Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obesity in Relationship with Different Forms of Myocardial Infarction (Data of Registry on Acute Myocardial Infarction)

In today’s world, the growth of technical progress has increased the number of people with obesity, which is one of the main risk factors for the development of acute myocardial infarction (MI). Objective: To evaluate the effect of obesity on some clinical and anthropometric characteristics in patients with acute MI. Material and Methods: A special questionnaire – a “registry card” was developed for monitoring patients with acute MI and collecting the necessary and complete information from employees of the Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) Prevention Department. The presented article describes the data of a preliminary analysis of patients with acute MI treated in the clinic. Of the 202 people, 191 (94.6%) had a body mass index (BMI) calculated. Depending on the level of BMI, three groups were selected: 1 g (BMI < 25 kg/m2) – 36 (18.8% of 191) patients with acute MI with normal weight (control group); 2 g (BMI = 25–30 kg/m2) – 84 (44.0% of 191) overweight people; 3 g (BMI > 30 kg/m2) – 71 (37.2% of 191) people with obesity. Differences were considered significant at p < 0.05. Results: Despite the fact that acute MI developed in women 2.6 times less frequently and 8.7 years later in age than in men, nevertheless, obesity in women was recorded more often, while in men overweight prevailed. In acute MI between the age of the respondents and the presence of increased weight, an inverse relationship was revealed (p > 0.05), i.e., as the weight category increased, the age of the patients decreased. In patients with MI, as the weight increased, there was an increase in comorbid pathology, especially associated with impaired carbohydrate metabolism (p < 0.0001). A more severe form of MI (STEMI) was more often recorded in persons with a BMI > 25 kg/m2, while the front wall was the most vulnerable to the development of acute MI, regardless of the weight category of patients. The back wall was involved in the pathological process both in individuals with overweight and in patients with obesity. The apical segment in the largest number of cases was only affected in people with obesity. Conclusion: Obesity is a kind of epidemic of modern society. Its effects on the quality of life, prognosis, and effectiveness of conservative or minimally invasive treatment methods in patients with acute cardiovascular catastrophes, such as acute MI, are still a very controversial issue that requires furthermore in-depth study and analysis.
Can Biological Control Agents Reduce Multiple Fungal Infections Causing Decline of Milkwort in Ornamental Nursery?

This research evaluates biological control agents (BCAs) and fungicide alone and in combination for the management of decline caused by multiple fungi on milkwort (Polygala myrtifolia). Four experiments were performed in a greenhouse within a nursery located in Catania province (southern Italy). The activity of fungicides and biological control agents was evaluated by calculating the plant mortality (%) and recovery frequency (%) of different fungi associated with symptomatic tissue. Comprehensively, boscalid + pyraclostrobin and fosetyl-Al showed the best results in managing disease complex on milkwort. Biological control agents provided, on average, the lowest performances; nevertheless, in most cases, they were able to significantly reduce multiple infections and sometimes when combined with fungicide enhanced the effectiveness. The molecular analysis of 86 isolates obtained from symptomatic tissue allowed to identify the fungi involved in the disease as Calonectria pauciramosa, C. pseudomexicana, Fusarium oxysporum, Neocosmospora solani (syn. F. solani) and binucleate Rhizoctonia AG-R. Calonectria pseudomexicana never reported on milkwort and in Europe was inoculated on P. myrtifolia potted healthy cuttings and produced crown and root rot after 40 days. Our findings represent the first worldwide report about disease complex of milkwort caused by several fungi (Calonectria spp., Fusarium spp. and binucleate Rhizoctonia) and on the effects of integrated control strategies to manage this disease in the nursery.
Exploiting Errors for Efficiency

When a computational task tolerates a relaxation of its specification or when an algorithm tolerates the effects of noise in its execution, hardware, system software, and programming language compilers or their runtime systems can trade deviations from correct behavior for lower resource usage. We present, for the first time, a synthesis of research results on computing systems that only make as many errors as their end-to-end applications can tolerate. The results span the disciplines of computer-aided design of circuits, digital system design, computer architecture, programming languages, operating systems, and information theory. Rather than over-provisioning the resources controlled by each of these layers of abstraction to avoid errors, it can be more efficient to exploit the masking of errors occurring at one layer and thereby prevent those errors from propagating to a higher layer. We demonstrate the potential benefits of end-to-end approaches using two illustrative examples. We introduce a formalization of terminology that allows us to present a coherent view across the techniques traditionally used by different research communities in their individual layer of focus. Using this formalization, we survey tradeoffs for individual layers of computing systems at the circuit, architecture, operating system, and programming language levels as well as fundamental information-theoretic limits to tradeoffs between resource usage and correctness.
Assessing the quality of antenatal corticosteroids in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the administration of intramuscular antenatal corticosteroids to women at risk of preterm birth to prevent preterm-associated neonatal mortality and morbidity. Poor quality medicines are a major problem for health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), however the quality of antenatal corticosteroids is not well understood. We aimed to conduct a systematic review of available studies describing the quality of recommended injectable antenatal corticosteroids (dexamethasone or betamethasone) in LMICs. Methods Structured search strategy was applied to six databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Global Index Medicus, WHO Medicines Quality Database), without year or language restrictions. Any primary study reporting any medicine quality parameter (Active Pharmacological Ingredient, pH and sterility) for injectable dexamethasone or betamethasone was eligible. Two authors independently screened studies for eligibility, extracted data on included studies and applied Medicine Quality Assessment Reporting Guidelines tool to assess study quality. Results were reported narratively, stratified by country of manufacture, organisation type and level of care. Results In total, 15,547 citations were screened with two eligible studies identified that focussed on dexamethasone quality (no studies of betamethasone were identified). One study included 19 samples from 9 LMICs, and the other included “less than 100 samples” from India. The prevalence of failed dexamethasone samples ranged from 3.14% to 32.2% due to inadequate Active Pharmacological Ingredient. A higher prevalence of failed dexamethasone samples were seen at the point of care and the public sector. Conclusions Poor quality maternal and newborn health medicines can endanger women and newborns. Though available evidence on antenatal corticosteroids quality in LMICs is limited, results suggested poor quality dexamethasone may be prevalent in some countries. More primary studies are required to confirm these findings and guide policymakers on procurement of good-quality maternal and newborn health medicines.
Investigating Deep Learning Based Breast Cancer Subtyping Using Pan-Cancer and Multi-Omic Data

Breast Cancer comprises multiple subtypes implicated in prognosis. Existing stratification methods rely on the expression quantification of small gene sets. Next Generation Sequencing promises large amounts of omic data in the next years. In this scenario, we explore the potential of machine learning and, particularly, deep learning for breast cancer subtyping. Due to the paucity of publicly available data, we leverage on pan-cancer and non-cancer data to design semi-supervised settings. We make use of multi-omic data, including microRNA expressions and copy number alterations, and we provide an in-depth investigation of several supervised and semi-supervised architectures. Obtained accuracy results show simpler models to perform at least as well as the deep semi-supervised approaches on our task over gene expression data. When multi-omic data types are combined together, performance of deep models shows little (if any) improvement in accuracy, indicating the need for further analysis on larger datasets of multi-omic data as and when they become available. From a biological perspective, our linear model mostly confirms known gene-subtype annotations. Conversely, deep approaches model non-linear relationships, which is reflected in a more varied and still unexplored set of representative omic features that may prove useful for breast cancer subtyping.
Polish is quantitatively different on quartzite flakes used on different worked materials

Metrology has been successfully used in the last decade to quantify use-wear on stone tools. Such techniques have been mostly applied to fine-grained rocks (chert), while studies on coarse-grained raw materials have been relatively infrequent. In this study, confocal microscopy was employed to investigate polished surfaces on a coarse-grained lithology, quartzite. Wear originating from contact with five different worked materials were classified in a data-driven approach using machine learning. Two different classifiers, a decision tree and a support-vector machine, were used to assign the different textures to a worked material based on a selected number of parameters (Mean density of furrows, Mean depth of furrows, Core material volume-Vmc). The method proved successful, presenting high scores for bone and hide (100%). The obtained classification rates are satisfactory for the other worked materials, with the only exception of cane, which shows overlaps with other materials. Although the results presented here are preliminary, they can be used to develop future studies on quartzite including enlarged sample sizes.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells Successfully Deliver Oncolytic Virotherapy to Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma

Purpose: Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is among the deadliest of pediatric brain tumors. Radiotherapy is the standard-of-care treatment for DIPG, but offers only transient relief of symptoms for patients with DIPG without providing significant survival benefit. Oncolytic virotherapy is an anticancer treatment that has been investigated for treating various types of brain tumors. Experimental Design: Here, we have explored the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) for oncolytic virus (OV) delivery and evaluated treatment efficacy using preclinical models of DIPG. The survivin promoter drives the conditional replication of OV used in our studies. The efficiency of OV entry into the cells is mediated by fiber modification with seven lysine residues (CRAd.S.pK7). Patients' samples and cell lines were analyzed for the expression of viral entry proteins and survivin. The ability of MSCs to deliver OV to DIPG was studied in the context of a low dose of irradiation. Results: Our results show that DIPG cells and tumors exhibit robust expression of cell surface proteins and survivin that enable efficient OV entry and replication in DIPG cells. MSCs loaded with OV disseminate within a tumor and release OV throughout the DIPG brainstem xenografts in mice. Administration of OV-loaded MSCs with radiotherapy to mice bearing brainstem DIPG xenografts results in more prolonged survival relative to that conferred by either therapy alone (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Our study supports OV, CRAd.S. pK7, encapsulated within MSCs as a therapeutic strategy that merits further investigation and potential translation for DIPG treatment.
Development of Hydrophobic, Anticorrosive, Nanocomposite Polymeric Coatings from Canola Oil: A Sustainable Resource

A novel hydrophobic Canola oil-based nanocomposite anticorrosive coating material with different contents of fumes silica (FS) was successfully synthesized via an in situ method. Firstly, a Canola oil-based hydroxyl terminated poly (oxalate-amide) was prepared by a two-step process of amidation and condensation. Secondly, the dispersion of fumed silica (1 to 3 wt.%) in hydroxyl terminated poly (oxalate-amide) was carried out, followed by reaction with toluene-2,4- diisocyanate (TDI) in order to form poly (urethane-oxalate-amide)/fumed silica nanocomposite. The structure and properties of nanocomposite were analyzed by FTIR, NMR (1H/13C), TGA/DTA, DSC, contact angle, and SEM. The physico-mechanical and electrochemical tests were performed in order to check the performance of nanocomposite coating. The results reveal that FS is homogenously dispersed in poly (urethane-oxalate-amide) matrix with a loading amount of less than 3 wt. %. The performance of nanocomposite coating improved when compared to virgin polymer. The synthesized nanocomposite coating can be used in the field of hydrophobic anticorrosive coatings.
Between-module functional connectivity of the salient ventral attention network and dorsal attention network is associated with motor inhibition

The ability to inhibit motor response is crucial for daily activities. However, whether brain networks connecting spatially distinct brain regions can explain individual differences in motor inhibition is not known. Therefore, we took a graph-theoretic perspective to examine the relationship between the properties of topological organization in functional brain networks and motor inhibition. We analyzed data from 141 healthy adults aged 20 to 78, who underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and performed a stop-signal task along with neuropsychological assessments outside the scanner. The graph-theoretic properties of 17 functional brain networks were estimated, including within-network connectivity and between-network connectivity. We employed multiple linear regression to examine how these graph-theoretical properties were associated with motor inhibition. The results showed that between-network connectivity of the salient ventral attention network and dorsal attention network explained the highest and second highest variance of individual differences in motor inhibition. In addition, we also found those two networks span over brain regions in the frontal-cingulate-parietal network, suggesting that these network interactions are also important to motor inhibition.
Application of Computerized Adaptive Testing to the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure

Background: Patient-reported outcome measures are an increasingly important tool for assessing the impact of treatments orthopedic surgeons render. Despite their importance, they can present a burden. We examined the validity and utility of a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) method to reduce the number of questions on the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM), a validated anatomy-specific outcome measure. Methods: A previously developed FAAM CAT system was applied to the responses of patients undergoing foot and ankle evaluation and treatment over a 3-year period (2017-2019). A total of 15 902 responses for the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) subscale and a total of 14 344 responses for the Sports subscale were analyzed. The accuracy of the CAT to replicate the full-form score was assessed. Results: The CAT system required 11 questions to be answered for the ADL subscale in 85.1% of cases (range, 11-12). The number of questions answered on the Sports subscale was 6 (range, 5-6) in 66.4% of cases. The mean difference between the full FAAM ADL subscale and CAT was 0.63 of a point. The mean difference between the FAAM Sports subscale and CAT was 0.65 of a point. Conclusion: The FAAM CAT was able to reduce the number of responses a patient would need to answer by nearly 50%, while still providing a valid outcome score. This measure can therefore be directly correlated with previously obtained full FAAM scores in addition to providing a foot/ankle-specific measure, which previously reported CAT systems are not able to do. Level of Evidence: Level IV, case series.
Expression analysis of microbial rhodopsin-like genes in Guillardia theta

The Cryptomonad Guillardia theta has 42 genes encoding microbial rhodopsin-like proteins in their genomes. Light-driven ion-pump activity has been reported for some rhodopsins based on heterologous E. coli or mammalian cell expression systems. However, neither their physiological roles nor the expression of those genes in native cells are known. To reveal their physiological roles, we investigated the expression patterns of these genes under various growth conditions. Nitrogen (N) deficiency induced color change in exponentially growing G. theta cells from brown to green. The 29 rhodopsin-like genes were expressed in native cells. We found that the expression of 6 genes was induced under N depletion, while that of another 6 genes was reduced under N depletion.
Thoracolumbar Burst Fracture: McCormack Load-sharing Classification

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text A systematic review of nine randomized clinical trials with objective to evaluate if the load-sharing classification is reliable to predict the best surgical approach for thoracolumbar burst fracture. The classification is reliable with a score of up to 6, but above this value, other parameters must be considered. Study Design. A systematic review and single-arm meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the load-sharing classification (LSC) is reliable to predict the best surgical approach for thoracolumbar burst fracture (TBF). Summary of Background Data. There is no previous review evaluating the efficacy of the use of LSC as a guide in the surgical treatment of burst fractures. Methods. On April 19th, 2019, a broad search was performed in the following databases: EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane, SCOPUS, Web of Science, LILACS, and gray literature. This study was registered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews. We included clinical trials involving patients with TBF undergoing posterior surgical treatment, classified by load-sharing score, and that enabled the analysis of the outcomes loss of segmental kyphosis and implant failure (IF). We performed random- or fixed-effects models meta-analyses depending on the data homogeneity. Heterogeneity between studies was estimated by I2 and τ2 statistics. Results. The search identified 189 references, out of which nine studies were eligible for this review. All articles presenting LSC up to 6 proved to be reliable in indicating that only posterior instrumentation is necessary, without screw failures or loss of kyphosis correction. For cases where the LSC was >6, only 2.5% of the individuals presented IF upon posterior approach alone. For loss of kyphosis correction, only 5% of patients had this outcome where LSC >6. For both outcomes together, we had 6% of postoperative problems (I2 = 77%, τ2 < 0.0015, P < 0.01). Conclusion. Load-sharing scores up to 6 are 100% reliable, only requiring posterior instrumentation for stabilization. For scores >6, the risk of implant breakage and loss of kyphosis correction in posterior fixation alone is low. Thus, other factors should be considered to define the best surgical approach to be adopted. Level of Evidence: 1
Barriers to influenza vaccination among different populations in Shanghai

ABSTRACT Background: Seasonal influenza vaccination coverage remains low in most areas of China. Its influencing factors and barriers in various populations receiving influenza vaccinations need to be well understood to promote vaccination. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with residents in 48 communities. Vaccination status in the 2018–2019 influenza season and reasons for or against vaccination were surveyed. The potential factors influencing vaccination uptake were determined using bivariate logistic regression. Results: In total, 1301 of the 11053 respondents received an influenza vaccine during the 2018–2019 season with a coverage rate of 11.8% (95% CI, 11.2–12.4). The vaccine coverage was highest among children (26.6%, 95%CI: 24.8–28.5), followed by adults (8.2%, 95%CI: 7.4–9.0) and elderly people (7.3%, 95%CI: 6.5–8.1) (p < .001). Those with chronic underlying conditions all had higher vaccine coverage than did those without for different groups (p < .001). Among the three groups, the most common reason for being unvaccinated was worrying about the side effects (45.0%), believing they were healthy and did not need to get vaccinated (42.2%), and lack of influenza vaccine awareness (48.3%). Low education level and lack of awareness were identified as predictors of low coverage rate. Conclusion: Influenza vaccination coverage is low among different populations in Shanghai. Our study highlights the need for appropriate influenza vaccination strategies and programmes targeting different populations.
Endocannabinoids regulate cerebellar GABAergic transmission in a synapse type‐dependent manner

Endocannabinoids (eCBs) act as ubiquitous modulators of synaptic transmission via the activation of cannabinoid receptors (CBRs). Cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) make strong inhibitory synaptic contacts not only with neurons in the deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) but also with Lugaro cells and globular cells, whose cell bodies are located underneath the PC layer. However, little is known about the modulatory actions of eCBs on GABA release from PC axon terminals. Here, we examined the effects of eCBs on the GABAergic transmission at PC‐globular cell synapses and PC‐large DCN neuron synapses electrophysiologically using mouse cerebellar slices. We showed that the types 1 and 2 CBR agonist WIN55212 did not affect either spontaneous or miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) in globular cells under control conditions and in a state of enhanced synaptic activity. By contrast, another Gi/o protein‐coupled receptor agonist, baclofen, significantly reduced the miniature IPSC frequency in globular cells. WIN55212 had no effects on IPSCs in large DCN neurons. A type 2 CBR agonist, HU308, also had no effects on IPSCs in either globular cells or large DCN neurons. Moreover, the PCs' target neurons did not elicit depolarization‐induced suppression of inhibition. These results suggest the lack of a functional role of CBRs at PCs' axon terminals. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that PCs receive abundant excitatory and inhibitory inputs that are under eCB‐mediated presynaptic inhibitory modulation. The actions of eCBs are selective to distinct synapses and possibly contribute to information processes and rigorous signal transmission in the cerebellum.