Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Advances in mechanical circulatory support in the treatment of heart failure.

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic and debilitating illness. In the United States, 250,000-500,000 patients are at the endstage of HF refractory to medical treatment. The prognosis of these patients is poor, with median survival of 3 to 4 months and 6% in one year for those inotrope-dependent patients. Because of the high mortality observed in the presence of HF, the use of mechanical circulatory support is in many cases the only chance of survival while waiting for a donor. In recent years, the implantation of Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD) as definitive therapy (DT) has emerged as a promising replacement therapy for heart transplantation. There is a gap between the demand of patients for DT and the actual number of procedures performed, which reflects ignorance about the new technology as well as reluctance to refer patients earlier. Studies have shown superior survival between the VAD and clinical treatment, and significant improvement in the quality of life of patients maintained on VAD. The one-year survival of 75% with continuous flow VAD provided a target to be hit by ventricular assist therapy. In Brazil, the lack of financial support by the health agencies has not yet allowed patients to access mechanical support in the treatment of heart failure.
Imidazole and nitroimidazole derivatives as NADH‐fumarate reductase inhibitors: Density functional theory studies, homology modeling, and molecular docking

Chagas disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Benznidazole and nifurtimox are drugs used for its therapy; nevertheless, they have collateral effects. NADH‐fumarate (FUM) reductase is a potential pharmacological target since it is essential for survival of parasite and is not found in humans. The objectives are to design and characterize the electronic structure of imidazole and nitroimidazole derivatives at DFT‐M06‐2X level in aqueous solution; also, to model the NADH‐FUM reductase and analyze its intermolecular interactions by molecular docking. Quantum‐chemical descriptors allowed to select the molecules with the best physicochemical properties and lowest toxicity. A high‐quality three‐dimensional structure of NADH‐FUM reductase was obtained by homology modeling. Water molecules do not have influence in the interaction between FUM and NADH‐FUM reductase. The main hydrogen‐binding interactions for FUM were identified in NADH, Lys172, and Arg89; while hydrophobic interactions in Phe479, Thr174, Met63. The molecules S3‐8, S2‐8, and S1‐8 could be inhibitors of NADH‐FUM reductase.
Effects of Integration of Social Marketing and Health Belief Model for Preventing Cholangiocarcinoma in High-Risk Areas of Thailand: A Community Intervention Study

Introduction/Objective: To examine the effects of applying social marketing and Health Belief Model (HBM) in preventing cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) in high-risk areas of Thailand. Methods: About 2 randomized high-risk areas of CCA from multiple-stage sampling were assigned as study areas. The 150 participants were allocated to the experimental group, which received a 12-week health education program that applied social marketing and HBM. The comparison group received the usual services. Data were collected by a questionnaire created by the researchers. We employed descriptive, inferential statistics (paired t-test and independent t-test) for normal distribution, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used for mean scores differing before the experiment. Results: After the experiment, the mean scores of the perceived risk of CCA, perceived severity of CCA, perceived benefits of CCA prevention, perceived barriers to CCA prevention, and correct behaviors of CCA prevention in the experimental group were significantly higher than those before the experiment the . 05 level. They were also considerably higher than those of the comparison group at the . 05 level. Conclusion: This is the first study to integrate social marketing and HBM for CCA prevention. Therefore, formulating policies or measures to prevent disease through public communication will form a model to avoid CCA and create a channel for distributing useful information to the general public.
Calculation of Resonant Frequency for a Microstrip Antenna with Vertical Slots Using Applying Adaptive Network-Based Fuzzy Inference System

This paper attempts at applying adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for analysis of the resonant frequency of a microstrip rectangular patch antenna with two equal size slots which are placed on the patch vertically. The resonant frequency is calculated as the position of slots is shifted to the right and left sides on the patch. As a result , the antenna resonates at more than one frequency . Commonly, machine algorithms based on artificial neural networks are employed to recognize the whole resonant frequencies. However ,they fail to estimate the resonant frequencies correctly as in some cases variations are not very sensible and the resonant frequencies overlap each other . It can be concluded that artificial neural networks could be replaced in such designs by the adaptive network-based fuzzy Inference system due to its high approximation capability and much faster convergence rate.
Significance of circRNAs as biomarkers for systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To comprehensively evaluate the significance of circular RNAs (circRNAs) as potential diagnostic biomarkers for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) via pooled analyses of data from published studies that focussed on the association between circRNAs and SLE. Methods The systematic review and meta-analysis protocol was registered in PROSPERO (registration No. CRD42021229383). Relevant studies published before 3 April 2022 were selected to verify the relationship between circRNA expression levels and SLE. Extracted data were analysed using a random-effects model with Meta-DiSc 1.4 and Stata 16 software. Transcription factors related to hsa_circ_0000479 and its parental gene were extracted from the TRCirc and hTFtarget databases, respectively. Results A total of 10 studies, involving 438 patients with SLE and 434 controls, were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio of circRNAs in detecting SLE were 0.66 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.63, 0.70), 0.79 (95% CI 0.76, 0.82), and 10.80 (95% CI 6.58, 17.73), respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.8366. Conclusions Meta-analysis of pooled data indicated a moderate accuracy of circRNAs in diagnosing SLE. The exact diagnostic value of circRNAs and the mechanisms of interaction between circRNAs and their parental genes should be confirmed in further studies.
Agent-based security risk assessment of the airport security system

The thought of being secure has been on the minds of people throughout history. Security is the protection against intended incidents. Intended incidents happen due to a result of a deliberate and planned act. Security systems are implemented in order to set up security precautions which have as main goal the protection of all assets present within the environment under supervision. In recent years security in aviation, and especially in the airport environment, is getting more and more important. The rising variety and growing number of threats upon the airport environment lead to the need for universal and rapid deployment of individual security systems. This caused a segregated way of working of the entire airport security system. The hypothesis arises that this way of working is inefficient, and a performance increase can be achieved when the airport security system would be integrated. This research is aimed at analyzing a possible approach to integrate the airport security system and its influence on the performance indicators of the airport security system. Some performance indicators of the airport security system, such as level of security and level of service, are in conflict with each other. The agent-based modeling approach is used to properly represent the socio-technical nature of the airport security system. This way the individual agents can be modeled with their own set of rules, while addressing the relationships between agents in the airport environment as well. A specially designed security risk scenario, discussing the boundaries of the environment, the type of threats present and the type of threat sources and objects present, forms the basis of the input for the agent-based model. This exploratory graduation thesis provides a first attempt in proposing an approach to integrate the current airport security system in order to increase performance in both the level of security and level of service. Three different configurations of an integrated airport security system are proposed by means of decision data fusion. Findings of this thesis showed the greatest potential improvement of the level of security and the level of service when implementing an integrated adaptive configuration of the airport security system.
A meta-analysis and critical review of metacognitive accuracy in autism

Metacognition refers to cognitions about our own cognitions. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to examine metacognition among autistic people. The results from these studies have produced a mixed picture, with some concluding that autistic people are just as accurate as typically developing people in judging their own cognitions and others providing evidence of reduced accuracy. The aim of this meta-analysis is to amalgamate this research to obtain a clearer picture of the evidence to date. A total of 17 studies comparing 412 individuals diagnosed with autism and 453 typically developing individuals were included in the meta-analysis. The data revealed a moderate, but heterogeneous, reduction in metacognitive accuracy among autistic individuals in comparison with non-autistic individuals. A critical review of the results suggested that, despite the overall reduction in metacognitive accuracy, performance was not universally diminished among autistic participants across studies. Accuracy may be undiminished on certain types of metacognitive task. Moreover, across all tasks, there was moderate difference in metacognitive accuracy between autistic and non-autistic children, but only a small difference in metacognitive accuracy between autistic and non-autistic adults. Lay Abstract The ability to make accurate judgements about our own and others’ mental states has been widely researched; however, it is unclear how these two abilities relate to each other. This is important given that there is evidence that autistic individuals can have difficulty with accurately judging others’ mental states. Recent evidence suggests that some autistic individuals may also have difficulty accurately judging their own mental states. This may have an impact on various aspects of everyday life but particularly academic success, and therefore it is important that this skill is not overlooked when exploring areas of individual support. The aim of this article is to bring together the research examining autistic individual’s ability of making accurate judgements about their own mental states and to establish whether this is an area that warrants further investigation. The results from this article show that autistic individuals may have difficulty making accurate judgements about their own mental states, although this depends on the type of judgement being made. It also highlighted that while autistic children may have difficulties in some areas, these may improve by adulthood. Overall, this article shows that more research is needed to fully understand where specific difficulties lie and how they may be overcome.
Radiofrequency Ablation in Patients Undergoing Mitral Valve Surgery with or without Giant Left Atria

Purpose: We aimed to compare the efficacy of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in patients undergoing mitral valve (MV) surgery with or without giant left atria. Methods: This retrospective, single-center, cohort study investigated patients who underwent MV surgery and concomitant RFA from 2009 to 2019. Patients were divided into non-giant left atria (diameter ≤65 mm, n = 1543) and giant left atria (diameter >65 mm, n = 241) groups. Five-year freedom from atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence and thromboembolic event (TE) rates were assessed with death as the competing risk factor with and without propensity-score matching. Results: Patients with giant left atria had higher mortality (10.8% versus 6.2%, P = 0.008) and readmission rates for heart failure than those without (12.0% versus 6.8%, P = 0.004). Atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence rates were higher in patients with giant left atria than in those without (49% versus 24% at 5 years, P <0.001), but the cumulative incidence of TEs before (P = 0.944) and after (P = 0.695) propensity-score matching was comparable. Conclusions: RFA effectively prevented TEs in patients with giant left atria, despite significant atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence. Atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence did not increase the risk of TEs. A lower success rate should be considered when deciding whether to perform surgical ablation in patients with giant left atria.
Brentuxinmab vedotin, alone or combine with bendamustine in the treatment of natural killer T cell lymphoma

Natural killer (NK)/T cell lymphoma is a highly aggressive subtype of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma. The prognosis of patients with natural killer T cell lymphoma (NKTCL) remains poor. More potent treatment strategies are urgently needed to improve the survival of these patients with R/R NKTCL. CD30 expression has been reported to occur in about 40% of NK/T cell lymphoma. Brentuximab vedotin (BV), a monomethyl auristatin E conjugated CD30 antibody, targets CD30 to kill cancer cells. Therapeutic combination of BV and bendamustine has been shown to be highly effective in Hodgkin lymphoma. We investigated efficacy of BV in treating NKTCL as a single therapy, and in combination with bendamustine in vitro and in vivo. We determined CD30 expression levels in 6 NKTCL cell lines. The efficiency of lymphoma cell inhibition by BV correlates with CD30 expression. We also determined the efficacy of BV in combination with bendamustine and found synergistic effects with bendamustine in NKTCL. Combined BV and bendamustine treatment exerted synergistic antiproliferation effect and enhanced cell apoptotic in vitro and in vivo. Brentuximab vedotin and bendamustine synergistically arrested cell cycle at the G2/M phase in NKTCL cell lines. The combination of BV and bendamustine was demonstrated to synergistically damage DNA in NKTCL. This study provides a reference for possible application on using BV for the treatment of NKTCL, either as a single agent or in combination with bendamustine.
Improving MR cell size imaging by inclusion of transcytolemmal water exchange

The goal of the current study is to include transcytolemmal water exchange in MR cell size imaging using the IMPULSED model for more accurate characterization of tissue cellular properties (e.g., apparent volume fraction of intracellular space vin ) and quantification of indicators of transcytolemmal water exchange. We propose a heuristic model that incorporates transcytolemmal water exchange into a multicompartment diffusion‐based method (IMPULSED) that was developed previously to extract microstructural parameters (e.g., mean cell size d and apparent volume fraction of intracellular space vin ) assuming no water exchange. For tdiff ≤ 5 ms, the water exchange can be ignored, and the signal model is the same as the IMPULSED model. For tdiff ≥ 30 ms, we incorporated the modified Kärger model that includes both restricted diffusion and exchange between compartments. Using simulations and previously published in vitro cell data, we evaluated the accuracy and precision of model‐derived parameters and determined how they are dependent on SNR and imaging parameters. The joint model provides more accurate d values for cell sizes ranging from 10 to 12 microns when water exchange is fast (e.g., intracellular water pre‐exchange lifetime τin ≤ 100 ms) than IMPULSED, and reduces the bias of IMPULSED‐derived estimates of vin , especially when water exchange is relatively slow (e.g., τin > 200 ms). Indicators of transcytolemmal water exchange derived from the proposed joint model are linearly correlated with ground truth τin values and can detect changes in cell membrane permeability induced by saponin treatment in murine erythroleukemia cancer cells. Our results suggest this joint model not only improves the accuracy of IMPULSED‐derived microstructural parameters, but also provides indicators of water exchange that are usually ignored in diffusion models of tissues.
Baseline and post-treatment biomarkers of resistance to anti-PD-1 therapy in acral and mucosal melanoma: an observational study

Background Immunotherapies targeting programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and its ligands have improved clinical outcomes for advanced melanoma. However, many tumors exhibit primary resistance or acquire secondary resistance after an initial positive response. The mechanisms of resistance are not well understood, and no validated predictive biomarkers are available. This exploratory study aimed to characterize baseline differences and molecular changes arising during treatment in acral and mucosal melanomas that exhibited primary or secondary resistance to anti-PD-1 monotherapy. Methods This was an observational retrospective study of 124 patients who had been treated for metastatic acral or mucosal melanoma with anti-PD-1 monotherapy. Tumor samples were collected at baseline (all patients) and post-treatment (resistant tumors only) and were assayed by immunohistochemistry, whole-exome sequencing, and RNA sequencing. Results At baseline, more non-progressor than resistant tumors exhibited expression of PD-L1, immune cell infiltration, and high tumor mutational burden (TMB); baseline PD-L1 expression was also more common in secondary-resistant than in primary-resistant tumors as well as in late versus early secondary-resistant tumors. Non-progressor tumors also had higher median baseline expression of an 18-gene T cell-inflamed gene expression profile (TcellinfGEP). Among resistant tumors, the proportion of PD-L1-positive melanomas and the expression of the TcellinfGEP mRNA signature increased during treatment, while the expression of mRNA signatures related to WNT and INFA1 signaling decreased. There was evidence for greater changes from baseline in secondary-resistant versus primary-resistant tumors for some markers, including expression of RAS-related and WNT-related mRNA signatures and density of CD11c+ and FOXP3+ T cells. Greater changes in CD11c+ cell density were observed in early compared with late secondary-resistant tumors. Conclusions Our findings suggest that TcellinfGEP and PD-L1 expression, TMB, immune cell infiltration, and RAS and WNT signaling warrant further investigation as potential mechanisms and/or biomarkers of anti-PD-1 therapy resistance in acral and mucosal melanomas. Confirmation of these findings in larger populations is needed.
Utilizing paralogues for phylogenetic reconstruction has the potential to increase species tree support and reduce gene tree discordance in target enrichment data

The analysis of target enrichment data in phylogenetics lacks optimization toward using paralogues for phylogenetic reconstruction. We developed a novel approach of detecting paralogues and utilizing them for phylogenetic tree inference, by retrieving both ortho‐ and paralogous copies and creating orthologous alignments, from which the gene trees are built. We implemented this approach in ParalogWizard and demonstrate its performance in plant groups that underwent a whole genome duplication relatively recently: the subtribe Malinae (family Rosaceae), using Angiosperms353 as well as Malinae481 probes, the genus Oritrophium (family Asteraceae), using Compositae1061 probes, and the genus Amomum (family Zingiberaceae), using Zingiberaceae1180 probes. Discriminating between orthologues and paralogues reduced gene tree discordance and increased the species tree support in the case of the Malinae, but not for Oritrophium and Amomum. This may relate to the difference in the proportion of paralogous loci between the data sets, which was highest for the Malinae. Overall, retrieving paralogues for phylogenetic reconstruction following ParalogWizard has the potential to increase the species tree support and reduce gene tree discordance in target enrichment data, particularly if the proportion of paralogous loci is high.
A new SMOC2 mutation within selective tooth agenesis, malformed teeth and dentin dysplasia

To SPARC-related modular calcium-binding protein 2 (SMOC2) is a matricel-lular protein highly expressed during embryogenesis and wound healing, and regulates the interactions between cells and extracellular matrix. Previously, two reports identified SMOC2 mutations in the patients with tooth agenesis, malformed teeth and dentin dysplasia (DD). 1,2 Here, we presented a new SMOC2 mutation in a Chinese family and compared the SMOC2 mutations hitherto reported and their related phenotypes. We recruited a Chinese family with congenital tooth agenesis without any other medical conditions. The proband had agenesis of 18 permanent teeth. Anomalies as labial evagination teeth incisors. Four primary teeth molars CT 18 permanent molars) taurodontism-like The proband's brother agenesis of 16 permanent teeth (exclude the third molars). Similar dental phenotypes such as microdontia, incisal notches, and taurodontism-like molars in the brother ⑤ – ⑧ Informed consent obtained from all the family members and healthy controls
Dachshund acts with Abdominal‐B to trigger programmed cell death in the Drosophila central nervous system at the frontiers of Abd‐B expression

A striking feature of the nervous system pertains to the appearance of different neural cell subtypes at different axial levels. Studies in the Drosophila central nervous system reveal that one mechanism underlying such segmental differences pertains to the segment‐specific removal of cells by programmed cell death (PCD). One group of genes involved in segment‐specific PCD is the Hox homeotic genes. However, while segment‐specific PCD is highly precise, Hox gene expression is evident in gradients, raising the issue of how the Hox gene function is precisely gated to trigger PCD in specific segments at the outer limits of Hox expression. The Drosophila Va neurons are initially generated in all nerve cord segments but removed by PCD in posterior segments. Va PCD is triggered by the posteriorly expressed Hox gene Abdominal‐B (Abd‐B). However, Va PCD is highly reproducible despite exceedingly weak Abd‐B expression in the anterior frontiers of its expression. Here, we found that the transcriptional cofactor Dachshund supports Abd‐B‐mediated PCD in its anterior domain. In vivo bimolecular fluorescence complementation analysis lends support to the idea that the Dachshund/Abd‐B interplay may involve physical interactions. These findings provide an example of how combinatorial codes of transcription factors ensure precision in Hox‐mediated PCD in specific segments at the outer limits of Hox expression.