Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accuracy of Transcutaneous Carbon Dioxide Measurement During Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Under Monitored Anesthesia Care: A Prospective Observational Study

Background Transcutaneous carbon dioxide tension (PtcCO2) measurement is a promising alternative to arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO2) measurement. PaCO2 measurement is invasive and intermittent, whereas PtcCO2 measurement is non-invasive and continuous. However, previous studies evaluating PtcCO2measurements did not include patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), who experience anticipated hemodynamic changes, particularly before and after valve placement. Therefore, we investigated whether PtcCO2 measurement could provide an alternative to PaCO2 measurement during transfemoral TAVR under monitored anesthesia care (MAC) with local anesthesia. Methodology We conducted a prospective observational study. We included all consecutive patients with severe aortic stenosis who were scheduled to undergo a transfemoral TAVR under MAC at our institution from November 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021. During the procedures, PaCO2 and PtcCO2 were concurrently monitored six times as a reference standard and index test, respectively. PtcCO2 was monitored continuously using a non-invasive earlobe sensor. The agreement between PtcCO2 and PaCO2 measurements was assessed using the Bland-Altman method, and the 95% limits of agreement were calculated. Based on previous studies, we determined that 95% limits of agreement of ±6.0 mmHg would be clinically acceptable to define PtcCO2 as an alternative to PaCO2. Results We obtained 88 measurement pairs from 15 patients. The lower and upper 95% limits of agreement between the PtcCO2 and PaCO2 measurements were -4.22 mmHg and 6.56 mmHg, respectively. Conclusions During TAVR under MAC with local anesthesia, PtcCO2 measurement could not provide a viable alternative to PaCO2 measurement to reduce high PaCO2 events. This study focused on comparing intraoperative periods before and after valve implantation. Therefore, further investigation is warranted to assess the impact of various factors, including the prosthetic valve type and the hemodynamic effects of balloon aortic valvuloplasty, on PtcCO2 measurement in TAVR.
Características imagenológicas de la osteomielitis de los maxilares evaluada con diferentes métodos diagnósticos. Una revisión

RESUMEN La osteomielitis de los maxilares (OM) es una patología infecciosa que compromete a la médula ósea debido a diversas etiologías, principalmente la odontogénica. El diagnóstico de la OM es un reto para el odontólogo, que se basa en la clínica y los exámenes imagenológicos. La radiografía panorámica es el examen imagenológico que se emplea con mayor frecuencia, pero esta tiene algunas limitaciones que han sido mejoradas con la aparición de nuevos métodos imagenológicos, que incluyen la tomografía computarizada (TC), la tomografía computarizada de haz cónico (TCHC), la imagen por resonancia magnética (IRM) y la gammagrafía ósea con radionúclidos. El propósito de esta revisión fue describir las características imagenológicas de la osteomielitis de los maxilares de acuerdo con todos los métodos de diagnóstico radiológico disponibles según la literatura contemporánea, que permitirán al radiólogo tener más conocimiento y mejorar sus informes en la práctica diaria.
Manifestation of agronomically valuable traits in the progeny of a sorghum mutant carrying the genetic construct for RNA silencing of the γ-kafirin gene

Improving the nutritional value of grain sorghum, a drought- and heat-tolerant grain crop, is an important task in the context of global warming. One of the reasons for the low nutritional value of sorghum grain is the resistance of its storage proteins (kafirins) to proteolytic digestion, which is due, among other things, to the structural organization of protein bodies, in which γ-kafirin, the most resistant to proteases, is located on the periphery, encapsulating more easily digested α-kafirins. The introduction of genetic constructs capable of inducing RNA silencing of the γ-kafirin (gKAF1) gene opens up prospects for solving this problem. Using Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation of immature embryos of the grain sorghum cv. Avans we have obtained a mutant with improved digestibility of endosperm proteins (up to 92 %) carrying a genetic construct for RNA silencing of the gKAF1 gene. The goal of this work was to study the stability of inheritance of the introduced genetic construct in T2–T4 generations, to identify the number of its copies, as well as to trace the manifestation of agronomically valuable traits in the offspring of the mutant. The mutant lines were grown in experimental plots in three randomized blocks. The studied lines were characterized by improved digestibility of kafirins, a modified type of endosperm, completely or partially devoid of the vitreous layer, an increased percentage of lysine (by 75 %), reduced plant height, peduncle length, 1000-grains weight, and grain yield from the panicle. In T2, a line with monogenic control of GA resistance was selected. qPCR analysis showed that in different T3 and T4 plants, the genetic construct was present in 2–4 copies. In T3, a line with a high digestibility of endosperm proteins (81 %) and a minimal decrease in agronomically valuable traits (by 5–7 %) was selected.
Detection of hepatocellular carcinoma methylation markers in salivary DNA

Abstract Background: Alterations to DNA methylation have been identified in both hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor and circulating DNA from affected individuals. These markers have potential utility in HCC screening. Adherence to HCC screening is poor and acceptable HCC screening tests are needed. Methods: A feasibility study was performed on a subset of case patients and control subjects from a prior study of risk factors for HCC. Case patients (n=12) included adults aged 47–85 years with a first diagnosis of HCC between 2011 and 2016 and without viral hepatitis. Control subjects (n=12) were matched on age, sex, and state of residence. Participants provided saliva samples for DNA genotyping. Log fold change in salivary DNA methylation at 1359 CpG sites representing 25 candidate genes previously associated with HCC was compared across case patients and control subjects. Results: The quantity of DNA ranged from 9.65 to 257.79 μg. The purity of DNA isolates was good, with mean OD260/280 ratio of 1.78 (SD: 0.14). Of 25 candidate genes, 16 had at ≥1 CpG site with detectable differences in methylation across HCC case patients and control subjects. Sites differentially methylated in HCC case patients included genes encoding tumor suppressors (PRDM2, RUNX3, p15/16, and RASSF1/5), regulators of cell cycle progression (DAPK1 and TP73), and DNA repair (MGMT and GSTP1). No associations met the significance threshold 3.7 × 10−5 required for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: Salivary DNA may be a feasible alternative to blood samples in the era of novel DNA-based screening tests for HCC. The ease of saliva-based testing supports further investigation of its potential.
A semi-empirical modelling approach to calculate two-way attenuation in radar backscatter from soil due to crop cover

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter from crop-covered agricultural fields is a strong function of dielectric properties of the crop, crop canopy structure, crop volume along with moisture and surface roughness of the underlying soil. These unique features of SAR along with its ability to penetrate through vegetation and soil make it a right choice for many agricultural applications like soil moisture estimation and crop monitoring. Backscattering coefficient contains information of the crop as well as the soil underneath and therefore, in order to retrieve soil moisture or the crop parameters from SAR backscatter, it is necessary to separate out the relative contributions of the soil underneath and the vegetation layer. The effect of crop cover on the sensitivity of SAR backscatter towards soil moisture is more severe, as the crop cover not only introduces its own backscatter contribution (σ °crop), but also introduces two-way attenuation in the radar backscatter from the soil surface. An attempt has been made here to adopt a semi-empirical modelling approach to estimate the SAR backscatter contribution from the crop cover (σ °crop) along with the twoway attenuation (1/L) introduced by the crop cover in SAR backscatter from the soil as well. This has been done using Extended Low-1 beam mode RADARSAT1 SAR data over parts of Haridwar and Saharanpur districts. We report here the results obtained from the study during March 2005 and March 2006, and discuss the methodology used for the calculation of two-way attenuation in the backscattering coefficient from the soil surface and from that of wheat crop.
Technology Research of Sewage Pipe Network on Initial Rain Water Receiving Capacity

Taking a certain area of a coastal city as the research object, based on the measured data, the model of rainwater pipe network and the hydraulic model of sewage pipe network in the study area were established based on SWMM. According to the set interception target combined with the established SWMM rainwater network model, the specific volume of Rain Water in the initial stage of each Rain Water discharge port is calculated, which is given to the sewage trunk pipe in the form of time series to realize the initial Rain Water interception control and analyze the receiving capacity of the sewage pipe network. In this study, 20% of the initial Rain Water was set up in the study area, which was given in the form of time series to the nodes in the sewage pipe network model. After the initial Rain Water was cut off 20%, part of the pipe segment and the node appeared overload phenomenon, but there was no overflow. After 30% initial Rain Water interception, overflow occurred in some pipe segments.
Explainable machine learning predictions of perceptual sensitivity for retinal prostheses.

OBJECTIVE Retinal prostheses evoke visual precepts by electrically stimulating functioning cells in the retina. Despite high variance in perceptual thresholds across subjects, among electrodes within a subject, and over time, retinal prosthesis users must undergo `system fitting', a process performed to calibrate stimulation parameters according to the subject's perceptual thresholds. Although previous work has identified electrode-retina distance and impedance as key factors affecting thresholds, an accurate predictive model is still lacking. APPROACH To address these challenges, we 1) fitted machine learning (ML) models to a large longitudinal dataset with the goal of predicting individual electrode thresholds and deactivation as a function of stimulus, electrode, and clinical parameters (`predictors') and 2) leveraged explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to reveal which of these predictors were most important. MAIN RESULTS Our models accounted for up to 76% of the perceptual threshold response variance and enabled predictions of whether an electrode was deactivated in a given trial with F1 and AUC scores of up to 0.730 and 0.910, respectively. Our models identified novel predictors of perceptual sensitivity, including subject age, time since blindness onset, and electrode-fovea distance. SIGNIFICANCE Our results demonstrate that routinely collected clinical measures and a single session of system fitting might be sufficient to inform an XAI-based threshold prediction strategy, which has the potential to transform clinical practice in predicting visual outcomes.
Transmission des mesures d'un réseau de capteurs environnementaux en bande ISM. Une approche semi-logicielle

for low data rate environmental measurements. It uses the ISM free-access frequency band at 433 MHz. In addition to distance attenuation, a major issue is the presence of numerous radio frequency interferences in this band. With a view to optimizing the sensor life and cost, the system complexity has been shifted to the central station which will be based on array processing techniques. In this paper, we describe four spatial cyclostationary detectors for triggering the acquisition of sensor data frames in this highly corruptive radio environment.
Analysis of trend in the role of national and regional hubs in prostatectomy after prostate cancer diagnosis in the past 5 years: A nationwide population-based study

Purpose The regions where patients diagnosed with prostate cancer by biopsy receive prostatectomy are divided into national hub and regional hubs, and to confirm the change in the role of regional hubs compared to national hub. Materials and Methods Data from July 2013 to June 2017 encompassing 218,155 patients aged ≥18 years diagnosed with prostate cancer were analyzed using the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service database. The degree of patient outflow was assessed by dividing the regional diagnosis-to-surgery ratio with the national ratio for each year. Based on this ratio, national and regional hubs were determined. Results Seoul consistently maintained a patient influx with a ratio above 1.6. Busan and Gyeonggi consistently exceeded 0.9, while Ulsan and Daegu steadily increased, exceeding 1.0 between 2015 and 2016. Jeonnam province also consistently maintained the ratio above 0.7. Jeju, Daejeon, Gangwon, and Incheon remained below 0.5, indicative of substantial patient outflows, whereas Gwangju and Gyeongbuk had the highest patient outflows with ratios below 0.15. Therefore, Seoul was designated as a national hub, whereas Busan, Gyeonggi, Ulsan, Daegu, and Jeonnam were classified as regional hubs. Jeju, Daejeon, Gangwon, and Incheon were the dominant outflow areas, while Gwangju and Gyeongbuk were the highest outflow areas. Conclusions Seoul, as the national hub for prostate cancer surgery, operated on 1.76 times more patients than any other region during 2013–2017. Busan, Gyeonggi, Ulsan, Daegu, and Jeonnam functioned as regional hubs, but approximately 10%–20% of patients sought treatment at national hubs.
Layer-Specific Knowledge Distillation for Class Incremental Semantic Segmentation

Recently, class incremental semantic segmentation (CISS) towards the practical open-world setting has attracted increasing research interest, which is mainly challenged by the well-known issue of catastrophic forgetting. Particularly, knowledge distillation (KD) techniques have been widely studied to alleviate catastrophic forgetting. Despite the promising performance, existing KD-based methods generally use the same distillation schemes for different intermediate layers to transfer old knowledge, while employing manually tuned and fixed trade-off weights to control the effect of KD. These KD-based methods take no consideration of feature characteristics from different intermediate layers, limiting the effectiveness of KD for CISS. In this paper, we propose a layer-specific knowledge distillation (LSKD) method to assign appropriate knowledge schemes and weights for various intermediate layers by considering feature characteristics, aiming to further explore the potential of KD in improving the performance of CISS. Specifically, we present a mask-guided distillation (MD) to alleviate the background shift on semantic features, which performs distillation by masking the features affected by the background. Furthermore, a mask-guided context distillation (MCD) is presented to explore global context information lying in high-level semantic features. Based on them, our LSKD assigns different distillation schemes according to feature characteristics. To adjust the effect of layer-specific distillation adaptively, LSKD introduces a regularized gradient equilibrium method to learn dynamic trade-off weights. Additionally, our LSKD makes an attempt to simultaneously learn distillation schemes and trade-off weights of different layers by developing a bi-level optimization method. Extensive experiments on widely used Pascal VOC 12 and ADE20K show our LSKD clearly outperforms its counterparts while achieving state-of-the-art results.
Integrated perspectives on geological and biological dynamics in ancient Lake Ohrid

(1) University of Cologne, Geology, Cologne, Germany (wagnerb@uni-koeln.de), (2) Department of Animal Ecology & Systematics, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, (3) Institute of Geosciences, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany, (4) Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, University of Pisa, Italy, (5) NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory (NIGL), British Geological Survey, Keyworth, UK, (6) Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, Hannover, Germany, (7) Centre for Environmental Geochemistry, School of Geography, University of Nottingham, UK, (8) Institute of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, (9) Department of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, University of Hull, UK, (10) Utrecht University, Palaeoecology, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht, The Netherlands, (11) Institute of Geological Sciences & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland, (12) Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italy
Attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control factors influencing Canadian secondary school students’ milk and milk alternatives consumption

Objective: The research objectives were to evaluate factors that influence Canadian secondary school students’ milk and milk alternatives (MMA) consumption and to explore associations through age and gender lenses. Design: A qualitative design was used, consisting of semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation methods. Analysis was guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Deductive and inductive thematic analyses were used to generate themes, charting data based on attributes such as gender and age. Setting: Interviews were held virtually or via telephone. Participants: Participants were twenty-eight high school students from Ontario, Canada, diverse in terms of gender and age. Results: Both desirable and undesirable beliefs about the health outcomes of consuming MMA were commonly discussed. These included health benefits such as strong bones, muscular strength, and growth, and health consequences like unwanted skin conditions, weight gain, and diseases. While boys and girls associated MMA consumption with muscular strength, boys predominantly considered this favourable, while girls discussed outcomes like unwanted skin conditions and weight gain more often. Adolescents’ perspectives on taste/perceived enjoyment, environmentally friendly choices and animal welfare also influenced their MMA preferences. Parental influences were most cited among social factors, which appeared to be stronger during early adolescence. Factors involving cost, time and accessibility affected adolescents’ beliefs about how difficult it was to consume MMA. Conclusions: Recommendations for shifting attitudes towards MMA are provided to address unfavourable beliefs towards these products. Interventions to increase MMA consumption among adolescents should include parents and address cost barriers.
Stories to Prevent Cancer: A Pilot Study Using Cancer Survivor Narratives to Increase Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Intentions

Introduction Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates are lower than other recommended adolescent vaccines. Cancer survivor narratives are used to promote cancer prevention and control, but little is known about their impact on adolescent HPV vaccination. Objective This pilot study explored the feasibility and effects of a video education intervention using a cancer survivor narrative to improve parents’ attitudes toward and intentions to get the HPV vaccine. Methods This study utilized a one-group design; participants completed a pre-intervention survey, watched the video before attending their sons’ wellness visits, and completed a post-intervention survey within one week of their appointment. Using the narrative persuasion framework, we developed a 4-minute video of a local HPV-related cancer survivor to promote the HPV vaccine as cancer prevention. We recruited 37 participants between June and October 2020. Participants were parents of males ages 9-17 who had not yet initiated HPV vaccination. Results After the video, more parents agreed that HPV vaccination is safe (pre: 66% vs. post: 82%; P = .045) and that their child’s chances of getting HPV-related cancer in the future are high (pre: 24% vs. post: 46%; P = .014). Overall, 91% of parents felt the cancer survivor story helped them understand the risks of HPV cancers, and 52% said the story influenced their decision to start HPV vaccination for their child. Conclusions Our findings suggest that cancer survivor narratives influence parents’ vaccine opinions and understanding of their child’s risk of HPV infection, leading to increased parental intent to get the HPV vaccine for their adolescent males.
Stability of Indicators for Net Soil Nitrogen Mineralization in Tobacco Rotation and Tillage Systems

Measuring biological net soil nitrogen mineralization (NSNM) can assist nitrogen (N) fertility management in agroecosystems, but the time and apparatus required for this assessment limits measurement frequency. Stable NSNM predictors that could be rapidly measured to compare systems would be extremely useful. We compared the effects of crop and soil management on NSNM from 2011 to 2013 and evaluated several carbon (C) and N indices including particulate organic carbon (POC), particulate organic nitrogen (PON), permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC), soil organic carbon (SOC), and soil total nitrogen (STN) as NSNM indicators. Soil (0 to 10 and 10 to 20 cm depths) was collected from six long-term burley tobacco (Nicotiana tobacum L.) tillage and rotation systems. Net soil nitrogen mineralization was estimated by a 120-d laboratory incubation. The relative effects of management on NSNM among these systems were stable across 3 yr, which suggested NSNM measurement can be reduced to that frequency when NSNM is used to compare different crop and soil management. The soil C and N fractions contributed variably to predicting soil N mineralization in the different rotation systems, but SOC (which can be calculated from soil organic matter, a common index in the routine test package of many soil testing laboratories) was the best overall NSNM predictor in this study.
Factors influencing olfactory function in an adult general population sample: the CHRIS study

Abstract The sense of smell allows for the assessment of the chemical composition of volatiles in our environment. Different factors are associated with reduced olfactory function, including age, sex, as well as health and lifestyle conditions. However, most studies that aimed at identifying the variables that drive olfactory function in the population suffered from methodological weaknesses in study designs and participant selection, such as the inclusion of convenience sample or only of certain age groups, or recruitment biases. We aimed to overcome these issues by investigating the Cooperative Health Research in South Tyrol (CHRIS) cohort, a population-based cohort, by using a validated odor identification test. Specifically, we hypothesized that a series of medical, demographic and lifestyle variables is associated with odor identification abilities. In addition, our goal was to provide clinicians and researchers with normative values for the Sniffin’ Sticks identification set, after exclusion of individuals with impaired nasal patency. We included 6,944 participants without acute nasal obstruction and assessed several biological, social, and medical parameters. A basic model determined that age, sex, years of education, and smoking status together explained roughly 13% of the total variance in the data. We further observed that variables related to medical (positive screening for cognitive impairment and for Parkinson’s disease, history of skull fracture, stage 2 hypertension) and lifestyle (alcohol abstinence) conditions had a negative effect on odor identification scores. Finally, we provide clinicians with normative values for both versions of the Sniffin’ Sticks odor identification test, i.e. with 16 items and with 12 items.