Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Numerical analysis of thermal impact of intramyocardial capillary blood flow during radiofrequency cardiac ablation

Abstract Purpose: The thermal effect of the intramyocardial blood perfusion on the size of lesions created by radiofrequency cardiac ablation (RFCA) has not been adequately studied to date. Our objective was to assess the impact of including this phenomenon in RFCA computer modelling in terms of the thermal lesion depth created. Methods: A computer model was built and computer simulations were conducted to assess the effect of including the blood perfusion term in the bioheat equation. This term mimics the intramyocardial blood flow (i.e., blood perfusion) in the cardiac wall at the site at which the RFCA is being conducted and hence represents a heat removing mechanism. When considered, blood perfusion rates ranged from 609 to 1719 ml/min/kg. Two electrode design and modes were considered: a non-irrigated electrode with constant temperature mode and an irrigated electrode with constant power mode. Results: All the depths computed without including the blood perfusion term were larger than those that did include it, regardless of perfusion rate. The differences in lesion depth between ignoring and including blood perfusion increased over time; for a 60 s RFCA they were 0.45 and 1 mm for minimum and maximum perfusion rate, respectively. The differences were more or less independent of blood flow in the cardiac chamber, electrode type and ablation mode. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the heat-sink effect of blood perfusion should be taken into account in the case of ablations (>1 minute) such as those conducted in RFCA of the ventricular wall.
“Summer Shift”: A Potential Effect of Sunshine on the Time Onset of ST‐Elevation Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background ST‐elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) represents one of the leading causes of death. The time of STEMI onset has a circadian rhythm with a peak during diurnal hours, and the occurrence of STEMI follows a seasonal pattern with a salient peak of cases in the winter months and a marked reduction of cases in the summer months. Scholars investigated the reason behind the winter peak, suggesting that environmental and climatic factors concur in STEMI pathogenesis, but no studies have investigated whether the circadian rhythm is modified with the seasonal pattern, in particular during the summer reduction in STEMI occurrence. Methods and Results Here, we provide a multiethnic and multination epidemiological study (from both hemispheres at different latitudes, n=2270 cases) that investigates whether the circadian variation of STEMI onset is altered in the summer season. The main finding is that the difference between numbers of diurnal (6:00 to 18:00) and nocturnal (18:00 to 6:00) STEMI is markedly decreased in the summer season, and this is a prodrome of a complex mechanism according to which the circadian rhythm of STEMI time onset seems season dependent. Conclusions The “summer shift” of STEMI to the nocturnal interval is consistent across different populations, and the sunshine duration (a measure related to cloudiness and solar irradiance) underpins this season‐dependent circadian perturbation. Vitamin D, which in our results seems correlated with this summer shift, is also primarily regulated by the sunshine duration, and future studies should investigate their joint role in the mechanisms of STEMI etiogenesis.
Use of Ontologies for Cross-lingual Information Management in the Web

We present the ontology-based approach for crosslingual information management of web content that has been developed by the EC-funded project CROSSMARC. CROSSMARC can be perceived as a meta-search engine, which identifies domainspecific information from the Web. To achieve this, it employs agents for web crawling, spidering, information extraction from web pages, data storage, and data presentation to the user. Domain ontologies are exploited by each of these agents in different ways. The paper presents the ontology structure and maintenance before describing how domain ontologies are exploited by CROSSMARC agents.
Towards an understanding of regulating Cajal body activity by protein modification

ABSTRACT The biogenesis of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), small Cajal body-specific RNPs (scaRNPs), small nucleolar RNPs (snoRNPs) and the telomerase RNP involves Cajal bodies (CBs). Although many components enriched in the CB contain post-translational modifications (PTMs), little is known about how these modifications impact individual protein function within the CB and, in concert with other modified factors, collectively regulate CB activity. Since all components of the CB also reside in other cellular locations, it is also important that we understand how PTMs affect the subcellular localization of CB components. In this review, we explore the current knowledge of PTMs on the activity of proteins known to enrich in CBs in an effort to highlight current progress as well as illuminate paths for future investigation.
Immune Profile Predicts Survival and Reflects Senescence in a Small, Long-Lived Mammal, the Greater Sac-Winged Bat (Saccopteryx bilineata)

The immune system imposes costs that may have to be traded against investment of resources in other costly life-history traits. Yet, it is unknown if a trade-off between immunity and longevity occurs in free-ranging mammals. Here, we tested if age and survival, two aspects associated with longevity, are linked to immune parameters in an 8 g bat species. Using a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal data, we assessed whether total white blood cell (WBC) counts, bacterial killing ability of the plasma (BKA) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration change with age. Furthermore, we asked if these immune parameters impose costs resulting in decreased survival probabilities. We found that WBC counts decreased with age both within and among individuals. IgG concentrations were higher in older individuals, but did not change with age within individuals. Furthermore, individuals with above average WBC counts or IgG concentration had lower probabilities to survive the next six months. High WBC counts and IgG concentrations may reflect infections with parasites and pathogens, however, individuals that were infected with trypanosomes or nematodes showed neither higher WBC counts or IgG concentrations, nor was infection connected with survival rates. BKA was higher in infected compared with uninfected bats, but not related to age or survival. In conclusion, cellular (WBC) and humoral (IgG) parts of the immune system were both connected to age and survival, but not to parasite infections, which supports the hypothesis that energetically costly immunological defences are traded against other costly life-history traits, leading to a reduced lifespan in this free-ranging mammal.
Resistance to pyridine-based inhibitor KF116 reveals an unexpected role of integrase in HIV-1 Gag-Pol polyprotein proteolytic processing

The pyridine-based multimerization selective HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitors (MINIs) are a distinct subclass of allosteric IN inhibitors. MINIs potently inhibit HIV-1 replication during virion maturation by inducing hyper- or aberrant IN multimerization but are largely ineffective during the early steps of viral replication. Here, we investigated the mechanism for the evolution of a triple IN substitution (T124N/V165I/T174I) that emerges in cell culture with a representative MINI, KF116. We show that HIV-1 NL4-3(IN T124N/V165I/T174I) confers marked (>2000-fold) resistance to KF116. Two IN substitutions (T124N/T174I) directly weaken inhibitor binding at the dimer interface of the catalytic core domain but at the same time markedly impair HIV-1 replication capacity. Unexpectedly, T124N/T174I IN substitutions inhibited proteolytic processing of HIV-1 polyproteins Gag and Gag-Pol, resulting in immature virions. Strikingly, the addition of the third IN substitution (V165I) restored polyprotein processing, virus particle maturation, and significant levels of replication capacity. These results reveal an unanticipated role of IN for polyprotein proteolytic processing during virion morphogenesis. The complex evolutionary pathway for the emergence of resistant viruses, which includes the need for the compensatory V165I IN substitution, highlights a relatively high genetic barrier exerted by MINI KF116. Additionally, we have solved the X-ray structure of the drug-resistant catalytic core domain protein, which provides means for rational development of second-generation MINIs.
Development of a controlled release formulation based on SLN and NLC for topical clotrimazole delivery

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) are colloidal carrier systems providing controlled release profiles for many substances. Clotrimazole-loaded SLN and NLC were prepared by the hot high pressure homogenization technique in order to evaluate the physical stability of these particles, as well as the entrapment efficiency of this lipophilic drug and its in vitro release profile. The particle size was analyzed by PCS and LD showing that the particles remained in their colloidal state during 3 months of storage at 4, 20 and 40 ◦C. For all tested formulations the entrapment efficiency was higher than 50%. The obtained results also demonstrate the use of these lipid nanoparticles as modified release formulations for lipophilic drugs over a period of 10 h. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Perioperative administration of gabapentin 1,200 mg day-1 and pregabalin 300 mg day-1 for pain following lumbar laminectomy and discectomy: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study.

INTRODUCTION Gabapentin and pregabalin have been compared in studies conducted on management of neuropathic and postoperative pain. In neuropathic pain studies, the analgesic effects of the two drugs were compared, and pregabalin has been found to be more potent. However, in postoperative pain studies, the effects of each drug were examined separately. This study compared the analgesic effects of pregabalin (300 mg day-1), gabapentin (1,200 mg day-1) and a placebo in managing postoperative pain following laminectomy and discectomy. METHODS 90 patients were randomly assigned to three groups (pregabalin, gabapentin and placebo) of 30 patients each. Pregabalin 150 mg, gabapentin 600 mg and a placebo were administered every 12 hours, two times pre- and post surgery. Study data collected included morphine consumption, Visual Analogue Scale records, preoperative anxiety, patient satisfaction, adverse effects and observation notes. RESULTS In the gabapentin and pregabalin groups, overall morphine consumption, preoperative anxiety, pruritus, postoperative shivering were significantly lower (p-value less than 0.05 for all), and patient satisfaction was significantly higher than those in the placebo group (p-value less than 0.05). CONCLUSION This study showed that both pregabalin 300 mg day-1 and gabapentin 1,200 mg day-1 have more analgesic, anxiolytic and opioid-sparing effects, higher patient satisfaction and are more effective for preventing postoperative shivering than the placebo following lumbar laminectomy and discectomy. The findings revealed that pregabalin 300 mg day-1 had equivalent analgesic, adverse and opioid-sparing effects and patient satisfaction as gabapentin 1,200 mg day-1.
OF PATHWISE BURKHOLDER-DAVIS-GUNDY INEQUALITIES

In this paper, after generalizing the pathwise Burkholder-DavisGundy (BDG) inequalities from discrete time to cadlag semimartingales, we present several applications of the pathwise inequalities. In particular we show that they allow to extend the classical BDG inequalities (1) to the Bessel process of order α ≥ 1 (2) to the case of a random exponent p (3) to martingales stopped at a time τ which belongs to a well studied class of random times
Shared Decision Making During Active Psychiatric Hospitalization: Assessment and Psychometric Properties

ABSTRACT Encouraging patients to be involved in their care and enhancing shared decision making (SDM) have been advocated over the past two decades as means to enhance patient-centered care. However, one of the barriers to implementing SDM in medical consultations is the need to adapt this approach to various populations and medical settings, including mental health, and developing reliable and practical methods for measuring and assessing SDM. This article presents the psychometric properties and validity of a revised scale, SDM-Q-9-Psy, that assesses SDM in routine care among psychiatric inpatients. Psychiatric inpatients were included in a SDM intervention cohort (n = 46) or a control cohort (n = 40). The adapted scale was administered after a decision-making process. The scale was subsequently psychometrically tested via factor and reliability analyses. It was also tested for convergent validity and for its ability to distinguish the degree of SDM between the intervention and control groups (construct validity). The SDM-Q-9-Psy scale yielded a Cronbach’s α of . 94. Convergent and construct validity parameters were good. The SDM-Q-9-Psy scale can be used to evaluate SDM from psychiatric inpatients’ perspective and to provide rapid feedback to mental health professionals, enabling them to monitor their decision-making practice in real-time clinical consultations.
Active devices fabricated in bulk glass via femtosecond laser pulses

A symmetrical optical waveguide amplifier fabricated in erbium/ytterbium co-doped phosphate glass using direct femtosecond laser writing is demonstrated. The waveguides are manufactured using 800 nm radiation from a femtosecond laser operating at a 1 kHz repetition rate, with sub 120 fs pulse duration. Peak internal gain of 2 dB is obtained at 1535 nm.A symmetrical optical waveguide amplifier fabricated in erbium/ytterbium co-doped phosphate glass using direct femtosecond laser writing is demonstrated. The waveguides are manufactured using 800 nm radiation from a femtosecond laser operating at a 1 kHz repetition rate, with sub 120 fs pulse duration. Peak internal gain of 2 dB is obtained at 1535 nm.
Die S3-Leitlinie „Psychosoziale Therapien bei schweren psychischen Erkrankungen“ – nach dem Update ist vor dem Update

Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Ländern, in denen nationale Leitlinienprogramme eher zentral initiiert und aus öffentlichen Mitteln finanziert werden, liegt die Verantwortung für die Entwicklung von Leitlinien und Empfehlungen in Deutschland bei den jeweiligen Fachgesellschaften und folgt damit dem Prinzip der Subsidiarität [1]. Qualitativ hochwertige Leitlinien sind systematisch entwickelte, evidenzbasierte Entscheidungshilfen auf der Grundlage eines breiten Konsenses beteiligter Fachgesellschaften und Arbeitsgemeinschaften sowie von Patientenund Angehörigenvertretern und adressieren relevante Behandlungsfragen. Deutschland blickt auf mehr als 20 Jahre Leitlinien-Entwicklungsarbeit zurück [1]. Auf der Grundlage einer sich weiterentwickelten Methodik, die einem internationalen Vergleich durchaus standhält, steht den deutschen Leitlinienentwicklern heute ein umfassendes Regelwerk zur Erstellung von Leitlinien mit dem Ziel hoher Qualitätssicherheit des Leitlinienregisters der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wissenschaftlicher Medizinischer Fachgesellschaften (AWMF) zur Verfügung [2]. Die AWMF verzeichnet inzwischen mehr als 700 Leitlinien zu klinischen Fragen, davon sind 156 S3-Leitlinien. Leitlinien sollten zur Professionalisierung der Gesundheitsberufe und zur Stärkung der Position des Patienten sowie als rationale Entscheidungsgrundlage in der Behandlung und Versorgung der Patienten beitragen. Sie sollten hierbei Orientierung bieten und den Transfer der aktuell verfügbaren Evidenz in den Versorgungsalltag beschleunigen. Die Anwendung von Leitlinien erfordert gleichzeitig, eigene Erfahrungen und die individuelle Situation des Patienten, einschließlich dessen Präferenzen sowie vorhandene Ressourcen zu berücksichtigen. Leitlinien sollten auch zur Weiterentwicklung und Gestaltung des Gesundheitsund Versorgungssystems beitragen und bei Entscheidungen über die Allokation begrenzter Ressourcen Berücksichtigung finden [3]. Während die Evidenzbasierung der Leitlinienempfehlungen maßgeblich für die wissenschaftliche Legitimität einer Leitlinie ist, tragen die Repräsentativität des Leitliniengremiums und eine strukturierte Konsensfindung zur Akzeptanz bei den Nutzern bei [2]. Eine weitere Forderung an Leitlinien ist deren Aktualität. Die Gültigkeitsdauer beträgt in Die S3-Leitlinie „Psychosoziale Therapien bei schweren psychischen Erkrankungen“ – nach dem Update ist vor dem Update The S3 Guidelines Psychosocial Therapies in Severe Mental Illness – The Update
2007 " It doesn ' t do any harm , but patients feel better " : a qualitative exploratory study on gastroenterologists ' perspectives on the role of antidepressants in inflammatory bowel disease

Background: Interest in psychological factors in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has increased in recent years. It has even been proposed that treating psychological co-morbidities with antidepressants may control disease activity and improve quality of life. Despite this, there is no data on gastroenterologists' attitudes to, and experiences with, antidepressant therapy in patients with IBD. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 gastroenterologists associated with metropolitan teaching hospitals. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine their responses. Results: Seventy-eight percent of gastroenterologists had treated IBD patients with antidepressants for pain, depression and/or anxiety, and insomnia. Antidepressants were reported to be useful in improving psychosocial well-being, quality of life, and self-management of the disease by patients. However, in this group of gastroenterologists, there appears to be skepticism towards psychological disorders themselves or antidepressant therapy having a central role in either the causation of IBD or its clinical course. Nevertheless, these gastroenterologists were receptive to the idea of conducting a trial of the role of antidepressants in IBD. Conclusion: While the majority of specialists have treated IBD patients with antidepressants, there is considerable skepticism with regard to efficacy of antidepressive therapy or the role of psychological factors in the outcome of IBD patients.
IBD Sharing between Africans, Neandertals, and Denisovans

Interbreeding between ancestors of humans and other hominins outside of Africa has been studied intensively, while their common history within Africa still lacks proper attention. However, shedding light on human evolution in this time period about which little is known, is essential for understanding subsequent events outside of Africa. We investigate the genetic relationships of humans, Neandertals, and Denisovans by identifying very short DNA segments in the 1000 Genomes Phase 3 data that these hominins share identical by descent (IBD). By focusing on low frequency and rare variants, we identify very short IBD segments with high confidence. These segments reveal events from a very distant past because shorter IBD segments are presumably older than longer ones. We extracted two types of very old IBD segments that are not only shared among humans, but also with Neandertals and/or Denisovans. The first type contains longer segments that are found primarily in Asians and Europeans where more segments are found in South Asians than in East Asians for both Neandertal and Denisovan. These longer segments indicate complex admixture events outside of Africa. The second type consists of shorter segments that are shared mainly by Africans and therefore may indicate events involving ancestors of humans and other ancient hominins within Africa. Our results from the autosomes are further supported by an analysis of chromosome X, on which segments that are shared by Africans and match the Neandertal and/or Denisovan genome were even more prominent. Our results indicate that interbreeding with other hominins was a common feature of human evolution starting already long before ancestors of modern humans left Africa.
Supporting Online Material Materials and Methods Figs. S1 to S13 Tables S1 to S3 References Label-free Biomedical Imaging with High Sensitivity by Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy

particular regions of genes, much like sense transcripts (Fig. 1 and figs. S2 and S8). This distribution is consistent with a model wherein many antisense transcripts initiate and terminate near the terminators and promoters, respectively, of the sense transcripts. Some of the apparent antisense transcripts from a gene on the plus strand could actually be sense transcripts originating from unterminated transcription of a downstream gene on the minus strand (or vice versa). However, this idea is not generally supported because there was a poor correlation between antisense tag density within a gene and the density of sense tags from the closest downstream gene (fig. S13). One explanation for the higher density of anti-sense tags in transcribed regions is that transcription of the sense transcripts from correct initiation sites would reduce nucleosome density throughout the entire transcribed region, thereby increasing DNA accessibility and hence the likelihood of nonspecific transcription (26). This is unlikely, given that genes with high sense tag densities did not generally have high antisense densities. There is substantial evidence that sense transcripts can be negatively regulated by antisense transcripts (3–7). Such regulation can occur either by transcriptional interference or through posttranscriptional mechanisms involving splicing or RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISCs). Our data support the possibility that antisense-mediated regulation affects a large number of genes. Under a licensing agreement between Johns Hopkins University and Genzyme, technologies related to SAGE were licensed to Genzyme for commercial purposes, and B. are entitled to a share of the royalties received by the university from the sales of the licensed technologies. The university and researchers (B.V. and K.W.K.) own Genzyme stock, which is subject to certain restrictions under university policy. The terms of these arrangements are being managed by the university in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies. There are existing patents for SAGE that have been licensed as disclosed above, and similar patents are likely to be filed for ASSAGE. Label-free chemical contrast is highly desirable in biomedical imaging. Spontaneous Raman microscopy provides specific vibrational signatures of chemical bonds, but is often hindered by low sensitivity. Here we report a three-dimensional multiphoton vibrational imaging technique based on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). The sensitivity of SRS imaging is significantly greater than that of spontaneous Raman microscopy, which is achieved by implementing high-frequency (megahertz) phase-sensitive detection. SRS microscopy has a major advantage over previous coherent Raman techniques in that it offers background-free and readily interpretable chemical …