and ITS2, and bacterial V1-V2 and V3-V4 16S regions. Amplicon libraries were prepared using MiSeq Reagent V3 kit on Illumina platform. Data were analysed using PyroMIC© and SHAMAN software, and compared with culture results. Results AQE extraction provided a higher yield of DNA (AQE/MPE DNA ratio = 4.5 [1.3–11]) in a shorter time. The yield of Aspergillus DNA detected by qPCR was similar for spiked sputa regardless of extraction protocol. The extraction moderately impacted the diversity or relative abundances of bacterial communities using targeted amplicon sequencing (2/43 taxa impacted). For fungi, the relative abundances of 4/11 major taxa were impacted and AQE results were closer to culture results. The V1-V2 or V3-V4 and ITS1 or ITS2 targets assessed similarly the diversity of bacterial and fungal major taxa, but ITS2 and V3-V4 detected more minor taxa. Conclusion Our results showed the importance of DNA extraction for combined bacterial and fungal targeted metagenomics of respiratory samples. The extraction protocol can affect DNA yield and the relative abundances of few bacterial but more fungal taxa. For fungal analysis, ITS2 allowed the detection of a greater number of minor taxa compared with ITS1.
Gas-Permeable, Ultrathin, Stretchable Epidermal Electronics with Porous Electrodes.

We present gas-permeable, ultrathin, and stretchable electrodes enabled by self-assembled porous substrates and conductive nanostructures. Efficient and scalable breath figure method is employed to introduce the porous skeleton and then silver nanowires (AgNWs) are dip-coated and heat-pressed to offer electric conductivity. The resulting film has a transmittance of 61%, sheet resistance of 7.3 Ω/sq, and water vapor permeability of 23 mg cm-2 h-1. With AgNWs embedded below the surface of the polymer, the electrode exhibits excellent stability with the presence of sweat and after long-term wear. We demonstrate the promising potential of the electrode for wearable electronics in two representative applications - skin-mountable biopotential sensing for healthcare and textile-integrated touch sensing for human-machine interfaces. The electrode can form conformal contact with human skin, leading to low skin-electrode impedance and high-quality biopotential signals. In addition, the textile electrode can be used in a self-capacitance wireless touch sensing system.
Traumatic brain injury and creative divergent thinking

ABSTRACT Primary Objective The current study examined how creative divergent thinking (i.e., the ability to produce varied and original solutions to a problem) is impacted by moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Research Design Descriptive, observational. Methods and Procedures We administered two tasks of divergent thinking, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) and the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), as well as a battery of neuropsychological tests and psychosocial variables (assessing memory and learning, processing speed, set shifting and psychological distress), to 29 individuals with TBI and 20 demographically-matched healthy comparison participants. Main Outcomes and Results Individuals with TBI performed similarly to healthy individuals on both tests of creative thinking, although they were impaired on the neuropsychological tasks. Moreover, there was no significant correlation between performance on the ATTA and performance on neuropsychological tests, but within the TBI group AUT performance and memory were significantly and positively associated. Conclusions Our findings reveal that divergent thinking, as measured by the ATTA and AUT, might be spared following moderate-to-severe TBI. These findings further our understanding of the higher-level cognitive sequelae of TBI and suggest that divergent thinking might be leveraged during treatment planning.
Fast magneto-ionic switching of interface anisotropy using yttria-stabilized zirconia gate oxide.

Voltage control of interfacial magnetism has been a forefront subject of spintronics research for many years, as it offers an energy-efficient approach to realize ultra-low power memory, logic and communication technologies. Among few suggested approaches, magneto-ionic control of magnetism has demonstrated large modulation of magnetic anisotropy on the order of ~1 erg cm-2. Moreover, the recent demonstration of magneto-ionic devices using hydrogen ions (proton, H+) presented relatively fast magnetization toggle switching, tsw ~ 100 ms, at room temperature. However, the operation speed may still need to be significantly improved to be used for modern data storage and computing devices. Here, we demonstrate that the speed of proton-induced magnetization toggle switching largely depends on proton-conducting oxides. We achieve ~1 ms reliable (> 103 cycles) switching using yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as a gate oxide, which is two orders of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art magneto-ionic devices reported to date at room temperature. Our results suggest further engineering of the proton conducting materials and interfaces could bring substantial improvement in switching speed that may enable new low-power computing technology based on magneto-ionics.
Adversarial Networks for Scale Feature-Attention Spectral Image Reconstruction from a Single RGB

Hyperspectral images reconstruction focuses on recovering the spectral information from a single RGBimage. In this paper, we propose two advanced Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) for the heavily underconstrained inverse problem. We first propose scale attention pyramid UNet (SAPUNet), which uses U-Net with dilated convolution to extract features. We establish the feature pyramid inside the network and use the attention mechanism for feature selection. The superior performance of this model is due to the modern architecture and capturing of spatial semantics. To provide a more accurate solution, we propose another distinct architecture, named W-Net, that builds one more branch compared to U-Net to conduct boundary supervision. SAPUNet and scale attention pyramid WNet (SAPWNet) provide improvements on the Interdisciplinary Computational Vision Lab at Ben Gurion University (ICVL) datasetby 42% and 46.6%, and 45% and 50% in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) and relative RMSE, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed models are more accurate than the state-of-the-art hyperspectral recovery methods
Design and Rationale of the Biomarker Center of the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) Trial

Background: Biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and effect are fundamental for understanding environmental exposures, mechanistic pathways of effect, and monitoring early adverse outcomes. To date, no study has comprehensively evaluated a large suite and variety of biomarkers in household air pollution (HAP) studies in concert with exposure and outcome data. The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial is a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) fuel/stove randomized intervention trial enrolling 800 pregnant women in each of four countries (i.e., Peru, Guatemala, Rwanda, and India). Their offspring will be followed from birth through 12 months of age to evaluate the role of pre- and postnatal exposure to HAP from biomass burning cookstoves in the control arm and LPG stoves in the intervention arm on growth and respiratory outcomes. In addition, up to 200 older adult women per site are being recruited in the same households to evaluate indicators of cardiopulmonary, metabolic, and cancer outcomes. Objectives: Here we describe the rationale and ultimate design of a comprehensive biomarker plan to enable us to explore more fully how exposure is related to disease outcome. Methods: HAPIN enrollment and data collection began in May 2018 and will continue through August 2021. As a part of data collection, dried blood spot (DBS) and urine samples are being collected three times during pregnancy in pregnant women and older adult women. DBS are collected at birth for the child. DBS and urine samples are being collected from the older adult women and children three times throughout the child’s first year of life. Exposure biomarkers that will be longitudinally measured in all participants include urinary hydroxy-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic chemical metabolites, metals/metalloids, levoglucosan, and cotinine. Biomarkers of effect, including inflammation, endothelial and oxidative stress biomarkers, lung cancer markers, and other clinically relevant measures will be analyzed in urine, DBS, or blood products from the older adult women. Similarly, genomic/epigenetic markers, microbiome, and metabolomics will be measured in older adult women samples. Discussion: Our study design will yield a wealth of biomarker data to evaluate, in great detail, the link between exposures and health outcomes. In addition, our design is comprehensive and innovative by including cutting-edge measures such as metabolomics and epigenetics. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5751
Cytomegalovirus Strain TB40/E Restrictions and Adaptations to Growth in ARPE-19 Epithelial Cells

Despite displaying broad tropism in vivo, human cytomegalovirus (CMV) contained in bodily fluids replicates inefficiently in most cultured cell types except fibroblasts. As propagation in fibroblasts leads to the accumulation of genomic changes, a number of strains were generated by serial passaging on endothelial cells. One of these, TB40/E, was shown to contain a mixture of genetically distinct virus variants, and to retain tropism for fibroblasts, endothelial and epithelial cells. Cloning of an endotheliotropic subpopulation produced the TB40-BAC4 variant, extensively used in CMV tropism studies. Because TB40-BAC4 represents only one of the different variants comprising TB40/E, we generated a series of epithelial-cell adapted stocks derived from a TB40/E mixed stock, rather than from TB40-BAC4. Within two passages on ARPE-19 cells, virus populations were produced with the ability to enter and initiate replication with similar efficiencies in both epithelial cells and fibroblasts. Although the ability to release progeny also increased, cell-free virus yields from ARPE-19 cells remained consistently two to three-logs lower than from fibroblasts, hinting at the existence of a post-entry and post-genome synthesis block in epithelial cells. Multinucleated syncytia also rapidly appeared exclusively in ARPE-19 cell cultures, where their numbers and dimensions increased with virus passage. Irrespective of the number of infected nuclei comprising each syncytium, however, only one cytoplasmic virion assembly compartment was consistently observed, leading us to speculate that improvements in entry efficiency associated with ARPE-19 cell adaptation lead to the development of syncytia, which may negatively affect progeny release by limiting the amount of resources available to maturing virions.
Probabilistic, spinally-gated control of bladder pressure and autonomous micturition by Barrington’s nucleus CRH neurons

Micturition requires precise control of bladder and urethral sphincter via parasympathetic, sympathetic and somatic motoneurons. This involves a spino-bulbospinal control circuit incorporating Barrington’s nucleus in the pons (Barr). Ponto-spinal glutamatergic neurons that express corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) form one of the largest Barr cell populations. BarrCRH neurons can generate bladder contractions, but it is unknown whether they act as a simple switch or provide a high-fidelity pre-parasympathetic motor drive and whether their activation can actually trigger voids. Combined opto- and chemo-genetic manipulations along with multisite extracellular recordings in urethane anaesthetised CRHCre mice show that BarrCRH neurons provide a probabilistic drive that generates co-ordinated voids or non-voiding contractions depending on the phase of the micturition cycle. CRH itself provides negative feedback regulation of this process. These findings inform a new inferential model of autonomous micturition and emphasise the importance of the state of the spinal gating circuit in the generation of voiding.
Argentine Patagonia barberry chemical composition and evaluation of its antioxidant capacity.

An important portion of vitamins, minerals and polyphenols components in human diet are captured from fruit consumption. Argentinean Patagonia Berberis microphylla was characterized with the phenolic content, the proximate composition and the identification and quantification of anthocyanins, not-anthocyanins and proteins. The antioxidant capacity of berberis ethanolic extracts (EB) was determined by the 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays. EB was used to reduce production of reactive substances species (ROS) in zebrafish. EB presented a total polyphenols content of 1,035.03 mg GAE/100 g fresh weight (FW). EB presented an ABTS value of 116.25 ± 17 μmol TE/g FW. EB presented a DPPH value of 137.80 ± 1.90 μmol TE/g FW. EB was able of reducing the ROS in zebrafish. Berberies Protein Isolate (BPI) presented proteins with bands from 15 to 62 kDa. BPI presented an ABTS value of 593.11 ± 8.60 μmol TE/g. The BPI duodenal digest presented a value of 641.07 ± 12.60 μmol TE/g digests. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The practical applications of the present study are to increase scientific knowledge for consumers about the quality and benefits of the consumption of the native fruit (Berberis microphylla) from the Patagonia region of Argentine. This work describes the protein profile of berberies, their digestibility and their antioxidant activity. This study allows to better understand the phytonutrients that make up this fruit. Future studies may identify the peptides present in hydrolyzates. The bio-compounds of this fruit could be used as functional ingredients by the food industry for different purposes.
Fear of Missing Out Predicts Employee Information Security Awareness Above Personality Traits, Age, and Gender

The role of human factors in employee information security awareness (ISA) has garnered increased attention, with many researchers highlighting a potential link between problematic technology use and poorer online safety and security. This study aimed to present additional evidence for this by exploring the relationship between of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and ISA in employees. A total of 718 participants completed an online questionnaire that included a measure of FoMO, ISA, as well as the Big Five personality inventory. Participants who reported higher levels of FoMO had lower overall ISA, as well as having poorer knowledge, a more negative attitude, and engaged in riskier behaviors in relation to ISA. FoMO was also demonstrated to be the largest single negative predictor for ISA, above that of age, gender, and the key personality traits tested. The potential reasons for the influence of FoMO over ISA are discussed, as well as the implications for organizational information security.