Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A nationwide cohort study of the role of CHADS2 score in predicting lower extremity amputation and death among patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease

Abstract Objectives: The current study aimed to explore whether the CHADS2 score was predictive of lower extremity amputation (LEA) and death in people with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). Methods: This nationwide cohort came from Taiwan, with 16,888 PAOD patients, from 2000 through 2011, extracted from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000. Cox proportional hazard regression models were employed to identify the LEA and mortality risk according to CHADS2 score. The discriminatory properties of the score in predicting the outcomes were quantified by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the Cox C-index. Results: The AUROC of the CHADS2 score in predicting LEA and death were 0.75 (95% CI = 0.73–0.77) and 0.70 (95% CI = 0.69–0.71), respectively. The CHADS2 score had an acceptable stratification capacity for LEA (C-index = 0.79) and death (C-index = 0.76) based on Cox-regression analysis. Conclusions: This study correlates the CHADS2 score with risk of developing LEA and death in patients with PAOD. The acceptable discriminative power of the score diversifies its predictive role in this population.
Hardware-assisted Isolation in a Multi-tenant Function-based Dataplane

Existing software dataplanes that run network functions inside VMs or containers can provide either performance (by dedicating CPU cores) or multiplexing (by context switching), but not both at once. Function-based dataplane architectures by replacing VMs and containers with function calls promise to achieve multiplexing and performance at the same time. However, they compromise memory isolation between tenants by forcing them to use a shared memory address space. In this paper, we show that an operating system-like management layer for modules in a function-based data plane can offer OS-like constructs such as performance and memory isolation. To provide memory isolation, we leverage new Intel CPU extensions (MPX) to create coarse-grained heap and stack protection even for legacy code written in unsafe native languages such as C. In addition, we use programmable NIC offloads to distribute load across cores as well as to prevent batch fragmentation when processing complex service graphs. Our preliminary evaluation shows the limitations of existing techniques that require heavy weight memory isolation or incur cross-core overheads.
Clinically Important Difference of the Arm Motor Ability Test in Stroke Survivors

Background. The Arm Motor Ability Test (AMAT) is used to assess and quantify upper-extremity (UE) functional limitation in stroke and other conditions. However, the AMAT score change indicative of important and clinically meaningful change has not been determined. Objective. To determine the clinically important difference (CID) for the AMAT for individuals with stroke exhibiting mild to moderate hemiparesis. Methods. A total of 146 chronic stroke survivors exhibiting stable, mild to moderate UE hemiparesis were administered the AMAT before and after interventions targeting their affected UEs. Patients and treating therapists rated perceived amount of UE motor recovery for each participant on a global rating of change (GROC) scale evaluating several facets of UE movement (grasp, release, move the affected UE, perform 5 important functional tasks, overall UE function). Estimated CID of the Functional Ability Scale of the AMAT was calculated using the receiver operating characteristics curve with the GROC scale as the anchor. Distribution-based methods were also used to estimate the CID. Results. Mean baseline, postintervention, and change in AMAT values for all participants were 3.0 (0.68), 3.3 (0.73), and 0.33 (0.43) respectively. The CID was estimated as an improvement of 0.32 to 0.42 when anchored by the therapist’s perception of improvement and 0.29 to 0.40 when anchored by the patient’s perception of improvement. The CID using distribution-based methods ranged from 0.40 to 0.44. Conclusions. A change of 0.44 or greater on the AMAT indicates a clinically meaningful improvement in UE functional movements. Clinicians should use this value to determine goals and interpret change scores.
Recent Development of Cardiac Troponin i Detection

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has threatened human lives for decades, and a technique for estimating and healing is still needed. There has been increasing interest in finding CVD diagnostic biomarkers to predict risk. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) has proven to be a significant biomarker for acute myocardial infarction detection. An immunoassay based biosensor for cTnI can play an important role in diagnosis of CVD. Over the past decades, various methodologies regarding cTnI detection have been studied, including colorimetric, fluorescence, paramagnetic, electrochemical, and surface plasmon resonance. This review will focus more on recent strategies about surface immobilized cTnI detection.
Opiate Pharmacology of Intrathecal Granulomas

Background:Chronic intrathecal morphine infusion produces intradural granulomas. The authors examined a variety of opioids infused intrathecal for analgesic activity and toxicity. Methods:Two sets of experiments were undertaken in dogs with chronic intrathecal catheters: (1) Six-hour intrathecal infusions were used to determine the full analgesic dose and the maximum tolerated dose. (2) To establish toxicity, the maximum tolerated dose was given for up to 28 days by continuous intrathecal infusion. Drugs examined were morphine sulfate, hydromorphone, d/l-methadone, l-methadone, d-methadone, fentanyl, [d-Ala2,N-Me-Phe4,Gly5-ol]-enkephalin (DAMGO), naloxone, or saline. Results: Analgesia and tolerability:Six-hour intrathecal infusion of agonists resulted in a time-dependent increase in thermal escape latency. At higher concentrations, dose-limiting motor dysfunction and sedation occurred, and hypersensitivity occurred. The concentrations, in mg/ml, for full analgesic dose/maximum tolerated dose were as follows: morphine, 0.9/12.0; hydromorphone, 1.0/3.0; d/l-methadone, 2.8/3; l-methadone, 1.0/> 1.0; fentanyl, 0.3/2.0; DAMGO, 0.1/> 2.0; d-methadone, > 1/> 1; naloxone, > 10/> 10. Spinal pathology: Chronic intrathecal infusion of the maximum tolerated dose revealed 100% intradural granuloma formation after morphine, hydromorphone, l-methadone, and naloxone. DAMGO induced a mass in only a single animal (one of three). d/l- and d-methadone produced intradural granulomas but were also associated with parenchymal necrosis. Saline and fentanyl animals displayed no granulomas. Conclusions:Intrathecal opiate–induced granulomas are not strictly dependent on opioid receptor activation. Therefore, opiates at equianalgesic doses present different risks for granuloma formation. Importantly, d/l- and d-methadone also resulted in parenchymal necrosis, an affect associated with the N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonist action of the d-isomer.
Double-stranded RNA targeting calmodulin reveals a potential target for pest management of Nilaparvata lugens.

BACKGROUND Calmodulin (CaM) is an essential protein in cellular activity and plays important roles in many processes in insect development. RNA interference (RNAi) has been hypothesized to be a promising method for pest control. CaM is a good candidate for RNAi target. However, the sequence and function of CaM in Nilaparvata lugens are unknown. Furthermore, the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) target to CaM gene in pest control is still unavailable. RESULTS In the present study, two alternatively spliced variants of CaM transcripts, designated NlCaM1 and NlCaM2, were cloned from N. lugens. The two cDNA sequences exhibited 100% identity to each other in the open reading frame (ORF), and only differed in the 3' untranslated region (UTR). NlCaM including NlCaM1 and NlCaM2 mRNA was detectable in all developmental stages and tissues of N. lugens, with significantly increased expression in the salivary glands. Knockdown of NlCaM expression by RNAi with different dsRNAs led to an inability to molt properly, increased mortality, which ranged from 49.7 to 92.5%, impacted development of the ovaries and led to female infertility. There were no significant reductions in the transcript levels of vitellogenin and its receptor or in the total vitellogenin protein level relative to the control group. However, a significant reduction in vitellogenin protein was detected in ovaries injected with dsNlCaM. In addition, a specific dsRNA of NlCaM for control of N. lugens was designed and tested. CONCLUSION NlCaM plays important roles mainly in nymph development and uptake of vitellogenin by ovaries in vitellogenesis in N. lugens. dsRNA derived from the less conserved 3'-UTR of NlCaM shows great potential for RNAi-based N. lugens management. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.
New Mild and Simple Approach to Isothiocyanates: A Class of Potent Anticancer Agents

In our current work, acetyl chloride-mediated synthesis of phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) derivatives proves to be convenient and provides the expected products at good to excellent yields. Biological evaluation and structure-activity relationship analysis found that the novel compound 7 showed the best anticancer activity against human cancer cell line Panc1 and HGC27 compared with PEITC. Compounds 6 and 7 induced more apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells but less toxicity in non-cancer cells. Further biological study demonstrated that 7 substantially increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and depleted glutathione (GSH), leading to an oxidative stress to kill cancer cell.
Dynamic Information Encoding With Dynamic Synapses in Neural Adaptation

Adaptation refers to the general phenomenon that the neural system dynamically adjusts its response property according to the statistics of external inputs. In response to an invariant stimulation, neuronal firing rates first increase dramatically and then decrease gradually to a low level close to the background activity. This prompts a question: during the adaptation, how does the neural system encode the repeated stimulation with attenuated firing rates? It has been suggested that the neural system may employ a dynamical encoding strategy during the adaptation, the information of stimulus is mainly encoded by the strong independent spiking of neurons at the early stage of the adaptation; while the weak but synchronized activity of neurons encodes the stimulus information at the later stage of the adaptation. The previous study demonstrated that short-term facilitation (STF) of electrical synapses, which increases the synchronization between neurons, can provide a mechanism to realize dynamical encoding. In the present study, we further explore whether short-term plasticity (STP) of chemical synapses, an interaction form more common than electrical synapse in the cortex, can support dynamical encoding. We build a large-size network with chemical synapses between neurons. Notably, facilitation of chemical synapses only enhances pair-wise correlations between neurons mildly, but its effect on increasing synchronization of the network can be significant, and hence it can serve as a mechanism to convey the stimulus information. To read-out the stimulus information, we consider that a downstream neuron receives balanced excitatory and inhibitory inputs from the network, so that the downstream neuron only responds to synchronized firings of the network. Therefore, the response of the downstream neuron indicates the presence of the repeated stimulation. Overall, our study demonstrates that STP of chemical synapse can serve as a mechanism to realize dynamical neural encoding. We believe that our study shed lights on the mechanism underlying the efficient neural information processing via adaptation.
Combined effects of a dietary portfolio of plant sterols, vegetable protein, viscous fibre and almonds on LDL particle size

Studies conducted in the last 20 years have led to the identification of small dense LDL as an important risk factor for CVD. Consumption of plant sterols, soyabean proteins, viscous fibre and nuts are known to modulate the risk of CVD favourably through their cholesterol (Chol)-lowering properties, both independently and more recently in combination. Nevertheless, their combined impact on the LDL particle size phenotype has never been tested. In the present study, we assessed the effect of incorporating concurrently plant sterols (1 g/4·2 MJ), soyabean protein (23 g/4·2 MJ), viscous fibre (9 g/4·2 MJ) and almonds (15 g/4·2 MJ) into a diet very low in saturated fat in twelve patients with mildly elevated plasma LDL-Chol levels. Fasting blood lipids were obtained at the start of the study and at 2-week intervals during the 4-week study. The diet-induced reduction in plasma LDL-Chol of 30·0 (SE 3·0) % (P<0·0001) was attributed to concurrent reductions in the serum Chol concentrations of large (>26.0 nm−30 (SE 8) %, P<0·001), medium (25·5–26·0 nm−29 (SE 3) %, P<0·001) and small (<25·5 nm − 21 (SD 6) %, P<0·01) LDL particles, with near maximal reductions seen by week 2. These results indicate that foods and dietary components advocated for their potential to reduce the risk of CVD are effective in reducing serum concentrations of all LDL fractions including small dense LDL, thus potentially further contributing to an overall lower risk of CVD.
Influence of moisture on dielectric strength in polyamide (aramid) paper

This paper presents the influence of absorbed moisture and variation in environmental temperature on DC breakdown strength in 125 /spl mu/m polyamide (aramid) paper. Polyamide (aramid) paper also known as Nomex/spl reg/ type 410 is widely used in a majority of electrical equipment applications. The combination of electrodes used for the investigation of breakdown strength was of diameter 12.5mm and 50mm. Specimens A-D, used for the investigation were prepared under four different environmental conditions. It is concluded that the electrical behavior of these material varies both with the environmental temperature and with the absorbed moisture. Variations in the breakdown strength were observed between 5.5-15.5% for specimens A-C, where as tremendous drop in the electrical breakdown strength was recorded for specimen D. The breakdown results were presented by using two-parameter Weibull statistical distribution. The statistical analysis was performed on large population of data, which leads to an effective design of electrical insulation.
Modeling n-Symmetry Vector Fields using Higher-Order Energies

We introduce a variational approach for modeling n-symmetry vector and direction fields on surfaces that supports interpolation and alignment constraints, placing singularities and local editing, while providing real-time responses. The approach is based on novel biharmonic and m-harmonic energies for n-fields on surface meshes and the integration of hard constraints to the resulting optimization problems. Real-time computation rates are achieved by a model reduction approach employing a Fourier-like n-vector field decomposition, which associates frequencies and modes to n-vector fields on surfaces. To demonstrate the benefits of the proposed n-field modeling approach, we use it for controlling stroke directions in line-art drawings of surfaces and for the modeling of anisotropic BRDFs, which define the reflection behavior of surfaces.
Evaluation of shear bond strength of conventional glass ionomer cements bonded to mineral trioxide aggregate: An in vitro study

Introduction: This study measured the shear bond strength of conventional glass ionomer cements (GICs) (Xtra Fil and Fuji IX) bonded to white mineral trioxide aggregate (WMTA, Angelus) that had been allowed to set for two different time intervals. Materials and Methods: Sixty WMTA specimens were prepared; half were stored for 45 min and the remaining 30 specimens were stored for 72 h at 37°C and 100% humidity. Then, each group was divided into two subgroups of 15 specimens, and each GIC was layered on each of the two WMTA preparations. The GIC-WMTA shear bond strengths were measured and were compared by using one-way analysis of variance. Results: The shear bond strengths with the 45-min and 72-h WMTAs were 7.23 and 7.79 megapascal (MPa), respectively, for Xtra Fil and 7.87 and 8.12 MPa, respectively, for Fuji IX. The GIC-WMTA bond strength was not different between GIC applications to WMTA that had set for 45 min versus 72 h (P > 0.05). Conclusion: GICs might be used over MTA after the MTA has set for 45 min to allow single-visit direct pulp cap procedures.
System justification enhances well‐being: A longitudinal analysis of the palliative function of system justification in 18 countries

According to the palliative function of ideology hypothesis proposed by System Justification Theory, endorsing system-justifying beliefs is positively related to general psychological well-being, because this fulfils existential, epistemic, and relational needs. We discuss and address three main issues: (1) the role of societal inequality, (2) comparisons by social status, and (3) cross-sectional versus longitudinal research. We used a longitudinal survey of representative online samples (N = 5,901) from 18 countries. The results supported the main argument proposed by the theory, in that system justification was positively and significantly related to life satisfaction and negatively related to anxiety and depression. The pattern of results suggested that the palliative function of system justification is more homogeneously distributed across individual and collective measures of social status than proposed by the theory, because the function was unaffected either by society-level inequality or by individual-level social status. These results allow us to infer that one of the reasons for the high stability of social arrangements is located in the psychological domain of palliative effects.
SHANK1 is differentially expressed during development in CA1 hippocampal neurons and astrocytes

Recent studies have strongly suggested a role for the synaptic scaffolding protein SHANK1 in normal synaptic structure and signaling. Global SHANK1 knockout (SHANK1−/−) mice demonstrate reduced dendritic spine density, an immature dendritic spine phenotype and impairments in various cognitive tasks. SHANK1 overexpression is associated with increased dendritic spine size and impairments in fear conditioning. These studies suggest proper regulation of SHANK1 is crucial for appropriate synaptic structure and cognition. However, little is known regarding SHANK1's developmental expression in brain regions critical for learning. The current study quantified cell specific developmental expression of SHANK1 in the hippocampus, a brain region critically involved in various learning paradigms shown to be disrupted by SHANK1 dysregulation. Consistent with prior studies, SHANK1 was found to be strongly co‐expressed with dendritic markers, with significant increased co‐expression at postnatal day (P) 15, an age associated with increased synaptogenesis in the hippocampus. Interestingly, SHANK1 was also found to be expressed in astrocytes and microglia. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of glial SHANK1 localization; therefore, these findings were further examined via a glial purified primary cell culture fraction using magnetic cell sorting. This additional analysis further demonstrated that SHANK1 was expressed in glial cells, supporting our immunofluorescence co‐expression findings. Developmentally, astroglial SHANK1 co‐expression was found to be significantly elevated at P5 with a reduction into adulthood, while SHANK1 microglial co‐expression did not significantly change across development. These data collectively implicate a more global role for SHANK1 in mediating normal cellular signaling in the brain. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 78: 363–373, 2018
Genome, transcriptome and proteome: the rise of omics data and their integration in biomedical sciences

Abstract Advances in the technologies and informatics used to generate and process large biological data sets (omics data) are promoting a critical shift in the study of biomedical sciences. While genomics, transcriptomics and proteinomics, coupled with bioinformatics and biostatistics, are gaining momentum, they are still, for the most part, assessed individually with distinct approaches generating monothematic rather than integrated knowledge. As other areas of biomedical sciences, including metabolomics, epigenomics and pharmacogenomics, are moving towards the omics scale, we are witnessing the rise of inter-disciplinary data integration strategies to support a better understanding of biological systems and eventually the development of successful precision medicine. This review cuts across the boundaries between genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, summarizing how omics data are generated, analysed and shared, and provides an overview of the current strengths and weaknesses of this global approach. This work intends to target students and researchers seeking knowledge outside of their field of expertise and fosters a leap from the reductionist to the global-integrative analytical approach in research.
Innate Immune Responses in Leprosy

Leprosy is an infectious disease that may present different clinical forms depending on host immune response to Mycobacterium leprae. Several studies have clarified the role of various T cell populations in leprosy; however, recent evidences suggest that local innate immune mechanisms are key determinants in driving the disease to its different clinical manifestations. Leprosy is an ideal model to study the immunoregulatory role of innate immune molecules and its interaction with nervous system, which can affect homeostasis and contribute to the development of inflammatory episodes during the course of the disease. Macrophages, dendritic cells, neutrophils, and keratinocytes are the major cell populations studied and the comprehension of the complex networking created by cytokine release, lipid and iron metabolism, as well as antimicrobial effector pathways might provide data that will help in the development of new strategies for leprosy management.