Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developments in antiplatelet therapy for acute coronary syndromes and considerations for long-term management

ABSTRACT Objective: This article reviews the currently available antiplatelet therapies and emerging investigational drugs in the treatment of acutecoronary syndrome (ACS), and considerations for primary and secondary prevention in the long-term management of ACS patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Research design and methods: Primary studies and reviews in the peer-reviewed, English-language literature were identified through searches of MEDLINE (1966–2008) using the terms ‘acute coronary syndrome’, ‘antiplatelet’, ‘aspirin’, ‘long-term management’, ‘P2Y12 receptor’, and ‘thienopyridine’. Additional references were obtained by searching the reference lists of the identified articles. Articles were included if they were recently published and pertinent, patient-focused, and authors were recognized as leaders in the field. Current review is limited by literature search on single database. Results: Platelets play a major role in atherogenesis and the formation of thrombi, the main events in the pathogenesis of ACS. Although aspirin is an effective antiplatelet agent, efficacy and safety data from a number of randomized clinical trials on atherothrombotic disease support the use of dual antiplatelet therapies such as aspirin and thienopyridines over single antiplatelet therapy for ACS and up to 1 year following ACS. Antiplatelet agents reduce, but do not eliminate, ischemic events after ACS due, in part, to variable individual response (or resistance) in antiplatelet agents, non-compliance, progression of atherosclerosis, modest inhibition of platelet aggregation (IPA) levels and other factors. Several antiplatelet agents, including novel P2Y12-receptor antagonists and thrombin-receptor antagonists, are currently under investigation for ACS and primary and secondary prevention in the long-term management of patients undergoing PCI. Conclusions: Current antiplatelet therapies have clinical benefits such as reducing immediate and long-term cardiovascular risk, but substantial residual risk remains indicating a need for new therapeutic agents. Additional large randomized trials are necessary to determine the most appropriate treatment regimens for ACS patients.
An analog-to-time converter with positive feedback for amplifying miniature neural recordings

This paper presents an analog-to-time converter to handle analog signals in neural recording circuits. The subthreshold MOS operation allows weak input voltages to be exponentially amplified with reduced power dissipation, which is suitable from the implantable applications. The regenerative positive-feedback circuits then translates the analog information to a time-delay in logarithmic manner, which can attain a linear conversion between overall input and output. The capability of processing weak neural activities prevents large gain setting of preamplifier. To demonstrate the concept, a prototype is implemented with 0. 35µm CMOS technology. With input ranging from 415 to 485mV, the output delay varies from 11.6 to 6. 96µs. The power dissipation is 0.58mW from a 3.3V supply.
Application of Extended Taylor Series based Finite Difference Method in photonics

The Finite Difference Method (FDM) has numerous applications in the modelling and design of photonic devices. One of the main limitations to the accuracy and computational efficiency of FDM comes from the presence of discontinuities in the functions describing the unknown physical quantities, e.g. the normal component of the electric field vector field is discontinuous across a step change in the value of the refractive index. The presentation will focus on introducing the concept of the Extended Taylor Series and its application to an elegant and consistent derivation of the Finite Difference approximations to discontinuous functions. Selected illustrating examples will show the significance of the technique for the numerical modelling in photonics.
Erlotinib resistance in EGFR-amplified glioblastoma cells is associated with upregulation of EGFRvIII and PI3Kp110δ.

BACKGROUND The treatment efficacy of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors like erlotinib has not met expectations for glioblastoma therapy, even for EGFR-overexpressing tumors. We determined possible mechanisms of therapy resistance using the unique BS153 glioblastoma cell line, which has retained amplification of the egfr gene and expression of EGFR variant (v)III. METHODS Functional effects of erlotinib, gefitinib, and cetuximab on BS153 proliferation, migration, and EGFR-dependent signal transduction were systematically compared in vitro. The tumor-initiating capacity of parental and treatment-resistant BS153 was studied in Naval Medical Research Institute/Foxn1(nu) mice. Potential mediators of resistance were knocked down using small interfering (si)RNA. RESULTS Erlotinib and gefitinib inhibited proliferation and migration of BS153 in a dose-dependent manner, whereas cetuximab had no effect. BS153 developed resistance to erlotinib (BS153(resE)) but not to gefitinib. Resistance was associated with strong upregulation of EGFRvIII and subsequent activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase (PI3K) pathway in BS153(resE) and an increased expression of the regulatory 110-kDa delta subunit of PI3K (p110δ). Knockdown of EGFRvIII in BS153(resE) largely restored sensitivity to erlotinib. Targeting PI3K pharmacologically caused a significant decrease in cell viability, and specifically targeting p110δ by siRNA partially restored erlotinib sensitivity in BS153(resE). In vivo, BS153 formed highly invasive tumors with an unusual growth pattern, displaying numerous satellites distant from the initial injection site. Erlotinib resistance led to delayed onset of tumor growth as well as prolonged overall survival of mice without changing tumor morphology. CONCLUSIONS EGFRvIII can mediate resistance to erlotinib in EGFR-amplified glioblastoma via an increase in PI3Kp110δ. Interfering with PI3Kp110δ can restore sensitivity toward the tyrosine kinase inhibitor.
Cytoplasmic stress fibers in the developing heart

Rhodamine‐conjugated phalloidin staining was used to study the distribution of filamentous actin in the developing heart of embryonic chicks and rats during the morphogenetic period of cardiac septation. In the chick, intense fluorescence indicative of abundant filamentous actin was observed along the myocardium and in the mesenchymal condensations that formed within the aorticopulmonary septum at day 5. Such cellular condensations and concentration of filamentous actin were not seen in the atrioventricular cushions nor in the preseptation outflow tract. Similar results were found in the 14‐day rat embryo. In electron micrographs, microfilament bundles with irregular dense bodies were seen in elongated mesenchymal cells between the valve sites of both species. Cell‐cell contacts were observed between such elongated cells and myocyte processes protruding from the nearby myocardial sheath. These histochemical and ultrastructural observations suggest that such mesenchymal condensations serve a specialized mechanical tensile role during embryonic septation of cardiac outflow channels.
dBCube: A New Class of Hierarchical Multiprocessor Interconnection Networks with Area Efficient Layout

Introduces a class of hierarchical networks that is suitable for implementation of large multi-computers in VLSI with wafer scale integration (VLSI/WSI) technology. These networks, which are termed dBCube, employ the hypercube topology as a basic cluster, connect many of these clusters using a de Bruijn graph, and maintain the node connectivity to be the same for all nodes product graph. The size of this class of regular networks can be easily extended by increments of a cluster size. Local communication, to be satisfied by the hypercube topology, allows easy embedding of existing parallel algorithms, while the de Bruijn graph, which was chosen for JPL's 8096-node multiprocessor, provides the shortest distance between clusters running different parts of an application. A scheme for obtaining WSI layout is introduced and used to estimate the number of tracks needed and the required area of the wafer. The exact number of tracks in the hypercube and an approximation for the de Bruijn graph are also obtained. Tradeoffs of area versus static parameters and the size of the hypercube versus that of the de Bruijn graph are also discussed. >
Prospective Validation of the Dante Pazzanese Risk Score in Non-STSegment Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background In non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (ACS), the likelihood of adverse events should be estimated. Guidelines recommend risk stratification models for that purpose. The Dante Pazzanese risk score (DANTE score) is a simple risk stratification model composed with the following variables: age increase (0 to 9 points); history of diabetes mellitus (2 points) or stroke (4 points); no use of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor (1 point); creatinine elevation (0 to 10 points); combination of troponin elevation and ST-segment depression (0 to 4 points). Objective To validate the DANTE score in patients with non-ST-segment elevation ACS. Methods Prospective, observational study including 457 patients, from September 2009 to October 2010. The patients were grouped in risk categories according to the original model score as follows: very low; low; intermediate; and high. The predictive ability of the score was assessed by using C-statistics. Results The sample comprised 291 (63.7%) men, the mean age being 62.1 years (SD=11.04). The event death or (re) infarction in 30 days was observed in 17 patients (3.7%). Progressive increase in the proportion of events was observed as the score increased: very low risk = 0.0%; low risk = 3.9%; intermediate risk = 10.9%; high risk = 60.0%; p < 0.0001. C-statistics was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.81-0.94; p < 0.0001). Conclusion DANTE score showed an excellent capacity to predict the specific events, and can be incorporated to the prognostic assessment of patients with non-ST-segment elevation ACS.
Work disability and diabetes.

OBJECTIVE To determine the rates and demographic determinants of work disability, hours worked per week, work-loss days, and wages in individuals with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A probit regression analysis was performed on a cross-sectional population-based survey of U.S. noninstitutionalized civilian population (National Medical Expenditures Survey--2, 1987). The sample was restricted to individuals aged > or = 25 years. A total of 1,502 individuals reported having diabetes, and 20,405 did not. Information on workforce participation and income were collected quarterly. Work disability was defined as a self-report of having been unable to work because of illness or disability for > or = 2 quarters in 1987. RESULTS Work disability was reported by 25.6% of individuals with diabetes, compared with 7.8% of those without diabetes. Work disability rates were higher for older people, females, and African-Americans, and lower for Hispanics and for individuals with greater non-wage income. Individuals with diabetes engaged in the workforce had more work-loss days than did nondiabetic individuals, but had similar hourly wages. Predicted mean earnings were significantly lower for individuals with diabetes at all ages, resulting in $4.7 million loss in earnings in 1987 due to work disability. CONCLUSIONS Work disability is significantly higher for individuals with diabetes than for those without diabetes at all ages, and results in a significant decrease in earnings. A disproportionate burden of work disability is borne by older individuals and women with diabetes. Better information on the determinants of work disability in individuals with diabetes is needed.
Evaluating Labor Productivity in Food Retailing

Competition from new store formats including supercenters, warehouse clubs, and mass merchandisers has emerged as a major threat to traditional grocery chains. A primary objective of this paper is to understand how the store-level performance is related to the workforce composition of full-time and part-time employees chosen by the food retailer along with benefits and incentives provided to employees. The elasticity of complementarity for food retailers measures how changes in store size affect use of full-time and part-time employees. Larger store size increases the marginal value of labor, and firm hiring decisions shift to expanded use of part-time employees.
Perception-motivated high dynamic range video encoding

Due to rapid technological progress in high dynamic range (HDR) video capture and display, the efficient storage and transmission of such data is crucial for the completeness of any HDR imaging pipeline. We propose a new approach for inter-frame encoding of HDR video, which is embedded in the well-established MPEG-4 video compression standard. The key component of our technique is luminance quantization that is optimized for the contrast threshold perception in the human visual system. The quantization scheme requires only 10--11 bits to encode 12 orders of magnitude of visible luminance range and does not lead to perceivable contouring artifacts. Besides video encoding, the proposed quantization provides perceptually-optimized luminance sampling for fast implementation of any global tone mapping operator using a lookup table. To improve the quality of synthetic video sequences, we introduce a coding scheme for discrete cosine transform (DCT) blocks with high contrast. We demonstrate the capabilities of HDR video in a player, which enables decoding, tone mapping, and applying post-processing effects in real-time. The tone mapping algorithm as well as its parameters can be changed interactively while the video is playing. We can simulate post-processing effects such as glare, night vision, and motion blur, which appear very realistic due to the usage of HDR data.
Fast segmentation of kidney components using random forests and ferns

Purpose: This paper studies the feasibility of developing a fast and accurate automatic kidney component segmentation method. The proposed method segments the kidney into four components: renal cortex, renal column, renal medulla, and renal pelvis. Method: In this article, we have proposed a highly efficient approach which strategically combines random forests and random ferns methods to segment the kidney into four components: renal cortex, renal column, renal medulla, and renal pelvis. The proposed method is designed following a coarse‐to‐fine strategy. The initial segmentation applies random forests and random ferns with a variety of features, and combines their results to obtain a coarse renal cortex region. Then the fine segmentation of four kidney components is achieved using the weighted forests‐ferns approach with the well‐designed potential energy features which are calculated based on the initial segmentation result. The proposed method was validated on a dataset with 37 contrast‐enhanced CT images. Evaluation indices including Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), true positive volume fraction (TPVF), and false positive volume fraction (FPVF) are used to assess the segmentation accuracy. The proposed method was implemented and tested on a 64‐bit system computer (Intel Core i7‐3770 CPU, 3.4 GHz and 8 GB RAM). Results: The experimental results demonstrated the high accuracy and efficiency for segmenting the kidney components: the mean Dice similarity coefficients were 89.85%, 80.60%, 86.63%, and 77.75% for renal cortex, column, medulla, and pelvis, respectively, for right and left kidneys. The computational time of segmenting the whole kidney into four components was about 3 s. Conclusions: The experimental results showed the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed automatic kidney component segmentation method. The proposed method applied an efficient weighted strategy to combine random forests and ferns, making full use of the advantages of both methods. The novel potential energy features help random forests effectively segment the kidney components and the background. The high accuracy and efficiency of our method make it practicable in clinical applications.
An Empirical Research in the Stock Market of Shanghai by GARCH Model

GARCH model is a kind of time series model developed after 1982. It reflects a special feature of (economic) variables-time-varying variances. So it plays the important role in the financial market. We introduce the form and classes of GARCH in this article in detail, then we establish the GARCH(1,1)-t and GARCH(1,1)-normal model to analyse the risk of stock market. The result indicates that GARCH(1,1)-t model is better than others.
HMt, a histone-related protein from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum delta H

HMt, a histone-related protein, has been isolated and characterized from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum delta H. HMt preparations contain two polypeptides designated HMt1 and HMt2, encoded by the hmtA and hmtB genes, respectively, that have been cloned, sequenced, and expressed in Escherichia coli. HMt1 and HMt2 are predicted to contain 68 and 67 amino acid residues, respectively, and have calculated molecular masses of 7,275 and 7,141 Da, respectively. Aligning the amino acid sequences of HMt1 and HMt2 with the sequences of HMf1 and HMf2, the subunit polypeptides of HMf, a histone-related protein from the hyperthermophile Methanothermus fervidus, revealed that 40 amino acid residues (approximately 60%) are conserved in all four polypeptides. In pairwise comparisons, these four polypeptides are 66 to 84% identical. The sequences and locations of the TATA box promoter elements and ribosome binding sites are very similar upstream of the hmtA and hmtB genes in M. thermoautotrophicum and upstream of the hmfA and hmfB genes in M. fervidus. HMt binding compacted linear pUC19 DNA molecules in vitro and therefore increased their electrophoretic mobilities through agarose gels. At protein/DNA mass ratios of < 0.2:1, HMt binding caused an increase in the overall negative superhelicity of relaxed, circular DNA molecules, but at HMt/DNA mass ratios of > 0.2:1, positive supercoils were introduced into these molecules. HMt and HMf are indistinguishable in terms of their abilities to compact and constrain DNA molecules in positive toroidal supercoils in vitro. Histone-related proteins with these properties are therefore not limited to reverse gyrase-containing hyperthermophilic species.
Setting the Bar in Phase II Trials: The Use of Historical Data for Determining “Go/No Go” Decision for Definitive Phase III Testing

Purpose: Phase II trials aim to determine whether a cancer treatment is sufficiently promising to justify phase III study. Whether an agent is declared promising in a phase II trial depends on prespecified “null” and “alternative” rates of an outcome of interest such as tumor response. In some cases, the null must be determined with reference to historical data. We sought to determine the proportion of phase II trials that require historical data to establish the null and to determine how these historical estimates were derived. Experimental Design: We conducted a systematic review of phase II trials published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology or Cancer in the 3 years to June 2005. Data were extracted following a prespecified protocol. Results: We retrieved 251 papers, of which 117 were found to be ineligible; 70 of 134 included trials (52%) were defined as requiring historical data for design. Nearly half (32, 46%) of these papers did not cite the source of the historical data used, and just 9 (13%) clearly gave a single historical estimate as the rationale for the null. Trials that failed to cite prior data appropriately were significantly more likely to declare an agent to be active (82% versus 33%; P = 0.005). No study incorporated statistical methods to account for either sampling error or possible differences in case mix between the phase II sample and the historical cohort. Conclusions: Many phase II trials require historical data to determine null response rates. Simple guidelines may improve design and reporting of such trials.
Predictors of stent thrombosis after primary stenting for acute myocardial infarction

The aim of the study was to determine if a hypercoagulable state that may persist for several months after an acute myocardial infarction may contribute to an increased incidence of stent thrombosis. Primary stenting was performed in 104 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction using 147 coronary stents. Twenty‐eight patients (27%) were diabetic and 55 patients (53%) were smokers. A single stent was placed in 63%, two stents in 33%, and more than two stents in 4% of the patients. Procedural success was obtained in 97% of the patients. All stents were deployed using high‐pressure balloon inflation. The reference vessel diameter and minimal lumen diameter after stent deployment were 3.30 ± 0.42 and 3.23 ± 0.42 mm, respectively. Six patients (5.7%) developed stent thrombosis within 1 month after the procedure complicated by reinfarction in five of the six patients. At 1‐month follow‐up, all patients remained alive. On multivariate analysis, independent predictors of stent thrombosis were diabetes mellitus (relative risk [RR] 5.2; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8, 25.1), tobacco use (RR 4.5; 95% CI 1.3, 24.5), number of stents: 1 vs. > 1 (RR 3.7; 95% CI 1.1, 15.9), minimal lumen diameter poststent placement (RR 0.03; 95% CI 0.0002, 0.74), and duration of chest pain before intervention (RR 1.1; 95% CI 1.01, 1.25). Stent thrombosis had not been associated with diabetes mellitus and tobacco use previously but is in agreement with the enhanced platelet aggregability, coagulation factor abnormalities, and impaired fibrinolysis characteristic of these patients. Cathet. Cardiovasc. Intervent. 47:415–422, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
To Stay or Not to Stay: Adolescent Client, Parent, and Counselor Perspectives on Leaving Substance Abuse Treatment Early

Increasing motivation and raising retention rates are considerable challenges for providers of adolescent substance abuse treatment. Research has shown that motivation for treatment, social influences (peers, family, counselors), and for some clients external pressure from the juvenile justice system, can serve as key factors in successful retention. To further understand influences on motivation and retention, focus groups were conducted in two residential treatment facilities. Adolescent clients, parents, and treatment staff were asked to describe their experiences with the treatment process focusing specifically on factors related to treatment attrition and retention. Qualitative data analysis revealed five themes affecting retention either positively or negatively. Themes included relationships (with family, peers, and counselors), responsibility (degree to which clients embrace jobs, roles, and rules), emotional regulation (ability to express feelings appropriately), thinking (identifying behavior patterns and recognizing consequences), and self-efficacy (feelings of empowerment). Implications for future research and for developing strategies aimed at increasing motivation and retention are discussed.