Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contribution of Fibrinogen to Inflammation and Neuronal Density in Human Traumatic Brain Injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability, particularly among the young. Despite this, no disease-specific treatments exist. Recently, blood-brain barrier disruption and parenchymal fibrinogen deposition have been reported in acute traumatic brain injury and in long-term survival; however, their contribution to the neuropathology of TBI remains unknown. The presence of fibrinogen-a well-documented activator of microglia/macrophages-may be associated with neuroinflammation, and neuronal/axonal injury. To test this hypothesis, cases of human TBI with survival times ranging from 12 h to 13 years (survival <2 months, n = 15; survival >1 year, n = 6) were compared with uninjured controls (n = 15). Tissue was selected from the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, corpus callosum, cingulate gyrus, and brainstem, and the extent of plasma protein (fibrinogen and immunoglobulin G [IgG]) deposition, microglial/macrophage activation (CD68 and ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 [Iba-1] immunoreactivity), neuronal density, and axonal transport impairment (β-amyloid precursor protein [βAPP] immunoreactivity) were assessed. Quantitative analysis revealed a significant increase in parenchymal fibrinogen and IgG deposition following acute TBI compared with long-term survival and control. Fibrinogen, but not IgG, was associated with microglial/macrophage activation and a significant reduction in neuronal density. Perivascular fibrinogen deposition also was associated with microglial/macrophage clustering and accrual of βAPP in axonal spheroids, albeit rarely. These findings mandate the future exploration of causal relationships between fibrinogen deposition, microglia/macrophage activation, and potential neuronal loss in acute TBI.
Interactive comment on “ Soil respiration compartments on an aging managed heathland : can model selection procedures contribute to our understanding of ecosystem processes ? ” by G

All three reviewers made remarks about the types of model details that were reported. Reviewer 1 commented particularly with regards to details of the fittest model, such as including qq plots and information about residual variance. Reviewer 3 indicated he/she had doubts about the low RMSE values for one model (the GLMM-T model) in which the functional form was almost identical to another model (Selsted). In addition, some elaboration was requested by both reviewers on the decisions made within the modeling process or modeling details. The remarks by both reviewers were very appropriate and we have tried to deal with these points by including the requested additions in a new table (Table 4: residual variance), in a new appendix (Appendix D: diagnostic plots) and several sections within the text.
A Stretchable Polymer–Carbon Nanotube Composite Electrode for Flexible Lithium‐Ion Batteries: Porosity Engineering by Controlled Phase Separation

Flexible energy‐storage devices have attracted growing attention with the fast development of bendable electronic systems. However, it still remains a challenge to find reliable electrode materials with both high mechanical flexibility/toughness and excellent electron and lithium‐ion conductivity. This paper reports the fabrication and characterization of highly porous, stretchable, and conductive polymer nanocomposites embedded with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for application in flexible lithium‐ion batteries. The systematic optimization of the porous morphology is performed by controllably inducing the phase separation of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and removing PMMA, in order to generate well‐controlled pore networks. It is demonstrated that the porous CNT‐embedded PDMS nanocomposites are capable of good electrochemical performance with mechanical flexibility, suggesting these nanocomposites could be outstanding anode candidates for use in flexible lithium‐ion batteries. The optimization of the pore size and the volume fraction provides higher capacity by nearly seven‐fold compared to a nonporous nanocomposite.
Early And Long Term Outcomes Of Aortic Valve Surgery Combined Or Not With Cabg Surgery

Surgery of aortic valve began since the years ‘80 of the last century treating initially the rheumatic and infectious pathology of aortic valve continuing later with degenerative one in our country. It has been seen a trend of change of nature of aortic valve pathology toward atherosclerotic etiology in the last two decades with the change of life style, increase of mean age of population and progression of surgical management of old age patients.
Calculation of the Connected Dominating Set Considering Vertex Importance Metrics

The computation of a set constituted by few vertices to define a virtual backbone supporting information interchange is a problem that arises in many areas when analysing networks of different natures, like wireless, brain, or social networks. Recent papers propose obtaining such a set of vertices by computing the connected dominating set (CDS) of a graph. In recent works, the CDS has been obtained by considering that all vertices exhibit similar characteristics. However, that assumption is not valid for complex networks in which their vertices can play different roles. Therefore, we propose finding the CDS by taking into account several metrics which measure the importance of each network vertex e.g., error probability, entropy, or entropy variation (EV).
Novel imaging biomarkers of response to transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common cause of cancer death worldwide (1). Most patients present with intermediate or advanced disease that is not amenable to curative treatment, and the median survival in this group is 6-8 months (2). Several studies and well-designed randomized trials have shown a positive effect of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) on patient outcome and survival (3-8). As nicely described in the present article from Wang et al. , assessment of tumor response is of extreme importance in patients undergoing locoregional treatments of liver cancer (9). Early assessment of the effectiveness of TACE and monitoring of tumor response are paramount to the identification of treatment failure, guidance of future therapy, and determination of the interval for repeat treatment. Wang et al. confirm in this article that imaging evaluation of HCC response to therapy is generally and widely performed with cross-sectional imaging [computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)] by using the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) criteria and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) criteria which have been introduced in the past decade (9). It is interesting to note that these criteria are not based on experimental or observational studies, but are proposed as revised versions of World Health Organization (WHO) and RECIST criteria (10-13). Initial reports showed that they were better than the latter for assessment of response, and both have been shown to be independent prognostic factors (14-19). Nevertheless, these criteria have been shown to have several limitations, mainly the lack of standardization, and there are concerns about applicability and reproducibility that have been raised. Indeed, they may be difficult to use, especially in heterogeneous lesions, and their use is dependent on operator experience. Although recent guidelines have acknowledged the potential value of these new criteria, they are not considered robust enough to replace older morphological criteria in trials (18). As a result, since they were first introduced, numerous studies have been published to better define the type and optimal number of target lesions, the ideal imaging technique, and the follow-up schedule. At present most teams perform one-dimensional mRECIST or two-dimensional EASL measurement of the enhanced portion of a maximum of two target lesions (18,19). Nevertheless, very recent data have suggested that three-dimensional (3D) evaluation of the whole tumor burden using specific software, functional imaging or cone-beam CT (CBCT) imaging may be of interest as novel imaging biomarkers to predict future tumor response to TACE in HCC patients (10,20-27).
Phosphate-Linked Silibinin Dimers (PLSd): New Promising Modified Metabolites

By exploiting the regioselective protection of the hydroxyl groups of silibinin along with the well-known phosphoramidite chemistry, we have developed an efficient strategy for the synthesis of new silibinin-modified species, which we have named Phosphate-Linked Silibinin Dimers (PLSd), in which the monomer units are linked by phosphodiester bonds. The antioxidant abilities of the new PLSd were estimated on HepG2 cells using DPPH free radical scavenging and xanthine/xanthine oxidase assays. The new phosphate-metabolites showed a higher anti-oxidant activity than the silibinin, as well as very low toxicity. The ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as singlet oxygen (O21) and hydroxyl radical (HO•) reveals that the two dimers are able to scavenge HO• about two times more effectively than silibinin. Finally, solubility studies have shown that the PLSd present good water solubility (more than 20 mg·L−1) under circumneutral pH values, whereas the silibinin was found to be very poorly soluble (less than 0.4 mg·L−1) and not stable under alkaline conditions. Together, the above promising results warrant further investigation of the future potential of the PLSd as anti-oxidant metabolites within the large synthetic polyphenols field.
Lenvatinib-induced renal failure: two first-time case reports and review of literature

ABSTRACT Introduction: Lenvatinib (LEN) is a multi-kinase anti-angiogenic drug recently approved in several cancers. LEN is not easily manageable due to its complex safety profile. Proteinuria and renal failure (RF) were reported among the most frequent LEN-induced adverse events (AEs), often leading to discontinuations or dose modifications. Understanding the pathogenesis of these AEs could ameliorate the management of LEN-induced renal toxicity. Areas covered: We present two cases of LEN-induced renal failure (LIRF) with different pathogenesis. 1) LIRF with severe proteinuria in a man treated for a metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma. Kidney biopsy showed a glomerular damage secondary to LEN, having excluded other causes of RF. 2) LIRF without proteinuria in a woman with metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma of minor salivary gland. A tubulointerstitial nephropathy was supposed by clinical evaluation and laboratory tests. Effective management was obtained by oral steroids without interrupting LEN. Expert opinion: The case 1 presented for the first time the histological picture of LIRF with a classical glomerular damage leading to secondary proteinuria and tubular failure. Case 2 showed an alternative LIRF pattern of likely tubulointerstitial injury without proteinuria. These reports reflect two sides of the same coin, both to be considered in case of LIRF.
Deterministic Worst-Case Performance Analysis for Wireless Sensor Networks

Dimensioning wireless sensor networks requires formal methods to guarantee network performance and cost in any conditions. Based on network calculus, this paper presents a deterministic analysis method for evaluating the worst-case performance and buffer cost of sensor networks. To this end, we introduce three general traffic flow operators and derive their delay and buffer bounds. These operators are general because they can be used in combination to model any complex traffic flowing scenarios in sensor networks. Furthermore, our method integrates variable duty cycle to allow the sensor nodes to operate at lower rates thus saving power. Moreover, it incorporates traffic splitting mechanisms in order to balance network workload and nodes' buffers. To show how our method applies to real applications, we conduct a case study on a fresh food tracking application, which monitors the food freshness in realtime. The experimental results demonstrate that our method can be either used to perform network planning before deployment, or to conduct network reconfiguration after deployment.
Voting with Ties: Strong Impossibilities via SAT Solving

Voting rules allow groups of agents to aggregate their preferences in order to reach joint decisions. The Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem, a seminal result in social choice theory, implies that, when agents have strict preferences, all anonymous, Pareto-optimal, and single-valued voting rules can be strategically manipulated. In this paper, we consider multi-agent voting when there can be ties in the preferences as well as in the outcomes. These assumptions are extremely natural---especially when there are large numbers of alternatives---and enable us to prove much stronger results than in the overly restrictive setting of strict preferences. In particular, we show that (i) all anonymous Pareto-optimal rules where ties are broken according to the preferences of a chairman or by means of even-chance lotteries are manipulable, and that (ii) all pairwise Pareto-optimal rules are manipulable, no matter how ties are broken. These results are proved by reducing the statements to finite---yet very large---problems, which are encoded as formulas in propositional logic and then shown to be unsatisfiable by a SAT solver. We also extracted human-readable proofs from minimal unsatisfiable cores of the formulas in question, which were in turn verified by an interactive higher-order theorem prover.
Accuracy and Reliability of a Handheld, Nonmydriatic Fundus Camera for the Remote Detection of Optic Disc Edema.

BACKGROUND Optic disc edema can be an important indicator of serious neurological disease, but is poorly detected using the direct ophthalmoscope. Portable fundus photography may overcome this difficulty. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of a handheld, nonmydriatic fundus camera for the detection of optic disc edema. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective review of nonmydriatic optic disc photographs taken with a portable fundus camera (Pictor Plus; Volk Optical, Mentor, OH) from the University of Michigan Neuro-Ophthalmology Clinics. We included 103 consecutive eyes with optic disc edema and 103 consecutive eyes without optic disc edema of 109 patients. Four masked neuro-ophthalmologists graded a single photograph of each optic disc presented in randomized order and documented the presence of optic disc edema. Sensitivity and specificity of graders' photographic interpretation was compared with clinical examinations. Reliability of assessments within and between graders was determined using kappa statistics. RESULTS The sensitivity and specificity for detection of optic disc edema were 71.8-92.2% and 81.6-95.2%, respectively. Photos were found to be ungradable in 0-8.3% of cases. The intergrader reliabilities ranged from 0.60 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.52-0.67] to 0.72 (95% CI: 0.66-0.77). Intragrader reliability ranged from 0.76 (95% CI: 0.63-0.92) to 0.82 (95% CI: 0.69-0.95). DISCUSSION Photographs taken with portable, nonmydriatic technology met threshold sensitivity and specificity for remote screening for optic disc edema when performed by most, but not all graders. Reliability between graders was moderate-strong and strong within individual providers. CONCLUSIONS Portable photography holds promise for use in remote screening of optic disc edema.
Evolution of the serologic response to Borrelia burgdorferi in treated patients with culture-confirmed erythema migrans

We investigated the appearance and evolution of immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi in 46 patients with culture-proven erythema migrans (EM). All patients received antimicrobial treatment and were prospectively evaluated for up to 1 year. A total of 257 serially collected serum samples were tested by commercial IgG-IgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and separate IgM and IgG immunoblots (IBs). At the baseline, 33% of the patients had a positive ELISA result and 43% of the patients had a positive IgM IB result by using the criteria of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-Association of State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors for the interpretation of IB results. Positive serology at the baseline and the rate of seroconversion correlated directly with disease duration and/or evidence of dissemination prior to treatment. At days 8 to 14 after the baseline, 91% of patients had a positive ELISA result and/or IgM IB result. Peak IgM antibody levels were seen at this time in patients with localized or disseminated disease. The most frequent IgM bands at the baseline and the peak were of 24 kDa (OspC), 41 kDa, and 37 kDa. Although 89% of the patients developed IgG antibodies as determined at a follow-up examination, only 22% were positive by the IgG IB criteria of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-Association of State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors. The persistence of antibodies was directly related to disease duration and/or dissemination prior to treatment. Since IgM antibodies to the 24- and 41-kDa antigens remained detectable for long periods, 38% of IgM IBs were still positive at 1 year postbaseline. IgM to antigens of 39, 58, 60, 66, or 93 kDa, conversely, were most often seen in sera obtained within 1 month postbaseline. Their presence may be of assistance in confirming a recent infection with B. burgdorferi in individuals living in areas where Lyme disease is endemic.
Study of Structure of Li- and Mn-rich Transition Metal Oxides Using 4D-STEM

The structure of Liand Mn-rich transition metal oxides (Li1+xM1-xO2, where M is usually a combination of transition metals such as Mn, Co and Ni, called LMRTMO henceforth) has been debated extensively for the past several years. It has been recently shown, by imaging entire primary particles at atomic resolution at multiple zone axes using high angle annular dark field (HAADF-) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), that the bulk of the oxides can be described as an aperiodic crystal consisting of randomly stacked domains that correspond to three variants of monoclinic structure [1] as shown in Figure 1 (a). Using HAADF-STEM, it was demonstrated that the particles did not contain two phases (trigonal and monoclinic) in the bulk as described earlier [2], since the size of the primary particles was small enough show that the monoclinic phase was the only phase present in entire particles. However, larger sized particles are often preferred for the cathode materials in order to obtain better volumetric energy density. For these applications, imaging entire particles at atomic resolution is very difficult and in some cases impossible owing to regions of higher thickness. In this paper we demonstrate the use of 4D-STEM [3] using large fields of view on a commercial cathode material to confirm that the bulk of the primary particles is made up of a single phase and consists of domains corresponding to three variants of monoclinic phase.
Choriocapillaris degeneration and related pathologic changes in human diabetic eyes.

OBJECTIVES To measure the extent of choriocapillaris degeneration (CCD) in diabetic choroids and to study the association of CCD with choroidal neovascularization and pathologic changes in Bruch's membrane-like basal laminar deposits. MATERIALS AND METHODS Human choroids from 10 postmortem subjects (diabetic, 5 [group 1]; nondiabetic, 5 [group 2]) were incubated for the histochemical demonstration of alkaline phosphatase and nonspecific esterase activities, permitting analysis of the choroidal vasculature and polymorphonuclear leukocytes, respectively. The tissue was then flat embedded and sectioned for structural analysis. Areas of CCD were measured in the flat perspective by computer-assisted image analysis and verified in cross-sections of flat-embedded tissue. RESULTS The CCD in choroids from subjects with diabetes (group 1) appeared in 2 patterns: diffuse (partial loss of alkaline phosphatase activity in a poorly defined area, ie, degeneration of some capillary segments) and focal (complete degeneration of choriocapillaris or loss of alkaline phosphatase activity in a relatively well-defined area). The mean+/-SD percentage of the choroid with focal CCD in group 1 was 5.08%+/-1.13% of the total choroidal area vs 1. 16%+/-0.35% in group 2 (P<.001). Focal CCD in group 1 was more prominent in the posterior pole than in the peripheral choroid. Choroidal neovascularization was associated with some areas of diffuse CCD in group 1. Pathologic changes in Bruch's membrane-like basal laminar deposits were often associated with CCD; the thickness of the deposits was greater in group 1 than in group 2 and greater in areas with focal CCD than in areas with diffuse or no CCD. CONCLUSION The percentage of choroid with focal CCD in group 1 choroids was more than 4-fold greater than that in nondiabetic choroids. The presence of CCD was related to basal laminar deposits and, in some cases, to choroidal neovascularization.
Effect of frequency of clinic visits and medication pick‐up on antiretroviral treatment outcomes: a systematic literature review and meta‐analysis

Introduction: Expanding and sustaining antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage may require simplified HIV service delivery strategies that concomitantly reduce the burden of care on the health system and patients while ensuring optimal outcomes. We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of reduced frequency of clinic visits and drug dispensing on patient outcomes.
Evaluating the Performance of MLP Neural Network and GRNN in Active Cancellation of Sound Noise

Active noise control (ANC) is based on the destructive interference between the primary noise and generated noise from the secondary source. An antinoise signal with equal amplitude and opposite phase is generated and combined with the primary noise. In this paper, the performance of two kinds of feedforward neural networks in active noise cancellation is evaluated. For this reason, multilayer perceptron (MLP) and generalized regression neural networks (GRNN) are designed and trained with acoustic noise signals. After training, performance of these networks in noise attenuation is investigated and compared. In order to compare the two networks, training and test samples are similar. Sound noise signals are selected from SPIB database. The results of simulation show the ability of MLP network and GRNN in active cancellation of sound noise. As it is seen, multilayer perceptron network has better performance in noise attenuation than the generalized regression neural network. 1