Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rationale and design of the SYNTAX II trial evaluating the short to long-term outcomes of state-of-the-art percutaneous coronary revascularisation in patients with de novo three-vessel disease.

AIMS The applicability of the results of the SYNTAX trial comparing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using first-generation drug-eluting stents (DES) with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery for the treatment of patients with complex coronary artery disease (CAD) has been challenged by recent major technical and procedural developments in coronary revascularisation. Functional assessment of coronary lesions has contributed to marked improvements in both safety and efficacy of DES implantation. In addition, the recent development of the SYNTAX score II, a clinical tool based on anatomical and clinical factors, allows individualised objective decision making regarding the optimal revascularisation modality in patients with complex CAD. The ongoing SYNTAX II trial is currently evaluating the effectiveness of the clinical and technological advances in the treatment of patients with complex (de novo three-vessel) CAD. METHODS AND RESULTS The SYNTAX II trial is a multicentre, all-comers, open-label, single-arm trial aiming to recruit 450 patients with de novo three-vessel CAD in approximately 25 European interventional cardiology centres. All patients will be selected and treated following the SYNTAX II strategy, which includes: a) establishing the appropriateness of revascularisation utilising the SYNTAX score II as a clinical tool to allow objective decision making by the Heart Team, b) ischaemia-driven revascularisation based on functional intracoronary assessment, c) implantation of the new-generation everolimus-eluting platinum chromium coronary stent with thin struts and abluminal bioabsorbable polymer coating to promote rapid vessel healing, d) intravascular ultrasound-guided DES implantation, and e) treatment at centres with expertise in CTO recanalisation. The primary endpoint is a composite of the major adverse cardiac and cerebral events (MACCE) rate at one-year follow-up compared to the historical PCI arm of the SYNTAX trial. An exploratory endpoint will be MACCE at five-year follow-up compared to the historical surgical arm of the SYNTAX trial. CONCLUSIONS The SYNTAX II trial will provide valuable information on outcomes of state-of-the-art PCI for the contemporary management of complex (de novo three-vessel) CAD. SYNTAX II will be of critical value in the design of future trials in this arena.
Imaging , Diagnosis , Prognosis Merkel Cell Polyomavirus Infection , Large T Antigen , Retinoblastoma Protein and Outcome in Merkel Cell Carcinoma

Purpose: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is rare skin cancer that is often associated with Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) infection. Polyomaviruses repress tumor suppressor proteins, thus influencing cell-cycle progression, but the effect of MCPyV on the key cell-cycle regulating proteins is poorly under-
CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION : PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE Concurrency Computat

With a focus on commodity PC systems, Beowulf clusters traditionally lack the cutting edge network architectures, memory subsystems, and processor technologies found in their more expensive supercomputer counterparts. Many users find that what Beowulf clusters lack in technology, they more than make up for with their significant cost advantage. In this paper, an architectural extension that adds reconfigurable computing to the network interface of Beowulf clusters is proposed. The proposed extension, called an intelligent network interface card (or INIC), enhances both the network and processor capabilities of the cluster, which has a significant impact on the performance of a crucial class of applications. Furthermore, for some applications, the proposed extension partially compensates for weaknesses in the PC memory subsystem. A prototype of the proposed architecture was constructed and analyzed. In addition, two applications, the 2D Fast Fourier Transform (2D-FFT) and integer sorting, which benefit from the resulting architecture, are discussed and analyzed on the proposed architecture. Specifically, results indicate that the 2D-FFT is performed 15–50% faster when using the prototype INIC rather than the comparable Gigabit Ethernet. Early simulation results also indicate that integer sorting will receive a 21– 32% performance boost from the prototype. The significant improvements seen with a relatively limited prototype lead to the conclusion that cluster network interfaces enhanced with reconfigurable computing could significantly improve the Beowulf architecture. Copyright c © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
What is the function of melanin?

An informal survey of my colleagues revealed that most dermatologists believe the primary function of melanin in humans is to act as a sunscreen to protect us from ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight; the leading textbooks of dermatology support this notion. Recently, while reading materials outside of our specialty, I was surprised to find that dermatologists might be alone in the scientific community in their acceptance of this view. Furthermore, the evidence for melanin having developed to serve other functions appeared to be as strong or stronger than the evidence that it is primarily a sunscreen. Interestingly, a decade or so ago, there was considerable discussion about this subject among dermatologists who had an interest in photobiology,1,2but, recently, we appear to have accepted as dogma that melanin is a sunscreen. Dogma, in any discipline, should be examined periodically. With many recent advances in the biology of melanin, it
Advantages and Disadvantages of Separate Norms for African Americans

ABSTRACT Limitations of neuropsychological measures and normative data are exposed as use of these measures among culturally and linguistically different people expands in clinical and research settings. Several different tactics to solve the problem of poor specificity of cognitive measures among ethnic minorities have emerged in the literature; however, the development of separate racial/ethnic group norms has been the predominant approach. This commentary addresses the advantages and disadvantages of establishing separate norms for African Americans. Another approach, involving the deconstruction of race and education, may help to clarify the independent influences of race, culture, quality of education, and socioeconomic status on cognition and neuropsychological test performance.
Fast DOA estimation for monostatic MIMO radar with arbitrary array configurations

A fast direction of arrival (DOA) estimation method is presented in this paper for monostatic multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with arbitrary array configuration. In order to avoid spectral peaks search in the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm and reduce the computational complexity, the proposed method uses manifold separation and polynomial rooting technique to estimate DOAs of the targets for the monostatic MIMO radar with arbitrary array configurations. The proposed polynomial rooting DOA estimation algorithm provides a lower computation complexity and a better resolution performance than the conventional MUSIC method. Finally, simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the method.
Epidemiology and stratification of risk for sudden cardiac death

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major cause of mortality in the United States. Approximately 65% of cases of SCD occur in patients with underlying acute or chronic ischemic heart disease. The incidence of SCD increases 2‐ to 4‐fold in the presence of coronary disease and 6‐ to 10‐fold in the presence of structural heart disease. Ventricular fibrillation (VF) precipitated by ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a common mechanism of cardiac arrest leading to SCD. Triggers for SCD include electrolyte disturbances, heart failure, and transient ischemia. Although a large percentage of patients with out‐of‐hospital SCD do not survive, successful resuscitation to hospitalization has improved in recent years. One of the challenges for preventing SCD lies in identifying individuals at highest risk for SCD within a lower‐risk population. The progression from conventional risk factors of coronary artery disease to arrhythmogenesis and SCD can be represented as a cascade of changes associated with levels of increasing risk. At the first level is atherogenesis, followed by changes in atherosclerotic plaque anatomy, which may be mediated by inflammatory processes. Disruption of active plaque formed during a transitional state initiates the thrombotic cascade and acute occlusion, after which acute changes in myocardial electrophysiology become the immediate trigger for arrhythmogenesis and SCD. Each level of the cascade offers different opportunities for risk prediction. Among the classes of risk predictors are clinical markers, such as ECG measures and ejection fraction. Transient risk markers, such as inflammatory markers, are potentially useful for identifying triggers for SCD. In the future, genetic profiling is expected to allow better assessment of individual risks for SCD.
Trichotillomania Associated With Aripiprazole: A Case Report.

To the Editors: A ripiprazole, a novel antipsychotic agent, is the first dopamine D2/D3 receptor partial agonist. Besides its partial agonist effect on dopaminergic receptors, it also has partial agonist properties at 5-HT1A and 5-HT7 serotonin receptors. It has a higher affinity for D2 receptors than for 5-HT1A receptors. Its partial agonist effect may cause hyperactivity of the dopaminergic pathways. There is a circuitry starting from dorsal striatum, extending to thalamus and then to orbitofrontal cortex before finally inserting back into dorsal striatum. It is suppressed by the orbitofrontal cortex. For this circuitry, if orbitofrontal cortex does not suppress adequately, compulsive behavior may result. Impulsivity converts compulsivity because of the dysregulation of ventral stimulation or the lack of dorsal inhibition. Modulation of neurotransmission by dopaminergic system from the ventral tegmental area toNuc. Accumbens (Nac), named mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, has been studied repeatedly. This pathway plays a significant role in emotional behaviors. Hypoactivity of this pathway causes
Frequency doubling and memory effects in the spin Hall effect

We predict that when an alternating voltage is applied to a semiconducting system with inhomogeneous electron density in the direction perpendicular to main current flow, the spin Hall effect results in a transverse voltage containing a double-frequency component. We also demonstrate that there is a phase shift between applied and transverse voltage oscillations, related to the general memristive behavior of semiconductor spintronic systems. A different method to achieve frequency doubling based on the inverse spin Hall effect is also discussed.
Effects of lactation on alveolar bone loss in experimental periodontitis.

BACKGROUND The development and progression of periodontitis are accelerated by various systemic conditions. The present study was designed to determine whether lactation affects alveolar bone loss in rat models of experimental periodontitis. METHODS Sixty-two female Wistar rats were bred with male rats and divided into three groups that were fed diets containing 0.9%, 0.3%, and 0.02% calcium. They were divided further into two subgroups of lactating and non-lactating animals. An elastic ring was placed around the neck of the right mandibular first molar to induce periodontitis (experimental side) on day 32 after mating. The left first molar was not fitted with an elastic ring (control side). After the lactation period, bone mineral density (BMD) was determined, and a histologic examination of the interdental alveolar bone was performed. RESULTS On the experimental and control sides, BMD decreased significantly according to the amount of calcium in the diet; however, the magnitude of this decrease was much greater in the lactating group. Histologic examination revealed that in lactating and non-lactating rats, the decrease in BMD was accompanied by a decrease in alveolar bone height on the experimental side, whereas similar results were not seen on the control side. CONCLUSIONS Lactation could be a risk factor for alveolar bone loss, especially under conditions of calcium insufficiency. Increased systemic demand for calcium and an insufficient supply of calcium might enhance the development of alveolar bone loss in periodontitis.
Isolation of β -glucan from the cell wall of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

β-Glucan, one of the major cell wall components of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae), has been found to enhance immune functions. At present study, we developed an optimal procedure to extract and purify β-glucan. At first, yeast cells were grown in sabouraud dextrose agar and then cultured in yeast extract–peptone–glucose (YPG) broth. After incubation, cells were harvested, washed and disrupted by means of sonication method. The obtained cell walls were used to prepare alkali-soluble β-glucan (glucan-S1). In this regard, 2% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 3% acetic acid were used in alkaline–acid extraction, respectively. This preparation contained 2.4% protein. In the next step, DEAE sephacel chromatography was used to remove remaining proteins (glucan-S2). Subsequently this preparation was applied into concanavalin-A sepharose column to remove manann. Finally, β-glucan free of mannoprotein complexes was prepared (glucan-S3).
Comparative Analysis of Image De-noising with Different Filters in Wavelet Domain

Graphical images are very fundamental type of data for transmission. Due to the different components and high speed transmission, image is corrupted by the noises. Image detection is required during data receiving end for the faithful communication. There are various methods for picture denoising in spatial and transform domain. The present trends of the picture detection research are the evolution of mixed domain methods. In this comparison paper, a comparative analysis of picture denoising using different filters with mixed domain image denoising method is proposed, which is based on the wavelet transform, median filter and nonlinear diffusion based methods. The wavelet transform is used in this paper to convert the spatial domain image to wavelet domain coefficients. WT produces approximation, horizontal detail, vertical detail and diagonal detail coefficient which represent the various spatial frequency bands. The detail component are removed due to the most of the image part is in approximation part. Median and wiener filter are used to apply the filtering on probabilistic way. The trapezoidal membership function are used for the filtering . The peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and mean square error (MSE) are used as the performance parameter. The Haar wavelet is used with various filters to optimize the performance of denoising.
Analysis on passivity and passification of T-S fuzzy systems with time-varying delays

In this paper, the passivity and feedback passification of Takagi-Sugeno T-S fuzzy systems with both discrete and distributed time-varying delays are investigated without assuming the differentiability of the time-varying delays. By employing appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals, several delay-dependent criteria for the passivity of the considered T-S fuzzy systems are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities LMIs, which can be checked numerically using the effective LMI toolbox in MATLAB. The obtained results improve and generalize some previous results, two examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed criteria.
Identification and Evaluation of Novel Acetolactate Synthase Inhibitors as Antifungal Agents

ABSTRACT High-throughput phenotypic screening against the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae revealed a series of triazolopyrimidine-sulfonamide compounds with broad-spectrum antifungal activity, no significant cytotoxicity, and low protein binding. To elucidate the target of this series, we have applied a chemogenomic profiling approach using the S. cerevisiae deletion collection. All compounds of the series yielded highly similar profiles that suggested acetolactate synthase (Ilv2p, which catalyzes the first common step in branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis) as a possible target. The high correlation with profiles of known Ilv2p inhibitors like chlorimuron-ethyl provided further evidence for a similar mechanism of action. Genome-wide mutagenesis in S. cerevisiae identified 13 resistant clones with 3 different mutations in the catalytic subunit of acetolactate synthase that also conferred cross-resistance to established Ilv2p inhibitors. Mapping of the mutations into the published Ilv2p crystal structure outlined the chlorimuron-ethyl binding cavity, and it was possible to dock the triazolopyrimidine-sulfonamide compound into this pocket in silico. However, fungal growth inhibition could be bypassed through supplementation with exogenous branched-chain amino acids or by the addition of serum to the medium in all of the fungal organisms tested except for Aspergillus fumigatus. Thus, these data support the identification of the triazolopyrimidine-sulfonamide compounds as inhibitors of acetolactate synthase but suggest that targeting may be compromised due to the possibility of nutrient bypass in vivo.
A Robust Noncryptographic Protocol for Collective Coin Flipping

A new protocol for global coin flipping in the model of Ben-Or and Linial is presented. In this model, global coin flipping is considered to be an asynchronous perfect information game among n players, some of whom are dishonest. Each player possesses a fair coin and they wish to agree on the value of a single bit, which the honest players want to be random. A protocol is $\varepsilon $-robust for t dishonest players if no set of t dishonest players can bias the bit by more than $\varepsilon $. The protocol given here is $\varepsilon $-robust against $\theta (n/\log n)$ dishonest players for any fixed $\varepsilon $, improving on the $\theta (n^{.63 \cdots } )$ robust protocol given by Ben-Or and Linial.
An outbreak of foodborne illness among attendees of a wedding reception in Wisconsin likely caused by Arcobacter butzleri.

BACKGROUND Arcobacter species, primarily Arcobacter butzleri, are widely distributed among animals, infrequently isolated from humans, and previously not associated with outbreaks of foodborne illness. We report results of an investigation of a foodborne outbreak that occurred among attendees of a wedding reception in Wisconsin, United States, and was likely caused by A. butzleri. METHODS We conducted a case-control study among reception attendees and a laboratory investigation to determine the extent, source, and cause of the outbreak. A clinical case was defined as diarrhea in an attendee with illness onset ≤7 days following the wedding reception. RESULTS The case-control study included 47 of 51 case patients and 43 non-ill attendees. Results demonstrated that consuming broasted chicken was the only factor significantly associated with illness (odds ratio 10.51; 95% confidence interval 1.28, 476.4). Five patients provided stool specimens. Comprehensive culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing did not detect common bacterial or viral pathogens. Subsequent testing with PCRs targeting 16S/23S rDNA of the three most clinically relevant Arcobacter spp. and the rpoB/C gene of A. butzleri provided products confirmed as A. butzleri (four patients) and A. cryaerophilus (one patient) by sequence analysis. CONCLUSIONS The results of this investigation suggest that A. butzleri should be considered an agent that can cause outbreaks of foodborne illness. Rigorous investigation of outbreaks of undetermined etiology is valuable for incrementally increasing our understanding of emerging agents causing foodborne illnesses.
Proteorhodopsin photosystem gene expression enables photophosphorylation in a heterologous host

Proteorhodopsins (PRs) are retinal-containing proteins that catalyze light-activated proton efflux across the cell membrane. These photoproteins are known to be globally distributed in the ocean's photic zone, and they are found in a diverse array of Bacteria and Archaea. Recently, light-enhanced growth rates and yields have been reported in at least one PR-containing marine bacterium, but the physiological basis of light-activated growth stimulation has not yet been determined. To describe more fully PR photosystem genetics and biochemistry, we functionally surveyed a marine picoplankton large-insert genomic library for recombinant clones expressing PR photosystems in vivo. Our screening approach exploited transient increases in vector copy number that significantly enhanced the sensitivity of phenotypic detection. Two genetically distinct recombinants, initially identified by their orange pigmentation, expressed a small cluster of genes encoding a complete PR-based photosystem. Genetic and biochemical analyses of transposon mutants verified the function of gene products in the photopigment and opsin biosynthetic pathways. Heterologous expression of six genes, five encoding photopigment biosynthetic proteins and one encoding a PR, generated a fully functional PR photosystem that enabled photophosphorylation in recombinant Escherichia coli cells exposed to light. Our results demonstrate that a single genetic event can result in the acquisition of phototrophic capabilities in an otherwise chemoorganotrophic microorganism, and they explain in part the ubiquity of PR photosystems among diverse microbial taxa.
Asymmetric Performance in the Cocktail Party Effect: Implications for the Design of Spatial Audio Displays

An experiment was conducted to determine the extent to which hemispheric specialization is manifested in the performance of tasks in which listeners are required to attend to one of several simultaneously spoken speech communications. Speech intelligibility and response time were measured under factorial combinations of the number of simultaneous talkers, the target talker hemifield, and the spatial arrangement of talkers. Intelligibility was found to be mediated by all of the independent variables. Results are discussed in terms of the design of adaptive spatial audio interfaces for speech communications. Actual or potential applications of this research include the design of adaptive spatial audio interfaces for speech communications.