Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Generalizability of a Large Streamlined Cardiovascular Trial: Comparing Hospitals and Patients in the Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Study Versus the National Cardiovascular Data Registry

Background— The Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Study is large streamlined clinical trial designed to evaluate antiplatelet treatment strategies in a broadly inclusive population of subjects treated with coronary stents. Whether large streamlined trials can successfully include a representative group of study sites and patients has not been formally assessed. Methods and Results— Within the National Cardiovascular Data Registry CathPCI Registry, we compared characteristics and outcomes of hospitals participating versus not participating in the Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Study. We also compared clinical and procedural characteristics of trial subjects undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents to contemporaneous patients within the National Cardiovascular Data Registry CathPCI Registry. Standardized differences between groups were estimated. Between September 2009 and July 2011, 1.1 million PCIs were performed among 1276 hospitals, of which 309 (24.2%) participated in the Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Study. Participating hospitals were larger (468 versus 311 beds), more frequently located in urban settings (61.2% versus 42.6%), and had higher annual PCI volumes (858 versus 378) compared with nonparticipating hospitals, although hospital case mix and procedural outcomes were similar. Compared with CathPCI patients, trial patients undergoing PCI with drug-eluting stents were similar with respect to race, sex, and rates of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and smoking, although they had lower rates of prior cardiovascular disease. Conclusions— Within the Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Study, clinical trial sites had similar patient case mix and clinical outcomes as nonparticipating sites. Although trial participants were representative of PCI patients with respect to race, sex and most comorbidities, they had a lower prevalence of chronic cardiovascular disease compared with registry patients. Although a streamlined cardiovascular clinical trial may successfully involve a large number of hospitals and rapidly enroll a diverse population of patients, differences between eligible patients and those actually enrolled remained. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00977938.
Common phenotype of resting mouse extensor digitorum longus and soleus muscles: equal ATPase and glycolytic flux during transient anoxia

Rates of ATPase and glycolysis are several times faster in actively contracting mouse extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL) than soleus (SOL), but we find these rates are not distinguishable at rest. We used a transient anoxic perturbation of steady state energy balance to decrease phosphocreatine (PCr) reversibly and to measure the rates of ATPase and of lactate production without muscle activation or contraction. The rate of glycolytic ATP synthesis is less than the ATPase rate, accounting for the continual PCr decrease during anoxia in both muscles. We fitted a mathematical model validated with properties of enzymes and solutes measured in vitro and appropriate for the transient perturbation of these muscles to experimental data to test whether the model accounts for the results. Simulations showed equal rates of ATPase and lactate production in both muscles. ATPase controls glycolytic flux by feedback from its products. Adenylate kinase function is critical because a rise in [AMP] is necessary to activate glycogen phosphorylase. ATPase is the primary source of H+ production. The sum of contributions of the 13 reactions of the glycogenolytic and glycolytic network to total proton load is negligible. The stoichiometry of lactate and H+ production is near unity. These results identify a default state of energy metabolism for resting muscle in which there is no difference in the metabolic phenotype of EDL and SOL. Therefore, additional control mechanisms, involving higher ATPase flux and [Ca2+], must exist to explain the well‐known difference in glycolytic rates in fast‐twitch and slow‐twitch muscles in actively contracting muscle.
eft Ventricular ypertrophy and Excess ardiovascular Mortality s Late Gadolinium nhancement the Imaging Link ? *

eft ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is well established as a redictor of excess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. nitial studies demonstrated an association between electroardiographic LVH and likelihood of adverse events, but at cceptable levels of specificity, the sensitivity of the electroardiogram for LVH is low. Subsequently, M-mode echoardiographically determined LVH was shown to predict ardiovascular morbidity and mortality independent of clincal risk factors including age, sex, smoking, and diabetes 1). The additional risk associated with LVH has been ttributed to factors such as subendocardial ischemia related o perfusion gradient or increased arrhythmogenicity due in art to changes in myocardial substrate, but noninvasive in ivo methods for characterizing myocardial composition are either widely available nor commonly used in the clinical etting.
Perceived Control and Negative Affect Predict Expected and Experienced Acute Clinical Pain: A Structural Modeling Analysis

ObjectivesRisk factors for elevated levels of clinical and experimental pain have been shown to be independently predicted by the individual's perception of personal control, negative emotional states, and pain expectancy. In this study we examine the mutual simultaneous association of these factors in the experience of dental extraction pain. MethodsUsing structural equation modeling we examined the relationship between desired and predicted personal control, negative emotional state and the expectation of pain to predict worst treatment pain. A convenience sample of 381 patients receiving walk-in emergency dental treatment were enrolled. Half of the patients were randomly selected for generating the measurement model, the hold-out subsample was used to confirm the model. ResultsOverall fit indices were adequate for both models [χ2/df≥1.37, Comparative Fit Index (CFI)≥0.96, Standardized Root-Mean-Square Residual (SRMR)≤0.05, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA)≤0.06], coefficients of determination were meaningful (R2≥0.14), and factor loadings (β's) were significant (P's<0.001) for each step in both models. DiscussionA sequential pathway was revealed wherein patients' desire for control over the aversiveness of treatment and their prediction of having control over those events (whether desired or not) facilitated a negative emotional state. Negative emotional state in turn influenced expected treatment pain and subsequently the level of treatment pain actually experienced. We conclude that the perception of personal control is a clinically important and cognitively-mediated factor that influences the level of acute pain experienced during stressful clinical procedures.
ViMood: Using social emotions to improve video indexing

The use of emotions has recently been considered to improve the indexing of video contents and two different approaches are usually followed: computation of objective emotions through low-level video features analysis and computation of subjective emotions through analysis of the viewers' physical signals. In this paper, we propose a different approach and we present ViMood, a novel mechanism designed to improve the indexing of video material by integrating objective and subjective emotions. ViMood indexes every video scene with emotion(s) obtained through a combination of low-level feature analysis and on-the-fly viewer's emotion annotation. The goal is to allow viewers to browse video material using either general information (e.g., title, director) or specific emotions (e.g., “joy”, “sadness”, “surprise”). Results obtained in the evaluation process showed that participants were very interested in the hybrid approach, as it fixes some of the problems of the objective and subjective approaches.
Short Papers

Chlorpromazine hydrochloride (CPZ) is a potent photosensitizer for human skin (Calnan 1958). Patients on high doses, around 600 mg per day, react to sunlight exposure with photosensitivity resembling an exaggerated sunburn (Epstein et al. 1957, Satanove & McIntosh 1967), while manufacturing process workers, nurses, and others handling the drug may develop a photocontact dermatitis (Calnan et al. 1962). The mechanisms for drug induced photosensitivity as suggested by Harber & Baer (1969) are shown in Fig 1. Photocontact dermatitis due to CPZ apparently has an immunological basis (Jung 1970) and could be classified as 'photoallergic' but the reactions to systemic administration would seem to be more the phototoxic type. Little is known about the cellular mechanisms involved, which is not surprising as this applies to photosensitization generally.
Adaptive digital equalization in the presence of chromatic dispersion, PMD, and phase noise in coherent fiber optic systems

Chromatic dispersion (CD) and polarization mode dispersion (PMD) severely limit the performance of optical transmission systems operating at and above 10 Gb/s. Electrical equalization techniques have been proposed to compensate dispersion in both coherent and intensity modulation/direct-detection (IM/DD) systems. We investigate the combined adaptive digital equalization of all-order PMD, CD, and laser phase noise in high-speed coherent optical transmission systems. Simultaneous equalization of these impairments has not been reported previously and is particularly important in modulation systems that exploit polarization to increase modulation efficiency. We propose a novel 4-dimensional equalizer structure for joint polarization modulation and M-ary differential phase shift keying (JPMDPSK) systems. The specific example considered is 40 Gb/s transmission with a 10 GBaud symbol rate, using DQPSK modulation on each axis of polarization. Our results show that the new four-dimensional equalizer can compensate channel dispersion of up to 1000 km of standard single-mode fiber, with less than 3 dB penalty in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This is a dramatic improvement over 40 Gb/s IM/DD systems. The feasibility of the very large scale integration (VLSI) of coherent receivers in current technology is also discussed.
Optimization of CNN Template Robustness

The robustness of a template set for cellular neural networks (CNNs) is crucial for applications of VLSI CNN chips. Whereas the problem of designing any, possibly very sensitive, templates for a given task is fairly easy to solve, it is computationally expensive to find optimal solutions. For the class of bipolar CNNs, we propose an analytical approach to derive the optimally robust template set from any correctly operating template. Furthermore, our method yields a theoretical upper bound for the robustness of the CNN task. key words: cellular neural networks, robustness
Inflation and holography in string theory

The encoding of an inflating patch of space-time in terms of a dual theory is discussed. Following Bousso's interpretation of the holographic principle, we find that those are generically described not by states in the dual theory but by density matrices. We try to implement this idea on simple deformations of the AdS/CFT examples, and an argument is given as to why inflation is so elusive to string theory.
Dynamic Shortest Paths and Transitive Closure : an Annotated Bibliography ( Draft ) Camil Demetrescu

This is an annotated bibliography on fully dynamic algorithms for path problems on general directed graphs. In particular, we consider two fundamental problems: dynamic transitive closure and dynamic shortest paths. Although research on these problems spans over more than three decades, in the last couple of years many novel algorithmic techniques have been proposed. 1 Dynamic Path Problems A dynamic graph algorithm maintains a given property P on a graph subject to dynamic changes, such as edge insertions, edge deletions and edge weight updates. A dynamic graph algorithm should process queries on property P quickly, and perform update operations faster than recomputing from scratch, as carried out by the fastest static algorithm. We say that an algorithm is fully dynamic if it can handle both edge insertions and edge deletions. A partially dynamic algorithm can handle either edge insertions or edge deletions, but not both: we say that it is incremental if it supports insertions only, and decremental if it supports deletions only. In this annotated bibliography, we focus on fully dynamic algorithms for maintaining path problems on general directed graphs. In particular, we consider two fundamental problems. In the fully dynamic transitive closure problem we wish to maintain a directed graph G = (V,E) under an intermixed sequence of the following operations: Insert(x, y): insert an edge from x to y; Delete(x, y): delete the edge from x to y; Query(x, y): return yes if y is reachable from x, and return no otherwise. ∗ Email: demetres@dis.uniroma1.it. URL: http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~demetres. † Email: italiano@disp.uniroma2.it. URL: http://www.disp.uniroma2.it/users/italiano.
Insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity in normal pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus

The purpose of this study was to evaluate insulin sensitivity ,β-cell function and islet-cell-directed autoimmunity in pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). A total of 21 women with normal glucose tolerance and 21 women with GDM were evaluated at 24-36 weeks' gestation. Insulin resistance and β-cell function were evaluated using the continuous infusion of glucose with model assessment (CIGMA) method ,which aims to give a near-physiological stimulus and to evaluate the endogenous insulin and glucose response. Islet-cell autoantibody was positive in one woman with GDM ,and glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies were negative in both groups. The calculated CIGMA insulin resistance (CIGMA IR) was 2.04 ± 1.74 and 1.08 ± 1.22 in patients with GDM and in control subjects ,respectively (p < 0.05). CIGMA percentage β-cell values were 64.04 ± 44.55% and 87.07 ± 52.77% in patients with GDM and control subjects ,respectively (p > 0.05). Decreased insulin sensitivity in late pregnancy was more evident in lean GDM subjects with mild hyperglycemia who did not require insulin therapy ,and β-cell function was partially preserved in this group of patients.
Reduction in Malaria Incidence following Indoor Residual Spraying with Actellic 300 CS in a Setting with Pyrethroid Resistance: Mutasa District, Zimbabwe

Background More than half of malaria cases in Zimbabwe are concentrated in Manicaland Province, where seasonal malaria epidemics occur despite intensified control strategies. Recently, high levels of pyrethroid and carbamate resistance were detected in Anopheles funestus, the major malaria vector in eastern Zimbabwe. In response, a single round of indoor residual spraying (IRS) using pirimiphos-methyl (an organophosphate) was implemented in four high burden districts of Manicaland Province from November 1, 2014 to December 19, 2014. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of this programmatic switch in insecticides on malaria morbidity reported from health care facilities in Mutasa District, one of the worst affected districts in Manicaland Province. Methods The number of weekly malaria cases for each health facility 24 months prior to the 2014 IRS campaign and in the subsequent high transmission season were obtained from passive case surveillance. Environmental variables were extracted from remote-sensing data sources and linked to each health care facility. Negative binomial regression was used to model the weekly number of malaria cases, adjusted for seasonality and environmental variables. Results From December 2012 to May 2015, 124,206 malaria cases were reported from 42 health care facilities in Mutasa District. Based on a higher burden of malaria, 20 out of 31 municipal wards were sprayed in the district. Overall, 87.3% of target structures were sprayed and 92.1% of the target population protected. During the 6 months after the 2014 IRS campaign, a period when transmission would have otherwise peaked, the incidence of malaria was 38% lower than the preceding 24 months at health facilities in the sprayed wards. Conclusions Pirimiphos-methyl had a measurable impact on malaria incidence and is an effective insecticide for the control of An. funestus in eastern Zimbabwe.
A Study on Information Recommendation Systems for Continuous Use

Most of traditional studies on information recommendation systems aim at recommending highly satisfactory information in a one-time or small number of uses of a system or service, and never take it into account that the user would feel tired of the same system or service after they have used it many times over. This study has modeled the human nature of being tired of the same thing and enabled the measurement of the degree of such boredom. This time, the study has implemented an information recommendation system that has features to (1) visualize the degree of the user's boredom and (2) recommend information that can reduce it. Then, an evaluation experiment was conducted using a system developed. The result of an evaluation experiment shows that the@system@can get the user less bored and more satisfied when used continuously.
The role of adenosine and ATP-sensitive potassium channels in the protection afforded by ischemic preconditioning against the post-ischemic endothelial dysfunction in guinea-pig hearts.

The role of adenosine and ATP-sensitive potassium channels (KATP) in the mechanism of ischemic preconditioning (IPC)-induced protection against the post-ischemic endothelial dysfunction was studied. Langendorff-perfused guinea-pig hearts were subjected either to 40 min of global ischemia and 40 min reperfusion or were preconditioned prior to the ischemia/reperfusion with three cycles of either 5 min ischemia/5 min reperfusion (IPC) or 5 min infusion/5 min wash-out of adenosine, adenosine A1 receptor agonist, N6-cyclohexyladenosine (CHA) or KATP opener, pinacidil. The magnitude of coronary flow reduction caused by NO-synthase inhibitor, Nomega-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), served as an index of a basal endothelium-dependent vasodilator tone. Coronary overflows produced by a bolus of acetylcholine (ACh) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) were used as measures of agonist-induced endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent vascular function, respectively. The coronary flow, LVDP, ACh response and l-NAME response were reduced by 8, 32, 41 and 54%, respectively, while SNP response was not changed in the hearts subjected to ischemia/reperfusion. ACh response was fully restored, l-NAME response was partially restored, and SNP response was not affected in the hearts subjected to IPC. The post-ischemic recoveries of coronary flow and LVDP were not improved by IPC. The protective effect of IPC on the ACh response was mimicked by adenosine, CHA, and pinacidil. The protective effect of IPC, CHA and pinacidil was abolished by KATP antagonist, glibenclamide. The IPC protection was affected neither by a non-specific adenosine antagonist, 8-p-sulfophenyltheophylline, nor by a specific adenosine A1 receptor antagonist, 8-cyclopentyl-1, 3-dipropylxanthine (DPCPX). Our data indicate that: (1) IPC affords endothelial protection in the mechanism that involves activation of KATP, but not adenosine A1 receptors; (2) exogenous adenosine and A1 receptor agonist afford the protection, which might be of a potential clinical significance; (3) the endothelial dysfunction is not involved in the mechanism of myocardial stunning in guinea-pig hearts.
Speech enhancement using STC-based bandwidth extension

Telephone speech is typically bandlimited to 4 kHz, resulting in a ‘muffled’ quality. Coding speech with bandwidth greater than 4 kHz reduces this distortion, but requires a higher bit rate to avoid other types of distortion. An alternative to coding wider bandwidth speech is to exploit correlation between the 0-4 kHz and 4-8 kHz speech bands to resynthesize wideband speech from narrowband speech. This paper presents a method for re-synthesizing narrowband coded speech using sinusoidal transform coding (STC), modified codebook mapping and a novel method for the synthesis of highband unvoiced components. Informal listening test results indicate that this method produces a significant quality improvement in speech which has been coded using narrowband standards.
SPARTA: Sparse phase retrieval via Truncated Amplitude flow

A linear-time algorithm termed SPARse Truncated Amplitude flow (SPARTA) is developed for the phase retrieval (PR) of sparse signals. Upon formulating the sparse PR as a non-convex empirical loss minimization task, SPARTA emerges as an iterative solver consisting of two components: s1) a sparse orthogonality-promoting initialization leveraging support recovery and principal component analysis; and, s2) a series of refinements by hard thresholding based truncated gradient iterations. SPARTA is simple, scalable, and fast. It recovers any k-sparse n-dimensional signal (k ≪ n) of large enough minimum (in modulus) nonzero entries from about k2 log n measurements with high probability; this is achieved at computational complexity of order k2n log n, improving upon the state-of-the-art by at least a factor of k. SPARTA is robust against bounded additive noise. Simulated tests corroborate the merits of SPARTA relative to existing alternatives.
The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor C and its receptors in non-small cell lung cancer

Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C and that of its receptors were assessed in non-small cell lung cancer. Immunohistochemistry revealed positive VEGF-C expression in 38.7% (24/62) of the patients studied. A significant positive correlation was found between VEGF-C in cancer cells and VEGF receptor-3 (VEGFR-3) in vascular endothelial cells, but not between VEGF-C in cancer cells and VEGFR-2 in endothelial cells. In this cohort of lung cancer patients, VEGF-C expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, lymphatic vessel invasion, and worse outcomes after the operation. Although the independent prognostic impact of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 was not clear, VEGFR-2 expression in endothelial cells retained the independency as the prognostic indicator. In light of these findings, we conclude that VEGF-C plays an important role in lymphatic invasion/metastasis and tumour progression in non-small cell lung cancer. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign www.bjcancer. com
Extreme Security Engineering: On Employing XP Practices to Achieve

This paper examines practices of eXtreme Programming (XP) on the subject of their application to the development of security solutions. We introduce eXtreme Security Engineering (XSE), an application of XP practices to security engineering, and discuss its potential benefits and the scope of its applicability. We argue that XSE could help achieve “good enough security” while avoiding defining a priori what it is.