Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in Warfarin Sensitivity During Decompensated Heart Failure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Background: Heart failure (HF) has been associated with an elevated international normalized ratio (INR) in patients on warfarin. Objectives: Compare warfarin sensitivity during hospital admission for HF exacerbation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation with admissions unrelated to HF or COPD (controls) as well as during disease stability. Methods: We conducted a case-controlled observational study. Patients admitted to a tertiary teaching hospital for HF exacerbation (n = 37), COPD exacerbation (n = 26), and admissions unrelated to HF or COPD (controls, n = 60) were included. Warfarin sensitivity (INR per daily mg dose of warfarin) at admission was compared to periods of disease stability and also compared between the 3 groups. Results: The increase in warfarin sensitivity at admission was 94% for HF patients (P < 0.0001), 59% for COPD (P = 0.003) patients, and 24% for controls (P = 0.002). HF patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3 and 4 and NYHA class 1 and 2 experienced changes in warfarin sensitivity of 125% (P = 0.006) and 50% (P = 0.13) at admission. HF patients had higher warfarin sensitivity at admission (mean = 1.62 [SD = 1.27]) compared to the control group (0.91 [0.52], P < 0.0001) and COPD group (1.03 [0.79], P = 0.04). and required greater intervention with vitamin K than controls (14% vs 0%, P = 0.007). Conclusion: HF and COPD patients were more sensitive to warfarin during disease exacerbation, with HF exacerbation having the largest impact, resulting in clinically significant management implications.
Identification of functional synaptic plasticity from ensemble spiking activities: A nonlinear dynamical modeling approach

This paper presents a systems identification approach for studying the long-term neural plasticity using natural ensemble spiking activities recorded from behaving animals. It is designed to quantify and explain the non-stationarity in the input-output properties of a brain region. Specifically, we propose a three-step strategy for such a goal. First, a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) nonlinear dynamical model is formulated to estimate and represent the synaptic strength in means of functional connectivity between input and output neurons. Second, this MIMO model is extended to a time-varying form and used to track the non-stationary properties of functional connectivity. Finally, an ensemble synaptic learning rule is identified to explain the input-output non-stationary as the consequence of the past input-output spiking patterns. This framework can be used to study the underlying mechanisms of learning and memory in behaving animals, and may serve as the computational basis for building the next-generation adaptive cortical prostheses.
Stress Defense in Murine Embryonic Stem Cells Is Superior to That of Various Differentiated Murine Cells

A very small number of embryonic stem (ES) cells gives rise to all tissues of the embryo proper. This means that ES cells should be equipped with highly efficient mechanisms to defend themselves against various stresses and to prevent or repair DNA damage. One of these mechanisms is a high activity of a verapamil‐sensitive multidrug efflux pump. Because reactive oxygen species are a major source of DNA damage, we further tested the idea that murine ES cells might differ from their more differentiated counterparts by high levels of antioxidant defense and good DNA strand break repair capacity. This was confirmed by comparing cellular peroxide levels, total antioxidant capacity, and activity of radiation‐induced strand break repair between murine ES cells and embryoid bodies or embryonic fibroblasts. Using microarrays and confirmation by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, we identified several candidate antioxidant and stress‐resistance genes that become downregulated during differentiation of ES cells into embryoid bodies.
STFT Phase Improvement for Single Channel Speech Enhancement

In state-of-the-art single channel short-time Fourier transform (STFT) based speech enhancement algorithms only the amplitude of the noisy speech signal is improved, but its phase is left unchanged. It is commonly assumed that the noisy phase is the best estimate of the clean phase available. While using the noisy phase is indeed optimal under certain statistical assumptions, in this paper we show that blindly improving the noisy phase is possible when these, potentially limiting, assumptions are dropped. Without modifying the amplitude, the proposed algorithm leads to frequency weighted SNR improvements of up to 1.8 dB. Further, the presented phase enhancement scheme is real-time capable and can be combined with any off-the-shelf STFT-based amplitude estimator.
Comparative systemic and renal effects of dopamine and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition with enalaprilat in patients with heart failure.

Renal and systemic hemodynamics were measured during titration of dopamine and serially after intravenous administration of enalaprilat in nine patients with chronic severe congestive heart failure. During titration of dopamine, renal blood flow increased by 99%, from 304 +/- 120 to 604 +/- 234 ml/min (p less than .01) at a dose of dopamine of 2.1 micrograms/kg/min, which produced only a 21% increase in cardiac index, from 1.96 +/- 0.36 to 2.38 +/- 0.35 liters/min/m2 (p less than .05). Cardiac index was increased maximally at a dose of 4.0 micrograms/kg/min dopamine; however, renal blood flow was not further augmented. In contrast, after intravenous administration of enalaprilat, peak improvement of renal blood flow and cardiac index occurred concomitantly. Renal blood flow increased by 35%, from 316 +/- 97 to 427 +/- 107 ml/min (p less than .05), and cardiac index increased by 18%, from 1.99 +/- 0.40 to 2.35 +/- 0.40 liters/min/m2 (p less than .05). At similar increases in cardiac index, dopamine produced a greater increase in renal blood flow than enalaprilat: 604 +/- 234 vs 427 +/- 107 ml/min (p less than .05). Mean systemic arterial pressure, however, was greater with dopamine than with enalaprilat (78.1 +/- 16.7 vs 70.2 +/- 17.2 mm Hg; p less than .05) at peak effect. Thus, although both drugs appear to be potent renal vasodilators in patients with severe congestive heart failure, dopamine may be more effective in augmenting renal blood flow.
Pyridostigmine prevents peripheral vascular endothelial dysfunction in rats with myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction (MI) is characterized by the withdrawal of vagal activity and increased sympathetic activity. We have shown previously that pyridostigmine (PYR), an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, was able to improve vagal activity and ameliorate cardiac dysfunction following MI. However, the effect of PYR on endothelial dysfunction in peripheral arteries after MI remains unclear. In the present study, MI was induced by coronary artery ligation in adult Sprague–Dawley rats. Rats were treated intragastrically with saline or PYR (approximately 31 mg/kg per day) for 2 weeks, at which time haemodynamic and parasympathetic parameters and the vascular reactivity of isolated mesenteric arteries were measured and the ultrastructure of the endothelium evaluated. Compared with the MI group, PYR not only improved cardiac function, vagal nerve activity and endothelial impairment, but also reduced intravascular superoxide anion and malondialdehyde. In addition, in the PYR‐treated MI group, nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability was increased and attenuated endothelium‐dependent relaxations were improved, whereas restored vasodilator responses were inhibited by NG‐nitro‐l‐arginine methyl ester. Based on our results, PYR is able to attenuate the impairment of peripheral endothelial function and maintain endothelial ultrastructural integrity in MI rats by inhibiting reactive oxygen species production, enhancing NO bioavailability and improving vagal activity.
The experience of transitioning from relapsing remitting to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis: views of patients and health professionals

Abstract Purpose:The majority of people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) initially present with discreet periods of relapses followed by partial remission of symptoms (RRMS). Over time, most pwMS transition to secondary progressive MS (SPMS), characterized by a gradual accumulation of disability. This study aimed to explore the experiences, coping and needs associated with transitioning from RRMS to SPMS. Method: Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with nine pwMS and seven specialist MS health professionals (HPs). Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results:Four major themes were identified: “Is this really happening? ”; “Becoming a reality”; “A life of struggle”; and “Brushing oneself off and moving on. ” Findings suggested a process of moving from uncertainty towards confirmation of one’s diagnostic label. Being reclassified with SPMS served as a turning point for many, and was accompanied by a range of cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses. The value of adequate information and support surrounding the transition, and the potential benefit of education and support for health professionals in relation to the transition were indicated. Conclusions: Understanding pwMS’ experiences of the transition is essential if clinicians are to provide pwMS with appropriate support during the transition. Implications for Rehabilitation The timing and delivery of preparatory education for patients about the transition to SPMS should be carefully considered. Sufficient information and follow-up support following the reclassification of SPMS is crucial but sometimes lacking. The importance of sensitive communication of the reclassification of SPMS was highlighted. MS Specialist health professionals may potentially benefit from training and support around communication of the reclassification of SPMS. Given the potential negative psychological impact of the transition, the psychological wellbeing of the patients during the transition to SPMS should be monitored and responded to appropriately.
Meiosis and Its Deviations in Polyploid Plants

Meiosis is a fundamental process in all sexual organisms that ensures fertility and genome stability and creates genetic diversity. For each of these outcomes, the exclusive formation of crossovers between homologous chromosomes is needed. This is more difficult to achieve in polyploid species which have more than 2 sets of chromosomes able to recombine. In this review, we describe how meiosis and meiotic recombination ‘deviate' in polyploid plants compared to diploids, and give an overview of current knowledge on how they are regulated. See also the sister article focusing on animals by Stenberg and Saura in this themed issue.
Three-dimensional Imaging Reveals New Compartments and Structural Adaptations in Odontoblasts

In organized tissues, the precise geometry and the overall shape are critical for the specialized functions that the cells carry out. Odontoblasts are major matrix-producing cells of the tooth and have also been suggested to participate in sensory transmission. However, refined morphologic data on these important cells are limited, which hampers the analysis and understanding of their cellular functions. We took advantage of fluorescent color-coding genetic tracing to visualize and reconstruct in 3 dimensions single odontoblasts, pulp cells, and their assemblages. Our results show distinct structural features and compartments of odontoblasts at different stages of maturation, with regard to overall cellular shape, formation of the main process, orientation, and matrix deposition. We demonstrate previously unanticipated contacts between the processes of pulp cells and odontoblasts. All reported data are related to mouse incisor tooth. We also show that odontoblasts express TRPM5 and Piezo2 ion channels. Piezo2 is expressed ubiquitously, while TRPM5 is asymmetrically distributed with distinct localization to regions proximal to and within odontoblast processes.
EXPLORING CENTRAL GOVERNMENTS' COORDINATION OF EUROPEAN UNION AFFAIRS

This study explores the coordination mechanisms managed by the central governments of the European Union (EU) in order to develop negotiation positions for their plenipotentiaries in the Council. Utilizing novel data from an expert survey, the first part examines the relationships within and between the structures and processes of EU coordination, the actors involved, and the mechanisms' efficacy. The analysis shows that highly formalized coordination mechanisms are associated with developing timely, clear and consistent negotiation positions. The second part allocates the 28 member states' EU coordination mechanisms into different clusters, including unicentric, pluricentric, decentric, proactive, reactive, politicized, depoliticized, high efficacy and low efficacy. Intriguing differences are identified, such as the fact that the Central and Eastern European member states' mechanisms are typically more reactive where coordination centres on the national capital and the Council negotiations.
Inhibition of TNF‐alpha induced‐adhesion molecules by Avène Thermal Spring Water in human endothelial cells

Background Cell adhesion molecules, such as E‐selectin or intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM‐1), play an important role in mediating leucocyte capture and rolling on the surface of blood vessels in atopic skin. The effectiveness of Avène hydrotherapy in patients suffering from atopic dermatitis has previously been demonstrated. Thus, we examined the effect of Avène Thermal Spring Water (TSW) on adhesion molecules to understand its mechanism of action.
QoE optimization for adaptive streaming with multiple VBR videos

Multi-bitrate streaming, especially HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS), is becoming popular for video delivery in multimedia network. In this trend, a video is encoded into different versions with different quality levels. Based on the current conditions, a client can adaptively choose the most suitable encoded version. However, the adoption of HAS in managed network (e.g. IPTV) has many challenges because of the purely client-driven approach of current HAS which causes competing behavior, excessive quality oscillations, and thus negatively impacting quality of experience (QoE). Some recent studies have proposed network-based solutions to overcome these problems; however, they just target at constant bitrate (CBR) videos. In this paper, we propose a new method that allows components inside the network to select an adapted version for each HAS client. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on the quality optimization when streaming multiple variable bitrate (VBR) videos. The experimental result show that our method can provide in real-time the optimal version for each client with the best possible quality while meeting the constraints of overall bandwidth and delay.
Prevalence of Herpes Simplex Virus Antibodies in Childhood and Adolescence: A Cross-sectional Study

The changing spectrum of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infections makes it important to define the seroepidemiology of HSV. The object of this study was to determine the prevalence of HSV-1 and HSV-2 immunoglobulin G antibodies in a young Swedish population by investigating 2106 serum samples from people aged 0-19 y. Sera were tested in HSV type-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays using glycoprotein G-1 (gG-1) and glycoprotein G-2 (gG-2) as antigens. The overall seroprevalence was 31% (95% CI 29-33) for HSV-1 and 0.5% (95% CI 0.2-0.9) for HSV-2. The HSV-1 seroprevalence was higher with increasing age, and significantly higher in the age cohort 15-19 y compared with 1-4-y-olds (37% vs 24%). The HSV-1 infection seemed to be acquired early in life. In the age cohort 1-2 y, the prevalence was over 20%, presumably reflecting an established viral infection. In adolescence the HSV-1 seroprevalence may reflect both oral and sexual transmission. The seroprevalence in the oldest age cohort did not differ significantly from that seen in a Swedish study in which sera were sampled from young girls in the 1970s.
Salience of Central Figure in the Ebbinghaus Illusion: The Oreo Cookie Effect

The Ebbinghaus illusion was used to study size estimation as influenced by salient features of the central figure. Two groups of fourth graders, 9 boys and 11 girls, and two groups of seventh graders, 9 boys and 9 girls, judged the size of two central figures (an Oreo cookie or a black cardboard disc) with small and large black cardboard disc inducers. Responding showed the Oreo cookie was consistently perceived as larger than the cardboard disc when surrounded by the large inducing figures. The results are discussed in terms of an interaction between the geometric properties and salience of the central figure with the surrounds. This Oreo effect is not predicted by a strict version of the token-value hypothesis and differs from explanations based on contrast and conceptual similarity.
Sudden Deafness Related to Posterior Circulation Infarction in the Territory of the Nonanterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery: Frequency, Origin, and Vascular Topographical Pattern

Aims: To investigate the frequency and origin of sudden deafness (SD) associated with the nonanterior inferior cerebellar artery (non-AICA) territory posterior circulation infarct(s), and the vascular topographical patterns of ischemic lesion associated with SD. Methods: A total of 685 consecutive cases of vertebrobasilar ischemic stroke diagnosed by brain MRI from acute stroke registry were studied. Results: Seven consecutive patients (1.0%) were identified as having SD as a symptom of non-AICA territory vertebrobasilar ischemic stroke. Audiological testing confirmed sensorineural hearing loss, predominantly cochlear in 4 patients and combined on the affected side cochlear and retrocochlear in 3 patients. Five patients had an isolated cerebellar infarct in the territory of the medial branch of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery and other 2 had infarct in the brainstem. In all, SD was on the side of infarct, as shown on brain MRI. Six patients had accompanied canal paresis to caloric stimulation on the side of SD. Conclusions: SD due to non-AICA territory infarction was mostly associated with infarct in the territory of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery. From the known variation of the anatomy of the internal auditory artery and results of audiovestibular evaluations, SD due to non-AICA territory infarct probably results from the damage to the inner ear.
A Comparative Study on the Export Determinants of Kenya and Korea: A Gravity Approach

This paper aims to empirically analyze Kenya’s and Korea’s export determinants and export performance by using an augmented gravity model. The augmented gravity model for Kenya and Korea was estimated for three different country groups: the 70, 50 and 30 country data sets. The major findings of this study are as follows. A product of exporter’s GDP and her trading partners’ GDP had a significant and positive effect on the export flows of both Kenya and Korea. For Kenya, the border also had a positive impact on her exports. For Korea, labor productivity had a significant and positive impact on her exports for the three data sets of country groups, while free trade agreements (FTAs) had a significant and positive impact on her exports only for the data set of 30 countries. For Kenya, GDP per capita and her trading partners’ GDP per capita had a significant and negative effect on her exports only for the 50 country data set. The exchange rate for Kenya had a significant and negative impact on her exports for all three country data sets, because of Kenya’s peculiar composition of exported goods such as raw coffee, tea, horticultural crops and raw minerals. For Korea, distance had a significant and negative effect on her export flows. For Korea, GDP per capita and her trading partners’ GDP per capita had a significant and negative impact on her exports for all three data sets of country groups. The exchange rate for Korea had mixed effects with the 70 country data set showing significant and positive effects, while the 50 and 30 country data set had a significant and negative effect on her export flows, which implies that exchange rate depreciation for Korea encouraged export with 70 countries, while it slowed export growth with 50 and 30 countries.
Vision restoration therapy does not benefit from costimulation: A pilot study

Visual field deficits in patients have long been considered to be nontreatable, but in previous studies we have found an enlargement of the intact visual field following vision restoration therapy (VRT). In the present pilot study, we wished to determine whether a double-stimulation approach would facilitate visual field enlargements beyond those achieved by the single-stimulus paradigm used in standard VRT. This was motivated by the findings that following visual cortex injury in animals, the size of receptive fields could be enlarged by systematic costimulation, where two stimuli were used to excite visual cortex neurons (Eysel, Eyding, & Schweigart, 1998). Patients (n = 23) with stable homonymous field deficits after trauma, cerebral ischemia, or hemorrhage (lesion age > 6 months) carried out either (a) standard VRT with a single stimulation (n = 9), or vision therapy with (b) a parallel costimulation (n = 7) or (c) a moving costimulation paradigm (n = 7). Training was carried out twice daily for 30 min over a 3-month period. Before and after therapy, visual fields were tested with 30° and 90° Tübinger automatic perimetry (TAP) and with high-resolution perimetry (HRP). Eye movements were recorded with an eye tracking system. When data of all three types of visual field training were pooled, we found significant improvements of stimulus detection in HRP (4.2%) and fewer misses within the central 30° perimetrically (−3.7% right eye, OD, or −4.4% left eye, OS). However, the type of training did not make any difference such that the three training groups profited equally. A more detailed analysis of trained versus untrained visual field areas in 16 patients revealed a superiority of the trained area of only 1.1% in HRP and between 3.5% (OS) and 4.4% (OD) in TAP. Spatial attention and alertness improved significantly in all three groups and correlated significantly with visual field enlargements. While vision training had no influence on the patient's testimonials concerning their visual abilities, the patients significantly improved in a practical paper-and-pencil number tracking task (Zahlen-Verbindungs Test; ZVT). Visual field enlargement does not benefit from a double-stimulation paradigm, but visual attention seems to play an important role in vision restoration. The improvements in trained as well as in untrained areas are explained by top-down attentional control mechanisms interacting with local visual cortex plasticity.