LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Mercaptopurine therapy intolerance and heterozygosity at the thiopurine S-methyltransferase gene locus.

BACKGROUND
Patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia are often treated with 6-mercaptopurine, and those with homozygous deficiency in thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) enzyme activity have an extreme sensitivity to this drug as a result of the accumulation of higher cellular concentrations of thioguanine nucleotides. We studied the metabolism, dose requirements, and tolerance of 6-mercaptopurine among patients with different TPMT phenotypes.


METHODS
We compared, by use of statistical modeling, 6-mercaptopurine pharmacology and tolerance in 180 patients who achieved remission on St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Protocol Total XII composed of weekly methotrexate (40 mg/m(2)) and daily oral 6-mercaptopurine (75 mg/m(2)) given for 2.5 years, interrupted every 6 weeks during the first year for treatment with either high-dose methotrexate or teniposide plus cytarabine. Statistical tests were two-sided.


RESULTS
Erythrocyte concentrations of thioguanine nucleotides (pmol/8 x 10(8) erythrocytes) were inversely related to TPMT enzyme activity (P<.01), with averages (+/- standard deviations) of 417 (+/-179), 963 (+/-752), and 3565 (+/-1282) in TPMT homozygous wild-type (n = 161), heterozygous (n = 17), and homozygous-deficient (n = 2) patients, respectively. There was complete concordance between TPMT genotype and phenotype in a subset of 28 patients for whom TPMT genotype was determined. There were no sex differences in thioguanine nucleotide concentrations (P =.24), TPMT enzyme activity (P =.22), or average weekly prescribed dose of 6-mercaptopurine (P=.49). The cumulative incidence of 6-mercaptopurine dose reductions due to toxicity was highest among patients homozygous for mutant TPMT (100%), intermediate among heterozygous patients (35%), and lowest among wild-type patients (7%) (P<.001), with average (+/- standard deviation) final weekly 6-mercaptopurine doses of 72 (+/-60), 449 (+/-160), and 528 (+/-90) mg/m(2), respectively. Lowering doses of 6-mercaptopurine in TPMT heterozygotes and in deficient patients allowed administration of full protocol doses of other chemotherapy while maintaining high thioguanine nucleotide concentrations.


CONCLUSION
We conclude that genetic polymorphism in TPMT is an important determinant of mercaptopurine toxicity, even among patients who are heterozygous for this trait.
Lecture Notes on Labor Economics

These lecture notes were written for an M.A. level course in labor economics with focus on empirical identication strategies.
Results from an Audit Feedback Strategy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease In-Hospital Care: A Joint Analysis from the AUDIPOC and European COPD Audit Studies

BACKGROUND
Clinical audits have emerged as a potential tool to summarize the clinical performance of healthcare over a specified period of time. However, the effectiveness of audit and feedback has shown inconsistent results and the impact of audit and feedback on clinical performance has not been evaluated for COPD exacerbations. In the present study, we analyzed the results of two consecutive nationwide clinical audits performed in Spain to evaluate both the in-hospital clinical care provided and the feedback strategy.


METHODS
The present study is an analysis of two clinical audits performed in Spain that evaluated the clinical care provided to COPD patients who were admitted to the hospital for a COPD exacerbation. The first audit was performed from November-December 2008. The feedback strategy consisted of personalized reports for each participant center, the presentation and discussion of the results at regional, national and international meetings and the creation of health-care quality standards for COPD. The second audit was part of a European study during January and February 2011. The impact of the feedback strategy was evaluated in term of clinical care provided and in-hospital survival.


RESULTS
A total of 94 centers participated in the two audits, recruiting 8,143 admissions (audit 1∶3,493 and audit 2∶4,650). The initially provided clinical care was reasonably acceptable even though there was considerable variability. Several diagnostic and therapeutic procedures improved in the second audit. Although the differences were significant, the degree of improvement was small to moderate. We found no impact on in-hospital mortality.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study describes COPD hospital care in Spanish hospitals and evaluates the impact of peer-benchmarked, individually written and group-oral feedback strategy on the clinical outcomes for treating COPD exacerbations. It describes small to moderate improvements in the clinical care provided to COPD patients with no impact on in-hospital mortality.
Hydration with sodium bicarbonate does not prevent contrast nephropathy: a multicenter clinical trial.

BACKGROUND
Radiographic contrast media exposition can cause acute renal function impairment. There is limited and conflicting evidence that hydration with sodium bicarbonate prevents contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) in patients undergoing cardiac catheterization.


OBJECTIVE
The present study was aimed at determining whether sodium bicarbonate is superior to hydration with saline to prevent nephropathy in patients at risk undergoing cardiac catheterization.


METHODS
Three hundred and one patients undergoing coronary angiography or percutaneous coronary intervention with serum creatinine > 1.2mg/dL or glomerular filtration rate (GFR) < 50 ml/min were randomized to receive hydration with sodium bicarbonate starting 1 hour before the procedure and 6 hours after the procedure, or hydration with 0.9% saline. CIN was defined as an increase of 0.5mg/dL in creatinine in 48 h


RESULTS
Eighteen patients (5.9%) developed contrast induced nephropathy: 9 patients in the bicarbonate group (6.1%) and 9 patients in the saline group (6.0%), p = 0.97. The change in serum creatinine was similar in both groups, 0.01 ± 0.26 mg/dL in the bicarbonate group and 0.01 ± 0.35 mg/dL in the saline group, p = 0.9. No statistical difference was observed between the change in glomerular filtration rate (0.89 ± 9 ml/min vs. 2.29 ± 10 ml/min, p = 0.2 bicarbonate group and saline group, respectively).


CONCLUSION
Hydration with sodium bicarbonate was not superior to saline to prevent contrast media induced nephropathy in patients at risk undergoing cardiac catheterization.
Variable Speed Drive of Single Phase Induction Motor Using Frequency Control Method

Single-phase induction motors are widely used in home appliances and industrial control. The multispeed operation and multipurpose operation are provided by controlling the speed of these motors.This research paper is variable speed drive of induction motor using frequency control method. It is to develop the solid state control system to be reliable and economically feasible to use with fractional horse power motors. The proposed variable speed drive includes power conversion section (AC to DC and DC to AC), used the switching element of IRF 840 N-channel MOSFET. The four IRF 840 MOSFETS are used as H-bridge inverter to provide the alternating current to the motor. In this drive, C124 transistors and MJE 13002 transistors are used as driver circuit to drive the H-bridge inverter. There are two power supplies in this drive. The 12 V power supply is used for frequency control circuit and driver circuit. The 300 V power supply is used for H-bridge inverter. In this drive, pulse width modulation SG3525A IC is used to control the frequency. The frequency range of the constructed variable drive circuit is 16 Hz to 56 Hz at constant voltage for changing the speed of induction motor.In this research paper, drive schemes of single-phase induction motor, principle operations of components used in constructed variable speed drive, and design calculation to construct this drive are included. Moreover, the experimental tests of this drive when driving a fractional horse power single-phase induction motor are described.
Update on embryology of the upper limb.

Current concepts in the steps of upper limb development and the way the limb is patterned along its 3 spatial axes are reviewed. Finally, the embryogenesis of various congenital hand anomalies is delineated with an emphasis on the pathogenetic basis for each anomaly.
Preparing for Interview Research: The Interview Protocol Refinement Framework

This article presents the interview protocol refinement (IPR) framework comprised of a four-phase process for systematically developing and refining an interview protocol. The four-phase process includes: (1) ensuring interview questions align with research questions, (2) constructing an inquiry-based conversation, (3) receiving feedback on interview protocols, and (4) piloting the interview protocol. The IRP method can support efforts to strengthen the reliability of interview protocols used for qualitative research and thereby contribute to improving the quality of data obtained from research interviews.
Prognostic factors for recurrence and survival in anal cancer: generating hypotheses from the mature outcomes of the first United Kingdom Coordinating Committee on Cancer Research Anal Cancer Trial (ACT I).

BACKGROUND
Only 2 prospective studies have previously reported prognostic factors for anal cancer, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer trial 22861 (EORTC 22861) and Radiation Therapy Oncology Group trial 98-11 (RTOG 98-11). Both of those trials reported that clinically positive lymph nodes and male sex predicted poorer overall survival (OS). The EORTC 22861 trial indicated that the same factors were prognostic for locoregional control. In the current report, the authors investigated potential prognostic factors from the first United Kingdom Coordinating Committee on Cancer Research Anal Cancer Trial (ACT I), in which patients were randomized to receive either radiotherapy alone or chemoradiation (CRT) with concurrent 5-fluorouracil/mitomycin C.


METHODS
In the ACT I trial, associations between several baseline characteristics and 3 endpoints were investigated: locoregional failure (LRF), anal cancer death (ACD), and OS. The analyses were restricted to 292 patients who received CRT, which subsequently became standard treatment. A score was derived using multivariable Cox regression to identify the set of factors that, together, had the best prognostic performance. This score was then validated with a large, independent prospective trial (the ACT II trial).


RESULTS
Palpable, clinically positive lymph nodes were associated with LRF (P = .012), a greater risk of ACD (P = .031), and decreased OS (P = .006) in multivariable analyses. Men had worse outcomes than women for LRF (P = .036), ACD (P = .039), and OS (P = .008). On average, a lower hemoglobin level had an adverse effect on ACD (P = .008), and a higher white blood cell count had an adverse effect on OS (P = .001). However, external validation of the score was poor for LRF (area under the curve [AUC] = 54%) but was better for ACD (AUC = 67%) and OS (AUC = 63%).


CONCLUSIONS
The results from this analysis of the ACT I trial supported evidence for palpable lymph nodes and male sex as prognostic factors for LRF and OS, and lower hemoglobin levels and a higher white blood cell count were identified as prognostic factors for ACD and OS, respectively.
Performance measurement definitions: linking performance measurement and organisational excellence.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this paper is to offer a definition of performance measurement.


DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
The paper describes performance measurement definitions in the context of organisational excellence.


FINDINGS
It is shown that there is a clear relationship between performance measurement and organisational excellence.


ORIGINALITY/VALUE
The paper outlines a definition offering a clear link between performance measurement and organisational excellence.
Binary RDF representation for publication and exchange (HDT)

The current Web of Data is producing increasingly large RDF datasets. Massive publication efforts of RDF data driven by initiatives like the Linked Open Data movement, and the need to exchange large datasets has unveiled the drawbacks of traditional RDF representations, inspired and designed by a documentcentric and human-readable Web. Among the main problems are high levels of verbosity/redundancy and weak machine-processable capabilities in the description of these datasets. This scenario calls for efficient formats for publication and exchange. This article presents a binary RDF representation addressing these issues. Based on a set of metrics that characterizes the skewed structure of real-world RDF data, we develop a proposal of an RDF representation that modularly partitions and efficiently represents three components of RDF datasets: Header information, a Dictionary, and the actual Triples structure (thus called HDT). Our experimental evaluation shows that datasets in HDT format can be compacted by more than fifteen times as compared to current naive representations, improving both parsing and processing while keeping a consistent publication scheme. Specific compression techniques over HDT further improve these compression rates and prove to outperform existing compression solutions for efficient RDF exchange. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2-year results of paclitaxel-eluting balloons for femoropopliteal artery disease: evidence from a multicenter registry.

OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to appraise 2-year outcomes after percutaneous treatment of femoropopliteal artery disease with paclitaxel-eluting balloons.


BACKGROUND
Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with paclitaxel-eluting balloons for femoropopliteal artery disease has provided favorable 1-year results.


METHODS
Consecutive patients with Rutherford class 2 to 4 disease due to femoropopliteal lesions ≤15 mm long and with 3- to 7-mm reference vessel diameter were prospectively enrolled in a multicenter registry. Endpoints of interest included primary patency, major adverse events (the composite of death, amputation, or target lesion revascularization), changes in Rutherford class, ankle-brachial index, absolute claudication distance, and quality of life after ≥24 months.


RESULTS
A total of 105 patients (114 lesions) treated with paclitaxel-eluting balloons and provisional stenting were enrolled, and final procedural success was obtained in all. Follow-up after 27 ± 3 months was obtained in 98 (93.3%) patients, showing that primary patency was maintained in 71 (72.4%), and major adverse events had occurred in 17 (17.5%), with persistently significant benefits in Rutherford class, ankle-brachial index, absolute claudication distance, and quality of life (all p < 0.001). Secondary patency rate was achieved in 89 cases (84.7%).


CONCLUSIONS
PEBs are associated with favorable functional and clinical outcomes at 2 years in patients with femoropopliteal artery disease requiring percutaneous revascularization.
Free flap options for reconstruction of complicated scalp and calvarial defects: report of a series of cases and literature review.

OBJECTIVE
The advent of free tissue transfer has offered several options that allow the restoration of both the structural and functional defects of the scalp and calvaria caused by malignant tumors or sequelae after trauma. This study aims to investigate the free flap options for complicated scalp and calvarial reconstructions.


METHODS
There were 12 free tissue transfers used to reconstruct scalp and calvarial defects in this study, with nine acute or subacute wounds resulting from trauma or cranietomy, two congenital hydrocephalus post ventriculo-peritoneal shunting and one primary cancer. They consisted of five fasciocutaneous flaps (four anterolateral thigh fasciocutaneous flaps and one deep inferior epigastric perforator flap) and seven myocutaenosu flaps (five anterolateral thigh myocutaneous flaps and two rectus abdominis myocutaneous flaps).


RESULTS
The overall flap success rate was 100%. There were no major complications except for one where wound dehiscence was caused by hematoma accumulation and was healed by local debridement. All donor sites underwent primary closure except for three receiving split-thickness skin grafting after bulky anterolateral thigh flap harvest. No major donor-site morbidity was observed except for one patient with some graft loss.


CONCLUSIONS
With its evident structural and functional advantages, fasciocutaneous flaps were suitable for larger scalp defect only and myocutaneous flaps can be considered as an excellent reconstructive option for complicated scalp and calvarial defects, especially where dead space coexists.
Heart Disease Prediction System Using Data Mining

There Abstract—Medical Diagnosis Systems play a vital role in medical practice and are used by medical practitioners for diagnosis and treatment. In this project, a medical diagnosis system is presented for predicting the risk of cardiovascular disease. This system is built by combining the relative advantages of genetic algorithm and neural network. Multilayered Back Propagation neural networks are particularly suited to complex classification problems. The weights of the neural network are determined using genetic algorithm because it finds acceptably good set of weights in less number of iterations. First, the preprocessing of data is done in order to make them suitable for training . GeneticNeural network is used for training the system. The final weights are stored in the weight base and then, it is used for predicting the risk of cardiovascular disease. The classification accuracy obtained using this approach is 90.17%.
Prenasal thickness in trisomy-21 fetuses at 16-24 weeks of gestation.

OBJECTIVE
To construct a reference range for fetal prenasal thickness between 16 and 24 weeks of gestation and to evaluate the thickness in fetuses with trisomy 21.


METHODS
We acquired three-dimensional (3D) volumes of the fetal profile from 135 normal fetuses and 26 fetuses with trisomy 21 at 16-24 weeks' gestation. We used the multiplanar mode to obtain the exact mid-sagittal plane and measured the prenasal thickness as the shortest distance between the anterior edge of the lowest part of the frontal bone (at the junction with the nasal bone when present) and the skin anteriorly.


RESULTS
In the normal group prenasal thickness increased with gestation from a mean of 2.4 mm at 16 weeks to 4.6 mm at 24 weeks. Repeatability studies demonstrated that in 95% of the cases the difference between two measurements of prenasal thickness by the same operator and by different operators was less than 1 mm. In the trisomy-21 fetuses the mean prenasal thickness was significantly larger than in normal fetuses and in 19 (73.1%) cases it was above the 95(th) centile of the normal range. There was no significant difference in prenasal thickness between the trisomic fetuses with and without ventriculomegaly, nuchal edema, absent nasal bone or a cardiac defect.


CONCLUSIONS
The fetal profile is routinely examined during the second-trimester scan and therefore the skill needed to obtain the view necessary for the measurement of prenasal thickness is widely available. If the finding of our study--that in more than 70% of fetuses with trisomy 21 prenasal thickness is above the 95(th) centile--is confirmed in prospective screening studies this measurement alone could prove a highly sensitive method of second-trimester screening for trisomy 21.
Epidemiology of myelodysplastic syndromes and chronic myeloproliferative disorders in the United States, 2001-2004, using data from the NAACCR and SEER programs.

Reporting of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) and chronic myeloproliferative disorders (CMDs) to population-based cancer registries in the United States was initiated in 2001. In this first analysis of data from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), encompassing 82% of the US population, we evaluated trends in MDS and CMD incidence, estimated case numbers for the entire United States, and assessed trends in diagnostic recognition and reporting. Based on more than 40 000 observations, average annual age-adjusted incidence rates of MDS and CMD for 2001 through 2003 were 3.3 and 2.1 per 100,000, respectively. Incidence rates increased with age for both MDS and CMD (P < .05) and were highest among whites and non-Hispanics. Based on follow-up data through 2004 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, overall relative 3-year survival rates for MDS and CMD were 45% and 80%, respectively, with males experiencing poorer survival than females. Applying the observed age-specific incidence rates to US Census population estimates, approximately 9700 patients with MDS and 6300 patients with CMD were estimated for the entire United States in 2004. MDS incidence rates significantly increased with calendar year in 2001 through 2004, and only 4% of patients were reported to registries by physicians' offices. Thus, MDS disease burden in the United States may be underestimated.
The significance of clinical features in the prognosis of acute renal infarction: single center experience

ObjectiveAcute renal infarct (ARI) is a common renovascular disease caused by the abrupt interruption of renal blood flow. Since the presenting symptoms are often non-specific, a major concern in ARI has been prompt diagnosis, and its long-term outcome has never been studied.Materials and methodsFrom January 2000 through to December 2009, adult patients with ARI were enrolled in this study. We retrospectively reviewed their clinical data, and followed them up until July 2011. Renal outcome and all-cause mortality were measured.ResultsA total of 67 patients were finally enrolled in this study. Their mean age was 56.1 ± 16.4 years, and 52.2% of them were male. Over 76% of patients were identified to have more than one comorbidity and concurrent thromboembolic events occurred in 16.4% of the patients. Although, acute kidney injury (AKI) was present in 40.7% of the patients, long-term renal outcome was relatively good. In all cases, AKI was resolved within a month, and renal loss was found in only one patient. In-hospital mortality was 8.9% and during the median follow-up period of 40.6 months, long-term mortality was 19.7%. Independent risk factors for mortality were age, atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction and hematuria [hazard ratio (HR) 1.051, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.008–1.096; HR 3.322, 95% CI 1.119–9.860; HR 9.315, 95% CI 1.555–55.796 and HR 7.745, 95% CI 1.606–37.353, respectively].ConclusionsOur study suggested that in-hospital and long-term outcomes of ARI were closely related to the comorbidities or underlying disease of ARI, rather than the disease itself.
Application of DEA and SFA on the Measurement of Operating Efficiencies for 27 International Container Ports

The operating efficiency of a port is the critical element for its competitiveness in the international market. Previous research for port operating efficiencies measurement usually adopts either DEA or SFA method, but not both of them. Therefore, this paper is aimed to measure the operating efficiencies of 27 international container ports from 1999 to 2002 by applying both SFA and DEA models with three inputs and single output. The result shows that the total average of operating efficiency scores are SFATR(0.8217) > SFACD(0.7979)>DEABCC(0.7075)>DEACCR(0.6150), and Hong Kong port demonstrates the best performance in each model. Also, three hypotheses for port performance, including the geographical location of port, port administrative structure, and national economic growth rate, are performed in this paper. The results show that the operating efficiencies are not significantly different with the previous two hypotheses; however, the last hypothesis shows significant difference in DEA model.