Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Executive Cognitive Dysfunction without Stroke after Long-Term Mechanical Circulatory Support

Among patients who receive heart transplantation (HTx) after long-term mechanical circulatory support (MCS), some show executive cognitive dysfunction without a history of stroke. Fifty HTx patients (19 patients on MCS for longer than 3 months before HTx and 31 patients without MCS as control group) were enrolled in the study. All subjects were men aged between 20 and 59 years without a history of stroke. Patients with MCS were divided into two groups: the AH-Thr group (n = 11), in which thrombus was detected in the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and quickly removed (mean 3.3 times); and the AH group (n = 8), in which there was no detectable thrombus in the LVAD. The Trail Making Test (TMT) and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were administered. The AH-Thr group showed poorer cognitive performance both in the TMT part B, with longer completion time (p < 0.05 versus the other two groups), and in the WCST, with more perseverative errors (p < 0.001 versus the other two groups). These data indicate that patients in the AH-Thr group showed executive cognitive dysfunction in set-shifting ability, suggesting frontal lobe damage. The conditions that facilitate thrombus formation in the LVAD may induce executive cognitive dysfunction without stroke.
Implementing what we know about learning in a middle-school curriculum for widespread dissemination: the project-based inquiry science (PBIS) story

Project-Based Inquiry Science (PBIS) is a comprehensive technology-enhanced science curriculum for grades 6 through 8 (ages 12-14), designed based on foundations in the learning sciences. Most of its units were developed during the 1990's at Georgia Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, and University of Michigan. Over the past five years, researchers at these universities (and others) have been working to pull the units together into a curriculum that can be disseminated nationally (in the U.S.). During the last two years, we have been working closely with the publishing company, It's About Time, to bring the curriculum to publication. We present the research foundations of PBIS along with the pragmatics of incorporating individual units into an integrated curriculum appropriate that addresses the diverse requirements of 50 states while also addressing the diverse needs of learners.
Visual Analytics of Movement Pattern Based on Time-Spatial Data: A Neural Net Approach

Time-Spatial data plays a crucial role for different fields such as traffic management. These data can be collected via devices such as surveillance sensors or tracking systems. However, how to efficiently an- alyze and visualize these data to capture essential embedded pattern information is becoming a big challenge today. Classic visualization ap- proaches focus on revealing 2D and 3D spatial information and modeling statistical test. Those methods would easily fail when data become mas- sive. Recent attempts concern on how to simply cluster data and perform prediction with time-oriented information. However, those approaches could still be further enhanced as they also have limitations for han- dling massive clusters and labels. In this paper, we propose a visualiza- tion methodology for mobility data using artificial neural net techniques. This method aggregates three main parts that are Back-end Data Model, Neural Net Algorithm including clustering method Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and prediction approach Recurrent Neural Net (RNN) for ex- tracting the features and lastly a solid front-end that displays the results to users with an interactive system. SOM is able to cluster the visiting patterns and detect the abnormal pattern. RNN can perform the predic- tion for time series analysis using its dynamic architecture. Furthermore, an interactive system will enable user to interpret the result with graph- ics, animation and 3D model for a close-loop feedback. This method can be particularly applied in two tasks that Commercial-based Promotion and abnormal traffic patterns detection.
Reliability of psychiatric diagnosis. 2. A study of consistency of clinical judgments and ratings.

1. An investigation of the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses was designed to minimize factors that would artificially lower or inflate the rate of concordance. A series of 153 patients were examined independently by paired psychiatrists and diagnoses were made independently according to the standard nomenclature. The degree of agreement (54%) on specific diagnoses was statistically significant (p<.001) and was higher than that obtained in other comparable studies. 2. In cases where both diagnosticians indicated they were certain of the diagnosis, the agreement rate (81%) was found to be significantly higher than in the remaining cases. 3. When the diagnosticians gave both a preferred diagnosis and an alternative diagnosis, it was found that the rate of agreement between either diagnosis offered by one diagnostician and either diagnosis of the other was 82%. This suggested that the diagnosticians may have been closer in their appraisals than indicated by the scoring of only the preferred diagnoses. 4. A.
A direct screen for c-di-GMP modulators reveals a Salmonella Typhimurium periplasmic ʟ-arginine–sensing pathway

The human pathogen Salmonella senses ʟ-arginine and responds by increasing c-di-GMP and cellulose synthesis. Monitoring bacterial signaling Certain environments trigger bacteria to form aggregates called biofilms, which contribute to antibiotic resistance of human pathogens. In Salmonella, increasing the second-messenger cyclic-di-GMP (c-di-GMP) reduces motility and promotes biofilm formation. Mills et al. expressed a biosensor for c-di-GMP in Salmonella Typhimurium and used flow cytometry to identify compounds that altered c-di-GMP concentration. Of the compounds tested, ʟ-arginine produced the greatest response at the lowest concentrations. Cellulose synthesis is a c-di-GMP–dependent process required for biofilm formation. Compounds that increased c-di-GMP concentration enhanced cellulose synthesis, whereas compounds that reduced c-di-GMP inhibited cellulose synthesis. This biosensor–flow cytometry screening method should aid in identifying compounds that inhibit bacterial c-di-GMP production and, therefore, reduce biofilm formation, and in exploring the pathways through which bacteria respond to signals in the environment. Cyclic-di-GMP (c-di-GMP) is a bacterial second messenger that transduces internal and external signals and regulates bacterial motility and biofilm formation. Some organisms encode more than 100 c-di-GMP–modulating enzymes, but only for a few has a signal been defined that modulates their activity. We developed and applied a high-throughput, real-time flow cytometry method that uses a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)–based biosensor of free c-di-GMP to screen for signals that modulate its concentration within Salmonella Typhimurium. We identified multiple compounds, including glucose, N-acetyl-d-glucosamine, salicylic acid, and ʟ-arginine, that modulated the FRET signal and therefore the free c-di-GMP concentration. By screening a library of mutants, we identified proteins required for the c-di-GMP response to each compound. Furthermore, low micromolar concentrations of ʟ-arginine induced a rapid translation-independent increase in c-di-GMP concentrations and c-di-GMP–dependent cellulose synthesis, responses that required the regulatory periplasmic domain of the diguanylate cyclase STM1987. ʟ-Arginine signaling also required the periplasmic putative ʟ-arginine–binding protein ArtI, implying that ʟ-arginine sensing occurred in the periplasm. Among the 20 commonly used amino acids, S. Typhimurium specifically responded to ʟ-arginine with an increase in c-di-GMP, suggesting that ʟ-arginine may serve as a signal during S. Typhimurium infection. Our results demonstrate that a second-messenger biosensor can be used to identify environmental signals and define pathways that alter microbial behavior.
Carrier-Based Implementation of SVPWM for Dual Two-Level VSI and Dual Matrix Converter With Zero Common-Mode Voltage

Pulse width modulation (PWM) converters generate switching common-mode voltages (CMVs) across the load terminals. These voltages cause common-mode currents, leading to bearing failure in motor loads and electromagnetic interference problems. This paper presents a generalized carrier-based PWM technique for open-end winding motor drives that completely eliminates switching CMV. The proposed method is applicable to both dual two-level voltage source inverter and dual matrix converter-based open-end winding drives. Detailed analysis shows that the carrier-based method requires significantly less computation compared to the corresponding space vector implementation. This paper also outlines the relationship between the two implementations. The carrier-based method is shown to achieve superior performance in terms of resource requirements and execution time when implemented on a field-programmable gate array-based real-time control platform. Simulation and experimental results have been presented to validate the proposed method.
CS-Mobile: A Cloud-based Distributed Storage Middleware for Mobile Devices

With the development of wireless communication technology, mobile devices have played more and more important roles in the people's daily lives. However, data storage and sharing are difficult for these devices due to the data inflation and natural limitations of mobile devices, such as limited storage space and computing capability. In this paper, we present a lightweight Cloud-based storage framework, which provides an easy-to-use file navigation service for attribute-based file querying or semantic-based data retrieving. Meanwhile, it incorporates an effective mechanism for users to verify their data integrity, which can relieve much burden from mobile devices. Experimental evaluations show that the proposed framework is effective to provide flexible and reliable data sharing in mobile computing environments.
A Rescaled Localized Radial Basis Function Interpolation on Non-Cartesian and Nonconforming Grids

In this paper we propose a rescaled localized radial basis function (RL-RBF) interpolation method, based on the use of compactly supported radial basis functions. Starting from the classical RBF interpolation technique, we introduce a rescaling that allows for exact interpolation of constant fields between nonconforming meshes without the use of an extra polynomial term. We also present two-dimensional and three-dimensional numerical examples on arbitrary finite element meshes to show that the RL-RBF interpolation leads to accurate results, fast evaluation, and easy parallelization of the algorithm. All the computations are carried out using the open source finite element library LifeV.
Knowledge-assisted EHR visualization for cohorts

The advanced visualization of electronic health records (EHRs), supporting a scalable analysis from single patients to cohorts, intertwining patients’ conditions data with executed treatments data, and handling the complexity of time-oriented data, is an open challenge of visual analytics for health care. An integrated approach addressing and meeting the challenge would enable a better analysis of the EHR data and a deeper comprehension of the health care process, thus providing several benefits in terms of reduction of costs and risks to the patient, and improved quality of care. According to the knowledge-assisted visualization paradigm, we propose a solution that leverages the domain knowledge acquired by clinical experts and formalized into computer-interpretable guidelines (CIGs), in order to improve the automated analysis, the visualization, and the interactive exploration of EHR data of patients cohorts. The declarative and procedural knowledge constituting the CIGs is used for automatically checking the compliance of the treatment to the medical recommendations, abstracting and visualising patients’ data with respect to the intentions of the treatment plans, and filtering relevant data for specific analytical tasks; in this way, the analyst can get insights about the clinical history of multiple patients and assess the effectiveness of their health care treatments.
Cascaded and Multisection Sagnac Interferometers for Scalable and Tunable All-Optical OFDM DEMUX

With cascaded and multisection Sagnac interferometers, all-optical fast Fourier transform (FFT) has been demonstrated for optical demultiplexing (DEMUX) of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals. The transmission characteristics of the interferometers have been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The scalability and tunability of the all-optical OFDM DEMUX are analyzed and demonstrated for 5-channel OFDM signals.
Modified full-field optical coherence tomography: A novel tool for rapid histology of tissues

Background: Here, we report the first use of a commercial prototype of full-field optical coherence tomography called Light-CT TM . Based on the principle of white light interferometry, Light-CT TM generates quick high-resolution three-dimensional tomographic images from unprocessed tissues. Its advantage over the current intra-surgical diagnostic standard, i.e. frozen section analysis, lies in the absence of freezing artifacts, which allows real-time diagnostic impressions, and/or for the tissues to be triaged for subsequent conventional histopathology. Materials and Methods: In this study, we recapitulate known normal histology in nine formalin fixed ex vivo rat organs (skin, heart, lung, liver, stomach, kidney, prostate, urinary bladder, and testis). Large surface and virtually sectioned stacks of images at varying depths were acquired by a pair of 10x/0.3 numerical aperture water immersion objectives, processed and visualized in real time. Results: Normal histology of the following organs was recapitulated by identifying various tissue microstructures. Skin: epidermis, dermal-epidermal junction and hair follicles with surrounding sebaceous glands in the dermis. Stomach: mucosa with surface pits, submucosa, muscularis propria and serosa. Liver: hepatocytes separated by sinusoidal spaces, central veins and portal triad. Kidney: convoluted tubules, medullary rays (straight tubules) and collecting ducts. Prostate: acini and fibro-muscular stroma. Lung: bronchi, bronchioles, alveolar ducts, alveoli and pleura. Urinary bladder: urothelium, lamina propria, muscularis propria, and serosa. Testis: seminiferous tubules with intra-tubular sperms. Conclusion: Light-CT TM is a powerful imaging tool to perform fast histology on fresh and fixed tissues, without introducing artifacts. Its compact size, ease of handling, fast image acquisition and safe incident light levels makes it well-suited for various intra-operative and intra-procedural triaging and decision making applications.
Unintended Impacts of a Medicaid Prior Authorization Policy on Access to Medications for Bipolar Illness

Objectives:Prior authorization policies (PA) are widely used to control psychotropic medication costs by state Medicaid programs and Medicare Part D plans. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of a Maine Medicaid PA policy on initiation and switching of anticonvulsant and atypical antipsychotic treatments among patients with bipolar disorder. Methods:We obtained Maine and New Hampshire (comparison state) Medicaid and Medicare claims data for 2001 to 2004; the Maine PA policy was implemented in July 2003. Among continuously enrolled patients with bipolar disorder (Maine: n = 5336; New Hampshire: n = 1376), we used an interrupted times series with comparison group design to estimate changes in rates of initiating new episodes of bipolar treatment and generalized estimating equations models to examine rates of switching therapies among patients under treatment. Results:The Maine PA policy was associated with a marked decrease in rates of initiation of bipolar treatments; a relative reduction of 32.3% (95% CI: 24.8, 39.9) compared with expected rates at 4 months after policy implementation. This decrease was driven primarily by reductions in the initiation of nonpreferred agents. The policy had no discernable impact on rates of switching therapy among patients currently on treatment (RR: 1.03; 95% CI: 0.76, 1.39). Conclusions:The findings of this study provide evidence that PA implementation can be a barrier to initiation of nonpreferred agents without offsetting increases in initiation of preferred agents, which is a major concern. There is a critical need to evaluate the possible unintended effects of PA policies to achieve optimal health outcomes among low-income patients with chronic mental illness. In addition, more research is needed to understand how these barriers arise and whether specific seriously mentally ill populations or drug classes should be exempted from PA policies.
Research on photovoltaic grid-connected system with energy storage based on improved energy management strategy

This paper proposes an improved energy management strategy for simultaneous power management of the photovoltaic grid-connected system with energy storage. Based on the DC bus voltage and the working states of grid, the PV system is divided into six working modes by the proposed energy management strategy. This can avoid the effect of grid failure on PV system, and achieve the optimal utilization of light energy. Firstly, based on the management strategy, a photovoltaic grid-connected system with energy storage units is constructed in this paper, which is consisted of the photovoltaic units, energy storage units, an inverter and the local loads. Then, the working conditions of different modes and the switching process between modes are described in detail. Finally, the control method of the photovoltaic system is given, so that the system can be switched smoothly between different working modes. The simulation results show that, through the improved energy management strategy, the PV grid-connected system with energy storage units is capable of ensuring normal running of the local loads when the grid fails and achieving system stability when the local loads are changed.
RELAXIN AND RELATED PEPTIDES: FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Relaxin for Cervical Ripening in Post-Delivery Date Pregnancies

In obstetrics, it is the standard of care to deliver pregnancies by the 42nd week of pregnancy, because there is an increased incidence of fetal illness and death after the 42nd week. Thus, in the 41st week labor is induced. If the cervix is unfavorable for delivery, it is ripened. The current ripening agents are prostaglandins. These work well but have as a major complication the stimulation of uterine contractions, which may pose a danger to the fetus by causing hypoxia. A ripening agent without this effect would be an improvement. Relaxin is a product of the corpus luteum of pregnancy and decidua.1,2 Relaxin induces cervical ripening in pigs and rats.3 However, some biological effects of relaxin are species specific. MacLennan and colleagues4 administered two doses of porcine relaxin or placebo in an intracervical gel to women. The relaxin-treated group had a greater incidence of spontaneous labor and greater change in the cervix, which was dose related. Evans and colleagues5 also observed greater cervical effacement and a shorter time to delivery in women treated with relaxin compared to placebo. Both authors, however, used porcine relaxin, which may be immunogenic in women. A study utilizing intravaginal recombinant human relaxin to ripen the cervix was performed by Bell and colleagues.6 The cervix did not ripen, but there was no elevation of serum levels of relaxin. Relaxin, thus, appeared to be a good candidate for safely advancing cervical ripening if given intravenously. The current study had two objectives. The first objective was to elevate serum relaxin levels by infusion. The second objective was to determine if a high dose of intravenously administered relaxin for a 24-h period could ripen the cervix or induce labor. The study was divided into two parts. The first part was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 18 patients at greater than 40 weeks of gestation who were scheduled for induction. Doses of relaxin up to 75 μg/kg/day were utilized. A 24-h infusion at the highest dose resulted in a 30-fold elevation of relaxin over baseline and was shown to be safe. The second part of the study was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebocontrolled parallel study of 50 subjects over 40 weeks gestation who were scheduled for
Contribution of infectious disease consultation toward the care of inpatients being considered for community-based parenteral anti-infective therapy.

BACKGROUND In the acute care setting in a multidisciplinary healthcare environment, the contribution of infectious disease (ID) specialists to overall patient care is difficult to measure. This study attempts to quantify the contribution of ID specialists when consulted for an activity specific to ID practice, community-based parenteral anti-infective therapy (CoPAT). METHODS In February 2010, an electronic form for requesting ID consultations was introduced in the computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system at the Cleveland Clinic. This allowed for easy identification of ID consultations for CoPAT. Hospital records for all patients with CoPAT consultation requests between February 11, 2010 and May 15, 2010 were reviewed for specific defined contributions in the domains of optimization of antimicrobial therapy, significant change in patient assessment, and additional medical care contribution. RESULTS Over a 3-month period, there were 263 CoPAT consultation requests via CPOE, of which 172 were initial consultations and 91 reconsultations. Antimicrobial treatment was optimized in 84%, a significant change in patient assessment made in 52%, and additional medical care contribution provided in 71% of consultations. In 33% of consultations, there was contribution in all 3 domains. CoPAT was deemed not to be necessary in 27%. For patients requiring CoPAT, effective care transition from the inpatient to outpatient setting was assured at least 86% of the time. CONCLUSION Infectious disease consultation before discharge on parenteral antibiotics adds value by contributing substantially to inpatient care, and providing antimicrobial stewardship and continuity of care at a critical patient care transition point.