Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association between mitral annulus calcification and carotid atherosclerotic disease.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE It has been established that mitral annulus calcification (MAC) is an independent predictor of stroke, though a causative relationship was not proved, and that carotid artery atherosclerotic disease is also associated with stroke. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is an association between the presence of MAC and carotid artery atherosclerotic disease. METHODS Of the 805 patients in whom the diagnosis of MAC was made by transthoracic echocardiography between 1995 and 1997, 133 patients (60 men and 73 women; mean age, 74.3+/-8 years; range, 47 to 89 years) underwent carotid artery duplex ultrasound for various indications; the study group comprised these patients. They were compared with 129 age- and sex-matched patients without MAC (57 men and 72 women; mean age, 73.6+/-7 years; range, 61 to 96 years) who underwent carotid artery duplex ultrasound during the same period for the same indications. MAC was defined as a dense, localized, highly reflective area at the base of the posterior mitral leaflet. MAC was considered severe when the thickness of the localized, highly reflective area was > or =5 mm on 2-dimensional echocardiography in the 4-chamber view. Carotid artery stenosis was graded as follows: 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%. RESULTS Compared with the control group, the MAC group showed a significantly higher prevalence of carotid stenosis of > or =40% (45% versus 29%, P=0.006), which was associated with > or =2-vessel disease (23% versus 10%, P=0.006) and bilateral carotid artery atherosclerotic disease (21% versus 10%, P=0.011). Severe MAC was found in 48 patients. More significant differences were found for the severe MAC subgroup (for carotid stenosis of > or =40%) in rates of carotid artery atherosclerotic disease (58% versus 29%, P=0.001), and > or =2-vessel disease (31% versus 10%, P=0.001), in addition to bilateral carotid artery stenosis (27% versus 10%, P=0.004) and even bilateral proximal internal carotid artery stenosis (21% versus 8%, P=0.015). Furthermore, significant carotid artery atherosclerotic disease (stenosis of > or =60%) was significantly more common in the severe MAC subgroup than in the controls (42% versus 26%, P<0.05) and was associated with higher rates of > or =2-vessel disease (19% versus 7%, P=0.02) and bilateral carotid artery stenosis (17% versus 7%, P=0.05). On multivariate analysis, MAC and age but not traditional risk factors were the only independent predictors of carotid atherosclerotic disease (P=0.007 and P=0.04, respectively). CONCLUSIONS There is a significant association between the presence of MAC and carotid artery atherosclerotic disease. MAC may be an important marker for atherosclerotic disease of the carotid arteries. This association may explain the high prevalence of stroke in patients with MAC.
Age Dependence of Total Cerebral Blood Flow Volume from Childhood to Adulthood

In a prospective study of the natural development of total cerebral blood flow volume (CBFV), the common, external and internal carotid and vertebral arteries were examined in 94 healthy children and adolescents between 3 and 18 years of age (sex and age evenly distributed) using a 7.0-MHz transducer of a computed sonography system. Intravascular flow volumes were calculated with the product of angle-corrected time-averaged flow velocity and the cross-sectional area of the vessel. CBFV was determined as the sum of flow volumes in the internal carotid and vertebral arteries of both sides. CBFV increased significantly between 3 and 6.5 years of age (from 687 ± 85 to 896 ± 110 ml/min; age correlation, p ≤ 0.01) and declined thereafter (p ≤ 0.001) to a constant level of ∼700 ml/min at 15 years of age. There was no difference in CBFV between sexes. The proportion of bilateral vertebral artery flow volume in total CBFV decreased significantly between the ages of 3 and 18 years (p ≤ 0.001). As the flow volumes of the external carotid arteries increased markedly from childhood to adulthood, flow volumes of the common carotid arteries were not representative of CBFV. Intrasession test-retest correlation of CBFV was high (r = 0.89, p ≤ 0.0001). Reference data for the childhood years presented here and previously described results from healthy adults allow us to outline the natural evolution of CBFV in humans. The reliability of the method has already been demonstrated. Thus, it may now be introduced into clinical application.
Biochemical and Ecological Control of Geosmin and 2-Methylisoborneol in Source Waters

The majority of all biologically caused taste-and-odor outbreaks in drinking water characterized worldwide are caused by microbial production of (−)-geosmin [(−)-(4S,4aS,8aR)-4,8a-dimethyloctahydronaphthalen-4a-ol] and (−)-2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) {(1R-exo)-1,2,7,7-tetramethylbicyclo[2.2. 1]heptan-2-ol}. Since they were first identified in the early 1960s, these two earthy-muddy-smelling metabolites have been the focus of considerable research, which has collectively produced over 400 scientific articles, reports, websites, and conference proceedings. Yet despite this substantial body of knowledge, geosmin and 2-MIB remain poorly understood throughout much of the water industry, and misconceptions which impede the prediction, treatment, and control of these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) persist. This paper reviews salient aspects of our current knowledge on the sources and properties of geosmin and 2-MIB which are essential to understanding and managing drinking water malodors. In particular, we highlight some key factors regulating the storage and release of these compounds by cells. These important factors are often overlooked and may contribute to some of the apparent ambiguity of many taste-and-odor outbreaks.
Non-genetic mothers and their own children: infertility and IVF donor birth.

Over the 1980s in Western societies which have used new reproductive technologies, there has been intense argumentation about connected philosophical, ethical and economic issues. This research on I.V. F. donor egg (i.e. 'non-genetic') motherhood is based on qualitative data from partial life histories of twelve women having children by this technology through a Melbourne infertility programme. Methodology, interpretation, and discussion place it within both critical social and feminist personal identity theoretical frameworks. None of the respondent women but all except one of their respective partners are the biological parents of a total of ten children already born at the data collection stage, and in three well-established pregnancies. Two-thirds of the respondents used 'unknown' donor ova. 'Known' donors were typically the recipients' sisters. Many of these Australian births represent world 'firsts' in medical technical applications. In biographical accounts, the focus was on experiences of social pressure towards parenthood, of infertility and medical treatment, and attitudes of openness or secrecy about using donated ova. While socially and technologically acquired parenthood added a highly-desired dimension to their social identities, a sense of loss appeared to persist in most of the women's personal identities. Where a policy of secrecy towards relatives and friends about use of reproductive technology and gamete donation was maintained, this loss was reinforced by a feeling of social isolation.
Introduction to the Research Topic Novel Insights in Rehabilitation of Neglect

Hemispatial neglect is the failure to report, respond to, or orient to novel or meaningful stimuli presented in the contralesional visual field. This failure cannot be attributed to motor or sensory defects (Heilman and Valenstein, 1979). It constitutes one of the most invalidating neurological disorders that can occur after stroke. As discussed in this Research Topic, patients with neglect are less independent in various activities of daily living compared to patients without neglect (Nijboer et al., 2013). It is therefore important to treat neglect as adequately as possible and much of the research dedicated to neglect therefore focuses on rehabilitation. Here we provide a brief overview of the 29 articles featured in this Research Topic.
End-to-end attention-based distant speech recognition with Highway LSTM

End-to-end attention-based models have been shown to be competitive alternatives to conventional DNN-HMM models in the Speech Recognition Systems. In this paper, we extend existing end-to-end attention-based models that can be applied for Distant Speech Recognition (DSR) task. Specifically, we propose an end-to-end attention-based speech recognizer with multichannel input that performs sequence prediction directly at the character level. To gain a better performance, we also incorporate Highway long short-term memory (HLSTM) which outperforms previous models on AMI distant speech recognition task.
A Qualitative Resource Utilization Benchmarking for Mobile Applications

There are many mobile applications currently available on the market, which have been developed specifically for smart phones. The operating system of these smart phones is flexible enough to facilitate the high level application development. Similar to other pervasive devices, mobile phones suffer from limited amount of resources. These resources vary from the power (battery) consumption to the network bandwidth consumption. In this research the mobile resources are identified and classified. Furthermore, a monitoring approach to measure resource utilization is proposed. This monitoring tool generates traces about the resource usage which is followed by a benchmarking model which studies monitoring traces and enables users to extract qualitative information about the application from quantitative trace of resource usage.
Keratokonus: heutige Therapieoptionen

Zusammenfassung Die Inzidenz des Keratokonus wird in aktuellen Studien deutlich höher geschätzt als bisher angenommen, somit wird diese Hornhautektasie nicht mehr zu den seltenen Erkrankungen gezählt. Als einer der bedeutendsten Risikofaktoren für die Entstehung des Keratokonus wurde neben Atopie und Down-Syndrom das chronische Augenreiben definiert. Dies ist der durch Verhaltenstraining und konsequente Aufklärung einzig wirklich modifizierbare Risikofaktor. Weitere Therapieoptionen beinhalten Maßnahmen zur Visusverbesserung wie die Anpassung von Brillen und formstabilen Kontaktlinsen, die Implantation kornealer Ringsegmente oder phaker intraokularer Linsen. Im Falle einer Krankheitsprogression bietet das korneale Crosslinking ein effektives und sicheres Verfahren, sodass das Erfordernis einer Hornhauttransplantation in dieser Indikation immer seltener wird. Neuere Studien sehen auch einen positiven Effekt einer Kombination der bisher bei Keratokonus kontraindizierten photorefraktiven Keratektomie und dem Crosslinking. Die perforierende Keratoplastik stellt allerdings weiterhin den Goldstandard der chirurgischen Behandlung des Keratokonus im fortgeschrittenen Stadium dar, wobei in den letzten Jahren auch die lamellären Verfahren immer mehr in den Vordergrund rücken.
Efficient Mining of Frequent Closed Itemsets without Closure Checking

Most existing algorithms for mining frequent closed itemsets have to check whether a newly generated itemset is a frequent closed itemset by using the subset checking technique. To do this, a storing structure is required to keep all known frequent itemsets and candidates. It takes additional processing time and memory space for closure checking. To remedy this problem, an efficient approach called closed itemset mining with no closure checking algorithm is proposed. We use the information recorded in a FP-tree to identify the items that will not constitute closed itemsets. Using this information, we can generate frequent closed itemsets directly. It is no longer necessary to check whether an itemset is closed or not when it is generated. We have implemented our algorithm and made many performance experiments. The results show that our approach has better performance in the runtime and memory space utilization. Moreover, this approach is also suitable for parallel mining of frequent closed itemsets.
Chronic myocardial hibernation in humans. From bedside to bench.

Since the pioneering work of Tennant and Wiggers,1 it has been known that total ischemia leads to a prompt cessation of contraction and eventually results in the appearance of cell damage and irreversible myocardial necrosis. Accordingly, in the minds of many cardiologists, the discovery of an abnormal regional contraction in a patient with coronary artery disease has long been equated with the presence of irreversible myocardial necrosis. With the advent of recanalization therapy, however, evidence progressively accumulated that prolonged regional “ischemic” dysfunction did not always arise from irreversible tissue damage and, to some extent, could be reversed by restoration of blood flow.2 3 4 5 These observations have led to the speculation that chronically hypoperfused myocardium, which is often referred to as “hibernating,”2 3 4 5 6 could maintain viability by simply reducing its metabolic demand to match the decreased supply for as long as myocardial perfusion was inadequate. The chronic impairment of contractile function in this setting has been regarded as a protective mechanism by which the heart spontaneously downgrades its myocardial function, minimizes its energy requirements, and prevents the appearance of irreversible tissue damage.2 4 5 The concept of chronic hibernation thus consists of two parts: a unique clinical observation that bears important implications for the management of patients with chronic coronary artery disease2 3 4 5 6 and a pathophysiological hypothesis, yet to be demonstrated, implying that the chronic dysfunction is due to a chronic reduction of resting MBF.4 5 Other aspects that were not included in the original description, ie, the rapidity of mechanical recovery after successful revascularization7 and the response of dysfunctional myocardium to inotropic stimulation, are now also considered to be integral parts of this condition. The purpose of this discussion is to review some of the …
O ct 2 01 5 ON THE SOLVABILITY OF EULER GRAPHENE BEAM SUBJECT TO AXIAL COMPRESSIVE LOAD

In this paper we formulate the equilibrium equation for a beam made of graphene subjected to some boundary conditions and acted upon by axial compression and nonlinear lateral constrains as a fourth-order nonlinear boundary value problem. We first study the nonlinear eigenvalue problem for buckling analysis of the beam. We show the solvability of the eigenvalue problem as an asymptotic expansion in a ratio of the elastoplastic parameters. We verify that the spectrum is a closed set bounded away from zero and contains a discrete infinite sequence of eigenvalues. In particular, we prove the existence of a minimal eigenvalue λ ∗ for the graphene beam corresponding to a Lipschitz continuous eigenfunction, providing a lower bound for the critical buckling load of the graphene beam column. We also proved that the eigenfunction corresponding to the minimal eigenvalue is positive and symmetric. For a certain range of lateral forces, we demonstrate the solvability of the general equation by using energy methods and a suitable iteration scheme.
Anisotropic solid–liquid interface kinetics in silicon: an atomistically informed phase-field model

We present an atomistically informed parametrization of a phase-field model for describing the anisotropic mobility of liquid–solid interfaces in silicon. The model is derived from a consistent set of atomistic data and thus allows to directly link molecular dynamics and phase field simulations. Expressions for the free energy density, the interfacial energy and the temperature and orientation dependent interface mobility are systematically fitted to data from molecular dynamics simulations based on the Stillinger–Weber interatomic potential. The temperature-dependent interface velocity follows a Vogel–Fulcher type behavior and allows to properly account for the dynamics in the undercooled melt.
Measuring quality and effectiveness of prehospital EMS.

INTRODUCTION In today's health care environment, the demand for objective comparative information about the performance of health care organizations and providers has created a need for data-driven evaluation processes. In response, national organizations and federal agencies have established quality indicators, created tools to measure performance according to those indicators, and issued report cards for individual providers, as well as health care organizations. PURPOSE Emergency medical services (EMS) systems are no different from other health care systems in the need for objective comparative system information to assist government officials at all levels in establishing relevant policy, selecting appropriate system design, and monitoring system quality and effectiveness. Governmental decision makers, payers, and consumers are demanding objective evidence that they are receiving value and quality for the cost of EMS. EMS systems administrators also require objective feedback about performance that can be used internally to support improvement efforts and externally to demonstrate accountability to the public and other stakeholders. To date, there are few validated indicators of effectiveness and quality in EMS systems. Moreover, most potential indicators have not been studied for use in systemwide evaluation. As a result, there are no universally accepted methods of measurement. The following paper examines traditional efforts to assure quality in EMS systems, while assessing the need to go beyond the traditional to establish measurable indicators of system quality. Valid and measurable indicators will provide a basis for establishing benchmarks of performance. In the future, these benchmarks will facilitate comparisons of a system with itself, as well as with other systems.
Multimodal oriented discriminant analysis

Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) has been an active topic of research during the last century. However, the existing algorithms have several limitations when applied to visual data. LDA is only optimal for Gaussian distributed classes with equal covariance matrices, and only classes-1 features can be extracted. On the other hand, LDA does not scale well to high dimensional data (overfitting), and it cannot handle optimally multimodal distributions. In this paper, we introduce Multimodal Oriented Discriminant Analysis (MODA), a LDA extension which can overcome these drawbacks. A new formulation and several novelties are proposed:• An optimal dimensionality reduction for multimodal Gaussian classes with different covariances is derived. The new criteria allows for extracting more than classes-1 features. • A covariance approximation is introduced to improve generalization and avoid over-fitting when dealing with high dimensional data. • A linear time iterative majorization method is suggested in order to find a local optimum.Several synthetic and real experiments on face recognition show that MODA outperform existing linear techniques.
Post-transcriptional regulation of MRE11 expression in muscle-invasive bladder tumours

Predictive assays are needed to help optimise treatment in muscle-invasive bladder cancer, where patients can be treated by either cystectomy or radical radiotherapy. Our finding that low tumour MRE11 expression is predictive of poor response to radiotherapy but not cystectomy was recently independently validated. Here we investigated further the mechanism underlying low MRE11 expression seen in poorly-responding patients. MRE11 RNA and protein levels were measured in 88 bladder tumour patient samples, by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry respectively, and a panel of eight bladder cancer cell lines was screened for MRE11, RAD50 and NBS1 mRNA and protein expression. There was no correlation between bladder tumour MRE11 protein and RNA scores (Spearman's rho 0.064, p=0.65), suggesting MRE11 is controlled post-transcriptionally, a pattern confirmed in eight bladder cancer cell lines. In contrast, NBS1 and RAD50 mRNA and protein levels were correlated (p=0.01 and p=0.03, respectively), suggesting primary regulation at the level of transcription. MRE11 protein levels were correlated with NBS1 and RAD50 mRNA and protein levels, implicating MRN complex formation as an important determinant of MRE11 expression, driven by RAD50 and NBS1 expression. Our findings of the post-transcriptional nature of the control of MRE11 imply that any predictive assays used in patients need to be performed at the protein level rather than the mRNA level.
Regulation of hepatic fatty acid elongase and desaturase expression in diabetes and obesity Published, JLR Papers in Press, June 21, 2006.

Fatty acid elongases and desaturases play an important role in hepatic and whole body lipid composition. We examined the role that key transcription factors played in the control of hepatic elongase and desaturase expression. Studies with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα)-deficient mice establish that PPARα was required for WY14643-mediated induction of fatty acid elongase-5 (Elovl-5), Elovl-6, and all three desaturases [Δ5 desaturase (Δ5D), Δ6D, and Δ9D]. Increased nuclear sterol-regulatory element binding protein-1 (SREBP-1) correlated with enhanced expression of Elovl-6, Δ5D, Δ6D, and Δ9D. Only Δ9D was also regulated independently by liver X receptor (LXR) agonist. Glucose induction of l-type pyruvate kinase, Δ9D, and Elovl-6 expression required the carbohydrate-regulatory element binding protein/MAX-like factor X (ChREBP/MLX) heterodimer. Suppression of Elovl-6 and Δ9D expression in livers of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and high fat-fed glucose-intolerant mice correlated with low levels of nuclear SREBP-1. In leptin-deficient obese mice (Lepob/ob), increased SREBP-1 and MLX nuclear content correlated with the induction of Elovl-5, Elovl-6, and Δ9D expression and the massive accumulation of monounsaturated fatty acids (18:1,n-7 and 18:1,n-9) in neutral lipids. Diabetes- and obesity-induced changes in hepatic lipid composition correlated with changes in elongase and desaturase expression. In conclusion, these studies establish a role for PPARα, LXR, SREBP-1, ChREBP, and MLX in the control of hepatic fatty acid elongase and desaturase expression and lipid composition.
Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of a Toxin-Producing Dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella and Its Non-Toxic Mutant

The dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria are two major kingdoms of life producing paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), a large group of neurotoxic alkaloids causing paralytic shellfish poisonings around the world. In contrast to the well elucidated PST biosynthetic genes in cyanobacteria, little is known about the dinoflagellates. This study compared transcriptome profiles of a toxin-producing dinoflagellate, Alexandrium catenella (ACHK-T), and its non-toxic mutant form (ACHK-NT) using RNA-seq. All clean reads were assembled de novo into a total of 113,674 unigenes, and 66,812 unigenes were annotated in the known databases. Out of them, 35 genes were found to express differentially between the two strains. The up-regulated genes in ACHK-NT were involved in photosynthesis, carbon fixation and amino acid metabolism processes, indicating that more carbon and energy were utilized for cell growth. Among the down-regulated genes, expression of a unigene assigned to the long isoform of sxtA, the initiator of toxin biosynthesis in cyanobacteria, was significantly depressed, suggesting that this long transcript of sxtA might be directly involved in toxin biosynthesis and its depression resulted in the loss of the ability to synthesize PSTs in ACHK-NT. In addition, 101 putative homologs of 12 cyanobacterial sxt genes were identified, and the sxtO and sxtZ genes were identified in dinoflagellates for the first time. The findings of this study should shed light on the biosynthesis of PSTs in the dinoflagellates.