Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy in sport: a systematic review

Objective To provide a critical review of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) by considering the range of clinical presentations, neuropathology and the strength of evidence for CTE as a distinct syndrome. Data sources Seven electronic databases were searched using a combination of MeSH terms and key words to identify relevant articles. Review methods Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to select studies for review. Data extracted where present included study population, exposure/outcome measures, clinical data, neurological examination findings, cognitive assessment, investigation results and neuropathology results. Results The data from 158 published case studies were reviewed. Critical differences between the older descriptions of CTE (the ‘classic’ syndrome) and the recent descriptions (the ‘modern’ syndrome) exist in the age of onset, natural history, clinical features, pathological findings and diagnostic criteria, which suggests that modern CTE is a different syndrome. The methodology of the current studies does not allow determination of aetiology or risk factors. Conclusions The clinicopathological differences between the ‘classic’ CTE syndrome and the ‘modern’ syndrome suggest that the new syndrome needs a different nomenclature. Further research is required to clearly define the clinical phenotype of the modern CTE syndrome and establish the underlying aetiology. Future research needs to address these issues through large-scale, prospective clinicopathological studies.
Vision based navigation for an unmanned aerial vehicle

We are developing a system for autonomous navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) based on computer vision. A UAV is equipped with on-board cameras and each UAV is provided with noisy estimates of its own state, coming from GPS/INS. The mission of the UAV is low altitude navigation from an initial position to a final position in a partially known 3-D environment while avoiding obstacles and minimizing path length. We use a hierarchical approach to path planning. We distinguish between a global offline computation, based on a coarse known model of the environment and a local online computation, based on the information coming from the vision system. A UAV builds and updates a virtual 3-D model of the surrounding environment by processing image sequences and fusing them with sensor data. Based on such a model the UAV will plan a path from its current position to the terminal point. It will then follow such path, getting more data from the on-board cameras, and refining map and local path in real time.
Predicting Spouse Preferences

I test canonical theories in the preference literature – evolutionary psychology, social role theory, and social exchange theory – using group mean comparisons to replicate basic sex differences in spouse preferences. I find that, consistent with past studies, males prefer attractiveness and females prefer resources in potential partners, and in general, we prefer partners who are similar, rather than different, to us. I also find that males who anticipate enacting the “traditional” male role of “provider” within their marriage tend to prefer spouses who would fulfill the caregiver role, compared to males who do not anticipate such “traditional” gender divisions within the family. Interestingly, females who anticipate the “traditional” caregiving role do not in turn prefer spouses who fulfill the “provider” role; they instead prefer a spouse who is family-oriented, as they themselves are. I further test four new theoretical derivations and methodological assessment techniques. First, I expand the test of social exchange theory to include a wide array of personality characteristics and find similarity between how respondents see themselves and the types of characteristics they prefer in a spouse. Second, I include an assessment of gender endorsement – how respondents see themselves in terms of characteristics we commonly associate with masculinity and femininity. Interestingly, I don’t find the predicted complimentarity – that highly masculine individuals prefer highly feminine spouses and vice versa. I find instead strong homogamy effects, such that respondents with masculine self-perceptions prefer spouses who also embody those masculine traits, and respondents with feminine self-perceptions prefer spouses who also identify with feminine traits. Third, my data includes a wider age range of unmarried respondents than nearly all other preference studies, so I am able to test preference
Processes and outcomes of care for patients with community-acquired pneumonia: results from the Pneumonia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) cohort study.

BACKGROUND Although understanding the processes of care and medical outcomes for patients with community-acquired pneumonia is instrumental to improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of care for this illness, limited information is available on how physicians manage patients with this illness or on medical outcomes other than short-term mortality. OBJECTIVES To describe the processes of care and to assess a broad range of medical outcomes for ambulatory and hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia. METHODS This prospective, observational study was conducted at 4 hospitals and 1 health maintenance organization in Pittsburgh, Pa, Boston, Mass, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Data were collected via patient interviews and reviews of medical records for 944 outpatients and 1343 inpatients with clinical and radiographic evidence of community-acquired pneumonia. Processes of care and medical outcomes were assessed 30 days after presentation. RESULTS Only 29.7% of outpatients had 1 or more microbiologic tests performed, and only 5.7% had an assigned microbiologic cause. Although 95.7% of inpatients had 1 or more microbiologic tests performed, a cause was established in only 29.6%. Six outpatients (0.6%) died, and 3 of these deaths were pneumonia related. Of surviving outpatients, 8.0% had 1 or more medical complications. At 30 days, 88.9% (nonemployed) to 95.6% (employed) of the surviving outpatients had returned to usual activities, yet 76.0% of outpatients had 1 or more persisting pneumonia-related symptoms. Overall, 107 inpatients (8.0%) died, and 81 of these deaths were pneumonia related. Most surviving inpatients (69.0%) had 1 or more medical complications. At 30 days, 57.3% (non-employed) to 82.0% (employed) of surviving inpatients had returned to usual activities, and 86.1% had 1 or more persisting pneumonia-related symptoms. CONCLUSIONS In this study, conducted primarily at hospital sites with affiliated medical education training programs, virtually all outpatients and most inpatients had pneumonia of unknown cause. Although outpatients had an excellent prognosis, pneumonia-related symptoms often persisted at 30 days. Inpatients had substantial mortality, morbidity, and pneumonia-related symptoms at 30 days.
The contribution of epigenetics to understanding genetic factors in autism

Autism spectrum disorder is a grouping of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in social communication and language, as well as by repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. While the environment is believed to play a role in the development of autism spectrum disorder, there is now strong evidence for a genetic link to autism. Despite such evidence, studies investigating a potential single-gene cause for autism, although insightful, have been highly inconclusive. A consideration of an epigenetic approach proves to be very promising in clarifying genetic factors involved in autism. The present article is intended to provide a review of key findings pertaining to epigenetics in autism in such a way that a broader audience of individuals who do not have a strong background in genetics may better understand this highly specific and scientific content. Epigenetics refers to non-permanent heritable changes that alter expression of genes without altering the DNA sequence itself and considers the role of environment in this modulation of gene expression. This review provides a brief description of epigenetic processes, highlights evidence in the literature of epigenetic dysregulation in autism, and makes use of noteworthy findings to illustrate how a consideration of epigenetic factors can deepen our understanding of the development of autism. Furthermore, this discussion will present a promising new way for moving forward in the investigation of genetic factors within autism.
Serial Interferon-gamma Release Assays for the Diagnosis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Patients Treated with Immunosuppressive Agents

Background We assessed the efficacy of serial interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in patients receiving immunosuppressive agents for treatment of rheumatic diseases in Korea. Methods Of 276 patients who underwent consecutive screening with one of two IGRAs [QuantiFERON-TB Gold or QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube], 66 patients were evaluated by the serial IGRA for detection of LTBI during therapy with immunosuppressive agents. Information on clinical diagnosis, medication, previous TB, blood cell count, tuberculin skin test, and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) level measured by IGRA was collected. Results Of the 66 patients, the initial IGRA was positive in 24.2%, negative in 65.2%, and indeterminate in 10.6%. Forty-six patients (69.7%) showed consistent IGRA results during follow-up, and 13 patients (19.7%) had consistently positive results. IGRA conversion rate was 12.1% (8/66) and reversion rate was 4.5% (3/66). Conversion of IGRA results was only observed in ankylosing spondylitis patients, and the median interval between the two tests in patients with conversion was 8.5 months. The mean IFN-γ level in the group of patients with consistently positive IGRA results was higher than that in the group with inconsistently positive results, although this trend was not statistically significant (P=0.293). Indeterminate results were observed most frequently in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Conclusions In patients receiving immunosuppressive agents, both IGRA conversions and reversions were observed. Serial IGRA testing may not be needed in patients with a positive initial IGRA result showing high IFN-γ levels, because of high consistency in the test results.
Compositional approach applied to loop specialization

An optimizing compiler cannot generate one best code pattern for all input data. There is no ‘one optimization fits all’ inputs. To attain high performance for a large range of inputs, it is therefore desirable to resort to some kind of specialization. Data specialization significantly improves the performance delivered by the compiler‐generated codes. Specialization is, however, limited by code expansion and introduces a time overhead for the selection of the appropriate version. We propose a new method to specialize the code at the assembly level for loop structures. Our specialization scheme focuses on different ranges of loop trip count and combines all these versions into a code that switches smoothly from one to the other while the iteration count increases. Hence, the resulting code achieves the same level of performance than each version on its specific iteration interval. We illustrate the benefit of our method on the SPEC benchmarks with detailed experimental results. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Exact Recovery of Chaotic Systems from Highly Corrupted Data

Learning the governing equations in dynamical systems from time-varying measurements is of great interest across different scientific fields. This task becomes prohibitive when such data is moreover highly corrupted, for example, due to the recording mechanism failing over unknown intervals of time. When the underlying system exhibits chaotic behavior, such as sensitivity to initial conditions, it is crucial to recover the governing equations with high precision. In this work, we consider continuous time dynamical systems $\dot{x} = f(x)$ where each component of $f: \mathbb{R}^{d} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^d$ is a multivariate polynomial of maximal degree $p$; we aim to identify $f$ exactly from possibly highly corrupted measurements $x(t_1), x(t_2), \dots, x(t_m)$. As our main theoretical result, we show that if the system is sufficiently ergodic that this data satisfies a strong central limit theorem (as is known to hold for chaotic Lorenz systems), then the governing equations $f$ can be exactly recovered as the solution to an $\ell_1$ minimization problem -- even if a large percentage of the data is corrupted by outliers. Numerically, we apply the alternating minimization method to solve the corresponding constrained optimization problem. Through several examples of 3D chaotic systems and higher dimensional hyperchaotic systems, we illustrate the power, generality, and efficiency of the algorithm for recovering governing equations from noisy and highly corrupted measurement data.
Segmentation of color images using a hierarchical fuzzy region merging technique

A novel hierarchical clustering method is presented in this work. It operates as a part of a split and merge segmentation scheme. The proposed technique incorporates the use of several color features to compare clusters in the RGB space and the flexibility of the fuzzy reasoning approach to accomplish satisfactory segmentation results. The boundary values of the fuzzy sets have been determined by means of a genetic algorithm optimization approach. The segmentation results evaluated subjectively and objectively were compared to a straightforward product cost function.
Voice pitch predicts reproductive success in male hunter-gatherers

The validity of evolutionary explanations of vocal sexual dimorphism hinges upon whether or not individuals with more sexually dimorphic voices have higher reproductive success than individuals with less dimorphic voices. However, due to modern birth control methods, these data are rarely described, and mating success is often used as a second-rate proxy. Here, we test whether voice pitch predicts reproductive success, number of children born and child mortality in an evolutionarily relevant population of hunter-gatherers. While we find that voice pitch is not related to reproductive outcomes in women, we find that men with low voice pitch have higher reproductive success and more children born to them. However, voice pitch in men does not predict child mortality. These findings suggest that the association between voice pitch and reproductive success in men is mediated by differential access to fecund women. Furthermore, they show that there is currently selection pressure for low-pitch voices in men.
Red blood cell oxidative stress impairs oxygen delivery and induces red blood cell aging

Red Blood Cells (RBCs) need to deform and squeeze through narrow capillaries. Decreased deformability of RBCs is, therefore, one of the factors that can contribute to the elimination of aged or damaged RBCs from the circulation. This process can also cause impaired oxygen delivery, which contributes to the pathology of a number of diseases. Studies from our laboratory have shown that oxidative stress plays a significant role in damaging the RBC membrane and impairing its deformability. RBCs are continuously exposed to both endogenous and exogenous sources of reactive oxygen species (ROS) like superoxide and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The bulk of the ROS are neutralized by the RBC antioxidant system consisting of both non-enzymatic and enzymatic antioxidants including catalase, glutathione peroxidase and peroxiredoxin-2. However, the autoxidation of hemoglobin (Hb) bound to the membrane is relatively inaccessible to the predominantly cytosolic RBC antioxidant system. This inaccessibility becomes more pronounced under hypoxic conditions when Hb is partially oxygenated, resulting in an increased rate of autoxidation and increased affinity for the RBC membrane. We have shown that a fraction of peroxyredoxin-2 present on the RBC membrane may play a major role in neutralizing these ROS. H2O2 that is not neutralized by the RBC antioxidant system can react with the heme producing fluorescent heme degradation products (HDPs). We have used the level of these HDP as a measure of RBC oxidative Stress. Increased levels of HDP are detected during cellular aging and various diseases. The negative correlation (p < 0.0001) between the level of HDP and RBC deformability establishes a contribution of RBC oxidative stress to impaired deformability and cellular stiffness. While decreased deformability contributes to the removal of RBCs from the circulation, oxidative stress also contributes to the uptake of RBCs by macrophages, which plays a major role in the removal of RBCs from circulation. The contribution of oxidative stress to the removal of RBCs by macrophages involves caspase-3 activation, which requires oxidative stress. RBC oxidative stress, therefore, plays a significant role in inducing RBC aging.
Reflections on NoteCards: seven issues for the next generation of hypermedia systems

NoteCards is a general hypermedia environment designed to help people work with ideas. Its intended users are authors, designers, and other intellectual laborers engaged in analyzing information, designing artifacts, and generally processing ideas. The system provides these users with a variety of hypermedia-based tools for collecting, representing, managing, interrelating, and communicating ideas. This paper presents the NoteCards system as a foil against which to explore some of the major limitations of the current generation of hypermedia systems. In doing so, this paper highlights seven of the major issues that must be addressed in the next generation of hypermedia systems. These seven issues are: search and query, composite nodes, virtual structures, computational engines, versioning, collaborative work, and tailorability. For each of these issues, the papers describes the limitations inherent in NoteCards and the prospects for doing improving the situation in future systems.
Multimodality Treatment of Giant Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations

OBJECTIVE Giant arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) (i.e., those greater than 6 cm at maximum diameter) are difficult to treat and often carry higher treatment morbidity and mortality rates than do smaller AVMs. In this study, we reviewed the treatment, angiographic results, and clinical outcomes in 53 patients with giant AVMs who were treated at Stanford between 1987 and 2001. METHODS The patients selected included 20 males (38%) and 33 females (62%). Their presenting symptoms were hemorrhage (n = 20; 38%), seizures (n = 18; 34%), headaches (n = 8; 15%), and progressive neurological deficits (n = 7; 13%). One patient was in Spetzler-Martin Grade III, 9 were in Spetzler-Martin Grade IV, and 43 were in Spetzler-Martin Grade V. The mean AVM size was 6.8 cm (range, 6–15 cm). AVM venous drainage was superficial (n = 7), deep (n = 20), or both (n = 26). At presentation, 31 patients (58%) were graded in excellent neurological condition, 17 were graded good (32%), and 5 were graded poor (9%). RESULTS The patients were treated with surgery (n = 27; 51%), embolization (n = 52; 98%), and/or radiosurgery (n = 47; 89%). Most patients received multimodality treatment with embolization followed by surgery (n = 5), embolization followed by radiosurgery (n = 23), or embolization, radiosurgery, and surgery (n = 23). Nineteen patients (36%) were completely cured of their giant AVMs, 90% obliteration was achieved in 4 patients (8%), less than 90% obliteration was achieved in 29 patients (55%) who had residual AVMs even after multimodality therapy, and 1 patient was lost to follow-up. Of the 33 patients who either completed treatment or were alive more than 3 years after undergoing their most recent radiosurgery, 19 patients (58%) were cured of their AVMs. The long-term treatment-related morbidity rate was 15%. The clinical results after mean follow-up of 37 months were 27 excellent (51%), 15 good (28%), 3 poor (6%), and 8 dead (15%). CONCLUSION The results in this series of patients with giant AVMs, which represents the largest series reported to date, suggest that selected symptomatic patients with giant AVMs can be treated successfully with good outcomes and acceptable risk. Multimodality treatment is usually necessary to achieve AVM obliteration.
Pro-arrhythmogenic effects of atrial fibrillation-induced electrical remodelling: insights from the three-dimensional virtual human atria

• Previous studies have shown that atrial electrical properties are altered (remodelled) by atrial fibrillation (AF) and that the recurrence of AF is high following remodelling. However, demonstrating a causal link between atrial remodelling in experimental models and the increased risk of AF is a challenge. • AF‐induced electrical remodelling abbreviated atrial action potential duration (APD) non‐uniformly across the atria; this resulted in relatively short APDs co‐existing with marked regional differences in the APD at junctions of the crista terminalis/pectinate muscle, pulmonary veins/left atrium. • It increases tissue vulnerability to re‐entry initiation and maintenance at these tissue junctions. • The AF‐induced electrical remodelling also stabilized and accelerated re‐entrant excitation waves, leading to rapid and sustained re‐entry. • This study provides novel insights towards understanding the mechanisms underlying the pro‐arrhythmic effects of the AF‐induced electrical remodelling in atrial tissue.
Heterologous Expression Screens in Nicotiana benthamiana Identify a Candidate Effector of the Wheat Yellow Rust Pathogen that Associates with Processing Bodies

Rust fungal pathogens of wheat (Triticum spp.) affect crop yields worldwide. The molecular mechanisms underlying the virulence of these pathogens remain elusive, due to the limited availability of suitable molecular genetic research tools. Notably, the inability to perform high-throughput analyses of candidate virulence proteins (also known as effectors) impairs progress. We previously established a pipeline for the fast-forward screens of rust fungal candidate effectors in the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana. This pipeline involves selecting candidate effectors in silico and performing cell biology and protein-protein interaction assays in planta to gain insight into the putative functions of candidate effectors. In this study, we used this pipeline to identify and characterize sixteen candidate effectors from the wheat yellow rust fungal pathogen Puccinia striiformis f sp tritici. Nine candidate effectors targeted a specific plant subcellular compartment or protein complex, providing valuable information on their putative functions in plant cells. One candidate effector, PST02549, accumulated in processing bodies (P-bodies), protein complexes involved in mRNA decapping, degradation, and storage. PST02549 also associates with the P-body-resident ENHANCER OF mRNA DECAPPING PROTEIN 4 (EDC4) from N. benthamiana and wheat. We propose that P-bodies are a novel plant cell compartment targeted by pathogen effectors.
Complete Genome Sequence of the Clinical Beijing-Like Strain Mycobacterium tuberculosis 323 Using the PacBio Real-Time Sequencing Platform

ABSTRACT We report here the whole-genome sequence of the multidrug-resistant Beijing-like strain Mycobacterium tuberculosis 323, isolated from a 15-year-old female patient who died shortly after the initiation of second-line drug treatment. This strain is representative of the Beijing-like isolates from Colombia, where this lineage is becoming a public health concern.