Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mesenchymal Stem Cell Homing Into Intervertebral Discs Enhances the Tie2-positive Progenitor Cell Population, Prevents Cell Death, and Induces a Proliferative Response

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Homing of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the endplate into the intervertebral disc (IVD) has been described as alternative intradiscal application route. Our findings indicate that the homed MSCs enhance the Tie2-positive disc progenitor cell population, prevent disc cell death, and induce a proliferative response in the IVD cells.
Caregiver reactions and social provisions among family members caring for home-dwelling patients with cancer in the palliative phase: A cross-sectional study

Objective: Studies focusing on the impact of caregiving for older adult home-dwelling patients with cancer in the palliative phase, particularly the burdens on different family caregiver groups, are limited. The objective of this study was to assess and compare caregiver reactions and social provisions among different family caregiver groups in Norway.Methods: The sample consisted of 58 family members caring for 26 home-dwelling older adult patients with advanced cancer. The Caregiver Reaction Assessment and Social Provisions Scale were used to assess the caregiver reactions and social support, respectively. The analyses were performed using descriptive statistics.Results: Significant differences were revealed between the family caregiver groups in the following three dimensions of the Caregiver Reaction Assessment: impact on schedule, lack of family support and impact on health. Significant differences were revealed between the family caregiver groups in the following two dimensions of the Social Provisions Scale: nurturance and attachment.Conclusions: In our study, children and children-in-law caring for widowed patients and spouses were the most vulnerable family caregivers. We recommend assessing the caregiver situation of all available family members caring for older adult patients with advanced cancer to identify the most vulnerable caregivers.
Detecting Shortcuts in Medical Images - A Case Study in Chest X-Rays

The availability of large public datasets and the increased amount of computing power have shifted the interest of the medical community to high-performance algorithms. However, little attention is paid to the quality of the data and their annotations. High performance on benchmark datasets may be reported without considering possible shortcuts or artifacts in the data, besides, models are not tested on sub-population groups. With this work, we aim to raise awareness about shortcuts problems. We validate previous findings, and present a case study on chest X-rays using two publicly available datasets. We share annotations for a subset of pneumothorax images with drains. We conclude with general recommendations for medical image classification. We make our code available1.
The prevalence of respiratory pathogens in adults with community-acquired pneumonia in an outpatient cohort

Purpose Community-acquired pneumonia is a common illness worldwide. In adults, community-acquired bacterial pneumonia has been well studied, but viral pneumonia is less well understood. We designed this study to identify respiratory pathogens, including common pneumonia-causing bacteria, viruses and atypical pneumonia pathogens, using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Patients and methods We conducted a retrospective study of outpatients with community-acquired pneumonia at the Fever Clinic of Peking University Third Hospital. We collected sputum or throat swabs from patients diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia. Multiplex real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed for 20 pathogens, including 9 viruses, 3 atypical pathogens and 8 bacteria. Results There were 232 outpatients enrolled in our study, and 153 patients (65.9%) had positive test results, of which 26.7% were viruses, 19.4% were atypical pathogens and 19.8% were bacteria. Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection was detected at the highest frequency (19.0%), exceeding Streptococcus pneumoniae infection. The most commonly identified viral pathogens were IFVs (15.1%), PIVs (3.4%) and RhV (2.6%). The most commonly identified bacteria were Streptococcus pneumoniae (9.1%), Haemophilus influenza (6.5%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (2.6%). Conclusion Our study suggests that viruses were commonly detected in outpatients with CAP, and IFVs were the most common viruses, especially during flu season. Patients with viral infection were prone to viral-bacterial coinfection. Mycoplasma pneumoniae was the leading pathogen in the outpatients with CAP. Viral infection occurs in a large number of outpatients with CAP, and it should receive greater attention in clinical work.
Analysis of data recorder optical scheme impact on quality of computer generated Fourier holograms in holographic memory system

Holographic memory systems provide such advantages as long data storage term, high data density and do not need a power supply. Instead of recording interference pattern, it is proposed to record computer generated 1D Fourier holograms (CGFH). High information density is reached by multiplexing 1D Fourier Holograms. In this work factors, which impact the quality of recorded CGFH are analyzed in mathematical modelling and experimental researches.
lncRNA HAND2-AS1 inhibits cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion by downregulating ROCK1 in HPV-positive and negative cervical squamous cell carcinoma

Long non-coding (lnc)RNA HAND2 antisense RNA 1 (HAND2-AS1) exhibited tumor suppression activity in different types of cancer. However, its role in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC), which is frequently diagnosed among females, has not been elucidated. The current study revealed that lncRNA HAND2-AS1 was downregulated, while Rho-associated protein kinase 1 (ROCK1) was upregulated in serum of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive and -negative patients with CSCC compared with healthy controls. Correlation analysis revealed that the expression levels of lncRNA HAND2-AS1 were negatively correlated with the expression levels of ROCK1 in HPV-positive and -negative patients with CSCC but not in healthy controls. Downregulation of lncRNA HAND2-AS1 distinguished patients with CSCC from healthy controls. Additionally, lncRNA HAND2-AS1 overexpression led to reduced expression levels of ROCK1 in HPV-positive and -negative human CSCC cell lines but not in normal cervical cell lines. ROCK1 overexpression did not significantly affect the expression of lncRNA HAND2-AS1 in all the cell lines investigated. lncRNA HAND2-AS1 overexpression inhibited, while ROCK1 overexpression promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of HPV-positive and -negative human CSCC cell lines but not normal cervical cell lines. ROCK1 overexpression attenuated the effects of lncRNA HAND2-AS1 overexpression on cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion. lncRNA HAND2-AS1 may inhibit cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion by downregulating ROCK1 in HPV-positive and -negative CSCC.
Anaemia in acute coronary syndrome: a cross-sectional study

Background: Acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are an imbalance between myocardial oxygen supply and demand, and the presence of anaemia further potentiates this imbalance. The burden of anaemia in patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) is significant. Anaemia has the potential to worsen myocardial ischemic insult by decreasing the oxygen content of the blood supplied to the jeopardized myocardium. Present study investigates the prevalence of anaemia in ACS patients attending a tertiary health care institute.Methods: A total of 148 patients with ACS were recruited in the study from July 2018 to October 2018 in Multan institute of cardiology, Pakistan. All patients were subjected to a detailed history and thorough clinical examination and investigations after obtaining informed consent. Patient having any other diseases known to cause anaemia were excluded.Results: Mean age of patients was 49 years. Out of 148, 114 (77%) were males and 34(23%) were females. Prevalence of anaemia was 38% in Male and 58.8% in Female. Among Male, 18.8% were microcytic, 4.54% were macrocytic and 77.27% were normocytic. Among Female, 50% were microcytic and 50%% were normocytic. Prevalence of ACS was higher is patients with diabetes and hypertension combined (31%) than in patient with diabetes alone (17.56%) or hypertension alone (21.62%). 13.51% were pure vegetarians while 78.37% were on mixed diet consisting of vegetables+meat+pulses.Conclusions: Higher incidence of anaemia was reported in subjects having acute coronary syndrome. Incidence of anaemia in STEMI patients was greater than NSTEMI and unstable angina patients. Severe form of acute coronary syndrome i.e. STEMI was associated with higher incidence of anaemia.
Salsalate Prevents β-Cell Dedifferentiation in OLETF Rats with Type 2 Diabetes through Notch1 Pathway

A strategic approach is urgently needed to curb the growing global epidemic of diabetes. In this study, we investigated the effects and mechanisms of salsalate (SAL), an anti-inflammatory drug with anti-diabetic properties, assessing its potential to prevent diabetes in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty rats (OLETF). All animals in our placebo group developed diabetes, whereas none in the SAL test group did so, and only 25% of SAL-treated rats displayed impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). SAL lowered levels of glucagon and raised levels of insulin in plasma, while improving both insulin sensitivity and β-cell function. The protective effect of SAL is likely due to diminished β-cell dedifferentiation, manifested as relative declines in Neurogenin 3+/insulin- cells and synaptophysin+/islet hormone- cells and increased expression of β-cell-specific transcription factor Foxo1. Both Notch1-siRNA and N-[N-(3,5-difluorophenacetyl)-1-alanyl]-S-phenylglycine t-butyl ester (DAPT; an indirect inhibitor of the Notch1 pathway) were shown to prevent β-cell dedifferentiation. Similar to DAPT, SAL effectively reduced β-cell dedifferentiation, significantly suppressing Notch1 pathway activation in INS-1 cells. The inhibitory role of SAL in β-cell dedifferentiation may thus be attributable to Notch1 pathway suppression.
Significance-Based Categorical Data Clustering

Although numerous algorithms have been proposed to solve the categorical data clustering problem, how to access the statistical significance of a set of categorical clusters remains unaddressed. To fulfill this void, we employ the likelihood ratio test to derive a test statistic that can serve as a significance-based objective function in categorical data clustering. Consequently, a new clustering algorithm is proposed in which the significance-based objective function is optimized via a Monte Carlo search procedure. As a by-product, we can further calculate an empirical $p$-value to assess the statistical significance of a set of clusters and develop an improved gap statistic for estimating the cluster number. Extensive experimental studies suggest that our method is able to achieve comparable performance to state-of-the-art categorical data clustering algorithms. Moreover, the effectiveness of such a significance-based formulation on statistical cluster validation and cluster number estimation is demonstrated through comprehensive empirical results.
Short Term Vessel Motion Forecasting Based On Wavelet Neural Network For Wave Feed-forward Dynamic Positioning

Within the development project of a new wave feed-forward Dynamic Positioning (DP) system for pipelaying vessels, several techniques for an accurate short term forecasting of sea surface elevation and vessel motion have been investigated. In the present paper, an artificial intelligence hybrid method is studied, consisting of wavelet decomposition (WT) coupled with artificial neural networks (ANN) forecasting algorithms. The prediction for the three first order vessel motions is performed. Forecasting performances of the proposed hybrid method are compared with those of a simple ANN, showing that the hybrid method produces better prediction.
The Effect of Mechanical Vibration on Alveolar Bone Following Experimental Periodontitis - A Micro-CT Study

THE EFFECT OF MECHANICAL VIBRATION ON ALVEOLAR BONE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENTAL PERIODONTITIS – A MICRO-CT STUDY Andrei D. Taut, D.D.S. Marquette University, 2019 Introduction: Vibration in the form of high frequency, low magnitude acceleration has paradoxical effects on craniofacial bones – with anabolic effects under physiological conditions and catabolic effects in the presence of inflammation. The objectives of this study are to establish a murine model for periodontitis and to investigate the effects of high frequency, low magnitude mechanical vibration on alveolar bone following ligatureinduced experimental periodontitis. Materials and Methods: Ninety-five 11-week-old inbred strain C57BL/67 male mice were randomly assigned into four groups: 1) healthy control (n = 9); 2) healthy + mechanical vibration (n = 8); 3) experimental periodontitis + no treatment (n=7); and 4) experimental periodontitis + vibration (n = 9). All mice in the disease groups had ligature‐induced experimental periodontitis induced for 8 days to generate localized alveolar bone loss. In mechanical vibration treatment groups, the mice received high frequency mechanical vibration (60 Hz, 0.3g) for 5min/day on the maxillary right first molar for consecutive 7 and 21 days respectively to determine the effects on alveolar bone following experimental periodontitis. Micro computed tomography (micro-CT) was used to quantify new bone formation through bone volume fraction (BVF), bone mineral density (BMD), and crestal bone heights post treatment with or without mechanical vibration. For each of the parameters, one-way ANOVA was used to determine a statistically significant difference among the 5 experimental groups, with Bonferroni comparison being used to measure significance between each 2 groups (p < 0.05 is considered significant). Results: Experimental periodontitis resulted in significant reductions in BVF, TMD and alveolar bone height compared to healthy controls. Treatment with mechanical vibration for 21 days led to a non-significant, local anabolic effect, but also resulted in statistically significant decreases in BVF and TMD of alveolar bone adjacent to the site of application of mechanical vibration. Conclusion: Mechanical vibration (60Hz, 0.3g, 5min/day) modestly increased bone volume and density when applied directly to the tooth, indicating a potential clinical application for improving bone quantity and quality following periodontitis.
Designing Tasks to Promote and Assess Mathematical Transfer in Primary School Children.

This study aims to design learning situations and tasks that promote and assess the capacity of primary school children to transfer mathematical knowledge to new contexts. We discuss previous studies investigating mathematical transfer, and particularly the strengths and limitations of tasks used to assess transfer in these studies. We describe some pilot tasks that were used with upper primary children and provide some responses to teacher prompts. We describe some design principles for the construction of tasks and an associated categorisation of prompts that might be used as the basis of further research into mathematical transfer.
PPA_A_207031 1283..1294

Yun-Hsuan Lin 1,2 Jong-Long Guo Hsiao-Pei Hsu Li-Shu Yang Ya-Lin Fu Chiu-Mieh Huang 5 1Department of Nursing, Ching Kuo Institute of Management and Health, Keelung, Taiwan; 2Department of Nursing, School of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; 3Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, College of Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan; 4Department of Nursing, Mackay Junior College of Medicine, Nursing, and Management, Taipei, Taiwan; 5Institute of Clinical Nursing, School of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan Purpose: This study aimed to explore the association between hospital loyalty, perceived usefulness of a mobile app, perceived ease of use of that mobile app, and satisfaction with the app’s use as well as predicting patients’ intended use of the app. Patients and methods: Purposive sampling was adopted in a cross-sectional survey. The participants were outpatients at the traditional Chinese medicine departments of three hospitals in northern Taiwan (n=125). The self-report questionnaire comprised information about sociodemographics and scales related to hospital loyalty, perceived usefulness of the mobile app, its perceived ease of use, satisfaction with its use, and its usage intention. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: The four factors explained 70% variance in usage intention. The perceived usefulness of the mobile app directly and indirectly affects their usage intention, but its perceived ease of use had only indirect effects on the usage intention. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use influence the usage intention through satisfaction. The women’s hospital loyalty does not directly affect the usage intention of the mobile app, but indirectly affects it through perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the mobile app. Conclusion: Intended use of the app by women is mainly related to their experience of which is usefulness, ease of use and satisfaction of service are the most important factors contributing to continuous use. Hospital loyalty does not directly affect intention to use as expected. The influence of loyalty must be related to the patients’ perception of the product, in terms of usefulness, ease to use, and satisfaction. The finding is helpful to understand patients’ preference and support their behavioral adherence.
A Local Search-Based Approach for Set Covering

In the Set Cover problem, we are given a set system with each set having a weight, and we want to find a collection of sets that cover the universe, whilst having low total weight. There are several approaches known (based on greedy approaches, relax-and-round, and dual-fitting) that achieve a $H_k \approx \ln k + O(1)$ approximation for this problem, where the size of each set is bounded by $k$. Moreover, getting a $\ln k - O(\ln \ln k)$ approximation is hard. Where does the truth lie? Can we close the gap between the upper and lower bounds? An improvement would be particularly interesting for small values of $k$, which are often used in reductions between Set Cover and other combinatorial optimization problems. We consider a non-oblivious local-search approach: to the best of our knowledge this gives the first $H_k$-approximation for Set Cover using an approach based on local-search. Our proof fits in one page, and gives a integrality gap result as well. Refining our approach by considering larger moves and an optimized potential function gives an $(H_k - \Omega(\log^2 k)/k)$-approximation, improving on the previous bound of $(H_k - \Omega(1/k^8))$ (\emph{R.\ Hassin and A.\ Levin, SICOMP '05}) based on a modified greedy algorithm.
Interrelation between Oral Health Status and Autism: A Case Report

Children suffering from autism are most often unable to collaborate to doctor during dental procedures, which results in restricted access to dental services. The application of antiepileptic drugs, associated to the main common health disorder, can provoke initiation or progression of gingival hyperplasia. The aim of our study is to investigate the interrelation between the oral health status and condition of autism in child’s age in the context of a case report. The individual dental status registration ascertains a clinical finding of totally caries-resistant mixed dentition. It concerns a patient with very good personal oral hygiene. There are no signs of clinical manifestation of gingival inflammation. We accentuate on the fact that maintenance of proper common health status and oral health, respectively high quality of life, can be provided and ensured for children suffering from autistic spectrum disorder only when parents, dental medicine doctors and physicians of different professional scopes combine their efforts and collaborate with each other.
Fructose Intake and Its Correlation with Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Male Employees with Hypercholesterolemia in Harapan Kita National Cardiovascular Center Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia

Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death worldwide with an increasing prevalence annually. Atherosclerosis is the main cause of cardiovascular disease that is detectable early by ultrasound examination of the intima-media thickness (IMT) of the carotid artery. One of the modifiable risk factors for developing atherosclerosis is dyslipidemia, that can be affected by food intake among them is high fructose diet. Apart from naturally occurring, fructose is largely used commercially as food/beverage sweetener. This cross sectional study was conducted to investigate the correlation between fructose intake and IMT in male subjects with hypercholesterolemia aged 19–49 years old. Of 47 subjects who are Harapan Kita National Cardiovascular Center Hospital’s employee, median age was 41 (33–45) years old. In 57.4% subjects, low density lipoprotein (LDL) was found high and very high, 29.8% subjects have low high density lipoprotein (HDL) levels, and 27.6% subjects have high and very high triglycerides levels. Most subjects have normal systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Around 72.3% subjects were classified as obese and 66.0% were classified as having central obesity. Majority of subjects were light smoker and 49.8% of them performed light activity. In carotid IMT carotid examination, median of 1 (0.8–1.4) mm was found with 63.8% subjects developed thickness. Median total energy intake was 1209 (1020–1645) Kcal/day, mostly with adequate carbohydrate, protein, and fat, fiber intake was inadequate in 100% subjects, and mean fructose intake of 31,97 ± 15,48 gram/day. Bivariate analysis did not demonstrate any correlation between fructose intake and carotid IMT however there was positive correlation between waist circumference and fat intake with carotid IMT. Multivariate analysis showed that fat intake has a significant correlation with carotid IMT. Key words: atherosclerosis, fructose, hypercholesterolemia, intima-media thickness
Impact of Virtual Inertia on DC Grid Stability With Constant Power Loads

Virtual inertia is an effective control approach to attenuate sudden voltage changes during transient events in low-inertia dc grids. While methods have been proposed to implement virtual inertia, its impact on dc grid stability in the presence of constant power loads (CPLs) remains unclear. In this letter, we perform a rigorous stability analysis for dc grids with CPLs powered by virtual-inertia-enhanced converters. We derive a closed-form stability criterion that can be used to evaluate the impact of virtual inertia on the system stability, and demonstrate that, given a set of system parameters, the stability of a dc grid powering CPLs can be improved for a range of virtual inertia designs. We provide analytical expressions for the optimal virtual inertia that improves stability and for the maximum virtual inertia that does not deteriorate stability. In addition, we present a step-by-step guideline to design a stable dc grid with virtual inertia. Test results are presented to validate the analysis.