Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A classic case of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and literature review

ABSTRACT Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is a relatively under-recognized hereditary cardiomyopathy. It is characterized pathologically by fibro-fatty infiltration of right ventricular (RV) myocardium and clinically by consequences of RV electrical instability. Timely intervention with device therapy and pharmacotherapy may help reduce the risk of arrhythmic events or sudden cardiac death. Here, we describe a classic case of a young adult with ARVC and a brief literature review. The patient presented with exertional palpitations and ARVC was suspected after his routine electrocardiogram (EKG) revealed symmetric T wave inversions and possible epsilon waves in right precordial leads. Subsequent work up showed fatty infiltration of RV myocardium on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and inducible ventricular tachycardia from the right ventricle during electrophysiologic study. Those findings confirmed the diagnosis of ARVC and warranted treatment with implantable cardioverter defibrillator. It is always exciting to encounter rare pathological entities with classic clinical findings, especially when they present as a diagnostic challenge.We were able to provide correct diagnosis and management, thereby preventing the potentially lethal consequences. Therefore, it is important to recognize the possible EKG findings of ARVC and to know when to pursue further investigations and to implement therapies.
Impaired myofibrillar function in the soleus muscle of mice with collagen-induced arthritis.

OBJECTIVE Progressive muscle weakness is a common feature in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, little is known about whether the intrinsic contractile properties of muscle fibers are affected in RA. This study was undertaken to investigate muscle contractility and the myoplasmic free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+](i)) in the soleus, a major postural muscle, in mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). METHODS Muscle contractility and [Ca2+](i) were assessed in whole muscle and intact single-fiber preparations, respectively. The underlying mechanisms of contractile dysfunction were assessed by investigating redox modifications using Western blotting and antibodies against nitric oxide synthase (NOS), superoxide dismutase (SOD), 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT), carbonyl, malondialdehyde (MDA), and S-nitrosocysteine (SNO-Cys). RESULTS The tetanic force per cross-sectional area was markedly decreased in the soleus muscle of mice with CIA, and the change was not due to a decrease in the amplitude of [Ca2+](i) transients. The reduction in force production was accompanied by slowing of the twitch contraction and relaxation and a decrease in the maximum shortening velocity. Immunoblot analyses showed a marked increase in neuronal NOS expression but not in inducible or endothelial NOS expression, which, together with the observed decrease in SOD2 expression, favors peroxynitrite formation. These changes were accompanied by increased 3-NT, carbonyl, and MDA adducts content in myofibrillar proteins from the muscles of mice with CIA. Moreover, there was a significant increase in SNO-Cys content in myosin heavy-chain and troponin I myofibrillar proteins from the soleus muscle of mice with CIA. CONCLUSION These findings show impaired contractile function in the soleus muscle of mice with CIA and suggest that this abnormality is due to peroxynitrite-induced modifications in myofibrillar proteins.
Precursors to a theory of mind: Understanding attention in others.

Study of deficit disorder is a fruitful practice throughout the psychological field. Often the best way to assess and isolate a specific psychological capacity is by examining subjects who lack a certain capacity, or a certain trait that leads to the lack of a capacity. The research presented in Baron-Cohen's paper takes this approach towards the question of theory of mind, and in particular the development of the above. For that purpose autism, roughly described as a incapability in normative social behavior, is examined under the premise that the actual deficiency present in autistic children is that they don't have a healthy representation of other people's minds.
Single molecule molecular inversion probes for targeted, high-accuracy detection of low-frequency variation

The detection and quantification of genetic heterogeneity in populations of cells is fundamentally important to diverse fields, ranging from microbial evolution to human cancer genetics. However, despite the cost and throughput advances associated with massively parallel sequencing, it remains challenging to reliably detect mutations that are present at a low relative abundance in a given DNA sample. Here we describe smMIP, an assay that combines single molecule tagging with multiplex targeted capture to enable practical and highly sensitive detection of low-frequency or subclonal variation. To demonstrate the potential of the method, we simultaneously resequenced 33 clinically informative cancer genes in eight cell line and 45 clinical cancer samples. Single molecule tagging facilitated extremely accurate consensus calling, with an estimated per-base error rate of 8.4 × 10−6 in cell lines and 2.6 × 10−5 in clinical specimens. False-positive mutations in the single molecule consensus base-calls exhibited patterns predominantly consistent with DNA damage, including 8-oxo-guanine and spontaneous deamination of cytosine. Based on mixing experiments with cell line samples, sensitivity for mutations above 1% frequency was 83% with no false positives. At clinically informative sites, we identified seven low-frequency point mutations (0.2%–4.7%), including BRAF p.V600E (melanoma, 0.2% alternate allele frequency), KRAS p.G12V (lung, 0.6%), JAK2 p.V617F (melanoma, colon, two lung, 0.3%–1.4%), and NRAS p.Q61R (colon, 4.7%). We anticipate that smMIP will be broadly adoptable as a practical and effective method for accurately detecting low-frequency mutations in both research and clinical settings.
Prognostic impact of hypoxia imaging with 18F-misonidazole PET in non-small cell lung cancer and head and neck cancer before radiotherapy.

UNLABELLED In radiotherapy of head and neck cancer (HNC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), hypoxia is known to be an important prognostic factor for long-term survival and local tumor control. The PET tracer (18)F-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) allows noninvasive assessment of tumor hypoxia. This study analyzed whether FMISO PET could predict tumor recurrence after radiotherapy. METHODS Forty patients with advanced HNC (n = 26) or NSCLC (n = 14) were studied before curative radiotherapy. Dynamic (0-15 min) and static PET scans were acquired up to 4 h after injection of 400 MBq of FMISO. Standardized uptake values (SUVs) and ratios to reference tissues (mediastinum or muscle) were calculated. In addition, time-activity curves up to 14 min after injection were classified visually. PET data were correlated with clinical follow-up data (presence or absence of local recurrence within 1 y), which were available for 21 patients. RESULTS For HNC, patients with local recurrence could be separated from disease-free patients by SUV 4 h after injection (all recurrences had an SUV > 2). For NSCLC, no such correlation was observed. The tumor-to-muscle ratios (T/Mu) and tumor-to-mediastinum ratios (T/Me) at 4 h after injection correlated with the risk of relapse in both tumor entities: All patients with a T/Me greater than 2.0 (NSCLC, n = 5) or with a T/Mu greater than 1.6 (HNC, n = 5) presented with tumor recurrence, whereas only 3 of the remaining 11 patients experienced recurrence (27%). Qualitative analysis of time-activity curves for 37 patients revealed 3 curve types (rapid washout, n = 9; intermediate [delayed washout], n = 12; and accumulation, n = 16). Eighteen patients categorized by curve type could be followed up: In 5 of 6 patients with an accumulation curve, disease recurred locally within 1 y, compared with 5 of 8 patients with a delayed-washout curve and 0 of 4 with a rapid-washout curve. CONCLUSION Our results indicate that outcome after radiotherapy can be predicted on the basis of kinetic behavior of FMISO in tumor tissue. An accumulation-type curve, high SUV, and high T/Mu and T/Me at 4 h after injection are highly suggestive of an incomplete response to treatment and might be used to select patients for intensified therapy protocols.
Sleep and Cortisol in Preschool-Aged Children with Autism and Typically Developing Children

Research has suggested that daytime cortisol secretion levels in children with autism may be higher compared to typically developing children. In addition, there is some evidence for higher cortisol secretion levels as a result of poor sleep hygiene in young children.Fifty-two subjects (26 children with autism (AUT) and 26 typically developing children (TYP)) from 2 to 5 ½ years of age were recruited from the Sacramento region. Cortisol was obtained from saliva at waking, midday, and bedtime on two consecutive days at three phases (baseline, 3 months later, 6 months later). Sleep measurement was acquired from actigraphy over 7 days and nights at each phase. G-computation estimation and linear mixed models were used for the primary analyses.At waking, AUT had a mean level of cortisol of 8.29 (95%CI 6.99, 10.51) nmol/liter and TYP of 6.95 (95%CI 5.97, 8.49) nmol/liter. The variability in the slope of cortisol for AUT (0.0214, 95%CI 0.0066, 0.0362) was 3 ½ times that of TYP (0.0061, 95%CI -0.0041, 0.0164). The between-subject variance estimate for AUT (0.0663, 95%CI 0.0148, 0.1178) was 1 ½ times that of TYP (0.0388, 95%CI 0.0021, 0.0756). There was also a graded response among AUT by functional status - cortisol secretion levels increased as IQ decreased.There were also differences for some of the sleep parameters. The difference at the morning or waking sampling was 3 nmol/liter for 100 minutes awake compared to no waking during the night (95% CI for difference: -0.23, 7.69). The cortisol mean at the waking sampling was higher (13.6 nmol/liter) for a child with a night-waking problem compared to a child without a night-waking problem (7.4 nmol/liter) (95% CI for difference: -0.55, 9.35). The Sleep and Cortisol Study has contributed to the current literature by establishing average cortisol secretion values at waking, midday, and bedtime in preschool-aged AUT and TYP. Important differences were observed in cortisol variability in AUT compared to TYP and in cortisol secretion by functional status. Novel results for cortisol secretion at waking and the association with being awake and night-waking need replication in future studies.
Co-morbid anxiety disorders in bipolar disorder and major depression: familial aggregation and clinical characteristics of co-morbid panic disorder, social phobia, specific phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background Co-morbidity of mood and anxiety disorders is common and often associated with greater illness severity. This study investigates clinical correlates and familiality of four anxiety disorders in a large sample of bipolar disorder (BP) and major depressive disorder (MDD) pedigrees. Method The sample comprised 566 BP families with 1416 affected subjects and 675 MDD families with 1726 affected subjects. Clinical characteristics and familiality of panic disorder, social phobia, specific phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were examined in BP and MDD pedigrees with multivariate modeling using generalized estimating equations. Results Co-morbidity between mood and anxiety disorders was associated with several markers of clinical severity, including earlier age of onset, greater number of depressive episodes and higher prevalence of attempted suicide, when compared with mood disorder without co-morbid anxiety. Familial aggregation was found with co-morbid panic and OCD in both BP and MDD pedigrees. Specific phobia showed familial aggregation in both MDD and BP families, although the findings in BP were just short of statistical significance after adjusting for other anxiety co-morbidities. We found no evidence for familiality of social phobia. Conclusions Our findings suggest that co-morbidity of MDD and BP with specific anxiety disorders (OCD, panic disorder and specific phobia) is at least partly due to familial factors, which may be of relevance to both phenotypic and genetic studies of co-morbidity.
Editorial: Advances in Multi-Robot Systems

As research progresses in distributed robotic sys- tems, more and more aspects of multi-robot systems are being explored. This special issue on Multi-Robot Systems provides a broad sampling of the research that is currently ongoing in the field of distributed mobile robot systems. To help catego- rize this research, we have identified seven primary research top- ics within multi-robot systems — biological inspirations, commu- nication, architectures, localization/mapping/exploration, object transport and manipulation, motion coordination, and reconfig- urable robots. This editorial examines these research areas and discusses the special issue articles in this context. We conclude by identifying several additional open research issues in distributed mobile robotic systems.
PREMARITAL ROMANTIC PARTNERSHIPS AMONG YOUTH IN INDIA AND INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE: FILLING THE KNOWLEDGE GAPS

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a worldwide phenomenon with significant public health relevance for both married and unmarried individuals. The focus of IPV research in India is on married women, a significant proportion of who cite having experienced IPV. Though adolescents engaging in dating relationships face many of the same risk factors for violence that married women face, literature from diverse populations is limited. This review sought to assess the current literature related to premarital romantic partnerships and/or sexual activity among youth in India to determine gaps in knowledge related to intimate partner violence. Utilizing various combinations of search terms, a final sample of 13 articles was compiled based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The final sample of articles was reviewed for content related to attitudes and behaviors of adolescents regarding premarital romantic partnerships and/or sexual activity. The literature suggests that youth in India are engaging in premarital romantic partnerships and/or sexual activity despite conservative social norms that discourage interaction with the opposite sex outside of marriage. However, violence among youth in India, particularly within their premarital relationships, is currently an understudied phenomenon. There is reason to believe that adolescents engaging in premarital romantic partnerships and/or sexual activity in India are facing IPV within these relationships. As the current literature does not address this issue, future work must make an effort to assess the occurrence and correlates of violence within these relationships to best meet the needs of Indian youth and encourage the formation of healthy relationships.
HERA Project's Holistic Evolutionary Framework

Research efforts in Evolvable Hardware allowed to prove how it is possible to adopt a radically alternative approach to the synthesis of hardware circuits by drawing inspiration from natural selection and evolution. In order to move these achievements to a new level, however, we need more sophisticated tools and support for experimenting with new structures and devices. This paper moves a first step in this direction by presenting our proposal for a holistic evolutionary framework, able to provide simple yet powerful abstractions o unify a variety of evolutionary architectures under the same comprehensive framework. This way, we allow to reuse a finely-tuned evolutionary infrastructure for any kind of architecture using our general model. Additional contribution of this work is the design and evaluation, within the holistic framework, of a novel flexible FPGA-based evolutionary architecture which dispenses from the need of relying on the internal configuration access port, which proved to be a serious bottleneck in previous work.
Real-Time Competition Processes in Word Learning

Perceptual processes take time to unfold. Whether a person is processing a visual scene, identifying the category an object belongs to, or recognizing a word, cognitive processes involving competition across time occur. These ongoing competitive processes have been ignored in studies of learning. However, some forms of learning suggest that learning could occur while competition is ongoing, resulting in the formation of mappings involving the competing representations. This dissertation uses word learning as a test case to determine whether such learning exists. In a series of five experiments, participants were taught words under different stimulus and task conditions to encourage or discourage learning during periods of lexical competition. These studies reveal a complex relationship between ongoing lexical competition processes and word learning. Specifically, in cases where learners rely on unsupervised associative learning, they present evidence of learning that is continuous in time, starting during periods of lexical competition and continuing throughout the course of its resolution. These studies offer insight into the nature of associative learning, into the forms of learning that occur when learning new words, and into the ways that task and stimulus structure impinge on how a learner forms new associations.
Elevated serum plasma fibrinogen is associated with advanced tumor stage and poor survival in hepatocellular carcinoma patients

Abstract Hyperfibrinogenemia has been reported to be a predictor of poor prognosis in cancer patients, and in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, survival remains uncertain and unpredictable. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between the level of plasma fibrinogen and overall survival in HCC patients. Overall, 308 patients with histologically proven HCC were included in our study. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify predictive risk factors for the rates of overall survival and tumor recurrence. Patients in the high-fibrinogen-level group were more likely to have advanced stage HCC, portal vein invasion, and tumors that were greater in number and larger in diameter than were patients in the low-fibrinogen-level group (all P < .05). The long-term overall survival rate of patients in the high-fibrinogen group was much lower than that of patients in the normal-fibrinogen group (P = .008), and similar outcomes were observed in the subgroup of patients who underwent radical therapies for HCC (P = .003). The results of the univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that high plasma fibrinogen remained independently associated with poorer overall survival. In addition, high plasma fibrinogen levels were associated with nonresponse to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) (P < .001). Elevated plasma fibrinogen was independently associated with advanced HCC stage, poor prognosis, and nonresponse to TACE and may, therefore, serve as a valuable clinical biomarker for predicting prognosis in HCC patients.
Fundamental Principles on Learning New Features for Effective Dense Matching

In dense matching (including stereo matching and optical flow), nearly all existing approaches are based on simple features, such as gray or RGB color, gradient or simple transformations like census, to calculate matching costs. These features do not perform well in complex scenes that may involve radiometric changes, noises, overexposure and/or textureless regions. Various problems may appear, such as wrong matching at the pixel or region level, flattening/breaking of edges and/or even entire structural collapse. In this paper, we propose two fundamental principles based on the consistency and the distinctiveness of features. We show that almost all existing problems in dense matching are caused by features that violate one or both of these principles. To systematically learn good features for dense matching, we develop a general multi-objective optimization based on these two principles and apply convolutional neural networks to find new features that lie on the Pareto frontier. By using two-frame optical flow and stereo matching as applications, our experimental results show that the features learned can significantly improve the performance of state-of-the-art approaches. Based on the KITTI benchmarks, our method ranks first on the two stereo benchmarks and is the best among existing two-frame optical-flow algorithms on flow benchmarks.
The Plant-Specific Cyclin-Dependent Kinase CDKB1;1 and Transcription Factor E2Fa-DPa Control the Balance of Mitotically Dividing and Endoreduplicating Cells in Arabidopsis

Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants overproducing the E2Fa-DPa transcription factor have two distinct cell-specific phenotypes: some cells divide ectopically and others are stimulated to endocycle. The decision of cells to undergo extra mitotic divisions has been postulated to depend on the presence of a mitosis-inducing factor (MIF). Plants possess a unique class of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs; B-type) for which no ortholog is found in other kingdoms. The peak of CDKB1;1 activity around the G2-M boundary suggested that it might be part of the MIF. Plants that overexpressed a dominant negative allele of CDKB1;1 underwent enhanced endoreduplication, demonstrating that CDKB1;1 activity was required to inhibit the endocycle. Moreover, when the mutant CDKB1;1 allele was overexpressed in an E2Fa-DPa–overproducing background, it enhanced the endoreduplication phenotype, whereas the extra mitotic cell divisions normally induced by E2Fa-DPa were repressed. Surprisingly, CDKB1;1 transcription was controlled by the E2F pathway, as shown by its upregulation in E2Fa-DPa–overproducing plants and mutational analysis of the E2F binding site in the CDKB1;1 promoter. These findings illustrate a cross talking mechanism between the G1-S and G2-M transition points.
Synthetic nano-sized crystalline calcium phosphate and method of production

The specific surface area of 50 m The nano-sized crystalline calcium phosphate is in the form of powder or may be a coating forms on the surface. It is also disclosed a method of producing crystalline calcium phosphate powder or coating of nano-sized. The manufacturing method to form a liquid crystal phase in an aqueous solution of calcium, phosphate and surfactant, comprising a step in which the image formation is determined for placing the nanoscale in ammonia atmosphere, and then removing the surface active agent with a solvent, and nano-sized to afford a powder to recover a crystal, or ammonia diluted with the treated liquid crystalline phase with a hydrophobic organic solvent to create a microemulsion of the crystal nano-scale in water was immersed in an object surface of the oxide layer is coated on the micro-emulsion, or an alternative to the hold up after immersion of the object surface of the micro-emulsion of ammonia treatment on said liquid crystal, and then obtaining a coating to remove the organic solvent and surfactant from the surface is involved.