Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative pharmacology and toxicology of tramadol and tapentadol

Moderate‐to‐severe pain represents a heavy burden in patients’ quality of life, and ultimately in the society and in healthcare costs. The aim of this review was to summarize data on tramadol and tapentadol adverse effects, toxicity, potential advantages and limitations according to the context of clinical use. We compared data on the pharmacological and toxicological profiles of tramadol and tapentadol, after an extensive literature search in the US National Library of Medicine (PubMed). Tramadol is a prodrug that acts through noradrenaline and serotonin reuptake inhibition, with a weak opioid component added by its metabolite O‐desmethyltramadol. Tapentadol does not require metabolic activation and acts mainly through noradrenaline reuptake inhibition and has a strong opioid activity. Such features confer tapentadol potential advantages, namely lower serotonergic, dependence and abuse potential, more linear pharmacokinetics, greater gastrointestinal tolerability and applicability in the treatment of chronic and neuropathic pain. Although more studies are needed to provide clear guidance on the opioid of choice, tapentadol shows some advantages, as it does not require CYP450 system activation and has minimal serotonergic effects. In addition, it leads to less side effects and lower abuse liability. However, in vivo and in vitro studies have shown that tramadol and tapentadol cause similar toxicological damage. In this context, it is important to underline that the choice of opioid should be individually balanced and a tailored decision, based on previous experience and on the patient's profile, type of pain and context of treatment.
Mouse hepatic lipase alleles with variable effects on lipoprotein composition and size[S]

The structural features responsible for the activities of hepatic lipase (HL) can be clarified by in vivo comparisons of naturally occurring variants. The coding sequence of HL from C57BL/6J (B6) and SPRET/EiJ (SPRET) mice differs by four amino acids (S106N, A156V, L416V, S480T); however, these changes are not predicted to influence HL function. To test for allelic effects, we generated SPRET-HL transgenics with physiological levels of HL mRNA and HL activity that was parallel in female transgenics and about 70% higher in male transgenics, toward tri-[3H]oleate, compared with B6 controls. We found no correlation between activity levels and plasma lipids. However, significant allelic effects on plasma lipids were observed. Compared with B6-HL, SPRET-HL mediated reductions in total cholesterol (TC) and VLDL-, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol and HDL-triglyceride (TG) in fed males, and SPRET-HL decreased total TG and VLDL- and HDL-TG levels in fasted males. Fasted female transgenics had reduced TC compared with controls. We also found allele and sex effects on lipoprotein particle size. Male transgenic mice had increased VLDL and decreased LDL size, and female transgenic mice had decreased HDL size compared with control animals. These findings demonstrate highly divergent effects of naturally occurring HL coding sequence variants on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism.
Do older adults with chronic low back pain differ from younger adults in regards to baseline characteristics and prognosis?

Low back pain (LBP) in older adults is poorly understood because the vast majority of the LBP research has focused on the working aged population. The aim of this study was to compare older adults consulting with chronic LBP to middle aged and young adults consulting with chronic LBP, in terms of their baseline characteristics, and pain and disability outcomes over 1 year.
Abnormal glucose regulation in Chinese patients with coronary artery disease

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of abnormal glucose regulation (AGR) in patients with established coronary artery disease (CAD), and the association of AGR and acute coronary events in Chinese patients. A total of 3441 hospitalized patients with established diagnosis of CAD were recruited from 41 centers in 25 cities of China. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed in 2112 patients without known diabetes. Acute coronary events were recorded for the patients. AGR was detected in 1880 (89%) patients in the OGTT cohort, with 1265 (59.9%) diagnosed with impaired glucose tolerance, 363 (17.2%) diagnosed with diabetes, and 30 (1.4%) diagnosed with isolated impaired fasting glucose. The overall proportion of patients diagnosed with diabetes increased from 30.7% (n = 930) at baseline to 42.6% (n = 1298) following the OGTT analysis. In total 85% (n = 3047) patients in the study was diagnosed with AGR. Multivariate analysis showed that AGR was independently associated with acute coronary events, after adjusting for the traditional risk factors including age, smoking, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. The prevalence of AGR is increasing in Chinese patients with CAD, as compared with previous report. AGR was independently associated with acute coronary events. Prospective studies are warranted to evaluate the benefit of intervening prediabetes in adult patients with CAD.
Data mining in road crash analysis: the context of developing countries

Abstract The recent advancements in the field of data mining have made vast progress in extracting new information and hidden patterns from large datasets which are often overlooked by the traditional statistical approaches. These methods focus on searching for new and interesting hypothesis which were previously unobserved. Road safety researchers working with the crash data from developed world have seen encouraging success in obtaining new insight into crash mechanism through data mining. An attempt was made in this study to apply these advance methods and evaluate their performance in manifesting crash causes for Bangladesh. The study applies hierarchical clustering to identify hazardous clusters, random forest to find important variables explaining each of these clusters, and classification and regression trees to unveil their respective crash mechanisms for the road crash data of Bangladesh. The results identified several new interesting relationships and acknowledged issues related to quality of data.
Balloon valvuloplasty for treatment of pulmonic stenosis in English Bulldogs with an aberrant coronary artery.

BACKGROUND English Bulldogs (EB) with pulmonic stenosis (PS) sometimes have an aberrant coronary artery (CA) type R2A encircling the pulmonary artery (PA). Balloon valvuloplasty (BV) is treatment of choice for severe PS, but is considered to be contraindicated in dogs with aberrant CA. HYPOTHESIS Conservative BV in EB with aberrant CA is safe and improves clinical signs and quality of life. ANIMALS Four client-owned EB with severe PS were retrospectively reviewed/analysed. METHODS Retrospective study: Case records, echocardiography, BV, and follow-up investigations of EB diagnosed with severe PS and treated with BV were reviewed. The ratios of PA to aortic (Ao) velocity time integral (VTI) were calculated to assess progression/improvement of PS. RESULTS An aberrant CA was confirmed on angiography in all EB. Conservative BV was performed, using a balloon of the size of the PA annulus or smaller (0.6-1 x PA annulus size). All dogs survived the procedure, but only a mild reduction in pressure gradient was achieved. There was an improvement in PA to Ao VTI in 3 of 4 dogs (P < or = .017), which were free of evidence of congestive heart failure (CHF) 5, 10, and 15 months after BV. One dog that had right-sided CHF when BV was performed died due to progressive right-sided CHF within 3 months. CONCLUSIONS Conservative BV in EB might be safe and might improve quality and quantity of life.
Robust Control for Steer-by-Wire Systems With Partially Known Dynamics

In this paper, a robust control scheme (RCS) for Steer-by-Wire (SbW) systems with partially known dynamics is proposed. It is shown that an SbW system can be represented by a nominal model and an unknown portion. A nominal feedback controller can then be used to stabilize the nominal model and a sliding mode compensator (SMC) is designed to remove the effects of both the unknown system dynamics and uncertain road conditions on the steering performance. For practical consideration, robust exact differentiator (RED) technique is utilized to estimate the derivatives of the position signals for controller design. It is further shown that the designed RCS is able to guarantee a robust steering performance against system and road uncertainties. The comparative experimental studies are given to verify the excellent performance of the proposed RCS for SbW systems.
Activation of local inhibitory circuits in the dentate gyrus by adult‐born neurons

Robust incorporation of new principal cells into pre‐existing circuitry in the adult mammalian brain is unique to the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG). We asked if adult‐born granule cells (GCs) might act to regulate processing within the DG by modulating the substantially more abundant mature GCs. Optogenetic stimulation of a cohort of young adult‐born GCs (0 to 7 weeks post‐mitosis) revealed that these cells activate local GABAergic interneurons to evoke strong inhibitory input to mature GCs. Natural manipulation of neurogenesis by aging—to decrease it—and housing in an enriched environment—to increase it—strongly affected the levels of inhibition. We also demonstrated that elevating activity in adult‐born GCs in awake behaving animals reduced the overall number of mature GCs activated by exploration. These data suggest that inhibitory modulation of mature GCs may be an important function of adult‐born hippocampal neurons. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
How hard is it to satisfy (almost) all roommates?

The classic Stable Roommates problem (which is the non-bipartite generalization of the well-known Stable Marriage problem) asks whether there is a stable matching for a given set of agents, i.e. a partitioning of the agents into disjoint pairs such that no two agents induce a blocking pair. Herein, each agent has a preference list denoting who it prefers to have as a partner, and two agents are blocking if they prefer to be with each other rather than with their assigned partners. Since stable matchings may not be unique, we study an NP-hard optimization variant of Stable Roommates, called Egal Stable Roommates, which seeks to find a stable matching with a minimum egalitarian cost {\gamma}, i.e. the sum of the dissatisfaction of the agents is minimum. The dissatisfaction of an agent is the number of agents that this agent prefers over its partner if it is matched; otherwise it is the length of its preference list. We also study almost stable matchings, called Min-Block-Pair Stable Roommates, which seeks to find a matching with a minimum number {\beta} of blocking pairs. Our main result is that Egal Stable Roommates parameterized by {\gamma} is fixed-parameter tractable, while Min-Block-Pair Stable Roommates parameterized by {\beta} is W[1]-hard, even if the length of each preference list is at most five.
Quartz Crystal Microbalance Electronic Interfacing Systems: A Review

Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) sensors are actively being implemented in various fields due to their compatibility with different operating conditions in gaseous/liquid mediums for a wide range of measurements. This trend has been matched by the parallel advancement in tailored electronic interfacing systems for QCM sensors. That is, selecting the appropriate electronic circuit is vital for accurate sensor measurements. Many techniques were developed over time to cover the expanding measurement requirements (e.g., accommodating highly-damping environments). This paper presents a comprehensive review of the various existing QCM electronic interfacing systems. Namely, impedance-based analysis, oscillators (conventional and lock-in based techniques), exponential decay methods and the emerging phase-mass based characterization. The aforementioned methods are discussed in detail and qualitatively compared in terms of their performance for various applications. In addition, some theoretical improvements and recommendations are introduced for adequate systems implementation. Finally, specific design considerations of high-temperature microbalance systems (e.g., GaPO4 crystals (GCM) and Langasite crystals (LCM)) are introduced, while assessing their overall system performance, stability and quality compared to conventional low-temperature applications.
Comparison of Partial and Radical Laparascopic Nephrectomy: Long-Term Outcomes for Clinical T1b Renal Cell Carcinoma.

PURPOSE To compare the long-term clinical and oncologic outcomes in patients treated with laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) and laparoscopic radial nephrectomy (LRN) for clinical T1b renal cell carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the records of all patients who underwent LPN or LRN for a single clinical T1b tumor between January 2005 and January 2012, an actual follow-up of 2-year or greater was available in 39 and 160 after LPN and LRN, respectively. Survival was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was done to assess predictors of survival. RESULTS The two cohorts of patients were similar in age, sex, body-mass index and preoperative eGFR. There were no differences in tumors size (4.97 vs 5.29cm, P = .08), and pathological stage distribution between the two cohorts. The median follow-up after LPN and LRN were 67 (range: 18-118) and 70 (19-120) months, respectively. For LPN versus LRN, 5-years overall and cancer specific survival rates were 93.33% vs 85.69% and 96.00% vs 91.35%, respectively. For LPN versus LRN, 10-years overall and cancer specific survival rates were 85.56% vs73.41% and 88.00% vs 82.85%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, patients' age, ASA score and pathological stage were the major factors affecting overall survival, and patients' age and pathological stage were associated with cancer specific survival. The percent decrease in glomerular filtration rate was significantly lower in the LRN group at early and last followup. CONCLUSION LPN is an effective treatment option in appropriately selected patients with cT1b RCC. It provides 5-year, 10-year overall survival and cancer specific survival comparable to those of LRN as well as better preservation of renal function than LRN. Overall survival and cancer specific survival are associated with nonmodifiable factors but not by the choice of operative technique.
MST-GEN: An Efficient Parameter Selection Method for One-Class Extreme Learning Machine

One-class classification (OCC) models a set of target data from one class to detect outliers. OCC approaches like one-class support vector machine (OCSVM) and support vector data description (SVDD) have wide practical applications. Recently, one-class extreme learning machine (OCELM), which inherits the fast learning speed of original ELM and achieves equivalent or higher data description performance than OCSVM and SVDD, is proposed as a promising alternative. However, OCELM faces the same thorny parameter selection problem as OCSVM and SVDD. It significantly affects the performance of OCELM and remains under-explored. This paper proposes minimal spanning tree (MST)-GEN, an automatic way to select proper parameters for OCELM. Specifically, we first build a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${n}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-round MST to model the structure and distribution of the given target set. With information from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${n}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-round MST, a controllable number of pseudo outliers are generated by edge pattern detection and a novel “repelling” process, which readily overcomes two fundamental problems in previous outlier generation methods: where and how many pseudo outliers should be generated. Unlike previous methods that only generate pseudo outliers, we further exploit <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${n}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-round MST to generate pseudo target data, so as to avoid the time-consuming cross-validation process and accelerate the parameter selection. Extensive experiments on various datasets suggest that the proposed method can select parameters for OCELM in a highly efficient and accurate manner when compared with existing methods, which enables OCELM to achieve better OCC performance in OCC applications. Furthermore, our experiments show that MST-GEN can also be favorably applied to other prevalent OCC methods like OCSVM and SVDD.
Activation functions of deep neural networks for polar decoding applications

Among various deep neural network (DNN) components, this paper studies the activation functions especially for deep feed-forward networks with applications to channel decoding problems of polar code. In line with our previous study, this paper considers the ReLU (Rectified Linear Unit) and its variants for activation functions of DNN. We devise a new ReLU variant, called Sloped ReLU, by varying the slope of the ReLU for the positive domain range. This is analogous to tree architectures between the likelihood function in successive decoding of channel codes and the activation function in DNN. Our numerical results show that the polar decoding performance with the Sloped ReLU improves as the slope increases, up to a certain level. We believe that the idea of utilizing this analogy for determining activation functions of DNN can be applied to other decoding problems as well, which remains as a future work.
Soft Computing Tools for Virtual Drug Discovery

Abstract In this paper, we describe how several soft computing tools can be used to assist in high throughput screening of potential drug candidates. Individual small molecules (ligands) are assessed for their potential to bind to specific proteins (receptors). Committees of multilayer networks are used to classify protein-ligand complexes as good binders or bad binders, based on selected chemical descriptors. The novel aspects of this paper include the use of statistical analyses on the weights of single layer networks to select the appropriate descriptors, the use of Monte Carlo cross-validation to provide confidence measures of network performance (and also to identify problems in the data), the addition of new chemical descriptors to improve network accuracy, and the use of Self Organizing Maps to analyze the performance of the trained network and identify anomalies. We demonstrate the procedures on a large practical data set, and use them to discover a promising characteristic of the data. We also perform virtual screenings with the trained networks on a number of benchmark sets and analyze the results.
Evaluation of a multimodal 3-D pronunciation tutor for learning Mandarin as a second language: An eye-tracking study

Recently, various 3-D talking heads have been applied to computer-aided language learning as a novel mode. However, there is a lack of objective evaluation of learners' perception of the talking head when learning Mandarin as a second language. This study used eye-tracking methodology to evaluate a multimodal 3-D Mandarin pronunciation tutor, in comparison with real human instructor. The pronunciation tutors were presented under two conditions: human face video (HF) and a multimodal 3-D talking head (3-D), each of which has been shown with a front view and a profile view respectively. Results indicated that foreign learners have showed more preference to the 3-D tutor with a shorter entry time. Moreover, learners observed the lip movement of 3-D tutor for a longer time with a front view, and the multimodal 3-D pronunciation tutor exhibited greater advantage of effectively delivering both articulator movements and airflow information with a transparent profile view. In conclusion, all of these findings proved the multimodal 3-D pronunciation tutor has attracted more attentions than human face during the process of learning.
ViewBS: a powerful toolkit for visualization of high-throughput bisulfite sequencing data

Abstract Motivation High throughput bisulfite sequencing (BS-seq) is an important technology to generate single-base DNA methylomes in both plants and animals. In order to accelerate the data analysis of BS-seq data, toolkits for visualization are required. Results ViewBS, an open-source toolkit, can extract and visualize the DNA methylome data easily and with flexibility. By using Tabix, ViewBS can visualize BS-seq for large datasets quickly. ViewBS can generate publication-quality figures, such as meta-plots, heat maps and violin-boxplots, which can help users to answer biological questions. We illustrate its application using BS-seq data from Arabidopsis thaliana. Availability ViewBS is freely available at: https://github.com/xie186/ViewBS. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Variable Packet-Error Coding

We consider a problem in which a source is encoded into <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> packets, an unknown number of which are subject to adversarial errors en route to the decoder. We seek code designs for which the decoder is guaranteed to be able to reproduce the source subject to a certain distortion constraint when there are no packets errors, subject to a less stringent distortion constraint when there is one error, and so on. Focusing on the special case of the erasure distortion measure, we introduce a code design based on the <italic>polytope codes</italic> of Kosut <italic>et al.</italic>. The resulting designs are also applied to a separate problem in distributed storage.
Monitor optimization via stutter-equivalent loop transformation

There has been significant interest in equipping programs with runtime checks aimed at detecting errors to improve fault detection during testing and in the field. Recent work in this area has studied methods for efficiently monitoring a program execution's conformance to path property specifications, e.g., such as those captured by a finite state automaton. These techniques show great promise, but their broad applicability is hampered by the fact that for certain combinations of programs and properties the overhead of checking can slow the program down by up to 3500%. We have observed that, in many cases, the overhead of runtime monitoring is due to the behavior of program loops. We present a general framework for optimizing the monitoring of loops relative to a property. This framework allows monitors to process a loop in constant-time rather than time that is proportional to the number of loop iterations. We present the results of an empirical study that demonstrates that significant overhead reduction that can be achieved by applying the framework to monitor properties of several large Java programs.