Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Sensitivity to Drug‐Induced QT Interval Lengthening in Patients With Heart Failure Due to Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction

Patients with heart failure (HF) are at increased risk for drug‐induced torsades de pointes (TdP) due to unknown mechanisms. Our objective was to determine if sensitivity to drug‐induced QT interval lengthening is enhanced in patients with HF. In this multicenter, prospective study, 15 patients with atrial fibrillation or flutter requiring conversion to sinus rhythm were enrolled: 6 patients with New York Heart Association class II to III HF (mean ejection fraction [EF], 30% ± 9%), and 9 controls (mean EF, 53% ± 6%). Patients received ibutilide 1 mg intravenously. Blood samples and 12‐lead electrocardiograms were obtained prior to and during 48 hours postinfusion. Serum ibutilide concentrations at 50% maximum effect on Fridericia‐corrected QT (QTF) intervals (EC50) were determined, and areas under the effect (QTF interval vs time) curves (AUECs) were calculated. Ibutilide concentration—QTF relationships were best described by a sigmoidal Emax model with a hypothetical effect compartment. Median [interquartile range] AUEC from 0 to 4 hours was larger in the HF group than in controls (1.86 [1.86–1.93] vs 1.82 [1.81–1.84] s·h; P = .04). Median EC50 was lower in the HF group (0.48 [0.46–0.49] vs 1.85 [1.10–3.23] μg/L; P = .008). Sensitivity to drug‐induced QT interval lengthening is enhanced in patients with systolic HF, which may contribute to the increased risk of drug‐induced TdP.
SnS2 Nanowall Arrays toward High-Performance Sodium Storage.

Cost-effective sodium ion batteries (SIBs) are emerging as a desirable alternative choice to lithium ion batteries in terms of application in large-scale energy storage devices. SnS2 is regarded as a potential anode material for SIBs because of its unique layered structure and high theoretical specific capacity. However, the development of SnS2 was hindered by the sluggish kinetics of the diffusion process and the inevitable volume change during repeated sodiation-desodiation processes. In this work, SnS2 with a unique nanowall array (NWA) structure is fabricated by one-step pulsed spray evaporation chemical vapor deposition (PSE-CVD), which could be used directly as binder-free and carbon-free anodes for SIBs. The SnS2 NWA electrode achieves a high reversible capacity of 576 mAh g-1 at 500 mA g-1 and enhanced cycling stability. Attractively, an excellent rate capability is demonstrated with ∼370 mAh g-1 at 5 A g-1, corresponding to a capacity retention of 64.2% at 500 mA g-1. The superior sodium storage capability of the SnS2 NWA electrode could be attributed to outstanding electrode design and a rational growth process, which favor fast electron and Na-ion transport, as well as provide steady structure for elongated cycling.
Dry Eye Syndrome. A Diagnostic Enigma

Purpose: To compare routine tear function tests and conjunctival impression cytology (CIC) in patients with dry eye syndrome, and to determine the sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values of these tests, considering CIC as the gold standard? Material & method: A case control prospective study was done. The eyes of 276 patients with dry eyes, was compared with 216 eyes of controls. Patients were enrolled on basis of a questionnaire of common symptoms of dry eye. Tear film break up time (TBUT), Schirmer's-1, Rose Bengal scores (RBS) were compared with impression cytology scores. Results: The mean Schirmer's value in cases was 12.54 ± 4.73 and 16.32 ± 3.80 in controls (P=0.000). The mean tear film break up time in cases was 9.11 ± 2.90 and 14.21 ± 2.72 in controls (P=0.00). The mean goblet cell density in cases was 476 ± 238 and 1552 ± 598 in controls (P=0.000). 46.7% cases of dry eye had abnormal CIC as compared to 32.8 % controls. The sensitivity of tear function tests in diagnosing dry eye was TBUT>Schirmer's>RBS and specificity was Schirmer's>TBUT>RBS in decreasing order, taking CIC as gold standard. Conclusions: Dry eye diagnosis remains a diagnostic enigma. Routine tear function tests lack sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, they should be used in combination with tests like conjunctival impression cytology to improve diagnostic accuracy.
Quantification of MR brain images by mixture density and partial volume modeling

The problem of automatic quantification of brain tissue by utilizing single-valued (single echo) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans is addressed. It is shown that this problem can be solved without classification or segmentation, a method that may be particularly useful in quantifying white matter lesions where the range of values associated with the lesions and the white matter may heavily overlap. The general technique utilizes a statistical model of the noise and partial volume effect together with a finite mixture density description of the tissues. The quantification is then formulated as a minimization problem of high order with up to six separate densities as part of the mixture. This problem is solved by tree annealing with and without partial volume utilized, the results compared, and the sensitivity of the tree annealing algorithm to various parameters is exhibited. The actual quantification is performed by two methods: a classification-based method called Bayes quantification, and parameter estimation. Results from each method are presented for synthetic and actual data.
How To Detect NDM-1 Producers

ABSTRACT Enterobacterial isolates expressing the carbapenemase NDM-1 are emerging worldwide. Twenty-seven NDM-1-positive isolates of worldwide origin were included in this study to identify these strains as not only pathogens but also colonizers of normal flora for infection control screening. Although susceptibility to carbapenems varied, a combined test (IMP/IMP + EDTA), the Etest MBL, and automated susceptibility testing by Vitek2 (bioMérieux) identified those NDM-1 producers as verified by PCR using specific primers. Screening for carriers of NDM-1 producers may be based on media such as the ChromID ESBL culture medium routinely used to screen for extended-spectrum β-lactamase producers, which gives excellent detection levels with low limits of detection ranging from 8 × 100 to 5 × 102 CFU/ml. The CHROMagar KPC culture medium had higher limits of detection (1 × 101 to 5 × 105 CFU/ml) and may be proposed for the follow-up of outbreaks of infections with NDM-1 producers. Colonies growing on these screening media can be verified as NDM-1 producers with molecular methods as described herein.
On the equivalence between SOVA and max-log-MAP decodings

It is shown that after a proper simple modification, the soft-output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA) proposed by Hagenauer and Hoeher (1989) becomes equivalent to the max-log-maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoding algorithm. Consequently, this modified SOVA allows to implement the max-log-MAP decoding algorithm by simply adjusting the conventional Viterbi algorithm. Hence, it provides an attractive solution to achieve low-complexity near-optimum soft-input soft-output decoding.
IEEE 802.11-saturation throughput analysis

To satisfy the emerging need of wireless data communications, the IEEE is currently standardizing the 802.11 protocol for wireless local area networks. This standard adopts a CSMA/CA medium access control protocol with exponential backoff. We present a simple analytical model to compute the saturation throughput performance in the presence of a finite number of terminals and in the assumption of ideal channel conditions. The model applies to both basic and request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) access mechanisms. Comparison with simulation results shows that the model is extremely accurate in predicting the system throughput.
Explaining Knowledge Sharing

In this study, the authors investigate the relationships between team communication styles and job-related cognitions on one hand and knowledge-sharing attitudes and behaviors on the other using 424 members of different work-related teams. Both eagerness and willingness to share are positively related to knowledge sharing—both donating and collecting knowledge. These attitudes mediate the relationships of communication styles, job satisfaction, and performance beliefs with knowledge-collecting and donating behaviors. In terms of team communication styles, an agreeable style is positively related to team members’ willingness to share their knowledge, whereas an extravert communication style of a team is positively related to both eagerness and willingness to share. Performance beliefs and job satisfaction are both related to willingness and eagerness to share knowledge. However, in contrast with the authors’ expectations, the relationship between eagerness to share knowledge and knowledge donating is not s.
Sustainable and Superior Heat-Resistant Alginate Nonwoven Separator of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4/Li Batteries Operated at 55 °C.

High-voltage lithium-ion batteries have become a major research focus. As a major part of lithium batteries, the separator plays a critical role in the development of high-voltage lithium batteries. Herein, we demonstrated a sustainable and superior heat-resistant alginate nonwoven separator for high-voltage (5 V) lithium batteries. It was demonstrated that the resultant alginate nonwoven separator exhibited better mechanical property (37 MPa), superior thermal stability (up to 150 °C), and higher ionic conductivity (1.4 × 10-3 S/cm) as compared to commercially available polyolefin (PP) separator. More impressively, the 5 V class LiNi0.5Mn1. 5O4 (LNMO)/Li cell with this alginate nonwoven separator delivered much better cycling stability (maintaining 79.6% of its initial discharge capacity) than that (69.3%) of PP separator after 200 cycles at an elevated temperature of 55 °C. In addition, the LiFePO4/Li cell assembled with such alginate nonwoven separator could still charge and discharge normally even at an elevated temperature of 150 °C. The above-mentioned fascinating characteristics of alginate separator provide great probability for its application for high-voltage (5 V) lithium batteries at elevated temperatures.
Graph-based evolutionary design of arithmetic circuits

We present an efficient graph-based evolutionary optimization technique, called evolutionary graph generation (EGG), and the proposed approach is applied to the design of combinational and sequential arithmetic circuits based on parallel counter-tree architecture. The fundamental idea of EGG is to employ general circuit graphs as individuals and manipulate the circuit graphs directly using new evolutionary graph operations without encoding the graphs into other indirect representations, such as the bit strings used in genetic algorithm (GA) proposed by Holland (1992) and trees used in genetic programming (GP) proposed by Koza et al. (1997). In this paper, the EGG system is applied to the design of constant-coefficient multipliers and the design of bit-serial data-parallel adders. The results demonstrate the potential capability of EGG to solve the practical design problems for arithmetic circuits with limited knowledge of computer arithmetic algorithms. The proposed EGG system can help to simplify and speed up the process of designing arithmetic circuits and can produce better solutions to the given problem.
Opinion Statement of the Effect of Mechanical Stress on Cartilage Tissue Engineering~!2010-01-12~!2010-04-26~!2010-06-23~!

Articular cartilage is characterized by its poor capacity for self-repair. Once articular cartilage is injured and defected, it cannot be spontaneously repaired and finally develops osteoarthritis (OA). OA is a major leading cause of severe activity limitations and disability, resulting in worldwide socio-economical burden. At present, there is no established therapy for adequate repair of damaged articular cartilage. Researchers have therefore attempted to establish the cartilage tissue engineering as an effective alternative treatment of cartilage repair. However, the articular cartilage repair still remains a clinical and scientific challenge. In cartilage tissue engineering, it is believed that cell source, scaffold and growth factors are three key factors for the desired result of cell therapy for the damaged cartilage repair. However, increasing evidence is showing that these key factors are not enough and other factors may be required to achieve the optimal outcome. Since normal articular cartilage is always subjected to mechanical stress in daily activities, mechanical stress has attracted much attention as fourth key factor in cartilage tissue engineering. However, the real impact of mechanical stress on cartilage tissue engineering is far from complete understanding. In this review, we summarize the accumulating knowledge of the effect of mechanical stress on cartilage tissue engineering and discuss about the challenges for the future.
Development of a handheld fluorescence imaging camera for intraoperative sentinel lymph node mapping

Abstract. We present a compact fluorescence imaging system developed for real-time sentinel lymph node mapping. The device uses two near-infrared wavelengths to record fluorescence and anatomical images with a single charge-coupled device camera. Experiments on lymph node and tissue phantoms confirmed that the amount of dye in superficial lymph nodes can be better estimated due to the absorption correction procedure integrated in our device. Because of the camera head’s small size and low weight, all accessible regions of tissue can be reached without the need for any adjustments.
Biliary excretion of estradiol‐17β‐glucuronide in the rat

Estradiol‐17β‐glucuronide (E217G) is a cholestatic agent and is considered to be related to the pathogenesis of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. In the current study, we examined the mechanism of the biliary excretion of E217G and estradiol metabolites in rats. Biliary excretion of tracer doses of [3H]estradiol‐17β‐glucuronide and [14C]estradiol or [3H]taurocholate and ]14C]vinblastine, a P‐glycoprotein (P‐GP) substrate, intravenously administered as a bolus to bile‐drained control rats or EHBR was studied. Biliary excretion of E217G and estradiol metabolites EHBR was markedly delayed. Analyses of biliary metabolites after estradiol injection showed less polar conjugates in EHBR. In contrast, the excretion of taurocholate and vinblastine (VLB) was only slightly delayed in EHBR. Although phenothiazine treatment to induce the expression of P‐GP increased biliary vinblastine excretion, it did not affect biliary excretion of a tracer dose of [3H]estradiol‐17β‐glucuronide. However, phenothiazine treatment inhibited the cholestasis induced by E217G infused at the rate of 0.075 μmol/min/100g for 20 minutes and increased biliary E217G excretion. Sulfobromophthalein infusion (0.2 μmol/min/100 g body 0 weight) markedly inhibited the biliary excretion of E217G and estradiol metabolites, whereas dibromosulfophthalein (DBSP) at the same infusion rate had no effect. These findings indicate that EG17G is excreted into bile by a canalicular organic anion carrier for sulfobromopthalein (BSP), not for DBSP, under physiological conditions, and that P‐GP influences E217G excretion only at a high dose. under physiological conditions, and that P‐GP influence s E217G excretion only at a high dose.
Phase semantics and verification of concurrent constraint programs

The class CC of concurrent constraint programming languages and its non-monotonic extension LCC based on linear constraint systems can be given a logical semantics in Girard's intuitionistic linear logic for a variety of observables. In this paper we settle basic completeness results and we show how the phase semantics of linear logic can be used to provide simple and very concise "semantical" proofs of safety properties for GC or LCC programs.
Expertise and Metacognition in Laparoscopic Surgery: A Field Study

In challenging cases, surgeons continually assess whether the patient's best interests might be served by converting a laparoscopic case to an open-incision one. Converting in many ways widens the scope and quality of perceptual information available to the surgeon. This research focused on surgical decision making in the context of the decision to convert. A cognitive task analysis effort, involving field observations and a research study, was undertaken to elicit information about decisions made during surgery. Ten experienced (staff) and ten senior resident surgeons were shown videotape from a difficult laparoscopic surgery case. The surgeons responded to structured questions at critical points in the procedure and also provided running commentary as the operation unfolded. Approximately half of the surgeons decided that the case should be converted to an open procedure at some point during the operation. The verbal protocols were analyzed to identify differences as a function of expertise (staff vs. resident) and of the conversion decision (opener vs. nonopener). Staff surgeons expressed awareness of boundary conditions to safe operation more frequently. Further, there was evidence of inappropriately high levels of confidence, yet little evidence of self-criticism (metacognition), among residents who chose not to open.
Auditory nerve impulses induced by 980 nm laser

Abstract. The discovery that a pulsed laser could trigger an auditory neural response inspired ongoing research on cochlear implants activated by optical stimulus rather than by electrical current. However, most studies to date have used visible light (532 nm) or long-wavelength near-infrared (>1840 nm) and involved making a hole in the cochlea. This paper investigates the effect of optical parameters on the optically evoked compound action potentials (oCAPs) from the guinea pig cochlea, using a pulsed semiconductor near-infrared laser (980 nm) without making a hole in the cochlea. Synchronous trigger laser pulses were used to stimulate the cochlea, before and after deafening, upon varying the pulse duration (30–1000 μs) and an amount of radiant energy (0–53.2 mJ/cm2). oCAPs were successfully recorded after deafening. The amplitude of the oCAPs increased as the infrared radiant energy was increased at a fixed 50 μs pulse duration, and decreased with a longer pulse duration at a fixed 37.1 mJ/cm2 radiant energy. The latency of the oCAPs shortened with increasing radiant energy at a fixed pulse duration. With a higher stimulation rate, the amplitude of the oCAPs’ amplitude decreased.
‘Gamification’: Influencing health behaviours with games

Every month at Google Campus in London, dozens of software developers, clinicians, behavioural scientists and investors get together to discuss new strategies to influence health behaviours. The collective aim of these networking events is to develop digital ‘games with purpose’ that can improve health by integrating software design and game mechanics with public health theory and behavioural insights. Gamification is a purposely-broad umbrella term used to encompass the process of using ‘gaming’ elements to motivate and engage people in non-game contexts.1 Enhanced opportunities now exist to deliver behaviour change interventions through game platforms on new smartphone devices. Defying traditional stereotypes, people across demographic boundaries now play video games on a wide range of digital devices.2 Whilst such games continue to be primarily used for entertainment purposes, there is increasing interest in their potential to influence positive changes in health behaviours.3 This has been encouraged by the finding that rather than spending hours being sedentary and chasing intangible outcomes, players of active video games (e.g. Nintendo Wii Fit) are motivated to exert themselves to achieve activity goals through game mechanics.4,5 Whilst still in its infancy, we predict that gamification will become an increasingly familiar concept in healthcare as a consequence of two trends. The first builds on the consumer's appetite for new smartphone devices that provide games designers with a wider audience to target and more attractive tools to use in designing interactive health interventions. The second factor is the enthusiasm and willingness of developers to incorporate the latest behavioural insights into electronic interventions.
Fast Visual Odometry Using Intensity-Assisted Iterative Closest Point

This letter presents a novel method for visual odometry estimation from a RGB-D camera. The camera motion is estimated by aligning a source to a target RGB-D frame using an intensity-assisted iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm. The proposed method differs from the conventional ICP in following aspects. 1) To reduce the computational cost, salient point selection is performed on the source frame, where only points that contain valuable information for registration are used. 2) To reduce the influence of outliers and noises, robust weighting function is proposed to weight corresponding pairs based on statistics of their spatial distances and intensity differences. 3) The obtained robust weighting function from 2) is used for correspondence estimation of the following ICP iteration. The proposed method runs in real-time with a single core CPU thread, hence it is suitable for robots with limited computation resources. The evaluation on TUM RGB-D benchmark shows that in the majority of the tested sequences, our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art accuracy in terms of translational drift per second with a computation speed of 78 Hz.
Quantitative evaluation of atherosclerotic plaques using cross-polarization optical coherence tomography, nonlinear, and atomic force microscopy

Abstract. A combination of approaches to the image analysis in cross-polarization optical coherence tomography (CP OCT) and high-resolution imaging by nonlinear microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) at the different stages of atherosclerotic plaque development is studied. This combination allowed us to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the disorganization of collagen in the atherosclerotic arterial tissue (reduction and increase of CP backscatter), at the fiber (change of the geometric distribution of fibers in the second-harmonic generation microscopy images) and fibrillar (violation of packing and different nature of a basket-weave network of fibrils in the AFM images) organization levels. The calculated CP channel-related parameters are shown to have a statistically significant difference between stable and unstable (also called vulnerable) plaques, and hence, CP OCT could be a potentially powerful, minimally invasive method for vulnerable plaques detection.
Insights into the Dual-Electrode Characteristics of Layered Na0.5Ni0.25Mn0.75O2 Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Sodium-ion batteries are now close to replacing lithium-ion batteries because they provide superior alternative energy storage solutions that are in great demand, particularly for large-scale applications. To that end, the present study is focused on the properties of a new type of dual-electrode material, Na0.5Ni0. 25Mn0.75O2, synthesized using a mixed hydroxy-carbonate route. Cyclic voltammetry confirms that redox couples, at high and low voltage ranges, are facilitated by the unique features and properties of this dual-electrode, through sodium ion deintercalation/intercalation into the layered Na0.5Ni0. 25Mn0.75O2 material. This material provides superior performance for Na-ion batteries, as evidenced by the fabricated sodium cell that yielded initial charge-discharge capacities of 125/218 mAh g-1 in the voltage range of 1.5-4.4 V at 0.5 C. At a low voltage range (1.5-2.6 V), the anode cell delivered discharge-charge capacities of 100/99 mAh g-1 with 99% capacity retention, which corresponds to highly reversible redox reaction of the Mn4+/3+ reduction and the Mn3+/4+ oxidation observed at 1.85 and 2.06 V, respectively. The symmetric Na-ion cell, fabricated using Na0.5Ni0. 25Mn0.75O2, yielded initial charge-discharge capacities of 196/187 μAh at 107 μA. These results encourage the further development of new types of futuristic sodium-ion-battery-based energy storage systems.