Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Factors for Development of New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus in Adult Heart Transplant Recipients

Background. The objectives of this study are to examine the incidence of new-onset diabetes mellitus (NODM) and to identify its risk factors in adult heart recipients using the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network/United Network of Organ Sharing database. Methods. Between July 2004 and December 2007, 4972 adults (aged 18 years or older) received their first heart transplant alone, and had at least one follow-up report of posttransplant diabetic status. Among these, 3763 recipients were identified as not having diabetes mellitus pretransplant. Risk factors for NODM were examined using multivariate Cox regression analysis using the time to NODM diagnosis as a time-varying endpoint. Results. NODM was reported in 1075 (28.6%) of the 3763 recipients without pretransplant diabetes (median follow-up time, 713 days). Independent risk factors for development of NODM included older age (hazard ratio=1.20 for age ≥50 years vs. <50, P=0. 01), non-white race (0.70 for white vs. non-white, P<0.0001), higher body mass index (BMI) (1.55 for BMI ≥25 vs. <25, P<0.0001), ischemic heart disease (1.24, P<0.0001), recipient cytomegalovirus positivity (1.16, P=0.003), tobacco use (1.16, P=0.02), tacrolimus use at discharge (1.85 for tacrolimus vs. cyclosporine use, P<0.0001), and use of steroids at discharge (2.59 for steroid use vs. none, P=0.008). Conclusions. NODM is common and occurs in more than a quarter of heart recipients during the median follow-up period of 2 years. Risk factors for NODM after heart transplant are similar to those reported in other solid organ transplants. Some of these factors, such as BMI and immunosuppressive regimen, are potentially modifiable.
Nonrigid registration of carotid ultrasound and MR images using a "twisting and bending" model

Atherosclerosis at the carotid bifurcation resulting in cerebral emboli is a major cause of ischemic stroke. Most strokes associated with carotid atherosclerosis can be prevented by lifestyle/dietary changes and pharmacological treatments if identified early by monitoring carotid plaque changes. Plaque composition information from magnetic resonance (MR) carotid images and dynamic characteristics information from 3D ultrasound (US) are necessary for developing and validating US imaging tools to identify vulnerable carotid plaques. Combining these images requires nonrigid registration to correct the non-linear miss-alignments caused by relative twisting and bending in the neck due to different head positions during the two image acquisitions sessions. The high degree of freedom and large number of parameters associated with existing nonrigid image registration methods causes several problems including unnatural plaque morphology alteration, computational complexity, and low reliability. Our approach was to model the normal movement of the neck using a "twisting and bending model" with only six parameters for nonrigid registration. We evaluated our registration technique using intra-subject in-vivo 3D US and 3D MR carotid images acquired on the same day. We calculated the Mean Registration Error (MRE) between the segmented vessel surfaces in the target image and the registered image using a distance-based error metric after applying our "twisting bending model" based nonrigid registration algorithm. We achieved an average registration error of 1.33±0.41mm using our nonrigid registration technique. Visual inspection of segmented vessel surfaces also showed a substantial improvement of alignment with our non-rigid registration technique.
Inducibility of metallothionein biosynthesis in the whole soft tissue of zebra mussels Dreissena polymorpha exposed to cadmium, copper, and pentachlorophenol

Freshwater mussels Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas, 1771) were exposed to the elevated concentrations of Cd (10, 50, 100, and 500 μg/L), Cu (10, 30, 50, and 80 μg/L), and an organochlorinated pesticide, pentachlorophenol (PCP) (1, 10, and 100 μg/L). Induced synthesis of biomarker metallothionein (MT) and changes in concentrations of cytosolic Cd, Cu, and Zn in the whole soft tissue of mussels were monitored after a 7‐day laboratory exposure to the contaminants. A clear dose‐dependent elevation in the MT concentration was observed after exposure to Cd at doses of 10–100 μg/L, and this increase of MT content was accompanied with a linear increase of cytosolic Cd. Cd concentration of 500 μg/L caused no additional increase of MT and Cd in mussel cytosol, suggesting possible toxic effects due to exceeding cellular inducible/defense capacity. Cu exposure resulted with variable changes in MT concentrations, with no clear linear relationship between MT and Cu concentrations in water, although a progressive dose‐dependent accumulation of Cu in the soluble fraction of mussel tissues was recorded. A decrease of cytosolic Zn was evident at higher exposure concentrations of both metals used. PCP in concentrations applied was unable to induce MT synthesis, but the higher concentrations of PCP influenced the cytosolic metal concentrations. In conclusion, the results obtained confirm the specificity of MT induction in D. polymorpha as an biological response on metal stimulation, especially by cadmium, being more closely correlated to MT than copper within the ecologically relevant concentration range. The strong induction potential of cadmium as well as an absence of MT induction following exposure to PCP as an organic chemical contaminant are supporting evidences for usage of zebra mussel MT as a specific biomarker of Cd exposure in biomonitoring programs. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2010.
A Systematic Review of the Time Series Studies Addressing the Endemic Risk of Acute Gastroenteritis According to Drinking Water Operation Conditions in Urban Areas of Developed Countries

Time series studies (TSS) can be viewed as an inexpensive way to tackle the non-epidemic health risk from fecal pathogens in tap water in urban areas. Following the PRISMA recommendations, I reviewed TSS addressing the endemic risk of acute gastroenteritis risk according to drinking water operation conditions in urban areas of developed countries. Eighteen studies were included, covering 17 urban sites (seven in North-America and 10 in Europe) with study populations ranging from 50,000 to 9 million people. Most studies used general practitioner consultations or visits to hospitals for acute gastroenteritis (AGE) as health outcomes. In 11 of the 17 sites, a significant and plausible association was found between turbidity (or particle count) in finished water and the AGE indicator. When provided and significant, the interquartile excess of relative risk estimates ranged from 3–13%. When examined, water temperature, river flow, and produced flow were strongly associated with the AGE indicator. The potential of TSS for the study of the health risk from fecal pathogens in tap water is limited by the lack of specificity of turbidity and its site-sensitive value as an exposure proxy. Nevertheless, at the DWS level, TSS could help water operators to identify operational conditions most at risk, almost if considering other water operation indicators, in addition to turbidity, as possible relevant proxies for exposure.
Hierarchical recruitment of the sympathetic and parasympathetic limbs of the baroreflex in normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats

The arterial baroreflex acts to buffer acute changes in blood pressure by reciprocal modulation of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity that controls the heart and vasculature. We have examined the baroreflex pressure–function curves for changes in heart rate and non‐cardiac sympathetic nerve activity (SNA, thoracic chain T8–12) in artificially perfused in situ rat preparations. We found that the non‐cardiac SNA baroreflex is active over a lower range of pressures than the cardiac baroreflex (threshold 66 ± 1 mmHg versus 82 ± 5 mmHg and mid‐point 77 ± 3 versus 87 ± 4 mmHg, respectively, P < 0.05, n= 6). This can manifest as a complete dissociation of the baroreflex limbs at low pressures. This difference between the cardiac and non‐cardiac SNA baroreflex is also seen in end‐organ sympathetic outflows (adrenal and renal nerves). Recordings of the cardiac vagal (parasympathetic) and the inferior cardiac (sympathetic) nerves identify the cardiac parasympathetic baroreflex component as being active over a higher range of pressures. This difference in the operating range of the baroreflex–function curves is exaggerated in the spontaneously hypertensive rat where the cardiac component has selectively reset by 20–25 mmHg to a higher pressure range (threshold of 104 ± 4 mmHg and mid‐point 113 ± 4, n= 6). The difference in the pressure–function curves for the cardiac versus the vascular baroreflex indicates that there is a hierarchical recruitment of the output limbs of the baroreflex with a sympathetic predominance at lower arterial pressures.
Intraoperative ceforanide pharmacokinetics and protein binding

The pharmacokinetics and protein binding of ceforanide were studied in 15 patients undergoing cholecystectomies. Each patient received ceforanide (20 mg/kg) intravenously on arrival in the operating room, after which serial blood samples were collected during the elimination phase for determination of total and free ceforanide concentrations in the serum. A high-pressure liquid chromatography assay was used, with a centrifugal filtration system for free-drug determinations. Serum concentration data for each individual were subjected to linear regression to determine the elimination rate constants (total and free drug), volumes of distribution, and systemic clearances. The mean elimination rate constants were 0.41 and 0.50 h-1 for total and free ceforanide, respectively. The mean percentage of ceforanide bound to serum protein was 87.9%. The relationship of the free ceforanide concentration to the total concentration appeared to be linear. The data were fit to double-reciprocal and half-reciprocal relationships with good agreement, showing one binding site and an association constant range of 1.6 X 10(7) to 1.9 X 10(7) at these in vivo concentrations. The mean volume of distribution and mean systemic clearance of total drug were 100 ml/kg and 45.9 ml/min per 1.73 m2, respectively. Ceforanide consistently produced higher intraoperative total drug concentrations compared with those of cefazolin and cefoxitin from similar studies.
Quantification of myocardium at risk in myocardial perfusion SPECT by co‐registration and fusion with delayed contrast‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging – an experimental ex vivo study

Background: Myocardial perfusion single‐photon emission computed tomography (MPS) can be used to assess myocardium at risk in occlusive coronary ischaemia. The aim was to develop a method to quantify myocardium at risk as perfusion defect size on ex vivo MPS using co‐registration and fusion with ex vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
V-induced cyclization in myrcene isolated in rigid argon environment : TIR and DFT study

The UV-induced photochemistry of monomeric myrcene [CH2 C(R)–C(H) CH2, where R is –CH2CH2CH C(CH3)2] isolated in a low-temperature argon matrix (13 K) was investigated by infrared spectroscopy and quantum-chemical calculations. Twenty-seven unique conformers of myrcene were predicted theoretically at both the DFT(B3LYP) and MP2 levels of approximation, with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. The most stable conformers were found to have the vinyl fragment in the s-trans orientation, and dominate in the equilibrium conformational mixture at room temperature. The experimental FTIR spectrum of the matrix-isolated compound was found to be well-reproduced by the superposi-
Pharmacogenetic profiling across the irinotecan pathway in Asian patients with cancer.

AIMS The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate associations between irinotecan pharmacokinetic parameters and allelic variants in genes encoding for drug transporters and drug metabolizing enzymes that are involved in irinotecan disposition in Asian patients with cancer. METHODS Irinotecan was administered at 100 mg m(-2) over 90 min on a weekly schedule to 29 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients and pharmacokinetic analysis was performed during the first cycle. All patients were genotyped for allelic variants in genes encoding drug metabolizing enzymes (CYP3A4, CYP3A5, UGT1A1) and drug transporters (ABCB1, ABCC2 and ABCG2) that are involved in irinotecan disposition. RESULTS Of the six candidate genes that were analyzed, 11 genetic variants were found. Significant genotypic-phenotypic associations were apparent only for transporter genes. The C(max) of irinotecan was significantly lower in patients carrying the CC genotype at exon 26 of the ABCB1 gene compared with those harbouring at least one variant allele (P = 0.047). Patients harbouring the wild type ABCG2 CTCA genotype were associated with significantly higher values for relative extent of conversion (REC) of irinotecan to SN-38 compared with patients carrying at least one deletion CTCA allele (P = 0.019). CONCLUSIONS The present exploratory study shows that genetic polymorphisms in drug transporter genes, particularly in ABCB1 and ABCG2 genes, may be important in influencing the pharmacokinetics of irinotecan and its metabolites. The predictive value of the identified allelic variants in the ABCG2 and ABCB1 genes on irinotecan disposition should be further investigated in a larger patient population as well as in other ethnic populations.
An Analytical Model of the Propagation Induced Pulse Broadening (PIPB) Effects on Single Event Transient in Flash-Based FPGAs

A methodology for characterization of Propagation Induced Pulse Broadening (PIPB) effects concerning the Single Event Transients (SETs) propagation within logic and routing resources of Flash-based Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) is presented. Electrical-based fault injection was performed on the FPGA board and at the electrical model. Experimental results matched the electrical simulations, which validate the effectiveness of the method.
Complexity of Optimally Defending and Attacking a Network

We consider single-agent, two-agent turn-taking and cooperative security games with Inverse Geodesic Length (IGL) as utility metric. We focus on the single-agent vertex deletion problem corresponding to IGL called MinIGL. Specifically, given a graph G, a budget k and a target inverse geodesic length T, does there exist a subset of vertices S of size k such that by deleting S the graph induced on the remaining vertices in G has IGL at most T. We cite our recently published work to report the results on the computational and parameterized complexity of MinIGL. Furthermore, we briefly state the problems we are interested to study in future.
Effects of iron and zinc deficiency on elemental composition and silica production by diatoms

The cellular silicon, nitrogen, and carbon content and the kinetics of silicic acid use were determined for Thalassiosira weissflogii grown under nutrient-replete, iron-deficient, and zinc-deficient conditions to assess the effect of metal deficiency on dlatom silicon metabolism. Ironand zinc-deficient T weissflogi~ cells contained 40 and 66% more silicon, respectively, than their nutrientreplete counterparts. Low Zn and low Fe also increased cellular C and N content. Low Zn increased cellular carbon by 55 % and cellular N by 41 %. Low Fe increased cellular C and N by 68 and 45 %, respectively. Fe stress did not alter cellular Si/N ratios significantly, but Si/C ratios declined by 17%. In contrast, Zn stress increased SVC and Si/N ratios by 41 and 53%, respectively. Both Zn and Fe stress dramatically altered the kinetics of silica production by T weissflogii. Zn deficiency increased the half saturation constant (K,) 64 ",, and decreased the maximum specific uptake rate (V,,,) by 60%. In contrast, Fe stress did not affect the value of K,, but decreased V,, by 66%, similar to the decrease observed under low Zn. The decrease in V,,,,, in Zn-deficient cells was almost entirely due to the higher biogenic silica content of the metal-deficient cells. The decline in V,, under Fe stress resulted from both the increase in cellular silica content and a 50% decline in the cellular uptake rates for silicic acid. The results indicate that Fe and Zn availabihty can significantly alter silicification in diatoms and affect the number and efficiency of silicon transport molecules in the cell membrane.
Executive Forum: the scale-up gap: and how to address it

Abstract There is academic unanimity concerning the fact that the equity market does not function at the lower end. Risks are too high and not rewarded by sufficient return. Hence, companies looking for small amounts of money in the seed or early stage phase do not find it. This paper argues that second- and third-round financing, even though less risky, has also become problematic, especially in Europe. While start-ups are confronted with the small equity gap at seed and early stage, scale-ups are also confronted with an equity gap at later stages. A holistic policy, not focused on a specific stage of investment, should therefore replace a targeted one. The paper shows that in this context a government-backed debt-financing instrument delivers better value for public money than a fund-of-funds approach and increases the efficiency of the latter.
Obesity, bariatric surgery, and iron deficiency: True, true, true and related

Morbid obesity is a health problem that has been shown to be refractory to diet, exercise, and medical treatment. Surgeries designed to promote weight loss, termed bariatric surgery and typically involving a gastric bypass procedure, have recently been implemented to treat obesity with high success rates. However, long‐term sequelae can result in micronutrient deficiencies. This review will focus on iron deficiency and its association with obesity and bariatric surgery. Iron deficiency develops after gastric bypass for several reasons including intolerance for red meat, diminished gastric acid secretion, and exclusion of the duodenum from the alimentary tract. Menstruating women, pregnant women, and adolescents may be particularly predisposed toward developing iron deficiency and microcytic anemias after bypass surgery. Preoperative assessment of patients should include a complete hematological work‐up, including measurement of iron stores. Postoperatively, oral iron prophylaxis and vitamin C in addition to a multivitamin should be prescribed for bypass patients, especially for vulnerable populations. Once iron deficiency has developed, it may prove refractory to oral treatment, and require parenteral iron, blood transfusions, or surgical interventions. Bariatric surgery patients require lifelong follow‐up of hematological and iron parameters since iron deficiency and anemia may develop years after surgery. Am. J. Hematol. , 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Automatic parameter learning for easy instruction of industrial collaborative robots

The manufacturing industry faces challenges in meeting requirements of flexibility, product variability and small batch sizes. Automation of high mix, low volume productions requires faster (re)configuration of manufacturing equipment. These demands are to some extend accommodated by collaborative robots. Certain actions can still be hard or impossible to manually adjust due to inherent process uncertainties. This paper proposes a generic iteratively learning approach based on Bayesian Optimisation to efficiently search for the optimal set of process parameters. The approach takes into account the process uncertainties by iteratively making a statistical founded choice on the next parameter-set to examine only based on the prior binomial outcomes. Moreover, our function estimator uses Wilson Score to make proper estimates on the success probability and the associated uncertain measure of sparsely sampled regions. The function estimator also generalises the experiment outcomes to the neighbour region through kernel smoothing by integrating Kernel Density Estimation. Our approach is applied to a real industrial task with significant process uncertainties, where sufficiently robust process parameters cannot intuitively be chosen. Using our approach, a collaborative robot automatically finds a reliable solution.
Association of adolescent substance use: behavioral problems and family background among school students in Tsunami affected area in southern Thailand.

OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of substance use and associated factors in school students in Tsunami affected areas in southern Thailand. MATERIAL AND METHOD The study was a school-based, cross-sectional, anonymous survey that used a translated questionnaire, ESPAD-03, in 5 schools. Chi-square tests and odds ratios were used to evaluate factors associated with substance use. RESULTS Two thousand seven hundred and sixteen students (87.8%) were enrolled in the study. Lifetime, last 12 months, and last 30 days prevalence rates of any substance use were 50.3, 33.9, and 24.8%, respectively. Lifetime, last 12 months, and last 30 days prevalence rates of alcohol use were 43.2, 30.1, and 17.5%, respectively. Lifetime and last 30 days prevalence rates of smoking were 21.7 and 12.0%. Fighting, stealing, truancy, running away, unsafe sex, and thought of self-harming were associated with alcohol and substance use. Siblings and friends with alcohol and substance use were risk factors. Close support from parents and friends were protective factors. CONCLUSION There was a high prevalence of smoking, alcohol, and substance use among school students in Tsunami affected areas. Behavioral problems and psychosocial risk factors were associated with history of smoking, alcohol and substance use. School-based intervention in students with behavioral problems seems to be a worthwhile investment. However, longitudinal studies should be done to confirm the correlation of PTSD and substance use.
How do micro-firms manage coopetition? A study of the wine sector in France

Research on coopetition – the simultaneous occurrence of competition and cooperation among firms – is usually limited to the realm of large firms. While some research has examined the motives and outcomes of coopetition among small- and medium-sized business, little is known about how coopetition is managed among micro-firms. The French wine sector is dominated by micro-firms, among which coopetition is common. Focusing on the Pic Saint Loup area in south-eastern France, this article analyses how micro-firms manage coopetition. While we observe similarities in coopetition with respect to large firms, a distinct micro-firm coopetition mode is identified: (a) contrary to expectations, the management of coopetition is highly formalised in micro-firms; (b) as with large firms, the management of micro-firm coopetition requires a separation between competition and cooperation, but such separation occurs outside the firm – in the form of a collective structure; and (c) in contrast to large firms, small firms exhibit an increase in individual-level dimensions of coopetition with decreasing firm size. We conclude that policy should encourage coopetition among micro-firms provided that it is tailored to micro-firm specificities.
Road sign recognition with Convolutional Neural Network

Extracting the contents of a digital image has been proven a hard problem for computers. Since for them, an image is only a matrix of values, knowing what structures a human would recognize in this image, is a nontrivial problem. In this paper, we have implemented and tested a system of detection of road signs. The approach taken in this work consists of using convolutional neural network where this network is supposed to distinguish between different classes of signs (stop, attention etc.) and the final model will then be integrated to the autonomous cars. Tests carried out on the dataset GTSRB (The German Traffic Sign Recognition Benchmark) shows the performance of the system currently being developed.