Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vitamin D Supplementation As a Potential therapeutic Mediator in Asthma: Does Dose Really Matter? a Critical Review of the Literature

Abstract Around 400 million people across the globe will suffer from asthma in the next 10 years. Although most asthmatics use asthma medications regularly, they occasionally visit the emergency department for aggressive treatment amidst family anxiousness. Vitamin D (VD) not only regulates the expression of genes associated with calcium homeostasis, but also the genes associated with cancers, autoimmune diseases, and infection. VD has also non-genomic activities e.g. it is a potentially safe and effective novel strategy for decreasing the asthma episodes and controlling exacerbations. Our review assessed the dose, serum level, duration of administration and outcomes of VD in cases of asthmas. Although a body of research evidences the effectiveness of VD supplementation in asthma, other studies showed the insignificant response of VD to asthma either with low dose or low achieved serum VD levels. Nevertheless, recent reviews suggest that manipulating VD status holds promise for primary prevention and treatment of asthma. Future research on the relationship between VD and asthma should consider utilizing adequate doses of VD preparations for sufficient duration (likely to be >12 months) aiming to achieve appropriate level of serum VD (25-hydroxyvitamin D) concentration (likely to be at least >40 ng/mL).
A Numerical Analysis of Laser Surgery of Port Wine Stain Based on Computer Simulation

Cryogen spray cooling (CSC) was proved to be an effective method to avoid the hyper-thermal injury in epidermal layer during the treatment of Port Wine Stain. A numerical analysis was performed to show the thermal history during the cryogen spray process. The analysis reveals that CSC not only reduces the surface temperature and protects the skin surface from burning but also makes a high energy dose possible to improve the clinic effect. The impact of the heat transfer coefficient on the cooling effect of CSC was also examined. One finds that the surface temperature decreases as the heat transfer coefficient increases and a high initial temperature improves the clinical result by increasing the final temperature in the PWS layer.
Combination of Multi-Scale Convolutional Networks and SVM for SAR ATR

W35 apply a novel method to the challenge of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) automatic target recognition (ATR) by combining multi-scale Convolutional Networks (ConvNets) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The multi-scale architecture permits the classifier to receive more features from different levels of ConvNets, and we can train the model more thoroughly. The application of SVM excels the original Softmax classifier on the nonlinear classification tasks. We conduct our experiments on the Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition (MSTAR) database. Average classification accuracy in our experiments can achieve 99.42% on ten-class targets.
An Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for Solving Constrained Optimization Problems

By using the direct comparison rule of a fixed proportion for individual selection so that a certain percentage of better infeasible solutions remain in the population and introducing the optimal solution information at the scout bee stage so that the scout bee has more opportunities to search near the optimal solution, an artificial bee colony algorithm based the direct comparison rule of a fixed proportion is presented to overcome the disadvantages of artificial bee colony algorithm easily trapped in local optimum. The standard test functions results illustrate that the improved artificial bee colony algorithm works better than basic artificial bee colony algorithm for most test functions.
Engineering mesenchymal stem cells to improve their exosome efficacy and yield for cell-free therapy

ABSTRACT Through traditional medicine, there were diseases and disorders that previously remained untreated or were simply thought to be incurable. Since the discovery of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), there has been a flurry of research to develop MSC-based therapy for diseases and disorders. It is now well-known that MSCs do not typically engraft after transplantation and exhibit their therapeutic effect via a paracrine mechanism. In addition to secretory proteins, MSCs also produce extracellular vesicles (EVs), membrane-bound nanovesicles containing proteins, DNA and RNA. The secreted vesicles then interact with target cells and deliver their contents, imparting their ultimate therapeutic effect. Unlike the widely studied cancer cells, the yield of MSC-exosomes is a limiting factor for large-scale production for cell-free therapies. Here we summarise potential approaches to increase the yield of such vesicles while maintaining or enhancing their efficacy by engineering the extracellular environment and intracellular components of MSCs.
Therapy-related acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Therapy-related acute lymphoblastic leukemia (t-ALL) refers to ALL developed in patients who have received prior cytotoxic therapies, including chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy for solid or hematologic cancers. In this issue of Haematologica , Aldoss et al . [1][1] report the largest retrospective
A 1-to-1-kHz, 4.2-to-544-nW, Multi-Level Comparator Based Level-Crossing ADC for IoT Applications

This brief presents the design of an ultra-low power level-crossing analog-to-digital converter (LC-ADC) for IoT and biomedical applications. The proposed LC-ADC utilizes only one multi-level comparator instead of multiple comparators as in conventional LC-ADC, leading to simplified implementation and significant reduction in power. Implemented in 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mu}\text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS process, the LC-ADC achieves 7.9 equivalent number of bits with a 49 dB signal-to-noise and distortion ratio at the input frequency up to 1 kHz. The measured minimum power is only 4.2 nW at the supply voltage of 0.55 V.
Fabrication and Characterization of Gliclazide Nanocrystals

Purpose: The main aim of the present investigation was to enhance the solubility of poorly soluble Gliclazide by nanocrystallization. Methods: In present investigation gliclazide nanocrystals were prepared by sonoprecipitation using Pluronic F68, Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA), Poly ethylene Glycol 6000 (PEG), Poly Vinyl Pyrrolidine (PVP K30) and Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) as stabilizers. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopic study (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and X ray diffraction (XRD) studies were conducted to study the drug interactions. Size and zeta potential of the nanocrystals were evaluated. In vitro and in vivo studies of nanocrystals were conducted in comparison to pure gliclazide. Results: The Gliclazide nanocrystals (GN) showed mean particle size of 131±7.7 nm with a zeta potential of -26.6 mV. Stable nanocrystals were formed with 0.5% of PEG 6000. FTIR, DSC and XRD studies of nanocrystals showed absence of interactions and polymorphism. SEM photographs showed a change in morphology of crystals from rod to irregular shape. There is an increase in the saturation solubility and the percentage drug release from formulation GN5 (Optimized Gliclazide Nanocrystals) was found to be 98.5 in 15 min. In the in vivo study, GN5 nanocrystals have reduced the blood glucose level to 296.4±4.26 mg/dl in 12 hr. The nanocrystals showed lower tmax and higher Cmax values as compared to pure gliclazide. Conclusion: The prepared nanocrystals of gliclazide were stable without any drug polymer interactions. Increase in the dissolution of nanocrystals compared to pure gliclazide and significant reduction in blood glucose level in vivo indicated better bioavailability of the nanocrystals. Therefore, it is concluded that nanocrystal technology can be a promising tool to improve solubility and hence dissolution of a hydrophobic drug.
Effect of dietary grape and pomegranate seed oil on the post-slaughter value and physicochemical properties of muscles of broiler chickens.

BACKGROUND The purpose of the study was to evaluate the post-slaughter value and quality of broiler chicken meat, and the possibility of enriching it with health-promoting fatty acids. METHODS The experiment was carried out on 108 sexed broiler chickens (Ross 308). For the first 21 days of their lives, the chickens received the same diet, and after 21 days the chickens were divided into 3 groups of 36 birds (six replicate pens with 6 birds per pen comprised one experimental group), and fed the experimental diets until the 42nd day. The experimental diets were wheat-corn-soybean diets with soybean oil (5% control), grape seed oil or pomegranate seed oil. The grape seed oil and pomegranate seed oil replaced 2% of the soybean oil in the control diet. On day 42, the broilers were slaughtered and post-slaughter tests were performed. Samples of breast and thigh muscle were collected for basic chemical composition, physical characteristics, fatty acid profile, malondialdehyde content and sensory evaluation. RESULTS The source of the oils did not significantly alter the slaughter yield, basic nutrients and physical characteristics of the breast and thigh muscles, but pomegranate seed oil significantly improved the palat- ability of thigh muscles. Grape seed oil and pomegranate seed oil influenced the fatty acid profile of the meat. The grape seed oil significantly decreased saturated fatty acids (palmitic) in muscles. The inclusion of pome- granate seed oil resulted in the deposition of a small amount of punicic acid, while significantly increasing rumenic acid. The inclusion of 2% grape seed oil in the broilers’ diet significantly increased the sum of the n-6 fatty acids and the ratio of n-6 to n-3 relative to the control group. Punicic acid – contained in the pomegran- ate seed oil – was effectively converted to rumenic acid, indicating the possibility of enriching the meat with these acids and increasing the health-promoting properties of broiler’ meat. CONCLUSIONS Grape and pomegranate seed oil are potentially promising additives which could improve the fatty acid profile of poultry meat. The inclusion of grape and pomegranate seed oils into the feed is one way to improve the quality of broiler chicken meat and the derived “functional food”. It could also be a way to give people better quality food without changing their eating habits.
Effectiveness, Safety, and Tolerability of a Switch to Dual Therapy with Dolutegravir Plus Cobicistat-Boosted Darunavir in Treatment-Experienced Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Background Dual regimen with dolutegravir plus cobicistat-boosted darunavir (DTG/DRV/c) is reasonable alternative option for patients with existing resistance and/or intolerance to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). Material and Methods All patients who switched to DTG/DRV/c among treatment-experienced patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in a tertiary university hospital were selected. We analyzed the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability based on serial laboratory data and clinical findings. The primary endpoint was defined as the proportion of patients with plasma HIV RNA below 50 copies/mL at week 48 after switch. Secondary endpoints included evaluation of safety and tolerability. Results Thirty-one patients were retrospectively analyzed. The main reasons for the change to DTG/DRV/c were treatment failure in 13 patients (41.9%), simplification in 12 patients (38.7%), and adverse drug reaction in 6 patients (19.4%). Among the 13 patients who switched owing to treatment failure, the proportion of patients in whom the viral loads were suppressed to less than 50 copies/mL increased from 0% at baseline to 45% at 4 weeks, 50% at 12 weeks, 50% at 24 weeks, and 66.7% at 48 weeks. HIV virus levels decreased and CD4+ T cell counts increased during the follow-up period. In non-treatment failure patients (18 patients), the levels of viral suppression and CD4+ T cells were maintained. There were no significant differences in renal function, liver function, glucose levels, and lipid profile before and after regimen changes. The tolerability was very good: 30 patients (96.8%) tolerated the drugs well and only 1 patient discontinued owing to no improvement in renal insufficiency. Two patients (6.4%) in treatment failure group failed to reach viral suppression. Conclusion The use of DTG/DRV/c in HIV treatment-experienced patients appears to be a very good regimen for switch therapy that is effective and well tolerated, without significant adverse drug reaction.
Addiction-like Behavior Associated with Mobile Phone Usage among Medical Students in Delhi

Background: Mobile phone addiction is a type of technological addiction or nonsubstance addiction. The present study was conducted with the objectives of developing and validating a mobile phone addiction scale in medical students and to assess the burden and factors associated with mobile phone addiction-like behavior. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students aged ≥18 years studying in a medical college in New Delhi, India from December 2016 to May 2017. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Mobile phone addiction was assessed using a self-designed 20-item Mobile Phone Addiction Scale (MPAS). Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 17. Results: The study comprised of 233 (60.1%) male and 155 (39.9%) female medical students with a mean age of 20.48 years. MPAS had a high level of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.90). Bartlett's test of sphericity was statistically significant (P < 0.0001), indicating that the MPAS data were likely factorizable. A principal component analysis found strong loadings on items relating to four components: harmful use, intense desire, impaired control, and tolerance. A subsequent two-stage cluster analysis of all the 20-items of the MPAS classified 155 (39.9%) students with mobile phone addiction-like behavior that was lower in adolescent compared to older students, but there was no significant difference across gender. Conclusion: Mobile phone use with increasing adoption of smartphones promotes an addiction-like behavior that is evolving as a public health problem in a large proportion of Indian youth.
Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Analogs for Gonadal Protection During Gonadotoxic Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate whether gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs (GnRHa) have a protective role in women treated with alkylating agents. Data Sources: Major databases (PubMED, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), systematic snowballing, and trial registries were screened from the inception dates until September 2017. Methods and Study Selection Comparative studies involving reproductive-aged women undergoing chemotherapy with or without coadministration of GnRHa were included. Spontaneous menstrual resumption was assessed as a main outcome. Statistical analyses were performed with STATA 14.2 statistical software. Effect estimates were presented as risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: The literature search yielded 25 436 citations and 84 papers were assessed in full text. Eighteen studies (11 randomized controlled trials [RCTs] and 7 cohort studies) published between 1987 and 2015 were included in the analysis, revealing a significant protective effect of GnRHa (n = 1043; RR:1.38; 95% CI: 1.18-1.63) although with high heterogeneity (I2 = 83.3%). Subgroup analyses revealed a significant benefit of GnRHa cotreatment both in RCTs and in cohort studies. Statistical significance was found in all subgroups by the underlying disease, that is, hematological malignancies, autoimmune diseases, and breast cancer. Sensitivity analyses in GnRH agonist-treated patients, in patients younger than 40 years old, and in patients without supradiaphragmatic radiotherapy also revealed a significant benefit of GnRHa cotreatment. Conclusion: Our results indicate that concurrent GnRHa administration is an effective method to decrease gonadotoxicity of alkylating agents. The presence of low-quality evidence favoring gonadoprotective effect requires a strong recommendation for offering GnRHa coadministration to young women who are to undergo gonadotoxic chemotherapy. Capsule: The present systematic review and meta-analysis shows a significant gonadoprotective effect of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs in women treated with alkylating agents.
A Character-Level Method for Text Classification

We propose a language model of mix CNN (Convolution Neural Network) with bi-RNN (Bi-directional Recurrent Neural Network) to classify the text at the character-level. Unlike word-level model is that avoiding the problem of unregistered words and improves the robustness of the text representation in character-level model. The language model mainly uses the data augment by different convolution filters of CNN and then the bi-RNN obtain the contextual information in both directions to classify the text. The results show that this model have a better performance than the common CNN and LSTM(long short-term memory) classification methods.
Prognostic nutritional index relevance in chemoradiotherapy for advanced oral cavity, oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This study was designed to evaluate the impact of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) on treatment-related toxicities and tolerance in patients with advanced head and neck cancers who were undergoing concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN We retrospectively analyzed and compared the clinical characteristic, toxicities and survival of 143 patients with stage III, IVA, and IVB head and neck cancer who were treated with CCRT according to their PNI between 2007 and 2010. RESULTS Low PNI was correlated with T classification and advanced tumor stage. Patients with low PNI were less likely to tolerate CCRT, required tube feeding support more frequently and had higher percentages of grade 3/4 hematological toxicities, sepsis and toxic death. CONCLUSIONS Pretreatment PNI predicts treatment-tolerance and toxicity in patients with advanced head and neck cancer undergoing CCRT.
Combining Machine Learning and Multi Criteria Decision Analysis Modeling Regulatory, Economic and Social Influences on Wind Turbine Allocation

Knowledge about the future allocation of wind turbines is relevant for assessments of energy markets or necessary grid expansions. In Germany, political decisions drive the allocation together with investment decisions, social rejections, land use planning, regional development and ecological aspects. Taking all influences into account, a standardized multi-criteria optimization problem combining economic suitability, residential burden and site suitability calculates the regional distribution of wind turbines as input for further assessments. By considering the political framework as boundary conditions for the optimization and detailed geographic area suitability factors using a machine learning approach as input parameters, it is possible to assess effects of regulatory restrictions on regional developments. We use a backtesting for validation and weighting of the objectives. Sensitivities of changing regulatory frameworks modeled as different boundary conditions show effects of changing political decisions.
Thermal Image Enhancement Algorithm Using Local And Global Logarithmic Transform Histogram Matching With Spatial Equalization

This paper presents a new thermal image enhancement algorithm based on combined local and global image processing in the frequency domain. The presented approach uses the fact that the relationship between stimulus and perception is logarithmic. The basic idea is to apply logarithmic transform histogram matching with spatial equalization approach on different image blocks. The resulting image is a weighted mean of all processing blocks. The weights for every local and global enhanced image driven through optimization of measure of enhancement (EME). Some presented experimental results illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm on real thermal images in comparison with the traditional methods.
Recognition of Sound Frequency Based on EEG

T415 article distinguished the different frequencies of sound by the feature of electroencephalogram (EEG). EEGs were evoked by low-frequency (200 Hz) and high-frequency (6400 Hz) pure-tone. The optimal feature set was selected using a sequential backward selection (SBS) algorithm from a primary feature set. The best feature had average amplitude, power spectrum and low-frequency energy of wavelet packet 4 decompose. Statistic test shows that power spectrum and low-frequency energy of wavelet packet 4 decompose of the ERPs with 200 Hz were significantly larger than those with 6400 Hz. The back-propagation artificial neural network (BPANN) algorithm and support vector machine (SVM) were used for binary classification. SVM is better, and the correct recognition rate of the 200 Hz and 6400 Hz are 79.17% and 70.83%. The experimental results has potential value for the brain-computer interface (BCI) and the tone audiometry.
An Early Flame Identification Method Based on Edge Gradient Feature

I197 the video fire detection, the fire identification model based on the change of the color feature is non-universal, and the difference of the external disturbance resolution is similar to the flame image in the color model. Therefore, the edge gradient of the flame image is taken as the object of study, and the edge gradient of the color B component is chosen as the basis for judging the flame and the interference image. In this paper, the edge color gradient of the flame image is taken as the object of study. A flame recognition model based on image edge gradient is constructed by curve fitting of the image edge gradient of a large number of samples. Experiments show that the color gradient model proposed in this paper can eliminate a large number of common interference sources, accurately and quickly identify the fire, and have a certain value in the detection of indoor fire.
Maximization of Expected Wind Power Plant Profit Through Optimal Offers on the Day-Ahead Market

In the electricity markets every deviation between the contracted power production and the real energy supplied is usually penalized or paid according to the market prices. This gives incentive to the market participants to provide accurate production schedules. Wind power producers (WPP) can generate production forecasts with limited accuracy due to wind nature itself. In the markets where WPP are treated as a balance responsible parties they will account for the day-ahead market prices and balancing energy prices when placing market bids in order to maximize their profit. This paper presents mixed integer optimization model for the optimal bidding of WPP production in the day-ahead market in order to minimize imbalance costs. The uncertainty related to the market prices on the day-ahead and balancing markets as well as WPP forecasts is accounted for by considering large scenario set which is than reduced by applying the fast forward scenario reduction algorithm.