Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic value of formulas estimating excretory renal function in the elderly with systolic heart failure.

BACKGROUND reduced renal excretory function (REF) is increasingly being appreciated as a potent prognostic factor in chronic heart failure (CHF). The Cockroft-Gault (CG) and the simplified Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equations have been recommended to estimate REF. However, limitations for both formulas have been reported in the elderly. Their prognostic performance in older CHF patients has not been investigated. OBJECTIVES to assess the factors independently associated with all-cause mortality and compare the prognostic value of formulas estimating REF in CHF patients aged > or =70 years. DESIGN a longitudinal study with a median follow-up of 859 days. The end-point was all-cause mortality. SETTING Division of Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation. SUBJECTS two hundred and sixty-six patients aged > or =70 years with systolic CHF. METHODS REF was estimated using the CG (eCrCl(CG)) and the MDRD (eGFR(MDRD)) formulas. Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the factors independently associated with mortality and compare the prognostic value of estimating formulas. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was also performed. RESULTS Kaplan-Meier estimates of the rates of death at 1 and 2 years were 85% and 73%, respectively At multivariate analysis, eCrCl(CG) <50 mL/min (P = 0.005), anaemia (P = 0.012), non-prescription of beta-blockers (P = 0.006) and left ventricular ejection fraction (P = 0.03) were the only independent predictors of mortality. On ROC analysis, the eCrCl(CG) was significantly more accurate than the eGFR(MDRD). CONCLUSIONS among CHF patients aged > or =70 years, reduced REF is the most powerful independent predictor of survival. The excess in risk conferred by reduced REF is better appraised by means of the CG than the MDRD equation.
Revisiting and Extending the Item Difficulty Effect Model

Data collected by learning environments and online courses contains many potentially useful features, but traditionally many of these are ignored when modeling students. One feature that could use further examination is item difficulty. In their KT-IDEM model, Pardos and Heffernan proposed the use of question templates to differentiate guess and slip rates in knowledge tracing based on the difficulty of the templatehere, we examine extensions and variations of that model. We propose two new models that differentiate based on templateone in which the learn rate is differentiated and another in which learn, guess, and slip parameters all depend on template. We compare these two new models to knowledge tracing and KT-IDEM. We also propose a generalization of IDEM in which, rather than individual templates, we differentiate between multiple choice and short answer questions and compare this model to traditional knowledge tracing and IDEM. We test these models using data from ASSISTments, an open online learning environment used in many middle and high school classrooms throughout the United States.
Epidemiological Distribution and Genotype Characterization of the Hepatitis C Virus Among HIV Patients in Kashan, Iran

Background Parenteral transmission is a common route of transmission for both human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV); therefore, hepatitis C viral infection is highly prevalent among people infected with HIV. Objectives This study was designed to examine the epidemiology and describe the clinical manifestation as well as the HCV genotypes in patients from the city of Kashan, Iran, who are coinfected with HIV and HCV. Patients and Methods This descriptive study was conducted in 2014 in the city of Kashan. The population consisted of all the HIV-infected patients who were referred to the behavioral counseling center and jail in Kashan. Demographic information and HCV- and HIV-related risk behaviors were obtained through the use of an interviewer-assisted questionnaire. After the participants gave written informed consent to participate, 10 cc venous blood samples were collected. The serum samples were screened for HCV infection using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In the event of a positive test for HCV, the RNA was then amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. The HCV subtypes were determined via the direct sequencing of the amplicons. All data analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.0 for the descriptive statistics, and then the chi-square test and Pearson coefficient were performed for additional analysis. Results The results of the analysis indicated that 54 (85%) of the 63 HIV-infected patients were males who were also HCV positive and who had less than a high school level education. There was a significant association between HCV infection and both occupation (P < 0.0001) and level of education (P < 0.05). All the HIV/HCV coinfected cases had a history of illicit drug use, while 92.6% had a history of imprisonment and 40.7% had high risk sexual contacts. Overall, genotype 1 was found in 75.9% of HCV patients, while genotype 3 was found in 24.1%. Some 94.4% of HCV patients had subtype A. There were no clinical symptoms of chronic hepatitis C. Conclusions The majority of HIV-infected persons in the city of Kashan were also HCV positive. Genotype 1 was the predominant type, alongside subtype A. Considering the high prevalence of HCV among the HIV-infected persons, as well as the impact of occupation, education, illicit drug use, and imprisonment on the incidence of both infections, health policy makers must introduce health programs and plans to reduce the prevalence of these infections.
Mass Media Logic and The Mediatization of Politics

This article proposes a theoretical framework for analyzing both mass media logic as a driving force for social change and, probably more importantly, that change itself as caused by the mass media. Mass media logic as a highly complex construct of interacting structures has changed society fundamentally, as actors in different social functional systems believe in first-order mass media effects and, therefore, adapt to the mass media logic. In the case of the mediatization of politics, this refers both to the adaptation of mass media logic by political actors and media-induced changes in the public representation of politics. Those adaptation processes have one pre-condition (the existence of a more or less autonomous mass media system) and are three-fold: political actors modify their individual strategies (micro-level), rearrange resources of political organizations such as parties, lobbying groups, or non-governemtal organizations (meso-level), and rewrite the programs of the political system (macro-level). Here, those second-order long-term mass media effects are called mediatization.
Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors during pregnancy and risk of autism.

BACKGROUND Studies have raised concern about an association between the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders in the offspring. METHODS We conducted a cohort study of all singleton live births in Denmark from 1996 through 2005 (626,875 births), with follow-up through 2009. Using Danish population registries, we linked information on maternal use of SSRIs before and during pregnancy, autism spectrum disorders diagnosed in the offspring, and a range of potential confounders. We used a survival analysis of the time to diagnosis in the offspring with Poisson regression to estimate rate ratios of autism spectrum disorders according to maternal use of SSRIs. RESULTS During 5,057,282 person-years of follow-up, we identified 3892 cases of autism spectrum disorder (incidence rate, 77.0 per 100,000 person-years). A total of 52 cases during 42,400 person-years of follow-up involved offspring of women who were exposed to SSRIs during their pregnancy (incidence rate, 122.6 per 100,000 person-years). As compared with no use of SSRIs both before and during pregnancy, use during pregnancy was not associated with a significantly increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (fully adjusted rate ratio, 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.90 to 1.61). Among women who received SSRIs before pregnancy but not during pregnancy, the corresponding fully adjusted rate ratio was 1.46 (95% CI, 1.17 to 1.81). CONCLUSIONS We did not detect a significant association between maternal use of SSRIs during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. On the basis of the upper boundary of the confidence interval, our study could not rule out a relative risk up to 1.61, and therefore the association warrants further study. (Funded by the Danish Health and Medicines Authority.).
Toward a Statistical Framework for Source Anonymity in Sensor Networks

In certain applications, the locations of events reported by a sensor network need to remain anonymous. That is, unauthorized observers must be unable to detect the origin of such events by analyzing the network traffic. Known as the source anonymity problem, this problem has emerged as an important topic in the security of wireless sensor networks, with variety of techniques based on different adversarial assumptions being proposed. In this work, we present a new framework for modeling, analyzing, and evaluating anonymity in sensor networks. The novelty of the proposed framework is twofold: first, it introduces the notion of "interval indistinguishability” and provides a quantitative measure to model anonymity in wireless sensor networks; second, it maps source anonymity to the statistical problem of binary hypothesis testing with nuisance parameters. We then analyze existing solutions for designing anonymous sensor networks using the proposed model. We show how mapping source anonymity to binary hypothesis testing with nuisance parameters leads to converting the problem of exposing private source information into searching for an appropriate data transformation that removes or minimize the effect of the nuisance information. By doing so, we transform the problem from analyzing real-valued sample points to binary codes, which opens the door for coding theory to be incorporated into the study of anonymous sensor networks. Finally, we discuss how existing solutions can be modified to improve their anonymity.
Guidelines for the evaluation and management of dyslipidemia in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults receiving antiretroviral therapy: recommendations of the HIV Medical Association of the Infectious Disease Society of America and the Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group.

Michael P. Dube, James H. Stein, Judith A. Aberg, Carl J. Fichtenbaum, John G. Gerber, Karen T. Tashima, W. Keith Henry, Judith S. Currier, Dennis Sprecher, and Marshall J. Glesby, for the Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group Cardiovascular Subcommittee Indiana University, Indianapolis; University of Wisconsin, Madison; Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; University of Cincinnati and Cleveland Clinic, Ohio; University of Colorado, Denver; Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; University of Minnesota, St. Paul; University of California at Los Angeles; and Cornell University, New York, New York
Observer effects without demand characteristics: The curious case of video monitoring of performance

Purpose The usual explanation for observer effects in research on organizational behavior is that researchers’cognitive biases cause them to unconsciously influence participants in a manner consistent with hypotheses. In many cases, the observer effects likely depend on the expectations of the observers and the social cues that communicate these expectations to those being observed. A neglected question, however, is: What is the effect of electronic monitoring on performance in the absence of expectations and social cues? Can monitoring in itself influence behavior and, if so, how? Design/Methodology Observation of performance quantity on a hand-eye coordination task was conducted via video monitoring. In Experiment 1, no hypotheses were developed and a double-blind procedure was used. In Experiment 2, we used the same design as in Experiment 1 and controlled for cognitive ability and emotions. Results In Experiment 1, results demonstrated that monitored participants’performance was lower than that of non-monitored participants. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2, controlling for cognitive ability and emotions. Limitations Additional research is needed in order to investigate whether our results generalize to tasks that differ in important ways from the one we used. Research/Practical Implications The questions raised in this research are important because they pertain to the baseline consequence of monitoring. Without knowledge of the results of observation, researchers would be in danger of misinterpreting effect sizes and overlooking the role of observation in their theories and data. Originality/Value Our studies contribute to knowledge of observation effects by demonstrating that such effects can occur in the absence of expectations and social cues.
Intimal Smooth Muscle Cells as a Target for Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-&ggr; Ligand Therapy

Abstract— Activation of the nuclear receptor/transcription factor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor &ggr; (PPAR&ggr;), is a newly defined target for limiting vascular pathologies. PPAR&ggr; is expressed in human and animal models of vascular disease, with particularly high levels being present in the cells of the neointimal microenvironment. In the present study, we show that intimal smooth muscle cells in vitro contain higher amounts of functional PPAR&ggr; than medial smooth muscle cells. The PPAR&ggr; ligand rosiglitazone more potently induced CD36 expression at low concentrations, and cell death by apoptosis at higher concentrations in intimal compared with medial smooth muscle cells. Intimal smooth muscle cells also contained high levels of cyclooxygenase-2 protein, and released a more diverse and larger amount of eicosanoids on arachidonic acid stimulation. Furthermore, when exogenous arachidonic acid was added, PPAR reporter gene activation was induced in a cyclooxygenase inhibitor–sensitive manner, an effect that correlated with an increase in CD36 expression. In summary, intimal smooth muscle cells contain functionally higher levels of PPAR&ggr;, PPAR&ggr; ligands have high- and low-potency targets in vascular smooth muscle cells, and cyclooxygenase can serve as a source of potential endogenous PPAR ligands. Intimal vascular smooth muscle cells therefore represent a potentially important target for the antiproliferative, and antiatherosclerotic actions of PPAR&ggr; ligands.
Dendritic Cells Are the Major Antigen Presenting Cells in Inflammatory Lesions of Murine Mycoplasma Respiratory Disease

Mycoplasmas cause chronic respiratory diseases in animals and humans, and to date, development of vaccines have been problematic. Using a murine model of mycoplasma pneumonia, lymphocyte responses, specifically T cells, were shown to confer protection as well as promote immunopathology in mycoplasma disease. Because T cells play such a critical role, it is important to define the role of antigen presenting cells (APC) as these cells may influence either exacerbation of mycoplasma disease pathogenesis or enhancement of protective immunity. The roles of APC, such as dendritic cells and/or macrophages, and their ability to modulate adaptive immunity in mycoplasma disease are currently unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify individual pulmonary APC populations that may contribute to the activation of T cell responses during mycoplasma disease pathogenesis. The present study indeed demonstrates increasing numbers of CD11c− F4/80+ cells, which contain macrophages, and more mature/activated CD11c+ F4/80− cells, containing DC, in the lungs after infection. CD11c− F4/80+ macrophage-enriched cells and CD11c+ F4/80− dendritic cell-enriched populations showed different patterns of cytokine mRNA expression, supporting the idea that these cells have different impacts on immunity in response to infection. In fact, DC containing CD11c+ F4/80− cell populations from the lungs of infected mice were most capable of stimulating mycoplasma-specific CD4+ Th cell responses in vitro. In vivo, these CD11c+F4/80− cells were co-localized with CD4+ Th cells in inflammatory infiltrates in the lungs of mycoplasma-infected mice. Thus, CD11c+F4/80− dendritic cells appear to be the major APC population responsible for pulmonary T cell stimulation in mycoplasma-infected mice, and these dendritic cells likely contribute to responses impacting disease pathogenesis.
WhoseFault: Automatic developer-to-fault assignment through fault localization

This paper describes a new technique, which automatically selects the most appropriate developers for fixing the fault represented by a failing test case, and provides a diagnosis of where to look for the fault. This technique works by incorporating three key components: (1) fault localization to inform locations whose execution correlate with failure, (2) history mining to inform which developers edited each line of code and when, and (3) expertise assignment to map locations to developers. To our knowledge, the technique is the first to assign developers to execution failures, without the need for textual bug reports. We implement this technique in our tool, WHOSEFAULT, and describe an experiment where we utilize a large, open-source project to determine the frequency in which our tool suggests an assignment to the actual developer who fixed the fault. Our results show that 81% of the time, WHOSEFAULT produced the same developer that actually fixed the fault within the top three suggestions. We also show that our technique improved by a difference between 4% and 40% the results of a baseline technique. Finally, we explore the influence of each of the three components of our technique over its results, and compare our expertise algorithm against an existing expertise assessment technique and find that our algorithm provides greater accuracy, by up to 37%.
[Analysis of screening for colorectal cancer high-risk groups in Harbin, China 2012-2015].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the result of colorectal cancer screening for high-risk groups in Harbin, China from 2012 to 2015. METHODS According to the Project of National Colorectal Cancer Screening in Urban Area, epidemiological investigation and cancer risk evaluation established by National Cancer Center were performed among 40-69 years old residents in Harbin. Questionnaires were issued to assess high-risk groups for clinical screening, including colonoscope examination. The results of colorectal screening were evaluated in detail. RESULTS Project of Colorectal Cancer Screening in Urban Area was completed successfully from 2012 to 2015 in various districts of Harbin. The accomplishment of high-risk assessment included 3 017 people, while 2 996 people received the clinical screening, including 1 376 males and 1 629 females, from 40 to 69 (53.3±7.1) years old. Among 2 996 people, 1 158 cases of colorectal polyps(38.7%) were screened, including 36.6%(901/2 465) cases of age<60 and 48.4%(257/531) cases of age>60 years old with significant difference (χ2=19.19, P<0.01), and 47.6% (651/1 367) cases of male and 31.1%(507/1 629) cases of female with significant difference (χ2=85.33, P<0.01). Of 1 158 polyps patients, 141 received the pathological examination and 11 patients were diagnosed as colorectal cancer, accounting for 0.4% of overall screening people (11/2 996). All these 11 patients underwent operation by advice and the postoperative pathology results all indicated early adenocarcinoma. Furthermore, among 141 polyps patients, 97 cases of tubular adenoma were found, which were distributed as follows: 2 cases of cecum (2.1%), 14 cases of ascending colon(14.4%), 12 cases of transverse colon (12.4%), 15 cases of descending colon (15.5%), 35 cases of sigmoid colon (36.1%) and 19 cases of rectum(19.6%). CONCLUSION With the increase in age, the risk of colorectal polyps is significantly elevated. The males have higher incidence of colorectal polyps than the females. Adenoma mainly locates in the distal colon and rectum, especially in the sigmoid colon. Early screening for high-risk group can find out colorectal precancerosis and cancer, so the patients can receive early treatment.
Elevated Basal Pre-infection CXCL10 in Plasma and in the Small Intestine after Infection Are Associated with More Rapid HIV/SIV Disease Onset

Elevated blood CXCL10/IP-10 levels during primary HIV-1 infection (PHI) were described as an independent marker of rapid disease onset, more robust than peak viremia or CD4 cell nadir. IP-10 enhances the recruitment of CXCR3+ cells, which include major HIV-target cells, raising the question if it promotes the establishment of viral reservoirs. We analyzed data from four cohorts of HIV+ patients, allowing us to study IP-10 levels before infection (Amsterdam cohort), as well as during controlled and uncontrolled viremia (ANRS cohorts). We also addressed IP-10 expression levels with regards to lymphoid tissues (LT) and blood viral reservoirs in patients and non-human primates. Pre-existing elevated IP-10 levels but not sCD63 associated with rapid CD4 T-cell loss upon HIV-1 infection. During PHI, IP-10 levels and to a lesser level IL-18 correlated with cell-associated HIV DNA, while 26 other inflammatory soluble markers did not. IP-10 levels tended to differ between HIV controllers with detectable and undetectable viremia. IP-10 was increased in SIV-exposed aviremic macaques with detectable SIV DNA in tissues. IP-10 mRNA was produced at higher levels in the small intestine than in colon or rectum. Jejunal IP-10+ cells corresponded to numerous small and round CD68neg cells as well as to macrophages. Blood IP-10 response negatively correlated with RORC (Th17 marker) gene expression in the small intestine. CXCR3 expression was higher on memory CD4+ T cells than any other immune cells. CD4 T cells from chronically infected animals expressed extremely high levels of intra-cellular CXCR3 suggesting internalization after ligand recognition. Elevated systemic IP-10 levels before infection associated with rapid disease progression. Systemic IP-10 during PHI correlated with HIV DNA. IP-10 production was regionalized in the intestine during early SIV infection and CD68+ and CD68neg haematopoietic cells in the small intestine appeared to be the major source of IP-10.
A Robust Spanning Tree Topology for Data Collection and Dissemination in Distributed Environments

Large-scale distributed applications are subject to frequent disruptions due to resource contention and failure. Such disruptions are inherently unpredictable and, therefore, robustness is a desirable property for the distributed operating environment. In this work, we describe and evaluate a robust topology for applications that operate on a spanning tree overlay network. Unlike previous work that is adaptive or reactive in nature, we take a proactive approach to robustness. The topology itself is able to simultaneously withstand disturbances and exhibit good performance. We present both centralized and distributed algorithms to construct the topology, and then demonstrate its effectiveness through analysis and simulation of two classes of distributed applications: Data collection in sensor networks and data dissemination in divisible load scheduling. The results show that our robust spanning trees achieve a desirable trade-off for two opposing metrics where traditional forms of spanning trees do not. In particular, the trees generated by our algorithms exhibit both resilience to data loss and low power consumption for sensor networks. When used as the overlay network for divisible load scheduling, they display both robustness to link congestion and low values for the makespan of the schedule