Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patient-Centered Decision Support in Acute Ischemic Stroke: Qualitative Study of Patients’ and Providers’ Perspectives

Background—National guidelines endorse recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (r-tPA) in eligible patients with acute ischemic stroke to improve patients’ functional recovery. However, 23% to 40% of ideal candidates with acute ischemic stroke for reperfusion are not treated, perhaps because of the difficulty in explaining the benefits and risks of r-tPA within the frenetic pace of emergency department care. To support better knowledge transfer and creation of a shared decision-making tool, we conducted qualitative interviews to define the information needs and preferred presentation format for stroke survivors, caregivers, and clinicians considering r-tPA treatment. Methods and Results—A multidisciplinary team used qualitative research methods to identify informational needs and strategies for describing the benefits and risks of r-tPA in a clinical setting. Through focus groups (n=10) of stroke survivors (n=39) and caregivers (n=24) and individual interviews with emergency physicians (n=23) and advanced practice nurses (n=20), several themes emerged. Survivors and caregivers preferred a broader definition of a good outcome (independence, rather than no significant disability), simpler graphs as compared with detailed pictographs, and presentation of both population and individualized benefits (framed positively) and risk of receiving r-tPA. Some physicians expressed skepticism with the data and the ability to present risk/benefit information emergently, whereas other physicians and most advanced practice nurses thought such information would improve care. Physicians stressed the importance of presenting the risk of thrombolytic-related intracranial hemorrhage. Conclusions—This study suggests that a positively framed risk–benefit tool with graphical presentations of general and patient-specific risk estimates could support patients and providers in considering r-tPA for acute ischemic stroke. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT01864928.
ARED 3.0: the large and diverse AU-rich transcriptome

A comprehensive search that utilized a large set of mRNA data from human genome databases and additionally, expressed sequence tag (EST) database characterized this latest update of AU-rich elements (AREs) containing mRNA database (ARED). A large number of ARE-mRNA, as much as 4000, were recovered and include many of ARE alternative forms. This number represents as much as 5–8% of the human genes depending on the entire number of genes. The new ARED does not contain only larger and diverse number of ARE-mRNAs but additional functionality and enhanced search capabilities are given in the database website . These include class and cluster of AREs, source mRNAs, EST evidence, buildup information, retrieval of lists of genes, and integration with current and new NCBI data, such as Entrez ID and Unigene. Gene Ontology analysis shows there are significant differences in functional diversity of ARED when compared with the overall genome. Many of ARE-genes mediate regulatory processes, reactions to outside stimuli, RNA metabolism, and developmental processes particularly those of early and transient responses. The wide interest in mRNA turnover and importance of AREs in health and disease signify the compilation of ARE-genes.
Can More Nanoparticles Induce Larger Viscosities of Nanoparticle-Enhanced Wormlike Micellar System (NEWMS)?

There have been many reports about the thickening ability of nanoparticles on the wormlike micelles in the recent years. Through the addition of nanoparticles, the viscosity of wormlike micelles can be increased. There still exists a doubt: can viscosity be increased further by adding more nanoparticles? To answer this issue, in this work, the effects of silica nanoparticles and temperature on the nanoparticles-enhanced wormlike micellar system (NEWMS) were studied. The typical wormlike micelles (wormlike micelles) are prepared by 50 mM cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and 60 mM sodium salicylate (NaSal). The rheological results show the increase of viscoelasticity in NEWMS by adding nanoparticles, with the increase of zero-shear viscosity and relaxation time. However, with the further increase of nanoparticles, an interesting phenomenon appears. The zero-shear viscosity and relaxation time reach the maximum and begin to decrease. The results show a slight increasing trend for the contour length of wormlike micelles by adding nanoparticles, while no obvious effect on the entanglement and mesh size. In addition, with the increase of temperature, remarkable reduction of contour length and relaxation time can be observed from the calculation. NEWMS constantly retain better viscoelasticity compared with conventional wormlike micelles without silica nanoparticles. According to the Arrhenius equation, the activation energy Ea shows the same increase trend of NEWMS. Finally, a mechanism is proposed to explain this interesting phenomenon.
Double Rulings for Information Brokerage in Sensor Networks

We study the problem of information brokerage in sensor networks, where information consumers (sinks, users) search for data acquired by information producers (sources). In-network storage such as geographical hash table (GHT) has been proposed to store data at rendezvous nodes for consumers to retrieve. In this paper, we propose a double rulings scheme that stores data replicas on a curve instead of one or multiple isolated sensors. The consumer travels along another curve that is guaranteed to intersect the producer curve. The double rulings is a natural extension of the flat hashing scheme such as GHTs. It has improved query locality-i.e., consumers close to producers find the data quickly-and structured aggregate queries, i.e., a consumer following a curve is able to retrieve all the data. Furthermore, by the flexibility of retrieval mechanisms, we have better routing robustness (as multiple retrieval paths are available) and data robustness against regional node failures. We show by simulation that the double rulings scheme provides reduced communication costs and more balanced traffic load on the sensors.
Platelet‐derived VWF‐cleaving metalloprotease ADAMTS‐13

Summary. The adhesion ligand von Willebrand factor (VWF) is synthesized and stored in vascular endothelial cells and megakaryocytes/platelets. As in endothelial cells, platelet VWF also contains ultra‐large (UL) multimers that are hyperactive in aggregating platelets. ULVWF in platelet lysates of thrombin‐stimulated platelets was only detected in the presence of EDTA, suggesting that ULVWF is cleaved by a divalent cation‐dependent protease. A recent study shows that platelets contain the VWF‐cleaving metalloprotease ADAMTS‐13, but its activity remains unknown. In this study, we show that platelet lysates cleave endothelial cell‐derived ULVWF under static and flow conditions. This activity is inhibited by EDTA and by an ADAMTS‐13 antibody from the plasma of a patient with acquired TTP. ADAMTS‐13 was detected in platelet lysates and on the platelet surface by four antibodies that bind to different domains of the metalloprotease. Expression of ADAMTS‐13 on the platelet surface increases significantly upon platelet activation by the thrombin receptor‐activating peptide, but not by ADP. These results demonstrate that platelets contain functionally active ADAMTS‐13. This intrinsic activity may be physiologically important to prevent the sudden release of hyperactive ULVWF from platelets and serves as the second pool of ADAMTS‐13 to encounter the increase in ULVWF release from endothelial cells.
No risk, no gain?

In the Dutch theatre system, theatre companies produce plays and perform their plays on theatre stages throughout the country. VVT-theatres are specialized theatres that mainly present high arts, subsidized theatre productions. This thesis focuses on the influence of contract forms on the distribution of income and risk between a VVT-theatre and the companies playing there. Besides that, it describes what activities the two parties agree upon in the contract, to market and promote the performances. My analysis combines contracts used in 2010 in Theater aan het Spui, a VVT-theatre in The Hague, with attendance numbers and box office results. This gives an insight on the influence of contracts on the creation and distribution of income between the two parties involved. The results show that subsidized performances are mostly contracted using buy-out contracts or contracts that combine revenue sharing with a guarantee. The financial risk for the presentation of the performances comes to the account of the theatre, while most if not all income from ticket sales flows to the theatre companies, often leading to a negative nett result for the theatre. The marketing of the performances is mainly the theatre's responsibility. Only 41% of the performances in my database used contracts that mentioned promotion and marketing of the performances. Only 8,5% formalized a shared responsibility and effort in finding an audience. VVT-theatres are usually subsidized by the local government, while the theatre companies are subsidized by the national government. National government subsidies are now demanding more cultural entrepreneurship from the companies: in order to receive funding, the companies to raise their own income. As the contract forms used between VVT-theatres and the companies seldom connect company income to the amounts of tickets sold, it is likely to expect that companies simply raise their income by demanding a higher buy-out sum or guarantee. VVT-theatres will have higher budget deficits, that municipal funds will have to cover.
Legal issues relating to electroconvulsive therapy.

A survey of 54 psychiatric units disclosed that 49 (91%) were using electroconvulsive (ECT), principally for major depressive illnesses. During the five-year period 1964 to 1968, fractures and other complications of ECT were uncommon. Sudden death was reported in seven cases. During this period, none of the respondents or their affiliated physicians had been involved in lawsuits relating to the use of ECT. In general, suits for injuries occasioned by the use of ECT seem to be declining. Possible remaining problem areas are the performance of ECT without the prior consent of the patient; the failure to have facilities and personnel available for managing cardiorespiratory emergencies occurring during ECT; failure to diagnose or treat an ECT-related injury; and perhaps the failure to use ECT where the indications are compelling.
Loss of Allergen 1 Confers a Hypervirulent Phenotype That Resembles Mucoid Switch Variants of Cryptococcus neoformans

ABSTRACT Microbial survival in a host is usually dependent on the ability of a pathogen to undergo changes that promote escape from host defense mechanisms. The human-pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans undergoes phenotypic switching in vivo that promotes persistence in tissue. By microarray and real-time PCR analyses, the allergen 1 gene (ALL1) was found to be downregulated in the hypervirulent mucoid switch variant, both during logarithmic growth and during intracellular growth in macrophages. The ALL1 gene encodes a small cytoplasmic protein that is involved in capsule formation. Growth of an all1Δ gene deletion mutant was normal. Similar to cells of the mucoid switch variant, all1Δ cells produced a larger polysaccharide capsule than cells of the smooth parent and the complemented strain produced, and the enlarged capsule inhibited macrophage phagocytosis. The mutant exhibited a modest defect in capsule induction compared to all of the other variants. In animal models the phenotype of the all1Δ mutant mimicked the hypervirulent phenotype of the mucoid switch variant, which is characterized by decreased host survival and elevated intracranial pressure. Decreased survival is likely the result of both an ineffective cell-mediated immune response and impaired phagocytosis by macrophages. Consequently, we concluded that, unlike loss of most virulence-associated genes, where loss of gene function results in attenuated virulence, loss of the ALL1 gene enhances virulence by altering the host-pathogen interaction and thereby impairing clearance. Our data identified the first cryptococcal gene associated with elevated intracranial pressure and support the hypothesis that an environmental opportunistic pathogen has modified its virulence in vivo by epigenetic downregulation of gene function.
Multilinear Maps over the Integers Using Modulus Switching

After CLT13 of multilinear map over the integers was broken by Cheon, Han, Lee, Ryu and Stehle using zeroizing attack, a new variant CLT15 of CLT13 was proposed by Coron, Lepoint and Tibouchi by constructing new zero-testing parameter. Very recently, CLT15 was broken independently by Cheon, Lee and Ryu, and Minaud and Fouque using an extension of Cheon et al.’s attack. To immune CLT13 against zeroizing attack, we present a new construction of multilinear map over the integers using switching modulus technique. The security of our construction depends upon new hardness assumption.
Circumstellar disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars: Polarization, outflows and binary orbits

The geometrical relationship between the distribution of circumstellar matter, observed optical linear polarization, outflows and binary orbital plane in Herbig Ae/Be stars is investigated. Optical linear polarization measurements carried out for a number of Herbig Ae/Be stars that are either known to be in binary systems and/or have bipolar jets are presented in this paper. Available information on the position angles of polarization, outflows and binary companions for Herbig Ae/Be stars is compiled and analysed for any possible correlations. In 85% of the sources the outflow position angle is within 30 of being parallel or perpendicular to the polarization position angle. In81% of the sources the binary position angle is within 30 of being parallel or perpendicular to the polarization position angle. Out of 15 sources with bipolar outflows, 10 sources have the binary position angle within 30 of being perpendicular to the outflow position angle. These results favour those binary formation mechanisms in which the binary components and the disks around individual stars or circumbinary disks are coplanar.
3D sound intensity measurements: accuracy enhancements with virtual instrument based technology

Sound intensity can be evaluated by means of pressures measured by two microphones. With the use of four or six microphones one can measure the three-dimensional sound intensity vector. Measurements carried out in this way are subject to errors due to various causes. Aim of this paper is to describe a novel method (based on virtual instruments) for a real time correction of such errors. The correction algorithm compensates errors due to metrological characteristics of the transducers and measurement chain: sensitivity, phase response, microphone directional characteristics and interchannel delay. The effects of environmental conditions, namely pressure, humidity and temperature, can also be compensated.
ON THE DIFFERENTIAL AND LINEAR PROPERTIES OF ADDITION

We present a detailed analysis of some of the fundamental differential and linear properties of addition modulo 2: the differential probability xdp of addition modulo 2 when differences are expressed using exclusive-or, the dual differential probability adp of exclusive-or when differences are expressed using addition modulo 2 and the correlation lca of F2-linear approximations of addition modulo 2. We show that xdp, adp and lca can be viewed as formal rational series with linear representations in base 8. For xdp and lca, the linear representations give Θ(log n)-time algorithms for computing xdp and lca, explicit descriptions of all differentials or linear approximations with a given probability or correlation, and allows us to determine the distributions of xdp and lca. For adp, the linear representation immediately gives a linear-time algorithm for computing adp. We analyse the asymptotic average behaviour of adp. In particular, we derive a Fourier representation of a first-order summation function obtained by interpreting differentials as integers in a natural way.
Orientation topography of layer 4 lateral networks revealed by optical imaging in cat visual cortex (area 18)

The functional specificity of corticocortical connections with respect to the topography of orientation selectivity was studied by optical imaging of intrinsic signals and bulk injections of fluorescent latex beads (green and red) and biocytin into layer 4. The distributions of retrogradely labelled cells and anterogradely labelled axon terminals were histologically reconstructed from all cortical laminae, and the resulting anatomical maps compared with the optically imaged functional maps. Layer 4 injections produced extensive horizontal labelling up to 2–3 mm from the injection centres albeit without the clear patchy pattern described after layer 2/3 injections ( Gilbert & Wiesel 1989 , J. Neurosci., 9, 2432–2442; Kisvárday et al. 1997 , Cerebral Cortex, 7, 605–618). The functional (orientation) distribution of the labelled projections was analysed according to laminar location and lateral spread. With regard to the former, no major difference in the orientation topography between supragranular‐ (upper tier), granular‐ (middle tier) and infragranular (lower tier) layers was seen. Laterally, proximal and distal projections were distinguished and further dissected into three orientation categories, iso‐ (± 30°), oblique‐ (± 30–60°) and cross‐orientations (± 60–90°) with respect to the orientation preference at the injection sites. The majority of distal connections (retrograde and anterograde) was equally distributed across orientations (35.4% iso‐, 33.7% oblique‐, and 30.9% cross‐orientations) that are equivalent with a preponderance to dissimilar orientations (oblique‐ and cross‐orientations, 64.6%). In one case, distal excitatory and inhibitory connections could be morphologically distinguished. For both categories, a marked bias to dissimilar orientations was found (excitatory, 63.7%; inhibitory, 86.6%). Taken together, these results suggest that the long‐range layer 4 circuitry has a different functional role from that of the iso‐orientation biased (52.9%, Kisvárday et al. 1997 , Cerebral Cortex, 7, 605–618) layer 2/3 circuitry, and is perhaps involved in feature difference‐based mechanisms, e.g. figure ground segregation.
Occupation and the risk of bothersome tinnitus: results from a prospective cohort study (HUNT)

Objectives Estimates of occupation-specific tinnitus prevalence may help identify high-risk occupations where interventions are warranted. The authors studied the effect of occupation on prevalence of bothersome tinnitus and estimated the attributable fraction due to occupation. The authors also studied how much of the effect remained after adjusting for noise exposure, education income, hearing thresholds and other risk factors. Design A prospective cohort study. Setting A health survey of the Nord-Trøndelag county of Norway. Participants A sample of the general adult population (n=49 948). Primary outcome measure The primary outcome measure is bothersome tinnitus. Results Occupation had a marked effect on tinnitus prevalence. The effect of occupation on tinnitus was reduced in men by controlling for self-reported occupational noise exposure and in women by controlling for education and income. Adding hearing loss as a predictor increased the effect of occupation somewhat. In men, age-adjusted prevalence ratios of tinnitus ranged from 1.5 (workshop mechanics) to 2.1 (crane and hoist operators) in the 10 occupations with highest tinnitus prevalence. In women, the most important contribution to the tinnitus prevalence was from the large group of occupationally inactive persons, with a prevalence ratio of 1.5. Conclusion This study found a moderate association between occupation and bothersome tinnitus.
Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping by Inversion of a Perturbation Field Model: Correlation With Brain Iron in Normal Aging

There is increasing evidence that iron deposition occurs in specific regions of the brain in normal aging and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Alzheimer's disease. Iron deposition changes the magnetic susceptibility of tissue, which alters the MR signal phase, and allows estimation of susceptibility differences using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM). We present a method for quantifying susceptibility by inversion of a perturbation model, or “QSIP. ” The perturbation model relates phase to susceptibility using a kernel calculated in the spatial domain, in contrast to previous Fourier-based techniques. A tissue/air susceptibility atlas is used to estimate B0 inhomogeneity. QSIP estimates in young and elderly subjects are compared to postmortem iron estimates, maps of the Field-Dependent Relaxation Rate Increase, and the L1-QSM method. Results for both groups showed excellent agreement with published postmortem data and in vivo FDRI: statistically significant Spearman correlations ranging from Rho=0.905 to Rho=1.00 were obtained. QSIP also showed improvement over FDRI and L1-QSM: reduced variance in susceptibility estimates and statistically significant group differences were detected in striatal and brainstem nuclei, consistent with age-dependent iron accumulation in these regions.
Key Role of 15-Lipoxygenase/15-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic Acid in Pulmonary Vascular Remodeling and Vascular Angiogenesis Associated With Hypoxic Pulmonary Hypertension

We have found that 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-HETE) induced by hypoxia was an important mediator in the regulation of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension, including the pulmonary vasoconstriction and remodeling. However, the underlying mechanisms of the remodeling induced by 15-HETE are poorly understood. In this study, we performed immunohistochemistry, pulmonary artery endothelial cells migration and tube formation, pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells bromodeoxyuridine incorporation, and cell cycle analysis to determine the role of 15-HETE in hypoxia-induced pulmonary vascular remodeling. We found that hypoxia induced pulmonary vascular medial hypertrophy and intimal endothelial cells migration and angiogenesis, which were mediated by 15-HETE. Moreover, 15-HETE regulated the cell cycle progression and made more smooth muscle cells from the G0/G1 phase to the G2/M+S phase and enhanced the microtubule formation in cell nucleus. In addition, we found that the Rho-kinase pathway was involved in 15-HETE–induced endothelial cells tube formation and migration and smooth muscle cell proliferation. Together, these results show that 15-HETE mediates hypoxia-induced pulmonary vascular remodeling and stimulates angiogenesis via the Rho-kinase pathway.