Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How‐to guide for effectively performing and coordinating multicenter observational research as a clinical pharmacist

While single‐center research serves multiple purposes for the provision of patient care and identification of testable hypotheses, the importance of multicenter research is well established. The purpose of this “how‐to” guide is to assist pharmacists with the various steps in performing and coordinating multicenter, observational research. The steps that are reviewed include identifying a precise and appropriate research question; determining the expected final products or deliverables from the project and the timeline needed to satisfactorily achieve each step in the process toward these deliverables; establishing the research team structure and recognition of project contributions; navigating the institutional review board approval and data sharing and storage processes; collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data; evaluating additional project management considerations; avoiding and resolving pitfalls of multicenter research; and wrapping up the project. Resources are provided to encourage and support pharmacist principal investigators in their research efforts.
An Agent-based Data Analytics Support Tool for Network Management Intelligence

Data analytics technics are attracted to the field of network management. However, since a vast amount of data is produced from the systems, it is difficult to analyze effectively in ordinal network administrative office. In this paper, we propose an agent-based approach to support network and systems data analysis. Using the functions of agent-based systems to interact each other, collaborating with an agent-base network management system, it makes the data analysis tasks to be easy. Actual data analytics experiment on the network management task, we found that the agent-based analytics tool can effectively support the novice network and systems administrators.
Why do gun murders have a higher clearance rate than gunshot assaults?

Research Summary The prevailing view is that follow-up investigations produce limited value as crimes are largely cleared by patrol officers making on-scene arrests and through the presence of eyewitnesses and forensic evidence at the initial crime scene. We use a quasi-experimental design to compare investigative resources invested in clearing gun homicide cases relative to non-fatal gun assaults in Boston. We find the large gap in clearances (43% for gun murders vs. 19% for nonfatal gun assaults) is primarily due to sustained investigative effort in homicide cases made after the first two days.
Genetic Analysis of Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a disease that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels and the ability to carry out daily tasks. BD is a complex disorder in which several factors may play a role. It is clinically heterogeneous and we still do not have bio-markers to help in the diagnostic. It is heritable, although not monogenic. Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)s were found, but were not able to explain all cases. In fact, a recent study using questionnaires to assess mood disorders has shown that the positive predictive value ranges from 50% to 55%, with the sensitivity value being higher in bipolar type I (85.7%), than in bipolar type II (72.4%), or cyclothymia/not otherwise specified bipolar disorder (59.3%). Therefore there is quite a lot of room for improvements. Few works have applied machine learning techniques to study bipolar disorder. They apply those techniques on small scaled clinical data, genetic data, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), etc. Moreover, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder is still based on behavioural symptoms, which can lead to a misdiagnosis and imply a wrong or an ineffective treatment. We studied a Genome-Wide Association (GWA) data from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) and found a higher prevalence of patients that are homozygous compared with heterozygous when analyzing different SNPs in genes previously associated with bipolar disorder. Our results indicate that there is a group of patients that present pairs or triples of genotypes while others have the presence of only one. We applied association rules to find combination of genotypes that can possibly lead to uncovering subgroups of patients with different genetic conditions which may be candidates to better diagnosis and treatment. Our findings may shed the light on better classification of bipolar disorder patients allowing for representing their clinical heterogeneity, ultimately opening a new possibility for distinct forms of treatment. Additional clinical data and larger datasets are encouraged to reinforce our findings.
Effects of Hormone Therapy on Heart Fat and Coronary Artery Calcification Progression: Secondary Analysis From the KEEPS Trial

Background Heart fats (epicardial and paracardial adipose tissue [PAT]) are greater after menopause. Endogenous estrogen may regulate these fat depots. We evaluated the differential effects of hormone therapy formulations on heart fat accumulations and their associations with coronary artery calcification (CAC) progression in recently menopausal women from KEEPS (Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study). Methods and Results KEEPS was a multicenter, randomized, placebo‐controlled trial of the effects of 0.45 mg/d oral conjugated equine estrogens and 50 µg/d transdermal 17β‐estradiol, compared with placebo, on 48‐month progression of subclinical atherosclerosis among 727 early menopausal women. CAC progression was defined if baseline CAC score was 0 and 48‐month CAC score was >0 or if baseline CAC score was >0 and <100 and annualized change in CAC score was ≥10. Of 727 KEEPS participants, 474 (mean age: 52.7 [SD: 2.6]; 78.1% white) had computed tomography–based heart fat and CAC measures at both baseline and 48 months. Compared with women on placebo, women on oral conjugated equine estrogens were less likely to have any increase in epicardial adipose tissue (odds ratio for oral conjugated equine estrogens versus placebo: 0.62 [95% CI, 0.40–0.97]; P=0.03). PAT did not change in any group. Changes in epicardial adipose tissue and PAT did not differ by treatment group. CAC increased in 14% of participants. The assigned treatment modified the association between PAT changes and CAC progression (P=0.02) such that PAT increases were associated with CAC increases only in the transdermal 17β‐estradiol group. Conclusions In recently menopausal women, oral conjugated equine estrogens may slow epicardial adipose tissue accumulation, whereas transdermal 17β‐estradiol may increase progression of CAC associated with PAT accumulation. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00154180.
Late Presentation of Carfilzomib Associated Thrombotic Microangiopathy

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell disorder characterized by abnormal proliferation of plasma cells resulting in overproduction of paraprotein. Proteasome inhibitors (PI) have been a corner stone for the treatment of MM. Thrombotic Microangiopathy (TMA) is a recent hematological adverse event that has newly been recognized in multiple PI. TMA leads to end-organ damage and infarction by microthromobi. TMA pathophysiology is not well understood and has multiple etiologies. We present a case of PI-induced TMA, along with literature review of cases diagnosed from 2008–2018. Unique to our case is the onset of presentation, more than 24 months after initiating carfilzomib. Our case highlights the need for vigilant monitoring and the importance of clinical suspicion in patients at risk for TMA.
65‐4: Novel Methods for Measuring VR/AR Performance Factors from OLED/LCD

Traditionally, measuring virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) performance is very complex and costly. In this paper, a novel and compact method for measuring end-to-end performance has been proposed, which introduces various latency and motion blur factors with a simple and cost-effective end-to-end measurement implementation for different display technologies including organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and light-emitting diode (LCD).
An Emperical Study of Clustering Algorithms to extract Knowledge from PubMed Articles

Extraction of useful information from biomedical literature is one of the thrust for the world nowadays due to availability of almost articles on the web in electronic form. Information retrieval (IR) from biomedical literature is finding useful patterns from the unstructured text corpus that satisfies information. In this paper intelligent text analysis is carried out on PubMed articles related to influenza virus. In this context, various algorithms are discussed to reveal the information from PubMed articles, like year wise count of articles containing influenza virus related terms (viz. H1N1, H5N1, and H7N1 etc.), countries with their publication count, which tells about the outbreaks of the diseases in these countries. The articles may be grouped by searching the keyword “influenza virus strain” pattern with the help of regular expressions. Automatic text categorization is another challenging issue for text mining. We applied k-means, fuzzy C-means, and fuzzy C-shell algorithm for automatic categorization of text articles. The association between words based on their cooccurrence is computed which further helps to categorize the documents based on their cooccurrences. The basic k-means clustering algorithm is first applied to cluster the documents, and then to handle the fuzzy nature of words which may belong to more than one cluster, fuzzy c-means clustering is applied to form more accurate clusters. As Fuzzy c-means method clusters the documents which are in linear spaces but not in the circle, spherical, or ellipsoidal spaces. A new method is proposed here, which considers the clusters of documents in the radius of the circle.
The diagnostic role of T wave morphology biomarkers in congenital and acquired long QT syndrome: A systematic review

QTc prolongation is key in diagnosing long QT syndrome (LQTS), however 25%–50% with congenital LQTS (cLQTS) demonstrate a normal resting QTc. T wave morphology (TWM) can distinguish cLQTS subtypes but its role in acquired LQTS (aLQTS) is unclear.
New insights to improve treatment adherence in asthma and COPD

Abstract Chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD are typically managed by daily inhaled medication. However, the efficacy of an inhaled medication depends upon a patient’s adherence to therapy, which refers to whether the medication is actually taken as prescribed. In patients with these diseases, higher adherence has been associated with better health outcomes, such as improved disease control and a reduction in severe and potentially costly exacerbations. Adherence is a multifaceted concept that includes medication-related, intentional, and unintentional reasons that patients may or may not take their medication as directed. The purpose of this integrative review is to present the individual patient factors that contribute to suboptimal adherence to inhaled therapies and the associated effects on health outcomes, while also highlighting evidence-based strategies for health care providers to improve adherence to such therapies in patients with asthma or COPD. Working closely with patients to establish a model of shared decision-making, which takes patient beliefs and preferences into account when choosing treatment options, has the potential to improve adherence and overall patient outcomes in the management of asthma and COPD.
Oncosuppressive Role of RUNX3 in Human Astrocytomas

Background Gliomas are the most common and aggressive among primary malignant brain tumours with significant inter- and intratumour heterogeneity in histology, molecular profile, and patient outcome. However, molecular targets that could provide reliable diagnostic and prognostic information on this type of cancer are currently unknown. Recent studies show that certain phenotypes of gliomas such as malignancy, resistance to therapy, and relapses are associated with the epigenetic alterations of tumour-specific genes. Runt-related transcription factor 3 (RUNX3) is feasible tumour suppressor gene since its inactivation was shown to be related to carcinogenesis. Aim The aim of the study was to elucidate RUNX3 changes in different regulation levels of molecular biology starting from epigenetics to function in particular cases of astrocytic origin tumours of different grade evaluating significance of molecular changes of RUNX3 for patient clinical characteristics as well as evaluate RUNX3 reexpression effect to GBM cells. Methods The methylation status and protein expression levels of RUNX3 were measured by methylation-specific PCR and Western blot in 136 and 72 different malignancy grade glioma tissues, respectively. Lipotransfection and MTT were applied for proliferation assessment in U87-MG cells. Results We found that RUNX3 was highly methylated and downregulated in GBM. RUNX3 promoter methylation was detected in 69.4% of GBM (n=49) as compared to 0 to 17.2% in I-III grade astrocytomas (n=87). Weighty lower RUNX3 protein level was observed in GMB specimens compared to grade II-III astrocytomas. Correlation test revealed a weak but significant link among Runx3 methylation and protein level. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that increased RUNX3 methylation and low protein level were both associated with shorter patient survival (p<0.05). Reexpression of RUNX3 in U87-MG cells significantly reduced glioma cell viability compared to control transfection. Conclusions The results demonstrate that RUNX3 gene methylation and protein expression downregulation are glioma malignancy dependent and contribute to tumour progression.
Ultrasound Features of the First Gout Attack and the Association with Duration of Hyperuricemia

Background: Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis. Unfortunately, the burden of gout is increasing and treatment is still suboptimal. Nowadays, ultrasound is increasingly used to evaluate gout, especially in the early stage. However, little is known about the prevalence of the ultrasound signs in the first gout attack. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of ultrasound features in the first gout attack and to correlate those features with the duration of hyperuricemia. Patients and Methods: We analyzed the ultrasound features of the knees, ankles and the first metatarsal-phalangeal joints (1st MTP) of patients with first gout attack compared to individuals with asymptomatic hyperuricemia (AHU). The findings were also compared with clinical, laboratory parameters and hyperuricemia duration. Results: Forty-eight patients with first gout attack gout were studied. The first attack affected the first MTP in 61%, the ankle in 33%, and the knee in 6% of the instances. The prevalence of snow-storm sign, double contour (DC) sign, tophi, bone erosion and abnormal blood flow was 92%, 29%, 6%, 13% and 83%, respectively. The prevalence of snow-storm sign and abnormal blood flow was significantly higher in the first attack of gout compared to AHU (P < 0.001). The hyperuricemia duration of patients with tophi and bone erosion was significantly longer than those with snow-storm sign and DC sign (7.5y and 6.5y vs 4.0y and 2y) (P = 0.004). Conclusion: Ultrasound features are associated with hyperuricemia duration. Furthermore, tophi and bone erosion can be detected in first gout attack. These data suggest that low-grade inflammation induced by uric acid may also occur in individuals with AHU.
Role of miRNAs induced by oxidized low-density lipoproteins in coronary artery disease: the REGICOR Study

Current risk prediction tools are not accurate enough to identify most individuals at high coronary risk. On the other hand, oxidized low-density lipoproteins (ox-LDLs) and miRNAs are actively involved in atherosclerosis. Our aim was to examine the association of ox-LDL-induced miRNAs with coronary artery disease (CAD), and to assess their predictive capacity of future CAD.Human endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells were treated with oxidized or native LDLs (nLDL), and their miRNA expression was measured with the miRNA 4.0 array, and analyzed with moderated t-tests. Differently expressed miRNAs and others known to be associated with CAD, were examined in serum samples of 500 acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients and 500 healthy controls, and baseline serum of 117 incident CAD cases and c 485 randomly-selected cohort participants (case-cohort). Both were developed within the REGICOR AMI Registry and population cohorts from Girona. miRNAs expression in serum was measured with custom OpenArray plates, and analyzed with fold change (age and sex-paired case-control) and survival models (case-cohort). Improvement in discrimination and reclassification by miRNAs was assessed. Twenty-one miRNAs were up- or down-regulated with ox-LDL in cell cultures. One of them, 1 (has-miR-122-5p, fold change=4.85) was upregulated in AMI cases. Of the 28 known CAD-associated miRNAs, 11 were upregulated in AMI cases, and 1 (hsa-miR-143-3p, hazard ratio=0.56 [0.38-0.82]) was associated with CAD incidence and improved reclassification.We identified 2 novel miRNAs associated with ox-LDLs (hsa-miR-193b-5p and hsa-miR-1229-5p), and 1 miRNA that improved reclassification of healthy individuals (hsa-miR-143-3p).
Saffron extract and its active constituents as preventative and/or treatment agents for prostate cancer using in vitro and in vivo models

ii DEDICATION . iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . x TABLE OF CONTENTS . xii LIST OF TABLES . xviii LIST OF FIGURES . xx CHAPTER 1: PROSTATE CANCER . 1
On Multi-Robot Path Planning Based on Petri Net Models and LTL specifications

This work considers the path planning problem for a team of identical robots evolving in a known environment. The robots should satisfy a global specification given as a Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) formula over a set of regions of interest. The proposed method exploits the advantages of Petri net models for the team of robots and B\"uchi automata modeling the specification. The approach in this paper consists in combining the two models into one, denoted Composed Petri net and use it to find a sequence of action movements for the mobile robots, providing collision free trajectories to fulfill the specification. The solution results from a set of Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problems. The main advantage of the proposed solution is the completeness of the algorithm, meaning that a solution is found when exists, this representing the key difference with our previous work in [1]. The simulations illustrate comparison results between current and previous approaches, focusing on the computational complexity.
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Renal Function Impairment: A Cross‐Sectional Population‐Based Study on Its Relationship From 1999 to 2016

There is growing evidence that links nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with impairment of renal function. As such, we aimed to demonstrate the trend of NAFLD, NAFLD with renal insufficiency (RI), disease awareness, and mortality over time. Patient data were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999‐2016. A total of 14,255 adult study participants without competing liver disease or heavy drinking and with complete laboratory data were included. NAFLD was defined using the U.S. Fatty Liver Index (USFLI) and RI was defined using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation and urine albumin:creatinine ratio. Death data were obtained from the National Death Index (up to December 31, 2015). Prevalence of NAFLD in participants was 31.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 30.01‐32.46); of these participants, 22.05% (95% CI, 20.34‐23.85) had RI. From 1999 to 2016, prevalence of both NAFLD without RI (P = 0.048) and NAFLD‐RI (P = 0.006) increased significantly. Among those with NAFLD‐RI, awareness of kidney disease was 8.56% (95% CI, 6.69‐10.89), while awareness of liver disease among all NAFLD was 4.49% (95% CI, 3.17‐6.33). Among those with NAFLD, mortality incidence per 1,000 person years was highest among those with severe RI in all‐cause mortality (104.4; 95% CI, 83.65‐130.39) and other residual causes of mortality (mean, 50.88; 95% CI, 37.02‐69.93). Conclusion: Prevalence of NAFLD and NAFLD‐RI has increased over the past 2 decades in the United States. Low kidney disease and liver disease awareness are major public health issues as those with NAFLD‐RI have significantly higher mortality than those with only NAFLD.
Tamsulosin dispensation patterns in the United States: a real-world, longitudinal, population claims database analysis.

Background Tamsulosin remains the single most popular uroselective alpha adrenoceptor antagonist approved for the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) attributable to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Over the last 3 decades, the utilization of tamsulosin has extended to conditions beyond its original indication. To identify potential changes to prescribing patterns and the extent of tamsulosin use for conditions beyond its original indication, we evaluated tamsulosin dispensing patterns in the United States using a large, multi-payer claims database. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis using IMS PharMetrics Plus™. Patients with a tamsulosin dispensation/BPH diagnosis code (index dates), identified during a 12-month selection period (October 2012-September 2013), were included if continuously enrolled in a health plan during the 18-month analysis period (12 months pre-index-6 months post-index). Patient and provider characteristics were evaluated using descriptive statistics and were contrasted with previously reported data from the literature. Results Of 133,977 patients dispensed tamsulosin during the analysis period, 72,583 (54.2%) were new users [59,197 (81.6%) men; 13,386 (18.4%) women]. Tamsulosin was newly initiated in men and women mostly by primary care physicians (PCPs; 31.6%) and emergency medicine physicians (21.6%). During the analysis period, 35,071 (59.2%) male new tamsulosin users did not receive a BPH diagnosis code during the analysis period. Of 199,468 men with a BPH diagnosis code, 143,444 (71.9%) were newly diagnosed, mostly [70,412 (49.1%)] by urologists. Few men received hypotension diagnosis: 252 (0.4%) new tamsulosin users within 1 month of starting tamsulosin and 640 (0.4%) within 1 month of a new BPH diagnosis. Conclusions Tamsulosin was prescribed in patients without a recorded diagnosis of BPH and in women. Physicians were comfortable prescribing tamsulosin in the presence of comorbidity and polypharmacy, and PCPs and emergency medicine physicians were the primary prescribers. These results have important implications for future retrospective research for tamsulosin.
Topological extension including quantum jump

Non-Hermitian systems and the Lindblad form master equation have always been regarded as reliable tools in dissipative modeling. Intriguingly, existing literature often obtains an equivalent non-Hermitian Hamiltonian by neglecting the quantum jumping terms in the master equation. However, there lacks investigation into the effects of discarded terms as well as the unified connection between these two approaches. In this study, we study the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with collective loss and gain from a topological perspective. When the system undergoes no quantum jump events, the corresponding shape matrix exhibits the same topological properties in contrast to the traditional non-Hermitian theory. Conversely, the occurrence of quantum jumps can result in a shift in the positions of the phase transition. Our study provides a qualitative analysis of the impact of quantum jumping terms and reveals their unique role in quantum systems.