Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Baseline Carotid Intima-Media Thickness and Stroke Recurrence During Secondary Prevention With Pravastatin.

Background and Purpose- As a prespecified post hoc analysis of the J-STARS (Japan Statin Treatment Against Recurrent Stroke) Echo Study, the 5-year stroke recurrence rate according to the baseline mean carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) with and without pravastatin treatment was investigated. Methods- Patients were randomly assigned to receive pravastatin 10 mg/day (pravastatin group) or control group (nonstatin treatment; 1:1) for 5 years. Baseline mean IMT of the common carotid artery was measured by ultrasonography. Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate whether the stroke (any ischemic stroke, atherothrombotic brain infarction, or lacunar infarction) recurrence rate was different according to tertiles of baseline mean IMT. Results- A total of 793 patients, including 388 in the pravastatin group and 405 in the control group, were investigated. In the control group, Cox proportional hazards models showed that participants in the highest tertile IMT group (≥0.931 mm) had a higher rate of atherothrombotic brain infarction than those in the lowest tertile IMT group (<0.812 mm; [hazard ratio, 9.08; 95% CI, 1.15-71.43]). Patients in the pravastatin group had a lower risk of atherothrombotic brain infarction than those in the control group only in the highest tertile IMT group by the log-rank test ( P value=0.045). Conclusions- Long-term pravastatin administration may prevent the occurrence of atherothrombotic brain infarction in noncardioembolic infarction patients with the highest tertile IMT. Clinical Trial Registration- URL: https://www.clinicaltrials. gov . Unique identifier: NCT00361530.
Patient and system factors of time to surgery after hip fracture: a scoping review

Objectives It is disputed whether the time a patient waits for surgery after hip fracture increases the risk of in-hospital death. This uncertainty matters as access to surgery following hip fracture may be underprioritised due to a lack of definitive evidence. Uncertainty in the available evidence may be due to differences in characteristics of patients, their injury and their care. We summarised the literature on patients and system factors associated with time to surgery, and collated proposed mechanisms for the associations. Methods We used the framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley and Levac et al for synthesis of factors and mechanisms of time to surgery after hip fracture in adults aged >50 years, published in English, between 1 January 2000 and 28 February 2017, and indexed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL or Ageline. Proposed mechanisms for reported associations were extracted from discussion sections. Results We summarised evidence from 26 articles that reported on 24 patient and system factors of time to surgery post hip fracture. In total, 16 factors were reported by only one article. For 16 factors we found proposed mechanisms for their association with time to surgery which included surgical readiness, available resources, prioritisation and out-of-hours admission. Conclusions We identified patient and system factors associated with time to surgery after hip fracture. This new knowledge will inform evaluation of the putative timing–death association. Future interventions should be designed to influence factors with modifiable mechanisms for delay.
Normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism: further characterization of a new clinical phenotype.

CONTEXT Patients with elevated PTH and consistently normal serum calcium levels, in whom secondary causes of hyperparathyroidism have been excluded, may represent the earliest presentation of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to characterize patients with normocalcemic PHPT referred to a bone disease unit. DESIGN This was a longitudinal cohort study. SETTING Ambulatory patients were referred to the metabolic bone disease unit. PATIENTS The study population included 37 patients [aged 58 yr, range 32-78; 95% female; serum calcium, 9.4 +/- 0.1 (sem) mg/dl (2.3 +/- 0.02 mmol/liter), reference range, 8.5-10.4 (2.1-2.6 mmol/liter); PTH, 93 +/- 5 pg/ml]. INTERVENTIONS Interventions included yearly (median 3 yr; range 1-8 yr) physical examination, biochemical indices, and bone mineral density (BMD). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES We measured the development of features of PHPT. RESULTS Evaluation for classical features of PHPT revealed a history of kidney stones in five (14%), fragility fractures in four (11%), and osteoporosis in 57% [spine (34%), hip (38%), and/or distal one third radius (28%)]. BMD did not show preferential bone loss at the distal one third radius (T scores: spine, -2.00 +/- 0.25; hip, -1.84 +/- 0.18; one third radius, -1.74 +/- 0.22). Further signs of PHPT developed in 40% (seven hypercalcemia; one kidney stone; one fracture; two marked hypercalciuria; six had >10% BMD loss at one or more site(s) including four patients developing World Health Organization criteria for osteoporosis). Seven patients (three hypercalcemic, four persistently normocalcemic) underwent successful parathyroidectomy. CONCLUSIONS Patients seen in a referral center with normocalcemic hyperparathyroidism have more substantial skeletal involvement than is typical in PHPT and develop more features and complications over time. These patients may represent the earliest form of symptomatic, rather than asymptomatic, PHPT.
An analysis of real-time ethernets with regard to their automatic configuration

Future market conditions require production systems which can be easily adapted to changing demands. However, the engineering process of industrial automation systems is characterized by high manual configuration efforts. Thus, the reconfiguration of such system leads to time-intensive and expensive downtimes. Therefore, this paper will present a concept on reducing the engineering effort - at least on the lower layers of the automation pyramid. Due to the real-time requirements on these layers, specific communication technologies must be used there - for example Real-Time Ethernets (RTEs) which are increasingly applied in industrial automation. However, their real-time capability is contrasted by an additional configuration effort in comparison to standard networks from the information technology domain. This paper will show an approach for the automatic configuration of RTEs and will check its applicability on the most widely-used RTE variants.
Beta oscillations define discrete perceptual cycles in the somatosensory domain

Significance Our sensory system constantly receives multiple inputs, which are usually perceived as a seamless stream. Thus, perception is commonly regarded as a continuous process. Alternatively, a few phenomena and recent studies suggest that perception might work in a discrete and periodic sampling mode. In a human magnetoencephalography study, we challenged the common view of continuous perception. We demonstrate that neuronal oscillations in the alpha band and low beta band determine discrete perceptual sampling windows in primary somatosensory cortex. The current results elucidate how ongoing neuronal oscillations shape discrete perceptual cycles, which constitute the basis for a discontinuous and periodic nature of somatosensory perception. Whether seeing a movie, listening to a song, or feeling a breeze on the skin, we coherently experience these stimuli as continuous, seamless percepts. However, there are rare perceptual phenomena that argue against continuous perception but, instead, suggest discrete processing of sensory input. Empirical evidence supporting such a discrete mechanism, however, remains scarce and comes entirely from the visual domain. Here, we demonstrate compelling evidence for discrete perceptual sampling in the somatosensory domain. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and a tactile temporal discrimination task in humans, we find that oscillatory alpha- and low beta-band (8–20 Hz) cycles in primary somatosensory cortex represent neurophysiological correlates of discrete perceptual cycles. Our results agree with several theoretical concepts of discrete perceptual sampling and empirical evidence of perceptual cycles in the visual domain. Critically, these results show that discrete perceptual cycles are not domain-specific, and thus restricted to the visual domain, but extend to the somatosensory domain.
[Cyclin D1 gene G870A polymorphism and susceptibility to nasopharyngeal carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the susceptibility and prognostic implications of the cyclin D1 gene (CCND1) G870A polymorphism to nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC) in Han population in Yunnan China. METHODS Two hundred and forty one cases with NPC and 271 matched cancer-free controls were genotyped for the CCND1 G870A polymorphism by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and sequencing. The adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by using unconditional logistic regression model. Overall survival was assessed using univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS Contrast with homozygous CCND1 G870G, A allele significantly increasing risk of NPC was associated with homozygous A870A (OR = 4.79, 95% CI 2.77 - 8.28, P < 0.001) and heterozygous A870G (OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.10 - 2.68, P = 0.017). The subjects at least having one CCND1 870A allele had OR of 2.40 (95% CI 1.59 - 3.63, P < 0.001). Furthermore, smoking may increase the risk of developing NPC interacting with CCND1 G870A polymorphism. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression analysis demonstrated that the five-year survival rate of subjects with AA, AG and GG genotype was 56.2%, 78.5% and 81.4% (AA vs GG, P = 0.003; AA vs AG, P = 0.012; AG vs GG, P = 0.132), but not independent prognostic factor in NPC (P = 0.501). CONCLUSIONS The CCND1 870A allele is associated with the NPC in Han population in Yunnan China, meanwhile, showed a significant prognosis for those patients.
Measured and Modeled Charging of a Stratified Chilled Water Thermal Storage Tank with Slotted Pipe Diffusers

As part of ASHRAE Research Project 1185, field data from the constant flow rate charging of a stratified chilled water storage tank with double-ring octagonal slotted-pipe diffusers serving a university chilled water system were compared with results of a transient axisymmetric computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. Charge processes at flows near design flow rate and 50% of design were modeled. Laminar and turbulent simulations were performed for a range of slot dimensions. Performance of the model was assessed by direct comparison of temperature profiles and by comparison of common thermal performance metrics, including thermocline thickness, lost capacity, and equivalent lost height. The inlet Richardson number based on slot hydraulic radius was found to have the strongest effect on model results. The model Richardson number giving best agreement with the lost height of the field data for near design flow rate was roughly an order of magnitude greater than the Richardson number of the actual diffuser. It is conjectured that this is due to inherent differences between the flow produced by multiple three-dimensional jets in the actual diffuser and the continuous slot of the axisymmetric model. The effect of turbulence varied from negligible to moderate as the Richardson number decreased.
Effect of latanoprost on intraocular pressure in mice lacking the prostaglandin FP receptor.

PURPOSE To determine whether latanoprost lowers IOP in prostaglandin FP receptor knockout mice. METHODS Mean IOP difference between treated and untreated fellow eyes was measured on three separate occasions, 2 hours after a 200-ng dose of latanoprost to the right eye of homozygous (n = 9) and heterozygous (n = 15) FP knockout mice. C57BL/6 (n = 10) and NIH Swiss white mice (n = 17), which have normal FP receptor expression, provided the control population. The investigator was masked to the genotype of the FP knockout mice at the time of IOP measurement. RESULTS Latanoprost had no effect on IOP in the homozygous FP knockout mice, with an average difference in IOP between treated and untreated fellow eyes of +0.25 mm Hg and a 95% confidence interval (CI) for the difference between means of -0.019 to +0.69. In contrast, latanoprost reduced IOP in the treated eye of the heterozygous FP knockout, C57BL/6, and Swiss white mice with mean differences and 95% CI of the difference in means of -0.52 (-0.91 to -0.14), -1.38 (-2.1 to -0.70), and -1.29 (-1.78 to -0.79) mm Hg, respectively. CONCLUSIONS FP receptor signaling plays a crucial role in the early IOP response to latanoprost in the mouse eye.
HDOS: An Infrastructure for Dynamic Optimization

Recently, CPUs with an identical ISA tend to have different architectures, different computation resources, and special instructions. To achieve efficient program execution on such hardware, compilers have machine-dependent code optimization. However, software vendors cannot adopt this optimization for software production, since the software would be widely distributed and therefore it must be executable on any machine with the same ISA. To solve this problem, several dynamic optimization techniques such as JAVA JIT compiler and Microsoft . NET platform are effective. The techniques can perform the machine-dependent code optimization without source code. However, the techniques have to exploit special environment (VM) for program execution or special executable code (e.g. code augmentation). In this paper, we propose an infrastructure for dynamic optimization, HDOS. The HDOS is organized with dedicated hardware inside a CPU and operating system support. The HDOS provides more lightweight dynamic optimization than VM-based or interpreter-based dynamic optimization. Furthermore, the HDOS can reuse optimized binary codes at the next execution time since it translates native binary codes into native binary ones.
Increased Myocardial Dysfunction After Ischemia-Reperfusion in Mice Lacking Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase

Background—Free radical injury contributes to cardiac dysfunction during ischemia-reperfusion. Detoxification of free radicals requires maintenance of reduced glutathione (GSH) by NADPH. The principal mechanism responsible for generating NADPH and maintaining GSH during periods of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion remains unknown. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), the rate-limiting enzyme in the pentose phosphate pathway, generates NADPH in a reaction linked to the de novo production of ribose. We therefore hypothesized that G6PD is essential for maintaining GSH levels and protecting the heart during ischemia-reperfusion injury. Methods and Results—Susceptibility to myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury was determined in Langendorff-perfused hearts isolated from wild-type mice (WT) and mice lacking G6PD (G6PDdef) (20% of WT myocardial G6PD activity). During global zero-flow ischemia, cardiac function was similar between WT and G6PDdef hearts. On reperfusion, however, cardiac relaxation and contractile performance were greatly impaired in G6PDdef myocardium, as demonstrated by elevated end-diastolic pressures and decreased percent recovery of developed pressure relative to WT hearts. Contractile dysfunction in G6PDdef hearts was associated with depletion of total glutathione stores and impaired generation of GSH from its oxidized form. Increased ischemia-reperfusion injury in G6PDdef hearts was reversed by treatment with the antioxidant MnTMPyP but unaffected by supplementation of ribose stores. Conclusions—These results demonstrate that G6PD is an essential myocardial antioxidant enzyme, required for maintaining cellular glutathione levels and protecting against oxidative stress-induced cardiac dysfunction during ischemia-reperfusion.
‘From blood to blood’: de‐differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors to stem cells

Recent studies have reported that fibroblasts or differentiated pluripotent cells can be reprogrammed with transcription factors (TFs) into cells with hematopoietic potential. A study published in Cell now suggests that committed blood precursors may provide a source for blood stem cell transplantation after reprogramming (Riddell et al, 2014). The authors report that a combination of eight TFs reprogram murine committed blood progenitors into long‐term engrafting and serially transplantable hematopoietic stem cells with a molecular signature similar to their endogenous counterparts.
Workplace social capital and risk of long-term sickness absence. Are associations modified by occupational grade?

Background: Workplace social capital (WSC) is an emerging topic among both work environment professionals and researchers. We examined (i) whether high WSC protected against risk of long-term sickness absence (LTSA) in a random sample of the Danish workforce during a 1-year follow-up and (ii) whether the association of WSC with sickness absence was modified by occupational grade. Methods: We measured WSC by self-report in a cohort of 3075 employees and linked responses to a national register of sickness absence. We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of onset of LTSA (≥21 days), adjusted for covariates. We stratified analyses by occupational grade and examined if there was an interaction effect of WSC and occupational grade. Results: A one standard deviation higher WSC score predicted a reduced risk of sickness absence after adjustment for sociodemographic variables, prevalent health problems and health behaviours (HR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.74–0.99). The HR was attenuated and lost statistical significance after further adjustment for occupational grade (HR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.78–1.04). When stratified by occupational grade, high WSC predicted a decreased risk of sickness absence among higher grade workers (HR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.44–0.84) but not among lower grade workers (HR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.83–1.15). The interaction effect of WSC and occupational grade was statistically significant (HR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.95–0.99). Conclusion: High WSC might reduce risk of LTSA. However, the protective effect appears to be limited to workers of higher occupational grade.
New architecture for corporate integration of simulation and production control in industrial applications

3D simulation and flexible control of robot-based workcells are in common use. However, many companies, especially SMEs, do not make use of the advantages these technologies imply. Reasons for this behavior are the costs of the software and hardware systems as well as the fact that one needs experts to operate those systems. This article describes an innovative architecture that has been developed for a corporate integration of simulation and control systems into production processes. The coexistence and cooperation of PC-based simulation and control makes the cost-effective use of virtual reality (VR) methods and a wide range of novel industrial applications possible. By use of VR technologies complex systems can be operated by any user without long periods of training. Thus, small- and middle-size companies are enabled to use innovative technologies to increase their productivity and competitiveness.
Line-Images in Cone Mirror Catadioptric Systems

The projection surface of a 3D line in a non-central camera is a ruled surface, containing the complete information of the 3D line. The resulting line-image is a curve which contains the 4 degrees of freedom of the 3D line. In this paper we investigate the properties of the line-image in conical catadioptric systems. This curve is a particular quartic that can be described by only six homogeneous parameters. We present the relation between the line-image description and the geometry of the mirror. This result reveals the coupling between the depth of the line and the distance from the camera to the mirror. If this distance is unknown the 3D information of a projected line can be recovered up to scale. Knowing this distance allows obtaining the 3D metric reconstruction. The proposed parametrization also allows to simultaneously reconstruct the 3D line and computing the aperture angle of the mirror from five projected points on the line-image. We analytically solve the metric distance from a point to a line-image and we evaluate the proposal with real images.
Prenatal nicotine is associated with reduced AMPA and NMDA receptor-mediated rises in calcium within the laterodorsal tegmentum: a pontine nucleus involved in addiction processes

Despite huge efforts from public sectors to educate society as to the deleterious physiological consequences of smoking while pregnant, 12–25% of all babies worldwide are born to mothers who smoked during their pregnancies. Chief among the negative legacies bestowed to the exposed individual is an enhanced proclivity postnatally to addict to drugs of abuse, which suggests that the drug exposure during gestation changed the developing brain in such a way that biased it towards addiction. Glutamate signalling has been shown to be altered by prenatal nicotine exposure (PNE) and glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter within the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (LDT), which is a brainstem region importantly involved in responding to motivational stimuli and critical in development of drug addiction-associated behaviours, however, it is unknown whether PNE alters glutamate signalling within this nucleus. Accordingly, we used calcium imaging, to evaluate AMPA and NMDA receptor-mediated calcium responses in LDT brain slices from control and PNE mice. We also investigated whether the positive AMPA receptor modulator cyclothiazide (CYZ) had differential actions on calcium in the LDT following PNE. Our data indicated that PNE significantly decreased AMPA receptor-mediated calcium responses, and altered the neuronal calcium response to consecutive NMDA applications within the LDT. Furthermore, CYZ strongly potentiated AMPA-induced responses, however, this action was significantly reduced in the LDT of PNE mice when compared with enhancements in responses in control LDT cells. Immunohistochemical processing confirmed that calcium imaging recordings were obtained from the LDT nucleus as determined by presence of cholinergic neurons. Our results contribute to the body of evidence suggesting that neurobiological changes are induced if gestation is accompanied by nicotine exposure. We conclude that in light of the role played by the LDT in motivated behaviour, the cellular changes in the LDT induced by exposures to nicotine prenatally, when combined with alterations in other reward-related regions, could contribute to the increased susceptibility to smoking observed in the offspring.
Wisture: RNN-based Learning of Wireless Signals for Gesture Recognition in Unmodified Smartphones

This paper introduces Wisture, a new online machine learning solution for recognizing touch-less dynamic hand gestures on a smartphone. Wisture relies on the standard Wi-Fi Received Signal Strength (RSS) using a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), thresholding filters and traffic induction. Unlike other Wi-Fi based gesture recognition methods, the proposed method does not require a modification of the smartphone hardware or the operating system, and performs the gesture recognition without interfering with the normal operation of other smartphone applications. We discuss the characteristics of Wisture, and conduct extensive experiments to compare its performance against state-of-the-art machine learning solutions in terms of both accuracy and time efficiency. The experiments include a set of different scenarios in terms of both spatial setup and traffic between the smartphone and Wi-Fi access points (AP). The results show that Wisture achieves an online recognition accuracy of up to 94% (average 78%) in detecting and classifying three hand gestures.