Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vancomycin‐Resistant Staphylococcus hemolyticus Bacteremia Treated Successfully by Intravenous Daptomycin and Catheter Removal in a Hemodialysis Patient

neous perirenal hemorrhage. Chi Clin Res 2010;23:1100–1. 8. Rountas C, Sioka E, Karagounis A et al. Spontaneous perirenal hemorrhage in end-stage renal disease treated with selective embolization. Ren Fail 2012;34:1037–9. 9. Albi G, del Campo L, Tagarro D. Wünderlich’s syndrome: causes, diagnosis and radiological management. Clin Radiol 2002;57:840–5. 10. Dong WR, Liao K, Ma J et al. Diagnosis and treatment of spontaneous renal hemorrhage: report of 13 cases. Hainan Med J 2009;20:78–80.
Cardiac Toxicity in Breast Cancer Survivors: Review of Potential Cardiac Problems

As breast cancer survival is increased by the diagnosis of earlier-stage disease and treatments improve, the side effects of cancer treatments, such as cardiotoxicity, remain clinically important. Although physicians have known for 30 years that anthracyclines cause acute and chronic cardiotoxicity, the cardiotoxic effects of radiation therapy, hormonal therapy (including tamoxifen and the aromatase inhibitors), and chemotherapy with taxanes and trastuzumab treatment have emerged more recently. This review examines the cardiac toxicity of adjuvant therapy, monitoring for early changes and existing guidelines for monitoring cardiac function in patients with breast cancer.
Partitioning hard kernel clustering methods based on local adaptive distances

This paper presents partitioning hard kernel clustering methods in which dissimilarity measures are obtained as sums of squared Euclidean distances between patterns and centroids computed individually for each variable by means of kernel functions. The advantage of the proposed approach over the conventional kernel clustering methods is that it allows to learn the weights of the variables during the clustering process, improving the performance of the algorithms. Another advantage of this approach is that it allows the introduction of various partition and cluster interpretations tools. Experiments with benchmark data sets illustrate the usefulness of our algorithms and the merit of the partition and cluster interpretation tools.
A flexible mechanism for efficient transmission of aperiodic real-time messages over EtherCAT networks

EtherCAT is a real-time Ethernet protocol mainly designed for periodic real-time transmission in factory automation. As EtherCAT does not provide efficient mechanisms to transmit aperiodic real-time messages, recently a solution to this problem, called an EDF-based Swapping approach, was proposed. Such an approach implements a swapping policy based on the Earliest Deadline First algorithm. The approach proposed in this paper, called a Flexible EDFS, introduces two novel features. First, it reduces the overhead introduced when multiple aperiodic messages have to be transmitted. Second, it provides for variable cycle times according to the aperiodic real-time workload. The paper describes the proposed approach and presents comparative assessments, obtained through OMNeT++ simulations, with the EtherCAT standard and the original EDF-based Swapping.
Energy-driven proportional fair scheduling for industrial measurement devices

Real-time scheduling in systems with energy or power constraints is challenging. Especially when a mixture of real-time and best effort tasks exist, it is difficult to guarantee that all deadlines are met and at the same time that the system does not run out of energy. This is the case for industrial instrumentation for hazardous areas, such as explosive atmospheres. A frequently used method of protection against explosion is intrinsic safety. That means, the power supply as well as the energy that is stored in the device is kept below a critical threshold. As a result, energy is a much scarcer resource than processing time in this class of systems. Therefore, it is appropriate to base the scheduling decision on the available and the consumed energy instead of the processing time. In this work, we adapt the Earliest-Eligible-Virtual-Deadline-First algorithm (EEVDF) for energy-driven scheduling using dynamic power management. The resulting system is hard real-time capable, takes the energy consumption of peripherals and sensors into account and utilizes slack energy efficiently and predictably. Since the scheduler guarantees the availability of sufficient energy for real-time tasks, the design of the system is significantly simplified.
Brief scales to detect postpartum depression and anxiety symptoms.

BACKGROUND Depressive and anxiety disorders in the postpartum period cause significant suffering for women. State public health officials across the country use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-sponsored Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) to assess health behaviors and conditions, including depression and anxiety, that occur around the time of pregnancy. The purpose of the present study was to validate two to three items that could be included on the PRAMS questionnaire to detect depression and anxiety among postpartum women in a surveillance system. METHODS A comprehensive set of 16 depression and anxiety items was developed and tested in a final sample of 1077 postpartum women, 353 of whom completed Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) interviews to determine the presence of a major depressive episode (MDE) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Regression analyses reduced candidate items to 5 each for MDE and GAD. Responses were scored on a 5-point scale ranging from never (1) to always (5), and 2 and 3 item combinations of these items were examined for their psychometric properties as indicators of MDE and GAD. RESULTS Item sets varied in their psychometric properties. The combination of depressed mood, felt hopeless, and slowed down > 9 (out of a possible total of 15) yielded the highest positive predictive value (PPV=60) and estimated MDE prevalence most accurately (24.4% vs. 25.4% true prevalence). The combination of felt panicky, felt restless, and problems sleeping >9 estimated GAD prevalence most accurately (20.2% vs. 15.7% true prevalence) and had high specificity (83%). CONCLUSIONS Depression and anxiety can be detected using very few items, which makes assessment feasible in surveillance systems, such as PRAMS, and in primary care settings that have severe limits on time for depression and anxiety screening.
The relationship between sleep-disordered breathing and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in Japanese men.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory marker and emerging risk factor for atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, has been reported in overweight patients with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). However, the contribution of C-reactive protein to this disease among non-overweight individuals is uncertain. We thus examined the relationship between serum C-reactive protein levels and nocturnal arterial oxygen desaturation, stratified by category of body mass index (BMI). DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS Subjects were 316 men with a mean BMI of 25.4 kg/m2, aged 20-79 years, who attended a sleep clinic at Osaka, Japan. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS SDB was assessed by oxygen desaturation index (ODI) measured by pulse oximetry during sleep. We used 3% oxygen desaturations per hour (3% ODI), as the indicator of SDB. We also measured serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). After adjustment for age, BMI, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and daily sleep duration, mean high-sensitivity CRP levels were 0.63, 0.65, and 0.96 mg/L for SDB severity levels of 3%ODI<5, 5 to 19.9, and >=20, respectively (p for trend=0.015). This association with SDB tended to be stronger in non-overweight men (BMI<25 kg/m2) (0.47, 0.48 and 1.02 mg/L, p for trend=0.017) than in overweight men (BMI > or = 25 kg/m2) (0.92, 0.87 and 1.21 mg/L, p for trend=0.11). CONCLUSION SDB is associated with increased levels of CRP, especially in non-overweight men. Our results suggest the importance of follow-up and control of SDB in the prevention of cardiovascular disease even in non-overweight SDB patients.
Spinal Fixation Device: A 6-Year Postimplantation Study

Long-term tissue response to a metal device is described here. The components of a spinal fixation device were removed 6 years after implantation, following the need for revision surgery after a fall. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed changes in surface topography of the metal. Examination of the adjacent tissue showed a chronic inflammatory response with occasional metal debris. Immunohistochemistry identified the predominant macrophages and abundant neovascularization. The presence of macrophages in tissues adjacent to the implants, in an otherwise asymptomatic person, is noteworthy.
Social Human-Robot Interaction for the Elderly: Two Real-life Use Cases

We explore new aspects on assistive living via smart social human-robot interaction (HRI) involving automatic recognition of multimodal gestures and speech in a natural interface, providing social features in HRI. We discuss a whole framework of resources, including datasets and tools, briefly shown in two real-life use cases for elderly subjects: a multimodal interface of an assistive robotic rollator and an assistive bathing robot. We discuss these domain specific tasks, and open source tools, which can be used to build such HRI systems, as well as indicative results. Sharing such resources can open new perspectives in assistive HRI.
Modulation of Human Periodic Interdigestive Gastrointestinal Motor and Pancreatic Function by the Ileum

Following ingestion of a meal, unabsorbed nutrients may reach the distal intestine partly after the termination of the prandial period, i.e., in the presence of interdigestive motor and secretory patterns. To determine if interdigestive motility and pancreatic enzyme secretion are modulated by the delivery of nutrient into the ileal lumen, six fasting volunteers were intubated with an oroileal multilumen tube system that permitted multiple small intestinal manometry, gastric and duodenal aspiration, and perfusions of marker and test solutions. Ileal perfusions of nutrient or saline solutions were started during phase I of the interdigestive motility cycle. Ileal perfusion with carbohydrate or lipids increased the duration of motor quiescence and decreased the length of the interdigestive cycle, mainly by decreasing the proportion of phase II activity compared with ileal saline (p <0.01). Pancreatic outputs of amylase, trypsin, and chymotrypsin prior to ileal perfusions were low because, due to the protocol, perfusions were started during phase I. With ileal saline, enzyme outputs increased (p <0.05) in association with the occurrence of phase I1 motility, as expected. By contrast, ileal carbohydrate and triglyceride perfusion prevented the phase 11-associated increase in enzyme outputs (p <0.05). The data suggest that the presence of nutrients within the ileal lumen may modulate interdigestive motor and pancreatic functions.
Encoding externally and internally accredited value in prefrontal cortex

Given the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in tracking consequences from both one's environment and actions, this work attempts to characterize the involved neuronal processes. In the first portion of this thesis, we focus on internally accredited value, namely the value of actions. We recorded the spiking activity from single neurons of two subjects while they performed a task that required them to monitor relationships between their actions and resulting outcomes on a trial-by-trial basis. We contrasted the activity from two brain areas known to have projections to motor areas but different limbic and attentional roles: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFdl) and medial prefrontal cortex, dorsal to the cingulate sulcus (PFcs). During the epoch after the first action-outcome (AO) association was revealed to the subject, nearly twice as many PFdl neurons encoded the action compared to the outcome. Conversely, more PFcs neurons encoded the outcome as compared to the action. In both brain areas, information about action and outcome were separated in two populations: few neurons encoded action and outcome. When the subjects learned a subsequent AO association, that outcome was encoded relative to the first, i.e., better or worse, rather than as the identity of the outcome, i.e., apple juice or quinine. Again, PFcs had more reward encoding than PFdl at this time. These data support past studies that implicate PFcs in monitoring the value of actions for value-based decision making. The second portion of this work contrasts neuronal representations of AO associations with that of stimulus-outcome (SO) associations. Lesion and imaging studies have suggested that AO encoding relies on PFcs and SO encoding on orbitofrontal cortex (PFo). We hypothesized similar dissociation at the neuronal level. To test this idea, we trained the same two subjects on two tasks, one that relied on AO associations to solve and another that relied on SO associations. The SO task was analogous to the aforementioned AO task, except that pictures, rather than actions, were associated with the delivery of juice rewards. While the subjects performed these tasks, we recorded the neuronal activity from PFcs and PFo. Both areas had neurons encoding stimuli, actions, and outcomes across the tasks. There was only a subtle bias for PFo neurons preferring the SO task. Most notable was the prominent action selectivity in PFo for the action the subject would perform to select his more preferred reward in the SO task. No such bias was seen in the AO task. Collectively, this work implicates PFcs and PFo as key regions in goal-directed behavior given their ability to flexibly represent value as it is attributed to either external cues or internally generated motor actions.
Gradient-based Estimates of Return Distributions

We present a general method for maintaining estimates of the distribution of parameters in arbitrary models. This is then applied to the estimation of probability distributions over actions in value-based reinforcement learning. While this approach is similar to other techniques that maintain a confidence measure for action-values, it nevertheless offers an insight into current techniques and hints at potential avenues of further research.
Changing geographic ranges of ticks and tick-borne pathogens: drivers, mechanisms and consequences for pathogen diversity

The geographic ranges of ticks and tick-borne pathogens are changing due to global and local environmental (including climatic) changes. In this review we explore current knowledge of the drivers for changes in the ranges of ticks and tick-borne pathogen species and strains via effects on their basic reproduction number (R0), and the mechanisms of dispersal that allow ticks and tick-borne pathogens to invade suitable environments. Using the expanding geographic distribution of the vectors and agent of Lyme disease as an example we then investigate what could be expected of the diversity of tick-borne pathogens during the process of range expansion, and compare this with what is currently being observed. Lastly we explore how historic population and range expansions and contractions could be reflected in the phylogeography of ticks and tick-borne pathogens seen in recent years, and conclude that combined study of currently changing tick and tick-borne pathogen ranges and diversity, with phylogeographic analysis, may help us better predict future patterns of invasion and diversity.
The Lewy-Body Variant of Alzheimer's Disease

At post-mortem, Lewy bodies (LBs) were found in the brainstem and neocortex of eight out of 65 patients who had been collected during a prospective long-term study on clinically diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease. All eight patients had accompanying Alzheimer pathology which was less severe than in a sample of eight age and sex-matched patients from the same study with neuropathologically verified Alzheimer's disease. Parkinsonian features were more common in patients with LBs. There were no particular differences in duration of illness, severity of cognitive impairment, presence of hallucinations, or fluctuations in the course of illness. Frontal cerebral atrophy was more marked in patients with LBs, as was the loss of neurons in the basal nucleus of Meynert and the substantia nigra. Cognitive performance correlated with the number of pigmented neurons in the substantia nigra. We conclude that the differential diagnosis of LB dementia should be considered in patients satisfying NINCDS-ADRDA criteria for Alzheimer-type dementia who show marked Parkinsonian features and a frontal accentuation of cerebral atrophy.
GIFTEDNESS AND MILD NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS

Some specific signs and symptoms seem to be shared in the diagnoses of both gifted children and those with mild neurological disorders; most notably, poor social skills and emotional distress. But it is important not to confuse these two conditions because while children with potential gifts need an appropriate education, children with mild neurological disorder need appropriate treatment. A very few children may need both. Moon finds danger in the confusion, writing that gifted children “might be labelled and treated for the disorder of ADHD when he or she does not actually have the disorder. ” (Moon, 2002, p. 195). And when that treatment might be unwarranted doses of Ritalin for years, the consequences for the child can be serious. However, any relationship between giftedness and mild neurological disorders suffers from a complete lack of scientific research evidence, although there are clinical and case-studies. And also a great variety of such disorders could affect the development of gifts, such as Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia and dyspraxia, which so often come in clusters (Kaufman & Castellanos, 2001). At the moment, the primary sources of help for such children are adult raised awareness and a keen eye.
Inhibition of Bone Morphogenetic Protein Signal Transduction Prevents the Medial Vascular Calcification Associated with Matrix Gla Protein Deficiency

Objective Matrix Gla protein (MGP) is reported to inhibit bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signal transduction. MGP deficiency is associated with medial calcification of the arterial wall, in a process that involves both osteogenic transdifferentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and mesenchymal transition of endothelial cells (EndMT). In this study, we investigated the contribution of BMP signal transduction to the medial calcification that develops in MGP-deficient mice. Approach and Results MGP-deficient mice (MGP-/-) were treated with one of two BMP signaling inhibitors, LDN-193189 or ALK3-Fc, beginning one day after birth. Aortic calcification was assessed in 28-day-old mice by measuring the uptake of a fluorescent bisphosphonate probe and by staining tissue sections with Alizarin red. Aortic calcification was 80% less in MGP-/- mice treated with LDN-193189 or ALK3-Fc compared with vehicle-treated control animals (P<0.001 for both). LDN-193189-treated MGP-/- mice survived longer than vehicle-treated MGP-/- mice. Levels of phosphorylated Smad1/5 and Id1 mRNA (markers of BMP signaling) did not differ in the aortas from MGP-/- and wild-type mice. Markers of EndMT and osteogenesis were increased in MGP-/- aortas, an effect that was prevented by LDN-193189. Calcification of isolated VSMCs was also inhibited by LDN-193189. Conclusions Inhibition of BMP signaling leads to reduced vascular calcification and improved survival in MGP-/- mice. The EndMT and osteogenic transdifferentiation associated with MGP deficiency is dependent upon BMP signaling. These results suggest that BMP signal transduction has critical roles in the development of vascular calcification in MGP-deficient mice.
Exercise and Symptom Monitoring with a Mobile Device

Mobile PDA/phone devices allow remote monitoring of clinical and behavioral parameters. However, passively expecting patients to use these devices may lead to low response rates. Our study, aimed at collecting exercise and symptom data from an older clinical population of patients with COPD, employed push technology principles by delivering automated prompts to patients in an effort to increase response rates. We found acceptable response rates with subjects preferring to have prompts delivered to coincide with their exercise activity though usability issues had adverse effects on response rates and time.
Prevalence of Viral Photosynthetic and Capsid Protein Genes from Cyanophages in Two Large and Deep Perialpine Lakes

ABSTRACT Cyanophages are important components of aquatic ecosystems, but their genetic diversity has been little investigated in freshwaters. A yearlong survey was conducted in surface waters of the two largest natural perialpine lakes in France (Lake Annecy and Lake Bourget) to investigate part of this cyanophage diversity through the analysis of both structural (e.g., g20) and functional (e.g., psbA) genes. We found that these cyanophage signature genes were prevalent throughout the year but that the community compositions of g20 cyanomyoviruses were significantly different between the two lakes. In contrast, psbA-containing cyanophages seemed to be more similar between the two ecosystems. We also found that a large proportion of g20 sequences grouped with cyanomyophage isolates. psbA sequences, belonging to phages of Synechococcus spp. , were characterized by distinct triplet motifs (with a novel viral triplet motif, EFE). Thus, our results show that cyanophages (i) are a diverse viral community in alpine lakes and (ii) are clearly distinct from some other freshwater and marine environments, suggesting the influence of unique biogeographic factors.
Reduction mammaplasty improves levels of anxiety, depression and body image satisfaction in patients with symptomatic macromastia in the short and long term

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the psychological consequences (anxiety, depression and body image dissatisfaction) of symptomatic macromastia and the effectiveness of breast reduction surgery in re-establishing the mental health of the patient in the short and long term. Method: 119 patients over 18 years old who had been diagnosed with symptomatic macromastia were assessed, before surgery, one month after the operation and one year later. Patients completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Body Image Dissatisfaction subscale of the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI-2). Participants were also asked about their physical appearance, social relationships and their satisfaction with regards to clothing and dress. Results: The average age of the patients was 40.7 (SD = 12.02), 80.2% had a body mass index ≥25 kg/m2. Before surgery, we found psychological distress with values indicating clinical anxiety and body image dissatisfaction. Younger women (< 36 years old) were more psychologically affected. At one month after surgery, there were significant improvements: there were lower scores for anxiety (p < 0.001), depression (p < 0.001) and body image dissatisfaction (p < 0.001). When compared with the pre-surgery scores, all these results showed improvement one year after the intervention (p < 0.001). There were also improvements in social relationships (p < 0.001) and satisfaction with clothing and dress. Conclusion: Reduction mammaplasty can alleviate the psychological impact of symptomatic macromastia.