Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimizing Chronic Heart Failure Care Beyond Randomised Controlled Trials – What are the problem areas and potential solutions?

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is an epidemic which is growing in size. In the United States, more than 5 million people have clinical CHF, where the incidence is 20 per 1000 individuals between 65 to 69 years and >80 per 1000 among those over 85 years of age. The lifetime risk over 40 years of age is 20% with >650000 new cases yearly. The prevalence of asymptomatic HF approaches 21% with increasing age. CHF contributes to more than 1 million admissions annually where 1 in 4 will be readmitted in the first month. Half the total cost of >$30 billion, or 2% of the health budget, are hospitalizations. Nearly half of those diagnosed will die within 5 years. Lower socioeconomic status and ethnicity are at greater risk of adverse outcomes. Quality of life is significantly affected. This is more so in >50% of patients who also suffer from one or more concomitant condition or comorbidity such as atherosclerotic diseases, atrial fibrillation, chronic renal impairment, diabetes, depression, dyslipidemia, hypertension, sleep apnea and valvular heart diseases, as the more common examples (1). Heart failure therapies are now well established and provide real benefits as presented in the numerous randomized controlled trials. However significant gaps still exist in the outcomes we observe when the population treated cannot meet the care standards of the trials or are demographically different.
Prospective evaluation of a chamomile mouthwash for prevention of 5‐FU‐induced oral mucositis

Stomatitis has been found to be a major dose‐limiting toxicity from bolus 5‐fluorouracil‐based (5‐FU) chemotherapy regimens, despite the use of oral cryotherapy. Pursuant to preliminary data which suggested that a chamomile mouthwash might ameliorate this toxicity, a prospective trial was developed to test chamomile in this situation.
Uveitis associated with multiple sclerosis

Our study aimed to determine the frequency of uveitis among MS patients through the Lyon MS Database and compare the clinical spectrum and time course of MS in patients with or without uveitis. Twenty-eight patients with uveitis were detected. The prevalence of uveitis in our population was 0.65% (28/4300). Uveitis preceded onset of MS in 46% of the patients; it occurred simultaneously or after MS, in 18% and 36% of the cases, respectively. The topography and timing of uveitis were not associated with any significant difference in MS course and prognosis. There was no difference in the course and prognosis in patients with or without uveitis. Multiple Sclerosis 2008; 14: 415—417. http://msj.sagepub. com
ORTHOTOPIC LIVER ALLOGRAFTS IN THE RAT: THE INFLUENCE OF STRAIN COMBINATION ON THE FATE OF THE GRAFT

This report describes the fate of orthotopic liver allografts performed in 22 donor/recipient strain combinations. Of these, 2 were major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-congenic, 18 were fully allogeneic, and 2 were non-RT1 incompatible combinations considered to differ only in minor transplantation antigens. The fate of fully allogeneic liver grafts was strictly dependent on the donor/recipient strain combination, and survival times fell into three nonoverlapping groups corresponding to acute rejection (8–21 days), delayed rejection (28–63 days), and prolonged survival (<100 days). Serial levels of recipient serum enzymes also fell into groups corresponding to the fate of the graft. In 7 fully allogeneic donor/recipient combinations, liver grafts showed very prolonged survival. In five combinations they were rejected almost as quickly as kidney or heart grafts. In the two MHC congenic combinations, liver grafts survived for prolonged periods. In the non-RT1-incompatible combinations, unexpectedly, PVG livers were rejected by AUG recipients. MHC-incompatible liver grafts of a given strain survived for long periods or were rejected (in acute or delayed fashion) depending on the recipient strain. This behavior is unique to liver amongst commonly transplanted vascularized organs, and the fate of the graft clearly indicates strain-dependent levels of recipient responsiveness to defined transplantation antigens. Independent evidence supporting this conclusion is discussed. Apparently anomalous results of liver grafting in certain strain combinations are briefly considered.
A generalist-specialist paradigm for multilayer neural networks

A generalist-specialist paradigm for building neural networks is presented. The underlying principle is derived from an analogy with medicine. In most cases, a general practitioner or generalist is able to make a sure diagnosis: however, the generalist sometimes hesitates between several diagnoses and chooses to send his patient to see one or several specialists. This neural network architecture offers many advantages: improvement of the network performances, enhancement of the network interpretation, and selection of the critical frontiers between attraction valleys. The design of specialists is strongly dependent on the ambiguity threshold. A small threshold will lead to a rather simple network, whereas a larger value ensures a better robustness for the global network. This design methodology allows one to adjust the architecture's complexity to the overall problem's complexity. The authors present the definition of ambiguities matrices for the generalist networks, discuss methods for constructing specialists, and examine the functioning of the overall network
Energy-Delay Efficient Unified Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the most important challenges in the Wireless Sensor Networks is to improve the performance of the network by extending the lifetime of the sensor nodes. So the focus is on obtaining a trade-off between minimizing the delay involved and reducing the energy consumption of the sensor nodes which directly translate to an extended lifetime of the sensor nodes. An effective Sleep-wake scheduling mechanism can prolong the lifetime of the sensors by eliminating idle power listening, which could result in substantial delays. To counter this, an anycast forwarding scheme that could forward the packet opportunistically to the first awaken node may result in retransmissions as if the chosen node falls in resource constraints. The algorithm, namely Prim’s-Dual is proposed to solve the said problem. The algorithm considers five crucial parameters, namely the residual energy of the nodes, transmission power, receiving power, packet loss rate, interference from which the next hop is determined to extend the lifetime of the sensor node. Since the proposed work is framed keeping critical event monitoring in mind, the sleep-wake scheduling is modified as low-power, high-power scheduling where all nodes are in low-power and the nodes needed for data transmission are respectively turned on to high-power mode. The integrated framework provides several opportunities for performance enhancement for conflict-free transmissions. The aim of our algorithm is to show reliable, energy efficient transfer without compromising on lifetime and delay. The further effectiveness of the protocol is verified. The results demonstrate that the proposed protocol can efficiently handle network scalability with acceptable latency and overhead.
Training attention: Interactions between central cues and reflexive attention

Three experiments are reported in which we investigate whether the recently reported interactions between central cues (e.g., arrows) and reflexive attention are attributable to the overlearned spatial properties of certain central cues. In all three experiments, a nonpredictive cue with arbitrary spatial properties (a colour patch) is presented prior to a detection target in the left or right visual field. Reaction times to detect targets are compared before and after a training session in which participants are trained to associate each colour patch with left and right space, either via a target detection task in which colour predicts target location 100% of the time (Experiments 1 and 3), or via a left/right motor movement as a function of colour (Experiments 2 and 3). In the first two experiments, a small but highly significant training effect is observed. Participants are approximately 10 ms faster to detect targets at congruent locations relative to incongruent locations after training relative to before training, despite the fact that cue colour was nonpredictive during the test sessions. In Experiment 3, the length of the training session is increased and the magnitude of the training effect also increases as a result. Implications for the interaction between central cues and reflexive attention, as well as premotor theory of attention, are discussed.
Morphology of the Canine Omentum Part 2: The Omental Bursa and its Compartments Materialized and Explored by a Novel Technique

The canine omental bursa is a virtual cavity enclosed by the greater and lesser omentum. While previous representations of this bursa were always purely schematic, a novel casting technique was developed to depict the three‐dimensional organization of the omental bursa more consistently. A self‐expanding polyurethane‐based foam was injected into the omental bursa through the omental foramen in six dogs. After curing and the subsequent maceration of the surrounded tissues, the obtained three‐dimensional casts could clearly and in a reproducible way reveal the omental vestibule, its caudal recess and the three compartments of the splenic recess. The cast proved to be an invaluable study tool to identify the landmarks that define the enveloping omentum. In addition, the polyurethane material can easily be discerned on computed tomographic images. When the casting technique is preceded by vascular injections, the blood vessels that supply the omentum can be outlined as well.
Liver Segmentation from CT Images Using a Level Set Method Based on a Shape and Intensity Distribution Prior

Abstract—Liver segmentation from medical images poses more challenges than analogous segmentations of other organs. This contribution introduces a liver segmentation method from a series of computer tomography images. Overall, we present a novel method for segmenting liver by coupling density matching with shape priors. Density matching signifies a tracking method which operates via maximizing the Bhattacharyya similarity measure between the photometric distribution from an estimated image region and a model photometric distribution. Density matching controls the direction of the evolution process and slows down the evolving contour in regions with weak edges. The shape prior improves the robustness of density matching and discourages the evolving contour from exceeding liver’s boundaries at regions with weak boundaries. The model is implemented using a modified distance regularized level set (DRLS) model. The experimental results show that the method achieves a satisfactory result. By comparing with the original DRLS model, it is evident that the proposed model herein is more effective in addressing the over segmentation problem. Finally, we gauge our performance of our model against matrices comprising of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity.
System energy consumption is a multi-player game

Our key insight is that per-process energy accounting can be formulated as a problem that has been extensively studied in game theory: when multiple players participate in a game and the game produces a surplus, how to divide the surplus among the players? Shapley value is a well-known single value solution to this problem. For any coalition of players S ⊆ N = {1, 2, . , n}, we denote v(S) as the game surplus if played by coalition S. Shapley value defines the only way to distribute the the grand coalition surplus v(N) among the n players that satisfies four simple axioms: Efficiency, Symmetry, Dummy, and Additivity.
Current Proceedings of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a complicated disease with varying causes and outcomes. It has created significant burden to both affected families and societies, not to mention the quality of life of the patients themselves. There is no cure for the disease; therefore, development of effective therapeutic strategies is in great demand. Recent advances in regenerative medicine suggest that the transplantation of stem cells, including embryonic stem cells, neural stem cells, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, umbilical cord blood cells, and human embryonic germ cells, focusing on the root of the problem, may provide the possibility of developing a complete cure in treating CP. However, safety is the first factor to be considered because some stem cells may cause tumorigenesis. Additionally, more preclinical and clinical studies are needed to determine the type of cells, route of delivery, cell dose, timing of transplantation, and combinatorial strategies to achieve an optimal outcome.
Hepatic Vein-Oriented Liver Resection Using Fusion Indocyanine Green Fluorescence Imaging.

To the Editor: A hn et al recently reported on a conventional anatomical liver resection in the December 2013 issue of Annals of Surgery. We admire the author’s well-established portal injection method based on 4 types of relation between tumor location and portal ramification demonstrating that anatomical resection guided by a portal territory has become an established technique in liver surgery. In the case of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma or invasive colorectal liver metastasis, sacrifice or reconstruction of the major hepatic vein is occasionally needed. Considering the depressed function of venoocclusive regions, selective resection of that region is 1 option, although techniques that achieve persistent demarcation of a veno-occlusive region have yet to be reported. We herein describe a new liver resection to remove the entire target hepatic vein watershed using indocyanine green fluorescence imaging (IGFI).
Effet du saccharose sur la tubérisation in vitro de la pomme de terre (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Des extremites apicales de pomme de terre, variete Spunta, mises en culture pendant 4 semaines sur le milieu de Murashige et Skoog (MS), additionne de saccharose (30 g. L-1), d'agar (7 g. L-1) et d'AIB (0,5 mg. L-1), ont regenere des plantes entieres. Les boutures de tetes et boutures de noeuds, prelevees sur ces plantes, ont tuberise sur le milieu MS liquide dilue de moitie (MS/2), additionne de BA (5 mg. L-1) et de differentes concentrations de saccharose (40, 80, 120 et 160 g. L-1). La concentration 80 g. (.)
Management and prevention of neonatal anemia: current evidence and guidelines

Neonatal anemia is a common disorder, particularly in (very) preterm neonates. Management of neonatal anemia is based principally on red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. Although the use of blood products is nowadays widespread in neonatal medicine, evidence on the potential benefit is extremely limited. Recent studies suggest that RBC transfusions in newborns may be associated with an increased risk for necrotizing enterocolitis, transfer of infectious agents and negative effects on neurodevelopmental outcome. Whether the benefits of RBC transfusions outweigh the risks is controversial and requires further studies. In this review, we summarize the current evidence on the management of neonatal anemia and compare the various international guidelines. In addition, we discuss the various strategies to prevent neonatal anemia and reduce the need for RBC transfusions and discuss important trials currently enrolling patients to improve the management in neonatal anemia.
Montelukast added to budesonide in children with persistent asthma: a randomized, double-blind, crossover study.

OBJECTIVE We tested the hypothesis that adding montelukast to budesonide would improve asthma control in children with inhaled glucocorticoid-dependent persistent asthma. STUDY DESIGN In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, crossover study, we compared the benefit of adding montelukast, 5 mg, or placebo once daily to budesonide, 200 microg, twice daily. RESULTS After a 1-month run-in with budesonide, 200 microg, twice daily, 279 children were randomized to montelukast or placebo. The mean +/- SD age was 10.4 +/- 2.2 years, the mean forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) was 77.7% +/- 10.6% predicted, and reversibility was 18.1% +/- 12.9%. Compared with adding placebo to budesonide, adding montelukast produced significant improvements in mean percent change from baseline FEV(1) (P =.062 [P =.010 for per-protocol analysis]), mean absolute change from baseline FEV(1) (P =.040), mean increase from baseline in morning (P =.023) and evening (P =.012) peak expiratory flows, decrease in exacerbation days by approximately 23% (P <.001), decreased beta2-agonist use (P =.013), and reduced blood eosinophil counts (P <.001). The treatments did not differ significantly with regard to safety. CONCLUSIONS Montelukast, 5 mg, added to budesonide improved asthma control significantly, indicated by a small additive effect on lung function and a clinically relevant decrease in asthma exacerbation days.
The Influence of Eccentric Scanning of Optical Coherence Tomography on Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Analysis in Normal Subjects

Aim: To investigate the influence of eccentric scanning on retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) analysis using Stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT) in normal Koreans when the eccentricity of scanning occurs in 4 different directions. Methods: Thirty-one eyes of 31 persons underwent 1 concentric disk-centered and 4 superiorly, inferiorly, nasally and temporally eccentric RNFL OCT scans. Results: The average RNFL thickness measured by temporally eccentric scanning (115.1 μm) was significantly greater when compared with that found by concentric scanning (107.1 μm; p < 0.0001). The proportions of eyes outside normal limits on the RNFL analysis map using the criterion of ≥1 clock hour abnormal at the <1% level in superiorly (12/31, 38.7%), nasally (16/32, 51.6%) and temporally (12/31, 38.7%) eccentric scans were significantly different in comparison with the concentric (4/31, 12.9%) scan (p < 0.05). Conclusion: An off-centered OCT scan affected RNFL thickness measurement and its interpretation.
La formación docente en Argentina. Aproximación a un análisis político de la situación

tan prioritarias, no pueden ser consideradas con exclusividad a la hora de (1) En: oei, xiii Conferencia Iberoamericana de Educacion. Plan de Cooperacion. Renovacion de Ideas y Formulacion de Estrategias tendientes al fortalecimiento de Politicas de Formacion Docente. Tarija, Bolivia, 4 y 5 de septiembre de 2003. (2) Si bien la tasa de escolarizacion del nivel medio ascendio al 71,46 %, solo 1 de cada dos jovenes arriba al ultimo ano de estudios en la edad correspondiente. (3) Ley de Educacion Nacional. Hacia una educacion de calidad para una sociedad mas justa. Ley 26206, enero de 2007.
Design of single-loop fourth order digital closed-loop readout circuit for silicon micro-gyroscope

With the advances in technology, the development of microelectronics technology and the popularity of digital circuits, requirements for the performance of gyroscope becomes higher. The work that further making gyro digital in order to improve the performance becomes very important. View of this situation, a new digital readout interface circuit base on Sigma-Delta modulator for micro-mechanical gyro is researched in this paper. A micro-machined gyroscope readout system based on Sigma-Delta Modulator technology was built by using the Matlab Simulink. Its functional verification and simulation obtained SNR 80.2dB, the effective 13.2 bits having a good readout function.
Avaliação da deglutição e da qualidade de vida relacionada à deglutição de indivíduos submetidos a laringectomia total: comparação entre as técnicas manual e mecânica (stapler) de reconstrução faríngea

Objetivo: Comparar a degluticao e a qualidade de vida emdegluticao de pacientes submetidos a laringectomia total deacordo com o tipo de fechamento faringeo (manual x mecânico). Metodo: 30 pacientes submetidos a laringectomia total, sendo15 com fechamento faringeo manual (grupo controle) e 15com fechamento mecânico (grupo de estudo) foram eleitose compararam-se, entre os grupos, os principais habitosalimentares, aspectos clinicos, a avaliacao endoscopica dadegluticao e as respostas do questionario de qualidade devida em degluticao (SWAL-QOL). Resultados: O grupo comfechamento mecânico apresentou tempo de uso de sondanasoenteral menor que o grupo com fechamento manual, sendoeste dado estatisticamente significante. Quanto a queixa dedegluticao este numero foi maior nos pacientes com fechamentomecânico (53,33%) comparado com o grupo manual (33,33%). Nas avaliacoes clinica e endoscopica da degluticao os gruposapresentaram estase, sendo estas similares quanto a localizacao,porem o grupo mecânico apresentou em maior quantidade devidoa presenca de uma ? trave faringea? observada na avaliacaoendoscopica. O grupo com fechamento mecânico teve melhorclassificacao da gravidade do disturbio da degluticao (Macedo etal., 1996). Quanto ao SWAL-QOL o grupo de estudo apresentouimpacto discreto na qualidade de vida em degluticao, comparadocom o grupo controle que teve impacto moderado. Conclusao:O grupo com fechamento mecânico apresentou menor tempode realimentacao por via oral, menor classificacao na escala deMacedo et al. (1996) e melhor classificacao no SWAL-QOL.No entanto, mais queixa de degluticao e maior presenca de estasedevido a ? trave I faringea?
The Critical Appraisal of Scientific Inquiries with Policy Implications

Since the Second World War, scientific information and analysis have been sought increasingly as aids to the resolution of practical policy problems. This growing demand for usable science has encouraged a rapid increase in the supply of would-be scientific policy guidance and advice. Much has been accomplished; but a growing tide of critical commentary indicates that all is not right. ' As Lindblom and Cohen have characterized the situation, analysts are dissatisfied "because they are not listened to,, while policymakers are dissatisfied "because they do not hear much they want to listen to. "2 Many factors influence these laments, the most obvious being ignorance and conflict. For in practice, scientific inquiry cannot discover most of the things that policymakers would like to know. Much of what it does discover remains uncertain or incomplete. How, then, is "scientific" knowledge any more reliable a guide to policy than other forms of knowledge, prejudice, or propaganda? Moreover, experts often disagree on what science knows and on what that knowledge means for policy. If the knowledge produced by science is not consensual, what special claim for hearing can it make in a world of multiple opinions and biases? Among the many prescriptions offered for mitigation of such questions in the last 25 years, the repeated calls for strengthened mechanisms of peer review and critical evaluation stand out. Practitioners and philosophers agree on the general
Blurry Means Good Focus: Myopia and Visual Attention

A correlation between myopia and visuo-spatial attention is reported. More severe myopia was found to be associated with better ability to quickly narrow the focus of visual attention to a small region of space (assessed via interference from spatial proximity of to-be-ignored inverted half-faces), in a task where local focus was explicitly required. There was no myopia association with size of the default attentional window, when the need to respond to either small local or larger global regions was equally likely (in a particular Navon figure task). Results suggest that myopics might allocate attention more narrowly than individuals with normal eyesight in certain functionally important visual tasks (eg reading) but not others (eg driving).