Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary pyomyositis in North India: a clinical, microbiological, and outcome study

Background/Aims Pyomyositis is an infective condition with primary involvement of the skeletal muscles. There is sparse recent literature on patients with pyomyositis. Methods This study was carried out at emergency services of a tertiary care center located in subtropical area of Indian subcontinent. Results Sixty-two patients of primary pyomyositis formed the study cohort. Mean age of occurrence was 29.9 ± 14.8 years. There were 54 men. Twelve patients had underlying medical diseases. Muscle pain was seen in all 62 patients. Forty-eight patients (77.4%) had the fever. Most common site of involvement was thigh muscles (n = 29, 46.8%). Forty-nine patients (79%) presented in the suppurative stage of illness. Patients with comorbidities were older (age: median 36 years [interquartile range (IQR), 25 to 47] vs. 24 years [IQR, 16 to 35], p = 0.024), had higher culture positivity with gram-negative organisms (8/9 [88.89%] vs. 6/29 [20.69%], p = 0.001). Importantly, higher number of these patients received inappropriate antibiotics initially. Patients with positive pus culture result had higher complication rate (32/38 [84.21%] vs. 10/18 [55.56%], p = 0.044). Six patients (9.7%) had in-hospital mortality. Lower first-day serum albumin, initial inappropriate antibiotic therapy, and advanced form of the disease at presentation were associated with increased in-hospital mortality. Conclusions Primary pyomyositis is not an uncommon disease entity. Patients with comorbidities were more likely to receive initial inappropriate antibiotic therapy. Patients with positive pus culture report had the higher rate of complications. Lower first-day serum albumin, initial inappropriate antibiotic therapy and advanced form of the disease at presentation were associated with increased in-hospital mortality.
Nicotine Delivery to the Aerosol of a Heat-Not-Burn Tobacco Product: Comparison With a Tobacco Cigarette and E-Cigarettes

Introduction The purpose was to measure nicotine levels to the tobacco and levels emitted to the aerosol of a heat-not-burn product (HnB, IQOS) compared to e-cigarettes (ECs) and a tobacco cigarette. Methods The HnB device and regular and menthol sticks were purchased from Italy. Three types of ECs (ciga-like, eGo-style, and variable wattage) and a commercially-available tobacco cigarette were also tested. A custom-made liquid containing 2% nicotine was used with ECs. Products were tested using Health Canada Intense puffing regime while HnB and ECs were additionally tested using a 4-second puff duration regime while maintaining the same puff volume. Results Nicotine content in HnB regular and menthol tobacco sticks was 15.2 ± 1.1 mg/g and 15.6 ± 1.7 mg/g tobacco respectively. The levels of nicotine to the aerosol were similar for regular and menthol HnB products (1.40 ± 0.16 and 1.38 ± 0.11 mg/12 puffs respectively) and did not change significantly with prolonged puff duration. The tobacco cigarette delivered the highest level of nicotine (1.99 ± 0.20 mg/cigarette), with levels being higher than HnB and ECs under Health Canada Intense regime but similar to eGo-style and variable wattage ECs at prolonged puff duration regime. Conclusions The HnB product delivers nicotine to the aerosol at levels higher than ECs but lower than a tobacco cigarette when tested using Health Canada Intense puffing regime. No change in HnB nicotine delivery was observed at prolonged puff duration with the same puff volume, unlike ECs which deliver more nicotine with longer puff duration. Implications Nicotine delivery to the smoker is expected to play an important role in the ability of any harm-reduction product to successfully substitute smoking. This study evaluated the content and nicotine delivery to the aerosol of a heat-not-burn tobacco product (IQOS) in comparison with e-cigarettes and a tobacco cigarette. The main findings were that the heat-not-burn tobacco sticks contained similar nicotine concentration to tobacco cigarettes, and that the levels of nicotine delivered to the aerosol of the heat-not-burn products were lower than tobacco cigarette, higher than e-cigarettes at low puff duration but lower than high-power e-cigarettes at longer puff duration.
Vascular smooth muscle cell death, autophagy and senescence in atherosclerosis

In the present review, we describe the causes and consequences of loss of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) or their function in advanced atherosclerotic plaques and discuss possible mechanisms such as cell death or senescence, and induction of autophagy to promote cell survival. We also highlight the potential use of pharmacological modulators of these processes to limit plaque progression and/or improve plaque stability. VSMCs play a pivotal role in atherogenesis. Loss of VSMCs via initiation of cell death leads to fibrous cap thinning and promotes necrotic core formation and calcification. VSMC apoptosis is induced by pro-inflammatory cytokines, oxidized low density lipoprotein, high levels of nitric oxide and mechanical injury. Apoptotic VSMCs are characterized by a thickened basal lamina surrounding the cytoplasmic remnants of the VSMC. Inefficient clearance of apoptotic VSMCs results in secondary necrosis and subsequent inflammation. A critical determinant in the VSMC stress response and phenotypic switching is autophagy, which is activated by various stimuli, including reactive oxygen and lipid species, cytokines, growth factors and metabolic stress. Successful autophagy stimulates VSMC survival, whereas reduced autophagy promotes age-related changes in the vasculature. Recently, an interesting link between autophagy and VSMC senescence has been uncovered. Defective VSMC autophagy accelerates not only the development of stress-induced premature senescence but also atherogenesis, albeit without worsening plaque stability. VSMC senescence in atherosclerosis is likely a result of replicative senescence and/or stress-induced premature senescence in response to DNA damaging and/or oxidative stress-inducing stimuli. The finding that VSMC senescence can promote atherosclerosis further illustrates that normal, adequate VSMC function is crucial in protecting the vessel wall against atherosclerosis.
The 3-Year Course of Multiple Substance Use Disorders in the United States: A National Longitudinal Study.

OBJECTIVE To examine the 3-year course of multiple co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs) based on longitudinal survey data from a large, nationally representative sample. METHODS National estimates of the prevalence of DSM-IV SUDs were derived by analyzing data from structured, face-to-face diagnostic interviews as part of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), which collected data from a large, nationally representative sample of noninstitutionalized US adults at 2 waves (2001-2002 and 2004-2005; N = 34,653). RESULTS US adults with multiple past-year SUDs at Wave 1 were substantially more likely than those with an individual past-year SUD or no SUD at Wave 1 to report at least 1 past-year SUD at Wave 2 (66.3% vs 46.0% vs 6.9%, respectively). There were several sociodemographic characteristics and psychiatric disorders (ie, male, younger age, never married, sexual minority identity, nicotine dependence, mood disorder, and personality disorder) associated with increased odds of developing multiple SUDs and having 3-year persistence of multiple SUDs. The majority of adults with multiple past-year SUDs had a lifetime personality disorder and did not utilize substance abuse treatment or other help-seeking. CONCLUSIONS Multiple SUDs are associated with a more persistent 3-year course of disease over time relative to individual SUDs. Despite a more severe 3-year course and higher rates of comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders, the majority of US adults with multiple SUDs do not utilize substance abuse treatment or other help-seeking. Clinical assessments and the substance abuse literature tend to focus on drug-specific individual SUDs rather than considering the more complex multiple SUDs, which can be more challenging to treat.
Automated Data Gathering and Training Tool for Personalized "Itchy Nose"

In "Itchy Nose" we proposed a sensing technique for detecting finger movements on the nose for supporting subtle and discreet interaction. It uses the electrooculography sensors embedded in the frame of a pair of eyeglasses for data gathering and uses machine-learning technique to classify different gestures. Here we further propose an automated training and visualization tool for its classifier. This tool guides the user to make the gesture in proper timing and records the sensor data. It automatically picks the ground truth and trains a machine-learning classifier with it. With this tool, we can quickly create trained classifier that is personalized for the user and test various gestures.
Binding-Site Assessment by Virtual Fragment Screening

The accurate prediction of protein druggability (propensity to bind high-affinity drug-like small molecules) would greatly benefit the fields of chemical genomics and drug discovery. We have developed a novel approach to quantitatively assess protein druggability by computationally screening a fragment-like compound library. In analogy to NMR-based fragment screening, we dock ∼11000 fragments against a given binding site and compute a computational hit rate based on the fraction of molecules that exceed an empirically chosen score cutoff. We perform a large-scale evaluation of the approach on four datasets, totaling 152 binding sites. We demonstrate that computed hit rates correlate with hit rates measured experimentally in a previously published NMR-based screening method. Secondly, we show that the in silico fragment screening method can be used to distinguish known druggable and non-druggable targets, including both enzymes and protein-protein interaction sites. Finally, we explore the sensitivity of the results to different receptor conformations, including flexible protein-protein interaction sites. Besides its original aim to assess druggability of different protein targets, this method could be used to identifying druggable conformations of flexible binding site for lead discovery, and suggesting strategies for growing or joining initial fragment hits to obtain more potent inhibitors.
Fusion Surgery Required for Recurrent Pediatric Atlantoaxial Rotatory Fixation after Failure of Temporary Fixation with Instrumentation

In cases of chronic irreducible and recurrent unstable atlantoaxial rotatory fixation (AARF), closed reduction and its maintenance are often unsuccessful, requiring surgical treatment. The purpose of the present report is to describe a rare case of pediatric AARF that required multiple treatments. A 6-year-old boy was diagnosed as having type 2 AARF. After conservative treatment, the patient was treated with temporary fixation surgery (C1-C2 Magerl) without a bone graft in consideration of motion preservation after screw removal. AARF recurred after the screw removal and required fusion surgery (Magerl–Brooks) with an iliac bone graft. Ultimately, bone union was achieved and the screws were removed 11 months after the surgery. We recommend surgeons be cautious when choosing temporary fixation surgery for AARF in small children. Further investigation is needed to determine the optimal time before screw removal.
Methinks: Enabling Sophisticated Comment Management in the Social Web

User reviews, comments and votes on the Social Web form the modern version of word-of-mouth communication, which has a huge impact on people’s shopping habits, businesses and the overall market. Despite that, systems have so far limited practical success in helping consumers and businesses analysing, managing and understanding Social Web content. In this paper, we present a new tool that leverages a combination of techniques from Semantic Web, Computational Argumentation and Crowdsourcing to support this activity, through an intuitive and functional user interface.
The effect of different mitral annuloplasty rings on valve geometry and annular stress distribution†.

OBJECTIVES To characterize the remodelling effects and deformational forces of normosized rigid, semirigid and flexible mitral annuloplasty rings after implantation in healthy pigs. METHODS Measurements were performed in vivo with 80-kg porcine animals. Twenty-eight animals were randomized into a no ring group, a flexible ring group (Duran AnCore Ring, Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN, USA), a rigid ring group (Carpentier-Edwards Classic annuloplasty ring, Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, CA, USA) and a semirigid ring group (Carpentier-Edwards Physio I annuloplasty ring, Edwards Lifesciences). Sonomicrometry crystals were implanted together with an annuloplasty ring and a dedicated mitral annular force transducer. The mitral annuloplasty rings were compared with respect to annular geometry and mitral annular forces. RESULTS Cyclic changes in the mitral annulus (MA) circumference were significantly lower for all ring groups (flexible: 7 ± 3 mm, semirigid: 4 ± 2 mm and rigid: 2 ± 1 mm) compared to the no ring group (11 ± 5 mm), implying the remodelling capacity of all annuloplasty rings. The cyclic change of the MA area and the septa-lateral and inter-commissural distances were equal in the semirigid and rigid ring groups and significantly lower compared to the no ring and flexible ring groups, suggesting a stronger and equal remodelling effect in the semirigid and rigid ring groups. Forces measured in the transducer reflected the remodelling capacity of the annuloplasty rings and were in general lower for the semirigid and rigid ring groups compared to the no ring and flexible ring groups. Especially the forces in the inter-commissural direction were significantly reduced for the semirigid and rigid ring groups (semi-rigid: 1.4 ± 0.8 N, rigid: 1.2 ± 0.8 N) compared to the no ring and flexible ring groups (no ring: 3.0 ± 1.1 N, flexible: 3.4 ± 1.6 N). CONCLUSIONS This study is the first to describe different remodelling effects and deformational forces of normosized mitral annuloplasty rings in vivo . Insights into the relationship between the remodelling effects and the accumulated forces of different mitral annuloplasty rings may have implications for ring selections in an aetiology-based mitral valve repair strategy. We propose the application of such a biomechanical approach for quantitative comparison of mitral annuloplasty rings and for future innovations on a rational basis.
Ranking Medical Terms to Support Expansion of Lay Language Resources for Patient Comprehension of Electronic Health Record Notes: Adapted Distant Supervision Approach

Background Medical terms are a major obstacle for patients to comprehend their electronic health record (EHR) notes. Clinical natural language processing (NLP) systems that link EHR terms to lay terms or definitions allow patients to easily access helpful information when reading through their EHR notes, and have shown to improve patient EHR comprehension. However, high-quality lay language resources for EHR terms are very limited in the public domain. Because expanding and curating such a resource is a costly process, it is beneficial and even necessary to identify terms important for patient EHR comprehension first. Objective We aimed to develop an NLP system, called adapted distant supervision (ADS), to rank candidate terms mined from EHR corpora. We will give EHR terms ranked as high by ADS a higher priority for lay language annotation—that is, creating lay definitions for these terms. Methods Adapted distant supervision uses distant supervision from consumer health vocabulary and transfer learning to adapt itself to solve the problem of ranking EHR terms in the target domain. We investigated 2 state-of-the-art transfer learning algorithms (ie, feature space augmentation and supervised distant supervision) and designed 5 types of learning features, including distributed word representations learned from large EHR data for ADS. For evaluating ADS, we asked domain experts to annotate 6038 candidate terms as important or nonimportant for EHR comprehension. We then randomly divided these data into the target-domain training data (1000 examples) and the evaluation data (5038 examples). We compared ADS with 2 strong baselines, including standard supervised learning, on the evaluation data. Results The ADS system using feature space augmentation achieved the best average precision, 0.850, on the evaluation set when using 1000 target-domain training examples. The ADS system using supervised distant supervision achieved the best average precision, 0.819, on the evaluation set when using only 100 target-domain training examples. The 2 ADS systems both performed significantly better than the baseline systems (P<.001 for all measures and all conditions). Using a rich set of learning features contributed to ADS’s performance substantially. Conclusions ADS can effectively rank terms mined from EHRs. Transfer learning improved ADS’s performance even with a small number of target-domain training examples. EHR terms prioritized by ADS were used to expand a lay language resource that supports patient EHR comprehension. The top 10,000 EHR terms ranked by ADS are available upon request.
The proteomic response of the reef coral Pocillopora acuta to experimentally elevated temperatures

Although most reef-building corals live near the upper threshold of their thermotolerance, some scleractinians are resilient to temperature increases. For instance, Pocillopora acuta specimens from an upwelling habitat in Southern Taiwan survived a nine-month experimental exposure to 30°C, a temperature hypothesized to induce stress. To gain a greater understanding of the molecular pathways underlying such high-temperature acclimation, the protein profiles of experimental controls incubated at 27°C were compared to those of conspecific P. acuta specimens exposed to 30°C for two, four, or eight weeks, and differentially concentrated proteins (DCPs) were removed from the gels and sequenced with mass spectrometry. Sixty unique DCPs were uncovered across both eukaryotic compartments of the P. acuta-dinoflagellate (genus Symbiodinium) mutualism, and Symbiodinium were more responsive to high temperature at the protein-level than the coral hosts in which they resided at the two-week sampling time. Furthermore, proteins involved in the stress response were more likely to be documented at different cellular concentrations across temperature treatments in Symbiodinium, whereas the temperature-sensitive host coral proteome featured numerous proteins involved in cytoskeletal structure, immunity, and metabolism. These proteome-scale data suggest that the coral host and its intracellular dinoflagellates have differing strategies for acclimating to elevated temperatures.
Therapeutic inhibition of prolyl hydroxylase domain-containing enzymes in surgery: putative applications and challenges

Oxygen is essential for metazoans to generate energy. Upon oxygen deprivation adaptive and protective pathways are induced, mediated by hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) and prolyl hydroxylase domain-containing enzymes (PHDs). Both play a pivotal role in various conditions associated with prolonged ischemia and inflammation, and are promising targets for therapeutic intervention. This review focuses on aspects of therapeutic PHD modulation in surgically relevant disease conditions such as hepatic and intestinal disorders, wound healing, innate immune responses, and tumorigenesis, and discusses the therapeutic potential and challenges of PHD inhibition in surgical patients.
Islanding detection scheme based on morphological wavelets

Unintentional islanding is a critical issue in the integration of distributed generation to the power distribution network. Islanding detection or anti islanding protection for a distribution generation is important in this regard. The paper proposes a new islanding detection scheme in time domain based on Mathematical morphology. The detection technique uses the Morphological gradient wavelet(MGW) to operate on voltage and current in any phase. The Norm of the voltage and current after passing through the MGW is calculated. This ratio is used as a criteria for detecting an island. Simulations are carried out for different islanding and non islanding events to study the effectiveness of the algorithm.
Combined Landsat and L-Band SAR Data Improves Land Cover Classification and Change Detection in Dynamic Tropical Landscapes

Robust quantitative estimates of land use and land cover change are necessary to develop policy solutions and interventions aimed towards sustainable land management. Here, we evaluated the combination of Landsat and L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to estimate land use/cover change in the dynamic tropical landscape of Tanintharyi, southern Myanmar. We classified Landsat and L-band SAR data, specifically Japan Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1) and Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2 (ALOS-2/PALSAR-2), using Random Forests classifier to map and quantify land use/cover change transitions between 1995 and 2015 in the Tanintharyi Region. We compared the classification accuracies of single versus combined sensor data, and assessed contributions of optical and radar layers to classification accuracy. Combined Landsat and L-band SAR data produced the best overall classification accuracies (92.96% to 93.83%), outperforming individual sensor data (91.20% to 91.93% for Landsat-only; 56.01% to 71.43% for SAR-only). Radar layers, particularly SAR-derived textures, were influential predictors for land cover classification, together with optical layers. Landscape change was extensive (16,490 km2; 39% of total area), as well as total forest conversion into agricultural plantations (3214 km2). Gross forest loss (5133 km2) in 1995 was largely from conversion to shrubs/orchards and tree (oil palm, rubber) plantations, and gross gains in oil palm (5471 km2) and rubber (4025 km2) plantations by 2015 were mainly from conversion of shrubs/orchards and forests. Analysis of combined Landsat and L-band SAR data provides an improved understanding of the associated drivers of agricultural plantation expansion and the dynamics of land use/cover change in tropical forest landscapes.
Glial Innate Immunity Generated by Non-Aggregated Alpha-Synuclein in Mouse: Differences between Wild-type and Parkinson's Disease-Linked Mutants

Background Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized pathologically by the presence in the brain of intracellular protein inclusions highly enriched in aggregated alpha-synuclein (α-Syn). Although it has been established that progression of the disease is accompanied by sustained activation of microglia, the underlying molecules and factors involved in these immune-triggered mechanisms remain largely unexplored. Lately, accumulating evidence has shown the presence of extracellular α-Syn both in its aggregated and monomeric forms in cerebrospinal fluid and blood plasma. However, the effect of extracellular α-Syn on cellular activation and immune mediators, as well as the impact of familial PD-linked α-Syn mutants on this stimulation, are still largely unknown. Methods and Findings In this work, we have compared the activation profiles of non-aggregated, extracellular wild-type and PD-linked mutant α-Syn variants on primary glial and microglial cell cultures. After stimulation of cells with α-Syn, we measured the release of Th1- and Th2- type cytokines as well as IP-10/CXCL10, RANTES/CCL5, MCP-1/CCL2 and MIP-1α/CCL3 chemokines. Contrary to what had been observed using cell lines or for the case of aggregated α-Syn, we found strong differences in the immune response generated by wild-type α-Syn and the familial PD mutants (A30P, E46K and A53T). Conclusions These findings might contribute to explain the differences in the onset and progression of this highly debilitating disease, which could be of value in the development of rational approaches towards effective control of immune responses that are associated with PD.