Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A clinical stratification tool for chronic kidney disease progression rate based on classification tree analysis.

BACKGROUND Registry-based studies have identified risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and for progression to end-stage renal disease. However, usually, these studies do not incorporate sequential measurements of kidney function and provide little information on the prognosis of individual patients. The aim of this study is to identify which combinations of demographic and clinical characteristics are useful to discriminate patients with a differential annual decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR). METHODS This observational retrospective study includes patients enlisted in the registry of the Prevention of Progressive Renal Insufficiency Project of Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) from July 2004 to June 2010, with at least four serum creatinine measurements. Classification tree analysis (CTA) was used to identify subgroups of patients with a different annual GFR decline using demographic and laboratory data collected at study entry. RESULTS The CTA procedure generated seven mutually exclusive groups. Among patients with proteinuria, those with a baseline estimated GFR (eGFR) of >33 mL/min/1.73 m(2) exhibited the fastest illness progression in the study population (-3.655 mL/min/1.73 m(2)), followed by patients with a baseline eGFR of <33 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and a baseline serum phosphorus of >4.3 mg/dL (-2.833 mL/min/1.73 m(2)). Among patients without proteinuria, those aged <67 years exhibited a significantly faster progression, which was even faster for the subgroup with diabetes. Among patients aged >67 years, females had on average a stable eGFR over time, with a large variability. CONCLUSIONS It is possible to rely on a few variables typically accessible in routine clinical practice to stratify patients with a different CKD progression rate. Stratification can be used to guide decisions about the follow-up schedule, treatments to slow progression of kidney disease, prevent its complications and to begin planning for dialysis and transplantation.
Lactacidemia in Intrauterine Growth Restricted (IUGR) Pregnancies: Relationship to Clinical Severity, Oxygenation and Placental Weight

The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of clinical severity and placental weight upon fetal lactacidemia in intrauterine growth restricted (IUGR) pregnancies. Seventy pregnancies complicated by IUGR were compared with 70 normal (appropriate for gestational age, AGA) pregnancies at the time of elective cesarean section. IUGR pregnancies were divided according to clinical severity in three groups: Group 1 had normal fetal heart rate (FHR) and normal pulsatility index of the umbilical artery (PI); Group 2 had normal FHR and abnormal PI; and Group 3 had abnormal FHR and PI. No cases with severe lactacidemia had placental weights ≥250 g. Forty-four fetuses had placental weight <250 g: Twenty-four had severe lactacidemia and all were Group 2 and 3, whereas 20 had normal umbilical artery lac (lactate) (and small placentas) regardless of the clinical severity. Gestational age, fetal and placental weights, F/P ratios, uv (umbilical vein) and ua lac and ua oxygen content and pH were significantly decreased in fetuses with small placentas and high lactate. There was a significant relationship between fetal and placental weight in AGA and IUGR. However, IUGR fetuses with placental weight ≥250 g exhibited an F/P ratio significantly lower than that in AGA fetuses suggesting that IUGR may be due to a reduction of placental function per gram of tissue.
Mitochondrial response to nutrient availability and its role in metabolic disease

Metabolic inflexibility is defined as an impaired capacity to switch between different energy substrates and is a hallmark of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Hence, understanding the mechanisms underlying proper metabolic flexibility is key to prevent the development of metabolic disease and physiological deterioration. An important downstream player in the effects of metabolic flexibility is the mitochondrion. The objective of this review was to describe how mitochondrial metabolism adapts to limited nutrient situations or caloric excess by changes in mitochondrial function or biogenesis, as well as to define the mechanisms propelling these changes. Altogether, this should pinpoint key regulatory points by which metabolic flexibility might be ameliorated in situations of metabolic disease.
The Expression Level of mRNA, Protein, and DNA Methylation Status of FOSL2 of Uyghur in XinJiang in Type 2 Diabetes

Objective. We investigated the expression levels of both FOSL2 mRNA and protein as well as evaluating DNA methylation in the blood of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) Uyghur patients from Xinjiang. This study also evaluated whether FOSL2 gene expression had demonstrated any associations with clinical and biochemical indicators of T2DM. Methods. One hundred Uyghur subjects where divided into two groups, T2DM and nonimpaired glucose tolerance (NGT) groups. DNA methylation of FOSL2 was also analyzed by MassARRAY Spectrometry and methylation data of individual units were generated by the EpiTyper v1.0. 5 software. The expression levels of FOS-like antigen 2 (FOSL2) and the protein expression levels were analyzed. Results. Significant differences were observed in mRNA and protein levels when compared with the NGT group, while methylation rates of eight CpG units within the FOSL2 gene were higher in the T2DM group. Methylation of CpG sites was found to inversely correlate with expression of other markers. Conclusions. Results show that a correlation between mRNA, protein, and DNA methylation of FOSL2 gene exists among T2DM patients from Uyghur. FOSL2 protein and mRNA were downregulated and the DNA became hypermethylated, all of which may be involved in T2DM pathogenesis in this population.
Cysteine Protease Inhibitors and Parasitic Diseases

ABBREVIATIONS BBB: Blood brain barrier, CP: Cysteine protease, CPI: cysteine protease inhibitor, E-64: Epoxid compound: Clonazepam©, E/S: Excretory-secretory, FP2: Falcipain-2HDAC: Histone deacetylases, IFN: Interferon, LC: Lactacystin, NO: Nitrous oxide, PCD: Programmed cell death, PMN: Polymorphonuclear neutrophil granulocytes, PMSF: Phenyl-methylsulfonyl fluoride, PVS: Polyvenyl sulfone, SBTI: Soybean trypsin inhibitor, SLA: Soluble Leishmania antigen, TGF: Transforming growth factor, TLCK: Tosyl lysine chloromethyl ketone, TNF: Tumor necrosis factor, TPCK: Tosylamide phenylethyl chloromethyl ketone, VS: Vinyl sulfone.
Nicolau Syndrome: three cases and review

Nicolau Syndrome, also known as livedo‐like dermatitis (LLD) or embolia cutis medicamentosa (ECM), is an infrequent complication following intramuscular and intra‐articular injection of various drugs. This rare entity is characterized by severe pain and erythematous‐ecchymotic reticular lesions at the injection site, which in many cases lead to necrotic ulcers and scarring. We report three cases of Nicolau Syndrome following injection of diclofenac, penicillin G, and cyanocobalamin.
Network slicing management & prioritization in 5G mobile systems

5G mobile network is expected to serve flexible requirements hence dynamically allocate network resources according to the demands. Network slicing, where network resources are packaged and assigned in an isolated manner to set of users according to their specific requirements, is considered as a key paradigm to fulfil diversity of requirements. There will clearly be conflicting demands in allocation of such slices, and the effective provisioning of network slicing poses several challenges. Indeed, network slicing has a twofold impact in terms of user/traffic prioritization as it dictates for the simultaneous management of the priority among different slices (i.e., interslice) and the priority among the users belonging to the same slice (i.e., intra-slice). In this paper, we propose a novel heuristicbased admission control mechanism able to dynamically allocate network resources to different slices in order to maximize the satisfaction of the users while guaranteeing to meet the requirements of the slices they belong to. Through simulations, we demonstrate how our proposal provides (i) higher user experience in individual slices, (ii) increased utilization of network resources and (iii) higher scalability when the number of users in each slice increases.
Microstructure of ZrNiSn-base Half-Heusler Thermoelectric Materials Prepared by Melt-spinning

Thermoelectric materials Zr(Hf)NiSn(Sb) alloys were prepared by levitation melting followed by melt- spinning to refine the microstructure, and then consolidated by spark plasma sintering for the property measurements. XRD analysis showed that the half-Heusler phases were obtained. The microstructures of the melt spun thin ribbons were studied by the scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. The thin ribbons were in the size of a few hundreds nanometers which didn't grow too much during the sintering process. Nanocrystals were found in the crystal grains. The carrier concentration increased for the melt-spinning samples compared with the levitation melting samples, indicating that the nanocrystals were metallic. The increasing boundary scattering after melt-spinning
Inductance Measurement of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor in Stationary Reference Frame

An improved AC standstill inductance measurement method for interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM) is proposed in this paper. Only the 3-phase voltage source, oscilloscope, and DC voltage source are required in this method, rather than the dynamometer and vector controller in the other methods. Depending on the derivative q- and d-axis voltage equations in the stationary reference frame, the q- and d-axis inductances at different current magnetite and vector angle can be calculated by the measured 3-phase voltages and currents. And hence, the saturation and cross-magnetizing effect of the inductances are measurable. This paper will introduce the principle equations, experiment setup, data processing, and results comparison.
Near-infrared photothermal therapy using anti-EGFR-gold nanorod conjugates for triple negative breast cancer

Current EGFR-targeted therapy for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has produced disappointing results. A rational therapeutic strategy to improve EGFR-targeted treatment for TNBC is therefore needed. In this study we evaluated the feasibility of treating TNBC using photoacoustic imaging (PAI)-guided near-infrared photothermal therapy (NIR-PTT) with anti-EGFR-conjugated gold nanorods (anti-EGFR-GN). NIR-PTT combined with anti-EGFR-GN exerted synergistic anti-proliferative and apoptotic actions through upregulation of HSP70 and cleaved caspase-3, downregulation of Ki-67 and EGFR, and inhibition of several intracellular signaling molecules (mTOR, AKT, ERK1/2 and FAK). These combined effects give this approach significant efficacy. Our findings suggest PAI-guided NIR-PTT using anti-EGFR-GN represent a novel and effective strategy for EGFR-targeted therapy in TNBC.
In Vitro Stabilizing Effect of a Transforaminal Compared With Two Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion Cages

Study Design. An in vitro biomechanical flexibility test on different lumbar interbody fusion cages using monosegmental lumbar spine specimens. Objective. To investigate the stabilizing effect of a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) cage compared with two established posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) cages. Summary of Background Data. TLIF using interbody fusion cages is gaining more and more popularity in the treatment of degenerative disc disease. However, only little is known on its biomechanical behavior. Methods. Eighteen intact human lumbar spine segments were tested for flexibility in a specially designed spine tester. Pure moments were applied in the three main planes, and range of motion and neutral zone were determined. Then, TLIF using the sickle-shaped MOON cage (AMT AG), PLIF using the cubic Stryker cages (Stryker Orthopaedics), or PLIF using the threaded BAK cages (Zimmer Spinetech) was carried out and the specimens tested again. Results. The stability after implantation of the MOON TLIF cage did not significantly differ from that after implantation of the cubic Stryker PLIF cages (P > 0.05). In contrast, the threaded BAK PLIF cages had a significantly higher primary stability than both the MOON TLIF and the Stryker PLIF cages in lateral bending, flexion, and extension (P < 0.05) but not in axial rotation (P > 0.05). Conclusions. In terms of its stabilizing effect, TLIF using the MOON cage can be recommended as an alternative to PLIF using the cubic Stryker cages. Compared with the threaded BAK PLIF cages, however, the MOON TLIF cage provides a lower primary stability in lateral bending, flexion, and extension.
Exploration of spatiotemporal and semantic clusters of Twitter data using unsupervised neural networks

ABSTRACT The investigation of human activity patterns from location-based social networks like Twitter is an established approach of how to infer relationships and latent information that characterize urban structures. Researchers from various disciplines have performed geospatial analysis on social media data despite the data’s high dimensionality, complexity and heterogeneity. However, user-generated datasets are of multi-scale nature, which results in limited applicability of commonly known geospatial analysis methods. Therefore in this paper, we propose a geographic, hierarchical self-organizing map (Geo-H-SOM) to analyze geospatial, temporal and semantic characteristics of georeferenced tweets. The results of our method, which we validate in a case study, demonstrate the ability to explore, abstract and cluster high-dimensional geospatial and semantic information from crowdsourced data.
On Swedish women's distressing sexual dysfunctions: some concomitant conditions and life satisfaction.

OBJECTIVES To explore the associations between women's distressing sexual dysfunctions and different aspects of life satisfaction together with women's concomitant socio-psychological characteristics. Thus, this descriptive article does not discuss causalities. METHODS A nationally representative sample of sexually active Swedish women aged 18-65 years in a heterosexual steady partner relationship participated in 1996 in a combined structured interview/questionnaire investigation. Personal sexual distress caused by low sexual interest, insufficient lubrication, orgasm dysfunction, dyspareunia, and vaginism was classified as manifest and mild. Concomitant conditions explored were perceived health, stability of domestic situation, perception of male partner's sexual functions/dysfunctions per se, and some socio-demographic factors. Satisfaction with life as a whole and with 10 different domains of life were reported by using the LiSat-11 checklist. RESULTS Main results were that a multitude of the independent variables were univariately associated with manifest and, to a lesser extent, mild distressing sexual dysfunctions. This was particularly true for satisfaction with partner relationship and for male's sexual dysfunctions. By performing multiple logistic regressions, the numbers were markedly reduced. The resulting statistical models still contained sexual partner's sexual dysfunctions and satisfaction with partner relationship as dominant covariants of most distressing sexual dysfunctions. CONCLUSIONS Reported low level of satisfaction with partner relationship and male sexual dysfunctions per se are likely to co-occur with manifest but, to a lesser extent, mild distressing sexual dysfunctions in Swedish women aged 18-65 years.
Insulin-stimulated Insulin Secretion in Single Pancreatic Beta Cells*

Functional insulin receptors are known to occur in pancreatic beta cells; however, except for a positive feedback on insulin synthesis, their physiological effects are unknown. Amperometric measurements at single, primary pancreatic beta cells reveal that application of exogenous insulin in the presence or absence of nonstimulatory concentrations of glucose evokes exocytosis mediated by the beta cell insulin receptor. Insulin also elicits increases in intracellular Ca2+ concentration in beta cells but has minimal effects on membrane potential. Conditions where the insulin receptor is blocked or cell surface concentration of free insulin is reduced during exocytosis diminishes secretion induced by other secretagogues, providing evidence for direct autocrine action of insulin upon secretion from the same cell. These results indicate that the beta cell insulin receptor can mediate positive feedback for insulin secretion. The presence of a positive feedback mechanism for insulin secretion mediated by the insulin receptor provides a potential link between impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance.
Lactate dehydrogenase a in cancer: A promising target for diagnosis and therapy

One of the principal biochemical characteristics of malignant cells compared to normal cells is a metabolic switch from oxidative phosphorylation to increased glycolysis, even under hypoxic conditions, and is termed the Warburg effect. Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to lactate and is considered to be a key checkpoint of anaerobic glycolysis. It is elevated in many types of cancers and has been linked to tumor growth, maintenance, and invasion; therefore, its inhibition may restrict the energy supply in tumors and thereby reduce the metastatic and invasive potential of cancer cells. This enzyme is receiving a great deal of attention as a potential diagnostic marker or a predictive biomarker for many types of cancer and as a therapeutic target for new anticancer treatments. In this review, we summarize the role of LDHA in cancer, discuss its potential significance in clinical diagnosis and prognosis of cancer, and propose LDHA as a novel target for the inhibition of tumor growth and invasiveness. © 2013 IUBMB Life, 65(11):904–910, 2013
Adaptive Symbol Request Sharing Scheme for Mobile Cooperative Receivers in OFDM Systems

In this paper we introduce an improvement of the symbol request sharing (SRS) cooperative scheme, namely the adaptive SRS (A-SRS). Both schemes are designed for systems assuming a source and several receivers with one target receiver among them which is denoted as destination. In addition, the source or the receivers are not restricted to be static. These schemes follow a request-answer strategy, in which the destination requests specific information from the remaining receivers. With this strategy the schemes achieve spatial diversity by performing maximum ratio combining (MRC) on selected subcarriers of a coded OFDM-based system. The A-SRS complements its predecessor by adding to it more sophisticated steps in the algorithm toward its implementation on real systems. With these enhancements, the A-SRS scheme preserves the same performance as SRS for hostile source-receiver channels; nevertheless, it provides a notably enhancement for better channels conditions. In terms of BER, for instance, the A-SRS outperforms the SRS scheme by some dB's of gain and it tends to converge more slowly as the number of receivers increases. Furthermore, the A-SRS scheme adapts the length of the cooperation overhead. Therefore, it reaches the highest throughput, which is not the case for the SRS scheme.
An Evaluation of an Object Recognition Schema Using Multiple Region Detectors

Robust object recognition is one of the most challenging topics in computer vision. In the last years promising results have been obtained using local regions and descriptors to characterize and learn objects. One of these approaches is the one proposed by Lowe in [1]. In this work we compare different region detectors in the context of object recognition under different image transformations such as illumination, scale and rotation. Additionally, we propose two extensions to the original object recognition scheme: a Bayesian model that uses knowledge about region detector robustness to reject more unlikely hypotheses and a final verification process to check that all final hypotheses are coherent to each other.
Determining the minimal number of lines for large reversible circuits

Synthesis of reversible circuits is an active research area motivated by its applications e.g. in quantum computation or low-power design. The number of used circuit lines is thereby a crucial criterion. In this paper, we introduce several methods (including a theoretical upper bound) for the efficient computation or at least approximation of the minimal number of lines needed to realize a given function in reversible logic. While the proposed exact approach requires a significant amount of run-time (exponential in the worst case), the heuristic methods lead to very precise approximations in very short run-time. Using this, it can be shown that current synthesis approaches for large functions are still far away from producing optimal circuits with respect to the number of lines.
Acute stress selectively reduces reward sensitivity

Stress may promote the onset of psychopathology by disrupting reward processing. However, the extent to which stress impairs reward processing, rather than incentive processing more generally, is unclear. To evaluate the specificity of stress-induced reward processing disruption, 100 psychiatrically healthy females were administered a probabilistic stimulus selection task (PSST) that enabled comparison of sensitivity to reward-driven (Go) and punishment-driven (NoGo) learning under either “no stress” or “stress” (threat-of-shock) conditions. Cortisol samples and self-report measures were collected. Contrary to hypotheses, the groups did not differ significantly in task performance or cortisol reactivity. However, further analyses focusing only on individuals under “stress” who were high responders with regard to both cortisol reactivity and self-reported negative affect revealed reduced reward sensitivity relative to individuals tested in the “no stress” condition; importantly, these deficits were reward-specific. Overall, findings provide preliminary evidence that stress-reactive individuals show diminished sensitivity to reward, but not punishment, under stress. While such results highlight the possibility that stress-induced anhedonia might be an important mechanism linking stress to affective disorders, future studies are necessary to confirm this conjecture.
The results of minimally invasive percutaneous plate osteosynthesis (MIPPO) in distal and diaphyseal tibial fractures.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the time to union and complications in cases of tibial diaphysis and distal tibial fractures fixed with a minimally invasive percutaneous plate. METHODS Thirty-five patients (23 males, 12 females) were operated on using minimally invasive percutaneous plate osteosynthesis (MIPPO) principles for tibial diaphysis and distal tibial fractures. Twenty-eight were closed and seven were open fractures. After direct or indirect fracture reduction, the plate was advanced through a submuscular extraperiosteal tunnel through the distal incision without opening the fracture line. The plate was fixed with screws through the proximal and distal incisions. Clinical and radiological evaluations were made at four to six week intervals after surgery. Full weight-bearing was allowed after an average of 14.43 (range: 12 to 20) weeks and 15.39 (range: 8 to 32) weeks in open and closed fractures, respectively. Duration of the union and complications were analyzed. RESULTS The mean duration of the union was 20.7 (range: 16 to 28) weeks and 17.96 (range: 10 to 36) weeks in open and closed fractures, respectively. All cases showed union except one who had an implant failure. Necrosis at the wound developed in one case and infection in another. CONCLUSION MIPPO is an effective alternative treatment for tibial diaphysis and distal tibia fractures with low complication and high union rates.