Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy and safety of intravitreal anti‐tumour necrosis factor drugs in adults with non‐infectious uveitis – a systematic review

Anti‐tumour necrosis factor (TNF) drugs have been extensively used in non‐infectious uveitis (NIU), when corticosteroids or conventional immunosuppressive drugs cannot adequately control inflammation or intolerable side‐effects occur. However, systemic anti‐TNF therapies are also associated with a myriad of side‐effects. Therefore, intravitreal administration of anti‐TNF biologics has been employed to minimize patient morbidity and systemic adverse effects, while maintaining therapeutic effectivity. We undertook a systematic review to determine evidence of efficacy and safety of intravitreal administration of anti‐TNF drugs in adults with NIU. We conducted this systematic review according to the PRISMA guidelines. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42016041946). We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE and EMBASE, from inception to April 2017, as well as clinical trial registries and grey literature. The qualitative analysis included all studies of adult patients with a diagnosis of NIU and who received intravitreal anti‐TNF drugs with a 4‐week minimum follow‐up. A total of 4840 references were considered for title and abstract screening. Seven full texts were screened, and five studies were considered for analysis. All studies were open‐label, single‐centre, prospective, non‐randomized, interventional case series with a follow‐up between 4 and 26 weeks, employing either adalimumab in two studies and infliximab in three. Three studies showed a treatment effect of anti‐TNF intravitreal injections, while one study revealed short‐term improvement and one study revealed no efficacy of anti‐TNF intravitreal therapy. None of the studies reported ocular adverse effects but only two studies included electrophysiological assessment in the safety analysis and no study assessed systemic human anti‐drug antibodies. The available evidence is not sufficiently robust to conclude about the clinical effectivity of intravitreal anti‐TNF in NIU and so no recommendation can be made. In conclusion, intravitreal injection of anti‐TNF antibodies remains a possible treatment option to be explored through robust clinical investigation.
Incidence of Nodal Metastasis and Isolated Aortic Metastases in Patients With Surgically Staged Endometrioid Endometrial Cancer

Objectives To describe the incidence of lymph node metastasis in patients with surgically staged endometrioid-type endometrial cancer in Donostia University Hospital and evaluate the presence of isolated aortic metastasis. Methods Using a prospectively maintained database, we recorded all cases of endometrioid endometrial cancer that underwent lymph node dissection and determined the rate and location (pelvic or para-aortic) of lymph node metastasis. Results A total of 212 patients with endometrioid type endometrial cancer were surgically treated at our institution from May 2008 to June 2013. Ninety underwent pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy. Thirteen had positive nodes upon pathological examination. Six (6.6%) of 90 patients had positive para-aortic nodes with negative pelvic nodes. Conclusions In our series, the incidence of isolated aortic nodal metastasis is high compared with other published reports. Performing aortic lymphadenectomy only in case of positive pelvic nodes would have underdiagnosed 6 (46%) of 13 stage IIIC cancers.
The effect of cyber attacks on the demand dispatch application and identify them by OPTICS

With the growing trend of emerging technologies and the global concern for increasing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, the concept and implementation of smart grids over the past few years have been presented. According to the American National Technology and Energy National Laboratory, the intelligent network must have some features such as self-healing, energy efficiency, smart management, penetration of renewable energy sources, and so on. These features make the future power grid a highly complex network of cyber-physical aspects and propose some demanding requirements in the information infrastructure of the new generation power grids. Some of these requirements are 1- the rapid response to faults, errors and cyber-attacks 2- extensive information management 3- data security and 4- more efficient management of energy sources. The purpose of this paper is to examine and analysis the aforementioned features in the smart grid besides each other. In this regard, we will show the effects of cyber-attacks on smart meter' data as well as the losses that can influence the demand dispatch programs, and finally detect them based on the density-based OPTICS algorithm using LOF index. The proposed system is an off-grid network that consists of wind turbines, solar system, diesel generator and battery, and its customers which have some dispatchable and non-dispatchable loads that are connected by intelligent meters to the control center. In order to simulate the proposed method, the actual wind energy and solar energy data obtained from the NREL laboratory climate database are used. The results will show for two general modes that are Demand Dispatch program with and without cyber-attack to smart meters' data.
Generalization Challenges for Neural Architectures in Audio Source Separation

Recent work has shown that recurrent neural networks can be trained to separate individual speakers in a sound mixture with high fidelity. Here we explore convolutional neural network models as an alternative and show that they achieve state-of-the-art results with an order of magnitude fewer parameters. We also characterize and compare the robustness and ability of these different approaches to generalize under three different test conditions: longer time sequences, the addition of intermittent noise, and different datasets not seen during training. For the last condition, we create a new dataset, RealTalkLibri, to test source separation in real-world environments. We show that the acoustics of the environment have significant impact on the structure of the waveform and the overall performance of neural network models, with the convolutional model showing superior ability to generalize to new environments. The code for our study is available at https://github.com/ShariqM/source_separation.
Effect of Ractopamine on the Optimum Dietary Phosphorus Regimen for Pigs

Ten replications of individually penned gilts from a high-lean strain were used to determine the effect of ractopamine (RAC) on the optimum dietary available phosphorus (AP) regimen. At 70 kg body weight, pigs were randomly allotted to a corn-soybean meal basal diet (.08% AP) adequate in all nutrients except AP. The basal diet was supplemented with mono-dicalcium phosphate to create six AP concentrations (.08, .13, .18, .23, .28, .33%) and ractopamine HCl to create two RAC concentrations (0 and 20 ppm). A constant Ca/AP ratio of 2.5:1 was maintained in each diet. BW gain and feed intake were recorded weekly for 5 weeks, and total urine output was collected via urinary catheter the last 2 days of each 7-day period. After this 5-week collection period pigs remained on their diets until they achieved a body weight of 114 kg and were then slaughtered keeping the ham and loin for subsequent dissection and bone removal. In pigs growing from 70 to 114 kg BW dietary AP additions resulted in improved (P<.01) daily BW gain, but did not alter carcass or ham-loin muscle content. Dietary AP additions also linearly improved (P<.01) bone integrity as observed by ham-loin bone content and femur and fifth vertebra weight and mineral content. RAC improved (P<.01) BW gain (+125 g), gain/feed ratio (+64 g/kg), and carcass and ham-loin muscle (+3.4%, +5.6% ) content. RAC reduced (P<.05) the ham-loin bone content and femur and fifth vertebra weight and mineral content, but the amount of additional bone or bone mineral accrued per unit of added dietary AP was linear and independent of RAC. Because of their greater muscle accretion capacity, thus P demand, pigs fed RAC from 70 to 114 kg BW needed an additional . 03% AP to maintain the same femur mineral content as the non-RAC pig. Over the five periods, RAC lowered P content of BW gain (4.66 vs. 4.05 g/kg) and urinary P excretion (219 vs. 67 mg/d) independent of dietary AP. The magnitude of change in BW gain and P content of BW gain was reduced in later periods of growth. Dietary AP additions improved (P<.01) P accretion and P content of BW gain. To achieve maximum BW gain, the amount of AP needed was not altered by RAC. To achieve the same P content of BW gain, an indicator of the adequacy of the bone mineral content of gain, an additional . 06% to . 02% AP was needed in the RAC pigs depending on length of ractopamine feeding. Based on these data, RAC does not alter the amount of AP needed to optimize rate and efficiency of BW gain but does increase the AP needed to maintain P content of body growth equivalent to non-RAC pigs.
Combined Blockade of ADP Receptors and PI3-Kinase p110β Fully Prevents Platelet and Leukocyte Activation during Hypothermic Extracorporeal Circulation

Extracorporeal circulation (ECC) and hypothermia are used to maintain stable circulatory parameters and improve the ischemia tolerance of patients in cardiac surgery. However, ECC and hypothermia induce activation mechanisms in platelets and leukocytes, which are mediated by the platelet agonist ADP and the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) p110β. Under clinical conditions these processes are associated with life-threatening complications including thromboembolism and inflammation. This study analyzes effects of ADP receptor P2Y12 and P2Y1 blockade and PI3K p110β inhibition on platelets and granulocytes during hypothermic ECC. Human blood was treated with the P2Y12 antagonist 2-MeSAMP, the P2Y1 antagonist MRS2179, the PI3K p110β inhibitor TGX-221, combinations thereof, or PBS and propylene glycol (controls). Under static in vitro conditions a concentration-dependent effect regarding the inhibition of ADP-induced platelet activation was found using 2-MeSAMP or TGX-221. Further inhibition of ADP-mediated effects was achieved with MRS2179. Next, blood was circulated in an ex vivo ECC model at 28°C for 30 minutes and various platelet and granulocyte markers were investigated using flow cytometry, ELISA and platelet count analysis. GPIIb/IIIa activation induced by hypothermic ECC was inhibited using TGX-221 alone or in combination with P2Y blockers (p<0.05), while no effect of hypothermic ECC or antiplatelet agents on GPIIb/IIIa and GPIbα expression and von Willebrand factor binding was observed. Sole P2Y and PI3K blockade or a combination thereof inhibited P-selectin expression on platelets and platelet-derived microparticles during hypothermic ECC (p<0.05). P2Y blockade alone or combined with TGX-221 prevented ECC-induced platelet-granulocyte aggregate formation (p<0.05). Platelet adhesion to the ECC surface, platelet loss and Mac-1 expression on granulocytes were inhibited by combined P2Y and PI3K blockade (p<0.05). Combined blockade of P2Y12, P2Y1 and PI3K p110β completely inhibits hypothermic ECC-induced activation processes. This novel finding warrants further studies and the development of suitable pharmacological agents to decrease ECC- and hypothermia-associated complications in clinical applications.
Algae from Portuguese Coast Presented High Cytotoxicity and Antiproliferative Effects on an In vitro Model of Human Colorectal Cancer

Background: The marine environment has shown to be an interesting source of new antitumor agents, representing an important tool in cancer research. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the antitumor activities of 12 algae from Peniche coast (Portugal) on an in vitro model of human colorectal cancer (Caco-2 cells). Materials and Methods: The antitumor potential was accessed by evaluating Caco-2 cell's viability and proliferation through the 3-[4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide and calcein-AM methods. Results: The dichloromethane extracts of Asparagopsis armata and Sphaerococcus coronopifolius induced the highest decrease on cell's viability (1 mg/mL; 24 h), 98.96% ± 0.39% and 98.08% ± 0.89%, respectively, followed by the methanolic extracts of S. coronopifolius (96.47% ± 1.26%) and A. armata (92.68% ± 1.17%). Regarding cell proliferation, the highest decrease of Caco-2 cell's proliferation (1 mg/mL; 24 h) was induced by the dichloromethane extract of A. armata (100% ± 0.48%), S. coronopifolius (99.04 ± 0.51%), and Plocamium cartilagineum (95.05% ± 1.19%). The highest potency was shown by the dichloromethane extract of S. coronopifolius in both, cytotoxicity and antiproliferative tests, with an IC50of 21.3 and 36.5 μg/mL, respectively. Conclusion: The extracts of A. armata and S. coronopifolius are promising sources of new bioactive molecules with application in cancer therapeutics.
Providing feedback following Leadership WalkRounds is associated with better patient safety culture, higher employee engagement and lower burnout

Background There is a poorly understood relationship between Leadership WalkRounds (WR) and domains such as safety culture, employee engagement, burnout and work-life balance. Methods This cross-sectional survey study evaluated associations between receiving feedback about actions taken as a result of WR and healthcare worker assessments of patient safety culture, employee engagement, burnout and work-life balance, across 829 work settings. Results 16 797 of 23 853 administered surveys were returned (70.4%). 5497 (32.7% of total) reported that they had participated in WR, and 4074 (24.3%) reported that they participated in WR with feedback. Work settings reporting more WR with feedback had substantially higher safety culture domain scores (first vs fourth quartile Cohen’s d range: 0.34–0.84; % increase range: 15–27) and significantly higher engagement scores for four of its six domains (first vs fourth quartile Cohen’s d range: 0.02–0.76; % increase range: 0.48–0.70). Conclusion This WR study of patient safety and organisational outcomes tested relationships with a comprehensive set of safety culture and engagement metrics in the largest sample of hospitals and respondents to date. Beyond measuring simply whether WRs occur, we examine WR with feedback, as WR being done well. We suggest that when WRs are conducted, acted on, and the results are fed back to those involved, the work setting is a better place to deliver and receive care as assessed across a broad range of metrics, including teamwork, safety, leadership, growth opportunities, participation in decision-making and the emotional exhaustion component of burnout. Whether WR with feedback is a manifestation of better norms, or a cause of these norms, is unknown, but the link is demonstrably potent.
eXtended WordFrameNet

This paper presents a novel automatic approach to partially integrate FrameNet and WordNet. In that way we expect to extend FrameNet coverage, to enrich WordNet with frame semantic information and possibly to extend FrameNet to languages other than English. The method uses a knowledge-based Word Sense Disambiguation algorithm for matching the FrameNet lexical units to WordNet synsets. Specifically, we exploit a graph-based Word Sense Disambiguation algorithm that uses a large-scale knowledge-base derived from existing semantic resources. We have developed and tested additional versions of this algorithm showing substantial improvements over state-of-the-art results. Finally, we show some examples and figures of the resulting semantic resource.
Preliminary study of electrical conductivity and electrochemical properties of the influence copper addition in reduced graphene oxide (rGO)

Graphene is a two-dimensional material which has interesting properties such as high theoretical surface area, excellent intrinsic strength, high thermal, and electrical conductivity properties. These superior properties make graphene suitable as an anode in a lithium battery. In this research, we introduced copper to enhance electrical conductivity and electrochemical properties of reduced graphene oxide (rGO), since copper has excellent conductivity properties. rGO with the addition of copper has successfully synthesized via in situ chemical exfoliation with microwave-assisted. The resulting samples were characterized by using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), four-point probe, and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The annealing treatment could increase the electrical conductivity of the sample. Electrochemical properties of samples have been characterized using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), resulting in charge transfer resistance (Rct) value of 48.1 Ohm from the sample of rGO with the addition of 5 wt% copper.
Improving prediction accuracy of multi-criteria recommender systems using adaptive genetic algorithms

Recommender systems are powerful intelligent systems that are considered as solutions to the problems of information overload. They provide personalized lists of recommended items to users using some machine learning techniques. Traditionally, the existing recommender systems used single rating techniques to estimate users' opinions on items. However, as preferences of the users might depend on several items' attributes, the efficiency of the traditional single rating recommender systems are considered to be limited since it can not account for the various items' attributes. A multi-criteria recommendation is a new technique that uses ratings to various items' attributes to make more efficient predictions. Nevertheless, despite the proven accuracy improvements of multi-criteria recommendation technique, research needs to be done continuously to establish an efficient way of modelling the criteria ratings. Therefore, this paper proposed to use an adaptive genetic algorithm to model multi-criteria recommendation problems using an aggregation function approach. The empirical results presented in this paper have shown that the multi-criteria recommendation technique using adaptive genetic algorithm has by far provided more accurate predictions than traditional recommendation approach.
Increased pathologic upstaging with rising time to treatment initiation for head and neck cancer: A mechanism for increased mortality

Time to treatment initiation (TTI) is increasing and is associated with worsening survival. In the current study, the authors sought to identify a mechanism for this relationship by assessing the effect of TTI on clinical‐to‐pathologic upstaging in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).
Evaluation of phylogenetic reconstruction methods using bacterial whole genomes: a simulation based study

Background: Phylogenetic reconstruction is a necessary first step in many analyses which use whole genome sequence data from bacterial populations. There are many available methods to infer phylogenies, and these have various advantages and disadvantages, but few unbiased comparisons of the range of approaches have been made. Methods: We simulated data from a defined 'true tree' using a realistic evolutionary model. We built phylogenies from this data using a range of methods, and compared reconstructed trees to the true tree using two measures, noting the computational time needed for different phylogenetic reconstructions. We also used real data from Streptococcus pneumoniae alignments to compare individual core gene trees to a core genome tree. Results: We found that, as expected, maximum likelihood trees from good quality alignments were the most accurate, but also the most computationally intensive. Using less accurate phylogenetic reconstruction methods, we were able to obtain results of comparable accuracy; we found that approximate results can rapidly be obtained using genetic distance based methods. In real data we found that highly conserved core genes, such as those involved in translation, gave an inaccurate tree topology, whereas genes involved in recombination events gave inaccurate branch lengths. We also show a tree-of-trees, relating the results of different phylogenetic reconstructions to each other. Conclusions: We recommend three approaches, depending on requirements for accuracy and computational time. For the most accurate tree, use of either RAxML or IQ-TREE with an alignment of variable sites produced by mapping to a reference genome is best. Quicker approaches that do not perform full maximum likelihood optimisation may be useful for many analyses requiring a phylogeny, as generating a high quality input alignment is likely to be the major limiting factor of accurate tree topology. We have publicly released our simulated data and code to enable further comparisons.
Task-Driven PCA-Based Design Optimization of Wearable Cutaneous Devices

Small size and low weight are critical requirements for wearable and portable haptic interfaces, making it essential to work toward the optimization of their sensing and actuation systems. This letter presents a new approach for task-driven design optimization of fingertip cutaneous haptic devices. Given one (or more) target tactile interactions to render and a cutaneous device to optimize, we evaluate the minimum number and best configuration of the device's actuators to minimize the estimated haptic rendering error. First, we calculate the motion needed for the original cutaneous device to render the considered target interaction. Then, we run a principal component analysis to search for possible couplings between the original motor inputs, looking also for the best way to reconfigure them. If some couplings exist, we can redesign our cutaneous device with fewer motors, optimally configured to render the target tactile sensation. The proposed approach is quite general and can be applied to different tactile sensors and cutaneous devices. We validated it using a BioTac tactile sensor and custom plate-based 3-DoF and 6-DoF fingertip cutaneous devices, considering six representative target tactile interactions. The algorithm was able to find couplings between each device's motor inputs, proving it to be a viable approach to optimize the design of wearable and portable cutaneous devices. Finally, we present two examples of optimized designs for our 3-DoF fingertip cutaneous device.
Cost of Prescription Drug–Related Morbidity and Mortality

Background: Public attention and recent US Congressional activity has intensified focus on escalating medication prices. However, the actual cost of medication use extends beyond the up-front cost of purchasing medicines. It also encompasses the additional medical costs of morbidity and mortality resulting from nonoptimized medication regimens, including medication nonadherence. Objectives: Applying the most current nationally representative data sources, our goal was to estimate the cost of prescription drug–related morbidity and mortality in the United States. Methods: Total costs of nonoptimized prescription drug use and average pathway costs for a patient who experienced a treatment failure (TF), a new medical problem (NMP), or a TF and NMP were modeled in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA) and TreeAge Pro Healthcare, v2014 (TreeAge Software, Inc, Williamstown, MA), respectively. Results: The estimated annual cost of prescription drug–related morbidity and mortality resulting from nonoptimized medication therapy was $528.4 billion in 2016 US dollars, with a plausible range of $495.3 billion to $672.7 billion. The average cost of an individual experiencing TF, NMP, or TF and NMP after initial prescription use were $2481 (range: $2233, $2742), $2610 (range: $2374, $2848) and $2572 (range: $2408, $2751), respectively. Conclusions: The estimated annual cost of drug-related morbidity and mortality resulting from nonoptimized medication therapy was $528.4 billion, equivalent to 16% of total US health care expenditures in 2016. We propose expansion of comprehensive medication management programs by clinical pharmacists in collaborative practices with physicians and other prescribers as an effective and scalable approach to mitigate these avoidable costs and improve patient outcomes.