LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The clinical benefit of bevacizumab in metastatic colorectal cancer is independent of K-ras mutation status: analysis of a phase III study of bevacizumab with chemotherapy in previously untreated metastatic colorectal cancer.

PURPOSE
Mutations of the K-ras gene were identified as a prognostic marker in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In addition, emerging data suggest that K-ras mutations are a negative predictor of clinical benefit from anti-epidermal growth factor receptor treatment in mCRC. Previously reported data suggest that the longer overall survival (OS) observed with bevacizumab treatment in mCRC is independent of alterations in the Ras/Raf/Mek/Erk pathway. We conducted additional analyses to better describe the clinical benefit of bevacizumab treatment in mCRC relative to K-ras mutation status.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Additional statistical analyses were done with data from K-ras mutation analyses in 230 patients who were treated with irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin (IFL) in combination with either bevacizumab or placebo in a randomized phase III study. Following microdissection, tissue was subject to DNA sequencing to identify K-ras mutations in codons 12 and 13. Hazard ratios for the bevacizumab group relative to the control group were estimated from an unstratified Cox regression model. The median progression-free survival (PFS), OS times, and objective response rates were compared.


RESULTS
K-ras status was assessed in 230 patients (28.3%). The median PFS was significantly longer in bevacizumab-treated patients with wild-type (wt)- (13.5 versus 7.4 months; hazard ratio 0.44, p < .0001) and mutant (m)-K-ras (9.3 versus 5.5 months; hazard ratio 0.41, p = .0008). A significantly higher response rate for IFL plus bevacizumab was observed only in wt-K-ras patients (60.0% versus 37.3%, p = .006) compared with 43.2% versus 41.2% in the m-K-ras group.


CONCLUSION
Bevacizumab provides significant clinical benefit in patients with mCRC expressing either mutant or wild-type K-ras.
Dysphagia in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke: Early Dysphagia Screening May Reduce Stroke-Related Pneumonia and Improve Stroke Outcomes.

BACKGROUND
Dysphagia is associated with poor outcome in stroke patients. Studies investigating the association of dysphagia and early dysphagia screening (EDS) with outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) are rare. The aims of our study are to investigate the association of dysphagia and EDS within 24 h with stroke-related pneumonia and outcomes.


METHODS
Over a 4.5-year period (starting November 2007), all consecutive AIS patients from 15 hospitals in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, were prospectively evaluated. The primary outcomes were stroke-related pneumonia during hospitalization, mortality, and disability measured on the modified Rankin Scale ≥2-5, in which 2 indicates an independence/slight disability to 5 severe disability.


RESULTS
Of 12,276 patients (mean age 73 ± 13; 49% women), 9,164 patients (74%) underwent dysphagia screening; of these patients, 55, 39, 4.7, and 1.5% of patients had been screened for dysphagia within 3, 3 to <24, 24 to ≤72, and >72 h following admission. Patients who underwent dysphagia screening were likely to be older, more affected on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, and to have higher rates of neurological symptoms and risk factors than patients who were not screened. A total of 3,083 patients (25.1%; 95% CI 24.4-25.8) had dysphagia. The frequency of dysphagia was higher in patients who had undergone dysphagia screening than in those who had not (30 vs. 11.1%; p < 0.001). During hospitalization (mean 9 days), 1,271 patients (10.2%; 95% CI 9.7-10.8) suffered from stroke-related pneumonia. Patients with dysphagia had a higher rate of pneumonia than those without dysphagia (29.7 vs. 3.7%; p < 0.001). Logistic regression revealed that dysphagia was associated with increased risk of stroke-related pneumonia (OR 3.4; 95% CI 2.8-4.2; p < 0.001), case fatality during hospitalization (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.1-3.7; p < 0.001) and disability at discharge (OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.6-2.3; p < 0.001). EDS within 24 h of admission appeared to be associated with decreased risk of stroke-related pneumonia (OR 0.68; 95% CI 0.52-0.89; p = 0.006) and disability at discharge (OR 0.60; 95% CI 0.46-0.77; p < 0.001). Furthermore, dysphagia was independently correlated with an increase in mortality (OR 3.2; 95% CI 2.4-4.2; p < 0.001) and disability (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.8-3.0; p < 0.001) at 3 months after stroke. The rate of 3-month disability was lower in patients who had received EDS (52 vs. 40.7%; p = 0.003), albeit an association in the logistic regression was not found (OR 0.78; 95% CI 0.51-1.2; p = 0.2).


CONCLUSIONS
Dysphagia exposes stroke patients to a higher risk of pneumonia, disability, and death, whereas an EDS seems to be associated with reduced risk of stroke-related pneumonia and disability.
Coping style and immunity in animals: Making sense of individual variation

Predicting the individual vulnerability to immune mediated disease is one of the main challenges of modern biomedical research. However, the question of individual behavioral and physiological characteristics that might predict this vulnerability has been subject of research and debate for a long time. This paper will argue that animal models aimed at individual vulnerability should consider the biological function of variation in nature. An increasing number of studies show the ecological significance of variation within a species. Based on behavioral studies in several vertebrate species two coping style can be distinguished. Variation in coping style appears to play a role in the population dynamics and the evolutionary fitness of the species. Coping styles are reflected in a stable differentiation in the behavioral and physiological stress responsiveness over time and across situations. Based on the observations that the individual level of offensive aggressive behavior (i.e., the tendency to defend the home territory) is strongly related to the way animals react to various other environmental challenges, it is argued that the individual's level of offensiveness is an important indicator and component of a more trait-like behavioral and physiological response pattern (coping style) to environmental demands. The coping style of aggressive animals is principally aimed at a (pro)active prevention or manipulation of a stressor whereas the non-aggressive individuals tend to passively accept or react to it. Proactive coping is associated with high sympathetic reactivity to stressors whereas the more passive or reactive coping style generally has a higher HPA axis reactivity. In view of the immune modulating nature of these major neuroendocrine stress systems, one might expect that coping styles will be reflected in a differential vulnerability to immune mediated disease as well. Indeed, several studies have demonstrated such a relationship, indicating that the functional variation in coping style and related neuroendocrine stress reactivity, as it occurs in nature, might be a good standard for studies aimed at understanding individual vulnerability. This is in agreement with more recent views that also in humans stress reactivity may be the best predictor for the individual vulnerability to immune mediated diseases. This asks for a more fundamental and translational approach of individual disease vulnerability based on a common biological basis of individual differentiation in behavior and physiology in humans and animals.
The science on front-of-package food labels.

OBJECTIVE
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Institute of Medicine are currently investigating front-of-package (FOP) food labelling systems to provide science-based guidance to the food industry. The present paper reviews the literature on FOP labelling and supermarket shelf-labelling systems published or under review by February 2011 to inform current investigations and identify areas of future research.


DESIGN
A structured search was undertaken of research studies on consumer use, understanding of, preference for, perception of and behaviours relating to FOP/shelf labelling published between January 2004 and February 2011.


RESULTS
Twenty-eight studies from a structured search met inclusion criteria. Reviewed studies examined consumer preferences, understanding and use of different labelling systems as well as label impact on purchasing patterns and industry product reformulation.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate that the Multiple Traffic Light system has most consistently helped consumers identify healthier products; however, additional research on different labelling systems' abilities to influence consumer behaviour is needed.
An Open-Label Trial of 12-Week Simeprevir plus Peginterferon/Ribavirin (PR) in Treatment-Naïve Patients with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Genotype 1 (GT1)

BACKGROUND
Shortening duration of peginterferon-based HCV treatment reduces associated burden for patients. Primary objectives of this study were to assess the efficacy against the minimally acceptable response rate 12 weeks post-treatment (SVR12) and safety of simeprevir plus PR in treatment-naïve HCV GT1 patients treated for 12 weeks. Additional objectives included the investigation of potential associations of rapid viral response and baseline factors with SVR12.


METHODS
In this Phase III, open-label study in treatment-naïve HCV GT1 patients with F0-F2 fibrosis, patients with HCV-RNA <25 IU/mL (detectable/undetectable) at Week 2, and undetectable HCV-RNA at Weeks 4 and 8, stopped all treatment at Week 12. All other patients continued PR for a further 12 weeks. Baseline factors significantly associated with SVR12 were identified through logistic regression.


RESULTS
Of 163 patients who participated in the study, 123 (75%) qualified for 12-week treatment; of these, 81 (66%) achieved SVR12. Baseline factors positively associated with SVR12 rates in patients receiving the 12-week regimen were: IL28B CC genotype: (94% SVR12); HCV RNA ≤800,000 IU/mL (82%); F0-F1 fibrosis (74%). Among all 163 patients, 94% experienced ≥1 adverse event (AE), 4% a serious AE, and 2.5% discontinued due to an AE. Reduced impairment in patient-reported outcomes was observed in the 12-week vs >12-week regimen.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall SVR12 rate (66%) was below the target of 80%, indicating that shortening of treatment with simeprevir plus PR to 12 weeks based on very early response is not effective. However, baseline factors associated with higher SVR12 rates were identified. Therefore, while Week 2 response alone is insufficient to predict efficacy, GT1 patients with favourable baseline factors may benefit from a shortened simeprevir plus PR regimen.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01846832.
Outcomes of Pediatric Patients with Malignancies of the Major Salivary Glands

To report the outcomes and early to long term treatment complications among pediatric patients with major salivary gland malignancies treated at a single institution. This study was a retrospective case review set at a tertiary referral cancer center. Patients less than 19 years of age with a diagnosis of a major salivary gland malignancy were identified at the M. D. Anderson tumor database between 1953 and 2006. A total of 61 patients were identified, with equal gender distribution. The majority of tumors arose in the parotid gland (83%), and the most common pathology was mucoepidermoid carcinoma (46%). Lymphatic metastasis was identified in 37% of patients, nearly all with mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Although 65% of patients had prior treatment elsewhere, more than 75% of patients underwent surgical resection at our institution. External beam radiation was used in 45% of patients, with an average dose of 58.6 Gray. Average patient follow-up was 153 months. The overall survival rate was 93% at 5 years, and 26% developed a recurrence. A second primary was identified in 2 patients. Permanent facial paresis was noted in 7 patients (12%) and xerostomia in 1 patient (4%). Survival of pediatric patients with major salivary gland carcinomas is favorable. Adverse outcomes were best predicted by tumor grade, margin status, and neural involvement. Radiation therapy is beneficial for locoregional control of disease, with acceptable long-term treatment sequelae, and without a significant risk for developing second primary tumors. Survivorship issues need to be addressed in this patient population into adulthood.
SHOrt voltage elevation (SHOVE) test for weak CMOS ICs

This Technical Note contains a preprint of a paper submitted to the 15th IEEE VLSI Test Symposium to be held on April 27-30, 1997 at Monterey, CA.
Intergroup Leadership in Organizations: Leading Across Group and Organizational Boundaries

Intergroup leadership—leadership of collaborative performance of different organizational groups or organizations—is associated with unique intergroup challenges that are not addressed by traditional leadership theories. To address this lacuna, we describe a theory of intergroup leadership. Firmly grounded in research on social identity and intergroup relations, the theory proposes that effective intergroup performance rests on the leader’s ability to construct an intergroup relational identity. We describe key leadership actions to establish such an identity.
Goal-oriented cognitive rehabilitation in early-stage dementia: study protocol for a multi-centre single-blind randomised controlled trial (GREAT)

BACKGROUND
Preliminary evidence suggests that goal-oriented cognitive rehabilitation (CR) may be a clinically effective intervention for people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease, vascular or mixed dementia and their carers. This study aims to establish whether CR is a clinically effective and cost-effective intervention for people with early-stage dementia and their carers.


METHODS/DESIGN
In this multi-centre, single-blind randomised controlled trial, 480 people with early-stage dementia, each with a carer, will be randomised to receive either treatment as usual or cognitive rehabilitation (10 therapy sessions over 3 months, followed by 4 maintenance sessions over 6 months). We will compare the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation with that of treatment as usual with regard to improving self-reported and carer-rated goal performance in areas identified as causing concern by people with early-stage dementia; improving quality of life, self-efficacy, mood and cognition of people with early-stage dementia; and reducing stress levels and ameliorating quality of life for carers of participants with early-stage dementia. The incremental cost-effectiveness of goal-oriented cognitive rehabilitation compared to treatment as usual will also be examined.


DISCUSSION
If the study confirms the benefits and cost-effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation, it will be important to examine how the goal-oriented cognitive rehabilitation approach can most effectively be integrated into routine health-care provision. Our aim is to provide training and develop materials to support the implementation of this approach following trial completion.
An Incremental Document Clustering Algorithm Based on a Hierarchical Agglomerative Approach

INTRODUCTION Document clustering is an automatic grouping of text documents into clusters so that documents within a cluster have high similarity in comparison to one another, but are dissimilar to documents in other clusters. Unlike document classification (Wang, Zhou, and He, 2001), no labeled documents are provided in clustering; hence, clustering is also known as unsupervised learning. Hierarchical document clustering organizes clusters into a tree or a hierarchy that facilitates browsing. The parent-child relationship among the nodes in the tree can be viewed as a topic-subtopic relationship in a subject hierarchy such as the Yahoo! directory. This chapter discusses several special challenges in hierarchical document clustering: high dimensionality, high volume of data, ease of browsing, and meaningful cluster labels. State-ofthe-art document clustering algorithms are reviewed: the partitioning method (Steinbach, Karypis, and Kumar, 2000), agglomerative and divisive hierarchical clustering (Kaufman and Rousseeuw, 1990), and frequent itemset-based hierarchical clustering (Fung, Wang, and Ester, 2003). The last one, which was recently developed by the authors, is further elaborated since it has been specially designed to address the hierarchical document clustering problem.
Partial Transmit Sequence Scheme for Envelope Fluctuation Reduction in OFDMA Uplink Systems

This letter proposes a new partial transmit sequence (PTS) scheme to reduce envelope fluctuations in orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) uplink systems. We found that the conventional PTS can be seriously degraded in the non-contiguous allocation of OFDMA uplink systems due to the linearity in the conventional phase rotations. To overcome this problem, we propose a new phase rotation using the complex conjugate, which can be implemented without multiplication like the conventional phase rotations. Simulation results show that the proposed PTS outperforms the conventional PTS in terms of cubic metric and bit error rate.
Adolescents' moral evaluations and ratings of cyberbullying: The effect of veracity and intentionality behind the event

The constant exposure to electronic media has increased the likelihood of adolescents experiencing hurtful events such as cyberbullying. The current study examined how adolescents’ moral evaluations of cyberbullying are affected by different aspects of the event including falsity of posts, power imbalance and intention to harm. Adolescents between 12–13 years of age (n = 77) and 15–16 years of age (n = 77) read moral vignettes and were asked to evaluate the actions of the protagonist. They were also asked if the behaviour in the vignette was an incident of cyberbullying. Participants also filled out a questionnaire about their own experiences with cyberbullying. It was found that adolescents evaluated as more negative those situations depicting false stories, imbalance of power, and intention to harm; Younger children had difficulties recognizing the intentions behind on-line posts. Adolescents who have cyber-intimidated others were less severe in their evaluations and less likely to rate vignettes as cyberbullying compared to other youth. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Clinicopathologic Manifestations of Patients with Fordyce's Spots

Vol. 24, No. 1, 2012 103 Received January 5, 2011, Revised March 9, 2011, Accepted for publication April 6, 2011 Corresponding author: Gyong Moon Kim, M.D., Department of Dermatology, St. Vincent Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 93-6 Ji-dong, Paldal-gu, Suwon 442-723, Korea. Tel: 82-31-249-7465, Fax: 82-31-253-8927, E-mail: gyongmoonkim@ catholic.ac.kr This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Ann Dermatol Vol. 24, No. 1, 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.5021/ad.2012.24.1.103
Electronic monitoring of adherence, treatment of hypertension, and blood pressure control.

BACKGROUND
Although it is generally acknowledged that electronic monitoring of adherence to treatment improves blood pressure (BP) control by increasing patients' awareness to their treatment, little information is available on the long-term effect of this intervention.


METHODS
In this observational study among a total of 470 patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension, adherence was measured in 228 patients by means of both the Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS) and pill count (intervention group), and in 242 patients by means of pill count alone (control group). During a follow-up period of 1 year consisting of seven visits to the physician's office, BP measurements were performed and medication adjusted based on the achieved BP. In addition, at each visit adherence to treatment was assessed.


RESULTS
On the basis of pill counts, median adherence to treatment did not differ between the intervention group and the control group (96.1% vs. 94.2%; P = 0.97). In both groups, systolic and diastolic BP decreased similarly: 23/13 vs. 22/12 mm Hg in the intervention and control group respectively. Drug changes and the number of drugs used were associated with BP at the start of study, but not with electronic monitoring.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, electronic monitoring of adherence to treatment by means of MEMS did not lead to better long-term BP control nor did it result in less drug changes and drug use.
Oncology staff: burnout, job satisfaction and coping with stress.

OBJECTIVE
The oncology staff is at high risk for developing psychological disorders and burnout. In this study, we aimed to evaluate their burnout levels, job satisfaction, psychological statement and ways of coping with stress and the relationship between these variables and their sociodemographic and occupational characteristics.


METHODS
Among all health workers at the Istanbul University Institute, of Oncology, 159 were included in the study. A sociodemographic data form, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Styles of Coping Inventory-Short Form were used to evaluate burnout and its contributing factors.


RESULTS
High levels of 'emotional exhaustion', 'depersonalization' and 'low sense of personal accomplishment' were determined in 30.2%, 8.2% and 44% of all participants, respectively. The variables that affected emotional exhaustion were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Accordingly, the ratio of emotional exhaustion was approximately 10 times higher in those for whom job stress was the most important stress factor compared with those who indicated nonjob stress for each one point increase on the GHQ and depersonalization scores, which were other predictors, with odds ratio (OR) : 1.23, p = 0.006 and OR : 1.67, p < 0.001, respectively. A negative correlation was detected between adaptive coping styles and 'burnout,' and a positive correlation was found between maladaptive coping strategies and exhaustion.


CONCLUSIONS
It is necessary to monitor the psychological status of employees in oncology units with scanning tools such as GHQ to understand their job stress perceptions and to help them develop adaptive coping methods.