Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diagnostic Performance of Simulated Abbreviated MRI for Early-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma Screening: A Comparison to Conventional Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI.

Purpose To compare the per-patient diagnostic performance of simulated abbreviated MRI (AMRI) to that of conventional MRI (CMRI) with full-sequence dynamic gadoxetic acid (GA) enhancement for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) screening in high-risk patients. Materials and Methods A total of 201 consecutive patients at high-risk for HCC, who underwent 3T liver MRI, were included in this retrospective study. The AMRI protocol comprised T2-weighted imaging, hepatobiliary phase imaging after GA injection, and diffusion-weighted imaging. For each patient, two AMRI and CMRI image sets were independently reviewed by two radiologists. Inter-reader agreement was assessed using Cohen's kappa value. A composite reference standard was used to determine the diagnostic performance of each image set for each reader. Results A total of 93 HCCs were detected in 79 patients. The inter-reader agreement was almost perfect for both image sets (κ = 0.839, 0.948). In AMRI, the per-patient sensitivity and negative predictive values (NPV) were 94.9% and 96.4%, respectively. In CMRI, the per-patient sensitivity and NPV were 96.2% and 97.5%, respectively. Conclusion AMRI, using only three sequences, had a comparable diagnostic performance to CMRI in screening early-stage HCC. AMRI could be an alternative HCC screening tool for high-risk HCC patients.
Role of Dietary Phospholipids in the Transport of [14C] Tripalmitin in the Prawn

This paper deals with the effects of supplemental phospholipids (PL) on the assimilation and transport of [14C] tripalmitin in relation to the nutritional role of PL in diets of the prawn Penaeus japonicus. The prawns were fed on the diets containing [14C] tripalmitin with 3% soybean lecithin (diet A) and without supplemental PL (diet D), and then the incorporation of radioactivity into the organs and tissues was examined after 1, 3, and 6h of feeding. Supplemental soybean lecithin slightly accelerated the mobilization of dietary [14C] tripalmitin from the guts to the hepatopancreas but did not exert an influence upon the absorption rate (%) of [14C] tripalmitin under the conditions adopted in the present study. The inclusion of soybean lecithin in diets resulted in the increase of proportion of radioactive PL in the hemolymph, especially, phosphatidylcholine which may be used as the constituents of hemolymph lipoproteins. These results suggest that dietary PL possibly play an important role in the smooth transport of dietary lipids, especially cholesterol, in the body.
Quality Assurance Implementation: How It Works

Change management processes and learning adaptations that accompany quality assurance (QA) in higher education are an understudied phenomenon. This article describes a ﬁrst-tier, phenomenological qualitative research study on the usability of the Continuum of Excellence in Quality Assurance (CEQA) model as a tool that institutions might use to identify, assess, and strategically embed institution-wide processes and actions for sustainable quality online learning for all stakeholders. Twelve educators with histories of implementation of Quality Matters tools and processes as part of their institutional approach to assure quality online learning were interviewed to gather information about their efforts to implement QA tools and processes and to map to the model. Five emerging themes are discussed.
1 Precision Radiomic Biomarkers: a brief introduction, some technical development, and several clinical applications

Computer tools have been part of the clinical routine on a daily basis for radiological image interpretation. However, they are limited to quantifying basic information about the lesions that a medical examination may present, like a nodule size or mass volume. Radiomic biomarkers emerged in this context to address this problem by quantifying the images massively and characterizing them comprehensively to allow the precision phenotyping needed in the current personalized medicine era. Thus, this book chapter introduces some robust radiomic biomarkers identified in the past few years for different pathological imaging patterns of diseases from two critical human systems, i.e., respiratory and musculoskeletal. The text initiates with the primary motivation for radiomic biomarker development, discovery, and validation. The following sections present a quick background with the basic theory for the remainder of the manuscript. Finally, the chapter approaches the state-of-the-art radiomic precision biomarkers for three different diseases and modalities of medical images: covid-19 in chest radiography, lung neoplasms in computed tomography, and spondyloarthritis in magnetic resonance imaging.
A Role for Neutrophil Recruitment? Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity through TNF: Central Nervous System Infiltration and Meningeal Mast Cells Affect Early T Cell

Mast cells contribute to the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a rodent model of the human demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis. Yet their site and mode of action is unknown. In both diseases, myelin-speciﬁc T cells are initially activated in peripheral lymphoid organs. However, for disease to occur, these cells must enter the immunologically privileged CNS through a breach in the relatively impermeable blood-brain barrier. In this study, we demonstrate that a dense population of resident mast cells in the meninges, structures surrounding the brain and spinal cord, regulate basal CNS barrier function, facilitating initial T cell CNS entry. Through the expression of TNF, mast cells recruit an early wave of neutrophils to the CNS. We propose that neutrophils in turn promote the blood-brain barrier breach and together with T cells lead to further inﬂammatory cell inﬂux and myelin damage. These ﬁndings provide speciﬁc targets for intervention in multiple sclerosis as well as other immune-mediated CNS diseases. The Journal of Immunology , 2010, 184: 000–000.
Tree Based Incremental Sequential Pattern Mining

Sequential pattern mining, which discovers the correlation relationships from the ordered list of events, is an important research field in data mining area. In this paper, I develop a Tree Based Incremental Sequential Pattern Mining algorithm which can generate sequential patterns from the Sequential Pattern Tree recursively. This algorithm builds a Sequential Pattern Tree for both frequent and non-frequent items. It requires only one scan of database to build the tree which can reduce the tree construction time considerably. The main advantage of this algorithm is to mine the complete set of sequential patterns from the Sequential Pattern Tree without generating any intermediate projected tree. It does not generate unnecessary candidate sequences and not require repeated scanning the original database. It also supports incremental mining. While the new sequences are updated, the already existing tree is revised for the updated sequences and then, mines the updated tree for the new frequent subsequences. I have compared the proposed approach with three state-of-the-art algorithms and the performance study shows that, Tree Based Sequential Pattern Mining algorithm is much faster than existing Apriori based GSP algorithm and also faster than existing PrefixSpan and FUSP-Tree algorithm. For incremental mining, the proposed approach outperforms both GSP and PrefixSpan.
Pedagogy in ( e )motion: Bridges across cognition

This paper is an invitation to discuss the importance of emotions in a pedagogical and psychological agenda in order to overcome the dualism between reason and emotion. In education, as in life, we are like actors who bring our hearts and souls to our work. Emotions are essential to the decision-mak-ing ies between teaching, thinking and feeling, in order to elaborate, explain and uncover our phylogenetic, cultural and historical heritage.
Incorporation of Sulfate-S 35 and Glucosamine-1-C" into Heparin During Perfusion of Isolated Rat Liver

• The addition of sulfate-S" to rat blood perfusing an isolated, surviving rat liver causes association of some of the isotope with several plasma protein fractions x in a pattern similar to that obtained when the isotope is injected in a living rat. Preparative starch block electrophoresis (pH 8.6) of aliquots of the perfusing plasma indicates that approximately 80$ of the bound radioactivity is associated with the ai globulin and albumin fractions while 20% is present in a pre-albumin peak of low protein but considerable hexuronic acid content. Ninety per cent of the radioactivity associated with the pre-albumin peak is dialyzable through cellophane tubing but none of it is precipitated upon addition of BaCla and carrier Na2SO4. These findings are consistent with the possibility that the prealbumin peak represents a small molecular weight, protein-free, sulfated acid mucopolysaccharide capable of acting as sulfate acceptor in presence of the enzymatic systems of the liver involved in sulfate activation and transfer. The data to be presented indicate that the heparin routinely added to the perfusing fluid is responsible for at least a significant part of the pre-albumin peak. In
ABCDE and ABCDEF care bundles

Abstract Background: The ABCDE (Awakening and Breathing Coordination of daily sedation and ventilator removal trials, Delirium monitoring and management, and Early mobility and exercise) and ABCDEF (Assessment, prevent and manage pain, Both spontaneous awakening and spontaneous breathing trials, Choice of analgesia and sedation, assess, prevent and manage Delirium, Early mobility and exercise, Family engagement) care bundles consist of small sets of evidence-based interventions and are part of the science behind Intensive Care Unit (ICU) liberation. This review sought to analyse the process of implementation of ABCDE and ABCDEF care bundles in ICUs, identifying barriers, facilitators and changes in perception and attitudes of healthcare professionals; and to estimate care bundle effectiveness and safety. Methods: We selected qualitative and quantitative studies addressing the implementation of ABCDE and ABCDEF bundles in the ICU, identified on MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Epistemonikos, PsycINFO, Virtual Health Library and Open Grey, without restriction on language or date of publication, up to June 2018. The outcomes measured were ICU and hospital length of stay; mechanical ventilation time; incidence and prevalence of delirium or coma; level of agitation and sedation; early mobilization; mortality in ICU and hospital; change in perception, attitude or behaviour of the stakeholders; and change in knowledge of health professionals. Two reviewers independently selected the studies, performed data extraction, and assessed risk of bias and methodological quality. A meta-analysis of random effects was performed. Results: Twenty studies were included, 13 of which had a predominantly qualitative and 7 a quantitative design (31,604 participants). The implementation strategies were categorized according to the taxonomy developed by the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care Group and eighty strategies were identified. The meta-analysis results showed that implementation of the bundles may reduce length of ICU stay, mechanical ventilation time, delirium, ICU and hospital mortality, and promoted early mobilization in critically-ill patients. Conclusions : This study can contribute to the planning and execution of the implementation process of ABCDE and ABCDEF care bundles in ICUs. However, the effectiveness and safety of these bundles need to be corroborated by further studies with greater methodological rigor. Protocol registration: PROSPERO CRD42019121307.
Common genetic variation in KATNAL1 non‐coding regions is involved in the susceptibility to severe phenotypes of male infertility

Previous studies in animal models evidenced that genetic mutations of KATNAL1, resulting in dysfunction of its encoded protein, lead to male infertility through disruption of microtubule remodelling and premature germ cell exfoliation. Subsequent studies in humans also suggested a possible role of KATNAL1 single‐nucleotide polymorphisms in the development of male infertility as a consequence of severe spermatogenic failure.
Fatty liver disease is not associated with increased mortality in the elderly: A prospective cohort study

Background and Aims: Fatty liver disease (FLD) has been associated with excess mortality. Screening for hepatic steatosis (HS) in patients with metabolic dysfunction is therefore recommended by several guidelines, despite a paucity of evidence on the clinical relevance of FLD in this specific subgroup. Approach and Results: We studied participants of an ongoing prospective cohort (the Rotterdam Study). Persons ≥65 years old were enrolled from 2009 to 2014 and were followed through 2018. Steatosis was assessed by ultrasound and liver stiffness (LS) by transient elastography. The association between HS and LS with mortality was assessed using Cox regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, education, smoking, individual components of metabolic syndrome (MetS), heart failure, coronary heart disease, and stroke. We included 4093 elderly participants (74.4 ± 6.6 years old; 42.7% male); 36.8% had ultrasound‐based steatosis. During the median follow‐up of 6.9 years, 793 participants died (29.6 per 1000 person‐years). In the overall population, steatosis was not associated with mortality in multivariable analysis (adjusted HR [aHR], 0.87; 95% CI, 0.73–1.03). Findings were consistent across a range of clinically relevant subgroups, including age categories, sex, MetS, elevated liver enzymes, and cardiac disease. Sensitivity analyses showed similar results for mortality beyond 5 years of follow‐up and cancer‐related and cerebro‐cardiovascular mortality. Furthermore, among participants with steatosis, higher LS (aHR, 1.04 per kPa; 95% CI, 0.95–1.14) was not associated with mortality. Conclusions: Presence of FLD was not associated with mortality in this cohort nor in a range of subgroups. This indicates that screening for FLD and/or fibrosis is unlikely to improve outcomes among the elderly population.
Experiences and psychosocial predictors of professional function among intensive care nurses under the shadow of Covid‐19: A mixed‐methods study

Background The outbreak of the Corona virus (COVID‐19) pandemic led to a sharp rise in morbidity and hospitalizations, and a significant therapeutic burden fell on intensive care units (ICUs). Intensive care nurses reported physical and emotional stress in response to the extra workload caused by caring for critically ill COVID‐19 patients. However, at the time of publication of the study, to the best of our knowledge there have been no studies that examined uncertainty, stress, or hope in the context of functioning among intensive care nurses. Aim To examine: (a) the challenges of operating and managing intensive care units during the COVID‐19 pandemic among nurse managers in intensive care units, and (b) the relationships between uncertainty, stress, burnout, hope, and professional functioning among intensive care nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Design This mixed‐methods study was conducted in intensive care units (ICUs) at a large tertiary medical center in Israel, during February–May 2021. Methods The data were collected in two phases. In the first phase, qualitative data were collected from focus groups attended by 15 senior managerial nurses. The second phase involved a cross‐sectional study among 100 staff nurses working in 5 ICUs. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Results Qualitative data analysis revealed two main themes: (a) challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic and (b) positive aspects of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The nurses reported high levels of burnout, emotional stress and uncertainty, but moderate State Hope Scale scores, and moderate levels of professional functioning. There were no statistical differences in study variables by exposure to COVID‐19 patients. State Hope Scale levels, uncertainty, and burnout variables contributed significantly and explained 46% of the variance of the professional functioning. Conclusions The intensity of the experiences and psych‐social phenomena, is not affected by exposure to treatment of COVID‐19 patients. The relationships between the study variables emphasize the importance of initiated and ongoing interventions to reduce uncertainty, address burnout, and strengthen hope. Improvement in these indices may lead to better ICU nurses' professional functioning and their work life well‐being.
Can Newly Developed, Rapid Immunochromatographic Antigen Detection Tests Be Reliably Used for the Laboratory Diagnosis of Inﬂuenza Virus Infections?

Five years ago, the Point-Counterpoint series was launched. The initial article asked about the role of rapid immunochromatographic antigen testing in the diagnosis of inﬂuenza A virus 2009 H1N1 infection (D. F. Welch and C. C. Ginocchio, J Clin Microbiol 48:22–25, 2010, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.02268-09). Since that article, not only have major changes been made in immunochromatographic antigen detection (IAD) testing for the inﬂuenza viruses, but there has also been rapid development of commercially available nucleic acid ampliﬁcation tests (NAATs) for inﬂuenza virus detection. Further, a novel variant of inﬂuenza A, H7N9, has emerged in Asia, and H5N1 is also reemergent. In that initial article, the editor of this series, Peter Gilligan, identiﬁed two issues that required further consideration. One was how well IAD tests worked in clinical settings, especially in times of antigen drift and shift. The other was the role of future iterations of inﬂuenza NAATs and whether this testing would be available in a community hospital setting. James Dunn, who is Director of Medical Microbiology and Virology at Texas Children’s Hospital, has extensive experience using IAD tests for diagnosing inﬂuenza. He will discuss the application and value of these tests in inﬂuenza diagnosis. Christine Ginocchio, who recently retired as the Senior Medical Director, Division of Infectious Disease Diagnostics, North Shore-LIJ Health System, and now is Vice President for Global Microbiology Affairs at bio-Mérieux,
O-linked glycosylation of the mucin domain of the herpes simplex virus type 1 specific glycoprotein gC-1 is temporally regulated in a seed-and-spread manner

gC-1 is heavily O-glycosylated by cellular GalNAc-transferases. Results : O-glycosylation of the gC-1 mucin domain was characterized by LC-MS/MS and expression of GalNAc-transferases by qPCR and immunohistochemistry. Conclusion : O-glycosylation of gC-1 occurs in a site specific and ordered manner related to specific GalNAc-transferases. Significance : Different target cells may generate different viral glycoprofiles affecting serological responses and infectious properties. ABSTRACT The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)
Modeling Individual Diﬀerences with Dirichlet Processes

We introduce a Bayesian framework for modeling indi- vidual diﬀerences, in which subjects are assumed to belong to one of a potentially inﬁnite number of groups. In this model, the groups observed in any particular data set are not viewed as a ﬁxed set that fully explain the variation between individuals, but rather as representatives of a latent, arbitrarily rich structure. As more peo- ple are seen, the number of observed groups is allowed to grow, as more details about the individual diﬀerences are revealed. We use the Dirichlet process – a distribution widely used in nonparametric Bayesian statistics – to deﬁne a prior for the model, allowing us to learn ﬂexible parameter distributions without overﬁtting the data, or requiring the complex computations typically required for determining the dimensionality of a model. As an initial demonstration of the approach, we present an application of the method to categorization data.
Potentiation of des-Arg 9 -Kallidin-Induced Vasoconstrictor Responses by Metallopeptidase Inhibition in Isolated Human Umbilical Artery

Several metallopeptidases have been reported to be involved in bradykinin (BK) B 1 receptor agonist metabolism. Our goal was to evaluate in vitro roles of metallopeptidases [e.g., neutral endopeptidase (NEP), aminopeptidase M (APM), and angioten- sin-converting enzyme (ACE)] as functional inactivators of the selective BKB 1 receptor agonist Lys-des-Arg 9 -BK (DAKD) in isolated human umbilical artery (HUA) rings. Concentration-response curves (CRCs) to DAKD were performed after a 5-h incubation period. Treatment with 10 (cid:1) M phosphoramidon (NEP inhibitor) or 10 (cid:1) M amastatin (APM inhibitor) potentiated DAKD-elicited responses, whereas 1 (cid:1) M captopril (ACE inhibitor) had no significant effects. However, when the three en- zymes were simultaneously inhibited, a significant potentiation over responses obtained under concurrent NEP and aminopeptidase M inhibition was observed. In contrast, responses in- duced by the peptidase resistant BKB 1 receptor agonist Sar-D -Phe 8 -des-Arg 9 -BK were not modified by triple peptidase inhibition. In addition, endothelial denudation failed to alter DAKD-induced responses in HUA. Finally, in the presence of NEP, ACE, and APM inhibition, Lys-des-Arg 9 -[Leu 8 ]-BK, the potent BKB 1 receptor antagonist, produced a parallel, concen- tration-dependent,
MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL BASED ENERGY MANAGEMENT OPTIMIZATION FOR A EUROPEAN MICROGRID IMPLEMENTATION

This paper presents a case study of two approaches for optimal microgrid control. The simulations are based on a real test site located in Sweden. One of the two presented models replicates the actual implemented rule based control (RBC) that is currently realized on the test site. The second model applies a model predictive control (MPC) scheme assuming the same system and boundary conditions. The performance is assessed in terms of maximizing the islanding time, signifying the time the microgrid (MG) can disconnect from the remaining distribution grid.
An Effective Flux Weakening Control of a SyRM Drive Including MTPV Operation

A synchronous reluctance motor drive exhibits an inherent unlimited speed range capability; in fact, the maximum speed of this kind of machine is bounded only by mechanical limits. In order to exploit this peculiar characteristic of the drive while assuring the lowest power losses, a proper control algorithm has to be used. In particular, while the working speed is increasing, the control must be able to command the reluctance motor under the maximum torque per ampere condition at first, into the flux-weakening region, and then on the maximum torque per voltage trajectory. To this purpose, a novel voltage control loop is presented in this paper. It is combined with a field-oriented current control and profitably exploits a polar coordinate representation of the current reference to operate the reluctance machine in compliance with current and voltage rating constraints in all the different operating conditions. Additional merits of the proposed scheme are the ease of implementation and the simple design. The stability of the proposed control algorithm is proved through a small signal analysis and simulations and experimental tests confirm its effectiveness.
Privacy Preserving Location Based Spatial Range Query over SS-Tree Index Structure

Based on IOT, the Location based services (LBS) and spatial range queries (SPG) have received great impact and became more popular and is absolutely needed in recent years. This leads to several issues such as increase in search latency, minimum numbers of queries for a user and known sample attacks. So, in order to overcome the issues in LBS, a coordinate transformation suite technique (CTS) based on ss-tree index structure has been proposed by Lichen et. al.,. They used Euclidean distance to calculate the distance between two locations. This paper replaces Euclidean distance with the great circle distance (GCD) to calculate the shortest distance between two locations. Using GCD in the scheme has increased the number of queries generated and the query latency has been decreased.