Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urinary exosome as a potential biomarker for urinary tract infection

Unlike urinary tract infection (UTI), asymptomatic bacteriuria (ABU) should not be treated, with some exceptions such as pregnant women and patients who will undergo traumatic urologic interventions. However, there has been no clinically available marker for their differential diagnosis. Exosomes or small extracellular vesicles carry proteins contained in cells from which they are derived, thus having the potential as a biomarker of several diseases. On the basis of the hypothesis that the molecular signature of exosomes in urine may differ between UTI and ABU patients, we examined if urinary exosomes could serve as a marker for their differential diagnosis. Exosomes were isolated by ultracentrifugation or affinity‐based method from cell culture medium of monocytic THP‐1 and uroepithelial SV‐HUC‐1 cells and human urine. Protein expression was examined by Western blot analysis, ELISA, and CLEIA. The results showed that the levels of intracellular signalling molecules Akt and ERK and transcription factor NF‐κB increased in exosomes isolated from THP‐1 and SV‐HUC‐1 cells cocultured with Escherichia coli and/or treated with lipopolysaccharide. In urinary exosomes of UTI patients, Akt significantly diminished, and an exosomal marker CD9 showed a trend to decrease after treatment with antimicrobial agents. More importantly, Akt and CD9 levels in urinary exosomes were higher in UTI patients than in ABU patients, which was also observed after correction by urine creatinine. Collectively, these results suggest that Akt and CD9 in urinary exosomes could be useful markers for differential diagnosis of UTI and ABU.
Inverse global illumination: recovering reflectance models of real scenes from photographs

In this paper we present a method for recovering the reflectance properties of all surfaces in a real scene from a sparse set of photographs, taking into account both direct and indirect illumination. The result is a lighting-independent model of the scene’s geometry and reflectance properties, which can be rendered with arbitrary modifications to structure and lighting via traditional rendering methods. Our technique models reflectance with a lowparameter reflectance model, and allows diffuse albedo to vary arbitrarily over surfaces while assuming that non-diffuse characteristics remain constant across particular regions. The method’s input is a geometric model of the scene and a set of calibrated high dynamic range photographs taken with known direct illumination. The algorithm hierarchically partitions the scene into a polygonal mesh, and uses image-based rendering to construct estimates of both the radiance and irradiance of each patch from the photographic data. The algorithm computes the expected location of specular highlights, and then analyzes the highlight areas in the images by running a novel iterative optimization procedure to recover the diffuse and specular reflectance parameters for each region. Lastly, these parameters are used in constructing high-resolution diffuse albedo maps for each surface. The algorithm has been applied to both real and synthetic data, including a synthetic cubical room and a real meeting room. Rerenderings are produced using a global illumination system under both original and novel lighting, and with the addition of synthetic objects. Side-by-side comparisons show success at predicting the appearance of the scene under novel lighting conditions. CR Categories: I.2. 10 [Artificial Intelligence]: Vision and Scene Understanding—modeling and recovery of physical attributes I.3. 7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-dimensional Graphics and Realism—color, shading, shadowing, and texture I.3. 7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism— Radiosity I.4. 8 [Image Processing]: Scene Analysis—Color, photometry, shading
Automatic multi-organ segmentation in thorax CT images using U-Net-GAN

We propose a method to automatically segment multiple organs at risk (OARs) from routinely-acquired thorax CT images using generative adversarial network (GAN). Multi-label U-Net was introduced in generator to enable end-to-end segmentation. Esophagus and spinal cord location information were used to train the GAN in specific regions of interest (ROI). The probability maps of new CT thorax multi-organ were generated by the well-trained network and fused to reconstruct the final contour. This proposed algorithm was evaluated using 20 patients' data with thorax CT images and manual contours. The mean Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) for esophagus, heart, left lung, right lung and spinal cord was 0.73±0.04, 0.85±0.02, 0.96±0.01, 0.97±0.02 and 0.88±0.03. This novel deep-learning-based approach with the GAN strategy can automatically and accurately segment multiple OARs in thorax CT images, which could be a useful tool to improve the efficiency of the lung radiotherapy treatment planning.
Psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the short form of The Problem Areas in Diabetes scale (PAID-5): a validation study

Objectives To assess the psychometric properties of the short form of The Problem Areas in Diabetes scale (PAID-5) in Norwegian adult patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Design Cross-sectional survey design. Methods Participants (n=143) were included from three Western-Norway endocrinology outpatient clinics. Demographic and clinical data were collected in addition to questionnaires concerning diabetes-related distress, fear of hypoglycaemia, symptoms of depression, emotional well-being and perception of general health. Psychometric evaluation of the PAID-5 included confirming its postulated one-factor structure using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and assessing convergent validity, discriminant validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The retest questionnaire was sent out 35±15 days after the initial assessment to those who agreed (n=117). Results The CFA for the PAID-5 scale showed excellent one-factor structure, and there was high internal consistency (α=0.89) and good test-retest reliability (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, ICC=0.81). The PAID-5 correlated positively with fear of hypoglycaemia (r=0.598) and depression (r=0.380) and negatively with emotional well-being (r=−0.363) and perception of general health (r=−0.420), thus satisfying convergent validity. Patients who had experienced episodes of serious hypoglycaemia in the past 6 months had a significantly higher PAID-5 mean score (7.5, SD=4.95) than those who had not had these episodes (5.0, SD=4.2 (p=0.043)). Conclusion The Norwegian PAID-5 was shown to be a reliable and valid short questionnaire for assessing diabetes-related distress among people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. However, its ability to discriminate between groups needs to be tested further in larger samples. The PAID-5 scale can be a particularly valuable screening instrument in outpatient clinics, as its brevity makes it easy to use as a tool in patient-provider encounters. This short questionnaire is useful in the national diabetes registry or population cohort studies as it enables increased knowledge regarding the prevalence of diabetes-related distress.
Radiation Optic Neuropathy After Whole-Brain Radiation Therapy.

R adiation optic neuropathy (RON) is a rare complication of external beam radiation therapy (RT) in which exposure of the anterior visual pathway (AVP) to radiation results in acute, painless vision loss in one or both eyes, months to years after treatment (1). The diagnosis of RON is supported by constant enhancement on MRI in an involved area of previous radiation treatment without evidence of tumor involvement. No treatment has proven effective in reversing this vision loss; therefore management is individualized. Maximum radiation dose to the optic apparatus is the most significant known risk factor for RON. Clinical and experimental data support a dose tolerance for the AVP of 50 Gy with the incidence of RON approaching 0% below this threshold (2). Dose prescriptions for central nervous system and head-and-neck tumors often are constrained by the sensitivity of the optic apparatus to radiation. Most RT protocols therefore limit maximum point doses to the optic pathway to 54–55 Gy in 1.8–2 Gy fractions (2). Whole brain radion therapy (WBRT) is a palliative intervention for patients with multiple brain metastases. The most common WBRT regimens deliver a total dose of 30 Gy in 3 Gy fractions or 35 Gy in 2.5 Gy fractions, which corresponds to a biologically equivalent dose at 2 Gy fractions (EQD2) of 37.5 or 39.4 Gy, respectively (using the linear quadratic model and assuming an a/b ratio [tissue repair capacity] of 2 for the optic apparatus) (3). Biologically equivalent doses allow for comparison of WBRT regimens with differing fractions. The biologically equivalent dose in these regimens is well below the dose-tolerance threshold of the AVP even accounting for larger fraction size. A lower, palliative dose for brain metastases is essentially a compromise between toxicity and tumor control, resulting in control of disease in approximately 50% of patients at 6 months (4). Multiple long-term neurological sequelae after WBRT have been described, including dementia, more subtle cognitive deficits in memory and attention, ataxia, incontinence, and death (5,6). Here, we report 3 cases of RON following WBRT.
The Response of More Health Focused and Less Health Focused People to a Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent Label on Discretionary Snack Foods

A Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent (PACE) label shows the minutes of physical activity required to burn off the caloric content of a particular food. This study investigated the influence of PACE labelling on liking and consumption of discretionary snack foods in a group of more health focused and less health focused consumers. Participants (n = 97) tasted and rated (i.e., liking, prospective consumption) a range of snack foods with or without a PACE label. Total sampling consumption was also measured. Participants completed a shortened version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the General Health Interest Scale questionnaire. Paired samples t-test, independent samples t-tests, a General Linear Model and Chi-Square tests were used to check for statistical significance. For more health focused participants (n = 57), the PACE label decreased only liking (p = 0.02). The PACE label was not effective in reducing liking (p = 0.49), prospective consumption (defined as the amount of the sample participants thought that they could consume) (p = 0.10) or consumption (p = 0.41) of energy-dense discretionary snack foods for less health focused individuals (n = 40). The level of participants’ physical activity did not facilitate the influence of PACE labelling on liking, consumption or prospective consumption. The PACE label was found to not be effective among less health focused individuals or the overall sample population. Therefore, the PACE label may not be an effective labelling strategy to reduce the liking or consumption of discretionary snack foods.
Lower rates of cardiovascular events and mortality associated with liraglutide use in patients treated with basal insulin: A DEVOTE subanalysis (DEVOTE 10)

To compare the associations between concomitant liraglutide use versus no liraglutide use and the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all‐cause mortality among patients receiving basal insulin (either insulin degludec [degludec] or insulin glargine 100 units/mL [glargine U100]) in the Trial Comparing Cardiovascular Safety of Insulin Degludec versus Insulin Glargine in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes at High Risk of Cardiovascular Events (DEVOTE).
Expression of S100B Protein in Ischemia/Reperfusion-Induced Brain Injury After Cyclosporine Therapy: A Biochemical Serum Marker with Prognostic Value?

Background Accumulating evidence has indicated that S100B protein may be involved in the pathophysiology of ischemia-reperfusion brain injury. Cyclosporine has been shown to have neuroprotective functions. This study investigated the effect of cyclosporine on S100B serum levels and the severity of brain tissue damage in a rat model of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). Material/Methods Twelve-week-old Wistar male rats were randomly divided into Control I/R and Cyclosporine I/R groups (n=10 each). Cyclosporine was given orally by gavage for 5 days prior to cerebral I/R, at a total volume of 15 mg/kg/day. The Control group received an equal volume of saline. Body weight was measured and all animals were subjected to 60-min focal ischemia by filament occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. ELISA was used to assess the concentrations of serum S100B and development of brain infarct size and neurological outcomes were determined at 2 and 24 h after occlusion withdrawal. Results Cyclosporine improved the neurological deficit score and decreased the cerebral infarct size and body weight. S100B serum levels were significantly elevated in Cyclosporine-treated rats compared with untreated Control rats during the reperfusion phase. Total infarct size was positively associated with S100B serum levels in the Control I/R group, but no significant correlation was observed in the Cyclosporine I/R group. Conclusions Cyclosporine seems to affect both ischemia-reperfusion brain tissue damage and S100B protein serum levels. S100B serum level appears to be a state marker for the severity of the cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, rather than a trait marker for Cyclosporine responsiveness.
Hypomethylating agent alters the immune microenvironment in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and enhances the immunogenicity of a dendritic cell/AML vaccine

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a lethal haematological malignancy characterized by an immunosuppressive milieu in the tumour microenvironment (TME) that fosters disease growth and therapeutic resistance. Hypomethylating agents (HMAs) demonstrate clinical efficacy in AML patients and exert immunomodulatory activities. In the present study, we show that guadecitabine augments both antigen processing and presentation, resulting in increased AML susceptibility to T cell‐mediated killing. Exposure to HMA results in the activation of the endogenous retroviral pathway with concomitant downstream amplification of critical mediators of inflammation. In an immunocompetent murine leukaemia model, guadecitabine negatively regulates inhibitory accessory cells in the TME by decreasing PD‐1 (also termed PDCD1) expressing T cells and reducing AML‐mediated expansion of myeloid‐derived suppressor cells. Therapy with guadecitabine results in enhanced leukaemia‐specific immunity, as manifested by increased CD4 and CD8 cells targeting syngeneic leukaemia cells. We have previously reported that vaccination with AML/dendritic cell fusions elicits the expansion of leukaemia‐specific T cells and protects against disease relapse. In the present study, we demonstrate that vaccination in conjunction with HMA therapy results in enhanced anti‐leukaemia immunity and survival. The combination of a novel personalized dendritic cell/AML fusion vaccine and an HMA has therapeutic potential, and a clinical trial investigating this combination is planned.
EEG decoding of the target speaker in a cocktail party scenario: considerations regarding dynamic switching of talker location

Objective. It has been shown that attentional selection in a simple dichotic listening paradigm can be decoded offline by reconstructing the stimulus envelope from single-trial neural response data. Here, we test the efficacy of this approach in an environment with non-stationary talkers. We then look beyond the envelope reconstructions themselves and consider whether incorporating the decoder values—which reflect the weightings applied to the multichannel EEG data at different time lags and scalp locations when reconstructing the stimulus envelope—can improve decoding performance. Approach. High-density EEG was recorded as subjects attended to one of two talkers. The two speech streams were filtered using HRTFs, and the talkers were alternated between the left and right locations at varying intervals to simulate a dynamic environment. We trained spatio-temporal decoders mapping from EEG data to the attended and unattended stimulus envelopes. We then decoded auditory attention by (1) using the attended decoder to reconstruct the envelope and (2) exploiting the fact that decoder weightings themselves contain signatures of attention, resulting in consistent patterns across subjects that can be classified. Main results. The previously established decoding approach was found to be effective even with non-stationary talkers. Signatures of attentional selection and attended direction were found in the spatio-temporal structure of the decoders and were consistent across subjects. The inclusion of decoder weights into the decoding algorithm resulted in significantly improved decoding accuracies (from 61.07% to 65.31% for 4 s windows). An attempt was made to include alpha power lateralization as another feature to improve decoding, although this was unsuccessful at the single-trial level. Significance. This work suggests that the spatial-temporal decoder weights can be utilised to improve decoding. More generally, looking beyond envelope reconstruction and incorporating other signatures of attention is an avenue that should be explored to improve selective auditory attention decoding.
Investigation of the Exercise Dependence of Athletes Doing Kickboxing, Taekwondo, and Muay Thai

Debates about the conditions in which the frequency and intensity principles of regular exercise, depending on the fact that a sports background can be accepted as extremism, are still a controversial topic. The purpose of this research was to investigate the exercise dependence of athletes who practice Kickboxing, Taekwondo, and Muay Thai. The study included 141 athletes, consisting of 87 men and 54 women. The Exercise Dependence Scale-21 (EDS-21), composed of 21 items developed by Hausenblas and Downs and adapted into the Turkish version by Yeltepe and İkizler, was applied to the athletes. As a result of the research, while athletes showed more sensitivity to the EDS (=71.41), this scale was also defined as symptomatic. It was found that five athletes (3.5%) were asymptomatic-nondependent, 117 athletes (83.0%) were symptomatic-nondependent, and 19 athletes (13.5%) were at risk for exercise dependence. It was determined that athletes were at risk for exercise dependence as follows: Eight athletes were doing Kickboxing, ten athletes were doing Taekwondo, and one athlete was doing Muay Thai. A significant difference was observed according to years of regular training and number of trainings per a day. Other variables presented no significant differences. It was possible to say that years of regular training could be effective in revealing exercise dependence.
Cilia Distal Domain: Diversity in Evolutionarily Conserved Structures

Eukaryotic cilia are microtubule-based organelles that protrude from the cell surface to fulfill sensory and motility functions. Their basic structure consists of an axoneme templated by a centriole/basal body. Striking differences in ciliary ultra-structures can be found at the ciliary base, the axoneme and the tip, not only throughout the eukaryotic tree of life, but within a single organism. Defects in cilia biogenesis and function are at the origin of human ciliopathies. This structural/functional diversity and its relationship with the etiology of these diseases is poorly understood. Some of the important events in cilia function occur at their distal domain, including cilia assembly/disassembly, IFT (intraflagellar transport) complexes’ remodeling, and signal detection/transduction. How axonemal microtubules end at this domain varies with distinct cilia types, originating different tip architectures. Additionally, they show a high degree of dynamic behavior and are able to respond to different stimuli. The existence of microtubule-capping structures (caps) in certain types of cilia contributes to this diversity. It has been proposed that caps play a role in axoneme length control and stabilization, but their roles are still poorly understood. Here, we review the current knowledge on cilia structure diversity with a focus on the cilia distal domain and caps and discuss how they affect cilia structure and function.
Considering Low Health Literacy: How Do the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory—Short Form 20 and Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire—Short Form 7 Measure Up?

Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the readability and understandability of 2 commonly used pelvic floor disorder questionnaires, Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory—Short Form 20 (PFDI-20) and Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire—Short Form 7 (PFIQ-7), in a low health literacy patient population. Methods Flesh-Kincaid, SMOG, Fry, and FORCAST readability assessment tools were used to assign US grade levels to each questionnaire (PFDI-20, PFIQ-7). Two health literacy experts used PEMAT and ELF-Q tools to determine understandability, organization, content, and quality of each form. A focus group of women with low health literacy used Stop Light Coding and a facilitator-prompted discussion to further evaluate understandability and critique the forms. Results The PFIQ-7 required higher reading ability compared with PFDI-20 (ninth to 11th vs sixth to eighth mean grade level equivalents). Expert and focus group reviews identified concerns regarding purpose, formatting, and word choice in both forms. Focus group participants recommended assistance with questionnaire completion from clinical staff and gave mean overall ratings of 5.4 (0–10/worst to best) for PFDI-20 and 8.0 for PFIQ-7. Conclusions Knowledge of potential barriers to understanding and completion may improve utilization of and accuracy of patient responses to PFDI-20 and PFIQ-7 in women with low health literacy.
Using Low-Frequency Oscillations to Detect Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with Machine Learning

The National Institutes of Health-sponsored Epilepsy Connectome Project aims to characterize connectivity changes in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients. The magnetic resonance imaging protocol follows that used in the Human Connectome Project, and includes 20 min of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging acquired at 3T using 8-band multiband imaging. Glasser parcellation atlas was combined with the FreeSurfer subcortical regions to generate resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs), and fractional ALFF measures. Seven different frequency ranges such as Slow-5 (0.01-0.027 Hz) and Slow-4 (0.027-0.073 Hz) were selected to compute these measures. The goal was to train machine learning classification models to discriminate TLE patients from healthy controls, and to determine which combination of the resting state measure and frequency range produced the best classification model. The samples included age- and gender-matched groups of 60 TLE patients and 59 healthy controls. Three traditional machine learning models were trained: support vector machine, linear discriminant analysis, and naive Bayes classifier. The highest classification accuracy was obtained using RSFC measures in the Slow-4 + 5 band (0.01-0.073 Hz) as features. Leave-one-out cross-validation accuracies were ∼83%, with receiver operating characteristic area-under-the-curve reaching close to 90%. Increased connectivity from right area posterior 9-46v in TLE patients contributed to the high accuracies. With increased sample sizes in the near future, better machine learning models will be trained not only to aid the diagnosis of TLE, but also as a tool to understand this brain disorder.