LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Improved Natural Killer cell activity and retained anti-tumor CD8+ T cell responses contribute to the induction of a pathological complete response in HER2-positive breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Locally advanced HER2-overexpressing breast cancer (BC) patients achieve a high rate of pathological complete responses (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC). The apparently unaltered immune proficiency of these patients together with the immune-modulating activities of NC drugs suggest a potential contribution of host immunity in mediating clinical responses. We thus performed an extensive immunomonitoring in locally advanced BC patients undergoing NC to identify immunological correlates of pCR induction. The immune profile of 40 HER2-positive and 38 HER2-negative BC patients was characterized at diagnosis and throughout NC (Paclitaxel and Trastuzumab, or Docetaxel and Epirubicin, respectively). The percentages of circulating immune cell subsets including T and B lymphocytes, Natural Killer (NK) cells, regulatory T cells, T helper 17 lymphocytes, were quantified by multiparametric flow cytometry. NK cells functional activity was evaluated through the analysis of NF-kB nuclear translocation by Multispectral flow cytometry, and with the in vitro monitoring of Trastuzumab-mediated antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC). CD8+ T cell responses against six different tumor-associated antigens (TAA) were characterized by IFN-γ ELISPOT and IFN-γ/IL-2 DualSpot assays. After NC, HER2-positive patients showed a significant increase in the number of NK cells and regulatory T cells irrespective of the pathological response, whereas patients undergoing a pCR disclosed higher percentages of T helper 17 cells. Notably, a significant increase in the number of activated NK cells was observed only in HER2-positive patients achieving a pCR. Characterization of anti-tumor T cell responses highlighted sustained levels of CD8+ T cells specific for survivin and mammaglobin-A throughout NC in patients undergoing a pCR in both arms. Moreover, HER2-positive patients achieving a pCR were characterized by a multi-epitopic and polyfunctional anti-tumor T cell response, markedly reduced in case of partial response. These results indicate that maintenance of functional T cell responses against selected antigens and improvement of NK cell proficiency during NC are probably critical requirements for pCR induction, especially in HER2-positive BC patients. Trail registration: Trial registration number: NCT02307227, registered on ClinicalTrials.gov ( http://www.clinicaltrials.gov , November 26, 2014).
Calculation of eccentricity harmonics of the air-gap flux density in induction Machines by impulse method

The rotor eccentricity creates extra harmonics into the flux-density distribution in the air gap. Together with the fundamental field-component, these harmonics create the total force acting between the stator and eccentric rotor. The paper presents a new application of the impulse method, which enables the calculation of the harmonics of the flux density distribution when the rotor is eccentric. The idea of the application is to move the center point of the rotor from its central position for a short period of time during transient finite-element calculation. The flux-density harmonics are then calculated from the response and excitation signals.
Differential preference of Capsicum spp. cultivars by Aphis gossypii is conferred by variation in volatile semiochemistry

The aim of this study was to demonstrate that Capsicum spp. cultivars are differentially preferred by the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii, and to investigate the role of volatile semiochemicals in conferring differences in host preferences. Two preference assays were conducted in 2008 under greenhouse conditions. Fourteen different commercially available cultivars were grown in cages protected by an anti-aphid net, and were infested 60 days after planting, through the release of ten adult female A. gossypii per plant. The results showed that after a five-day infestation period, statistically significant differences in the mean number of A. gossypii between cultivars were observed, with Sweet Pepper Hybrid Green Belt (SPHGB) being one of the cultivars with the lowest number of A. gossypii per plant. To test the hypothesis that the preference of cultivars was associated with release of volatile, Capsicum spp-derived semiochemicals, olfactometer behavior bioassays were conducted with A. gossypii, using volatile organic compounds (VOCs) collected from non-preferred SPHGB and preferred SPAB cultivars. A. gossypii was significantly repelled only by the VOCs of infested SPHGB. Furthermore, coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of VOCs released by plants prior to, and after, A. gossypii infestation, revealed that the non-preferred SPHGB cultivar released nine additional compounds after infestation, including 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, a known plant defense semiochemical involved in plant—aphid interactions. These data suggest that non-preferred cultivars releasing this semiochemical have the potential to be used in breeding programs aimed at producing A. gossypii-resistant Capsicum spp. cultivars.
Credibility Adjusted Term Frequency: A Supervised Term Weighting Scheme for Sentiment Analysis and Text Classification

We provide a simple but novel supervised weighting scheme for adjusting term frequency in tf-idf for sentiment analysis and text classification. We compare our method to baseline weighting schemes and find that it outperforms them on multiple benchmarks. The method is robust and works well on both snippets and longer documents.
A population-based cross-sectional study of barriers to uptake of eye care services in South India: the Rapid Assessment of Visual Impairment (RAVI) project

OBJECTIVE
To assess the barriers to uptake of eye care services among those with avoidable impairment in the population aged ≥40 years in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.


DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.


SETTING
Community setting.


PARTICIPANTS
Of 7800 participants recruited from one urban and two rural locations using a two-stage cluster random sampling methodology, 7378 (95%) were examined. Eye examinations were conducted using a rapid assessment protocol. Visual impairment (VI) was defined as presenting visual acuity <6/18 in the better eye. For the purpose of this study, VI caused due to cataract or uncorrected refractive error was considered avoidable VI. A validated questionnaire was used to collect information on barriers for uptake of services among those who had avoidable VI.


PRIMARY OUTCOME
Barriers to uptake of services among those with avoidable VI.


RESULTS
The prevalence of avoidable VI was 11.8% (95% CI 11.0% to 12.5%; n=868). Among these, 71.1% (n=617) individuals reported 'person-related' barriers whereas 28.9% (n=251) individuals reported 'service-related' barriers to uptake of services. Among the 'person-related' barriers, the leading barrier was 'lack of perceived need' (61.1%; n=377) for reasons such as old age, good vision in the other eye. This was followed by 'no one to accompany' (20.3%; n=125). Of the 251 individuals who had 'service-related' barriers, lack of affordability was the major barrier (76.1%; n=191) followed by lack of accessibility (12.7%; n=32). Over 11% (n=28) of the individuals were advised to wait for cataract surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
Person-related barriers are more common than service-related barriers in Andhra Pradesh. As the barriers trend more towards 'person-related' phenomenon such as person's attitude and 'felt need' to improve vision, newer and much intensive awareness campaigns are needed to bring about an attitudinal/behavioural change among individuals to improve the uptake of services.
Dopamine D2/3 occupancy of ziprasidone across a day: a within-subject PET study

Ziprasidone is an atypical antipsychotic recommended to be administered twice daily. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether occupancy of the dopamine D2/3 receptors by ziprasidone is maintained across a day employing a within subject design. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans with [11C]-raclopride were performed in 12 patients with schizophrenia while treated with ziprasidone 60 mg twice daily. Each patient completed [11C]-raclopride PET scans at 5, 13 and 23 h after the last dose of ziprasidone. Dopamine D2/3 receptor occupancy was estimated with reference to binding potential data of 44 age- and sex-matched control subjects in the caudate, putamen and ventral striatum. Eleven scans were available at each time point, and the mean occupancies at 5-, 13- and 23-h scans were 66, 39 and 2 % in the putamen; 62, 35 and −6 % in the caudate; and 68, 47 and 11 % in the ventral striatum, respectively. The time-course of receptor occupancy across the regions indicated an occupancy half-life of 8.3 h. The serum level of ziprasidone associated with 50 % D2/3 receptors occupancy was estimated to be 204 nmol/L (84 ng/ml). Prolactin levels were highest at 5-h post-dose and none showed hyperprolactinemia at 23-h scans. The absence of ziprasidone striatal D2/3 receptor binding 23 h after taking 60 mg under steady-state conditions is consistent with its peripheral half-life. The results support our earlier report that ziprasidone 60 mg administered twice daily appears to be the minimal dose expected to achieve therapeutic central dopamine D2/3 receptor occupancy (i.e. 60 %). Clinical Trials Registration: 24-Hour Time Course of Striatal Dopamine D2 Receptor Occupancy of Ziprasidone: A PET Study, www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00818298 , NCT00818298
Large Scale Agile Transformation in an On-Demand World

Salesforce.com has recently completed an agile transformation of a two hundred person team within a three month window. This is one of the largest and fastest "big-bang" agile rollouts. This experience report discusses why we chose to move to an agile process, how we accomplished the transformation and what we learned from applying agile at scale.
From computational thinking to computational participation in K-12 education

Seeking to reframe computational thinking as computational participation.
HOMA-estimated insulin resistance is an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetic subjects: prospective data from the Verona Diabetes Complications Study.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether homeostasis model assessment-estimated insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) is an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in type 2 diabetes.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Conventional CVD risk factors (sex, age, smoking, plasma lipids, blood pressure, and metabolic control) and insulin resistance (estimated by HOMA) were evaluated at baseline in 1,326 patients with type 2 diabetes examined within the Verona Diabetes Complications Study. At baseline and after a mean follow-up of 4.5 years, CVD was assessed by medical history, physical examination, electrocardiography, and echo-Doppler of carotid and lower limb arteries. Death certificates and medical records of subjects who died during the follow-up were carefully scrutinized to identify cardiovascular deaths. In statistical analyses, CVD was an aggregate end point including both fatal and nonfatal coronary, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular disease as well as ischemic electrocardiographic abnormalities and vascular lesions identified by echo-Doppler.


RESULTS
At baseline, 441 subjects were coded positive for CVD (prevalent cases). Incident cases numbered 126. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that, along with sex, age, smoking, HDL/total cholesterol ratio, and hypertension, HOMA-IR was an independent predictor of both prevalent and incident CVD. A 1-unit increase in (log)HOMA-IR value was associated with an odds ratio for prevalent CVD at baseline of 1.31 (95% CI 1.10-1.56, P = 0.002) and for incident CVD during follow-up of 1.56 (95% CI 1.14-2.12, P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
HOMA-IR is an independent predictor of CVD in type 2 diabetes. The improvement of insulin resistance might have beneficial effects not only on glucose control but also on CVD in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Inferring models of concurrent systems from logs of their behavior with CSight

Concurrent systems are notoriously difficult to debug and understand. A common way of gaining insight into system behavior is to inspect execution logs and documentation. Unfortunately, manual inspection of logs is an arduous process, and documentation is often incomplete and out of sync with the implementation. 
 To provide developers with more insight into concurrent systems, we developed CSight. CSight mines logs of a system's executions to infer a concise and accurate model of that system's behavior, in the form of a communicating finite state machine (CFSM). 
 Engineers can use the inferred CFSM model to understand complex behavior, detect anomalies, debug, and increase confidence in the correctness of their implementations. CSight's only requirement is that the logged events have vector timestamps. We provide a tool that automatically adds vector timestamps to system logs. Our tool prototypes are available at http://synoptic.googlecode.com/. 
 This paper presents algorithms for inferring CFSM models from traces of concurrent systems, proves them correct, provides an implementation, and evaluates the implementation in two ways: by running it on logs from three different networked systems and via a user study that focused on bug finding. Our evaluation finds that CSight infers accurate models that can help developers find bugs.
The Production of Cast Metal Matrix Composite by a Modified Stir Casting Method

In a normal practice of stir casting technique, cast metal matrix composites (MMC) is produced by melting the matrix material in a vessel, then the molten metal is stirred thoroughly to form a vortex and the reinforcement particles are introduced through the side of the vortex formed. From some point of view this approach has disadvantages, mainly arising from the particle addition and the stirring methods. During particle addition there is undoubtedly local solidification of the melt induced by the particles, and this increase the viscosity of the slurry. A top addition method also will introduced air into the slurry which appears as air pockets between the particles. The rate of particle addition also needs to be slowed down especially when the volume fraction of the particles to be used increases. This is time consuming for a bigger product. This study propose a new approach of producing cast MMC. When all substances are placed in a graphite crucible and heated in an inert atmosphere until the matrix alloy is melted and then followed by a two-step stirring action before pouring into a mould has advantages in terms of promoting wettability between the silicon carbide particle and the A359 matrix alloy. The success of the incorporation of silicon carbide particles into the matrix alloy showed that the wettability between silicon carbide particles and mechanical properties such as hardness and tensile strength are comparable with previous data produced by other researchers.
Phase Ib study of panobinostat and bortezomib in relapsed or relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.

PURPOSE
Despite advancements, prognosis for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM) is poor, and novel therapies are needed. Panobinostat is a potent deacetylase inhibitor that elicits synergistic effects on MM cells in combination with bortezomib. This phase Ib study sought to determine the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) of panobinostat plus bortezomib in patients with relapsed or relapsed and refractory MM.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
In the dose-escalation phase (n = 47), panobinostat was administered orally thrice weekly every week in combination with bortezomib (21-day cycles). After MTD determination, patients were evaluated in an expansion phase (n = 15) that incorporated a 1-week treatment holiday of panobinostat, with dexamethasone added in cycle 2. Additional assessments included safety, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy per International Myeloma Working Group criteria.


RESULTS
The MTD was established at panobinostat 20 mg plus bortezomib 1.3 mg/m(2). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events (AEs) included thrombocytopenia (85.1%), neutropenia (63.8%), and asthenia (29.8%) in the escalation phase, and thrombocytopenia (66.7%), neutropenia (46.7%), and fatigue (20.0%) in the expansion phase. At MTD in the escalation phase, eight patients (47.1%) discontinued therapy as a result of AEs, whereas five patients (33.3%) discontinued treatment in the expansion phase. Expansion phase patients demonstrated greater median treatment duration. Overall response rate (ORR) was 73.3% in the expansion phase and 52.9% at the escalation phase MTD. Among bortezomib-refractory patients, the ORR was 26.3%, and 42.1% of patients had ≥ minimal response.


CONCLUSION
The MTD of panobinostat plus bortezomib was determined and demonstrated activity in patients with relapsed or relapsed/refractory MM, including bortezomib-refractory patients. A phase II/III clinical trial program (Panobinostat or Placebo With Bortezomib and Dexamethasone in Patients With Relapsed Multiple Myeloma [PANORAMA]) has been initiated.
Four hundred years of English education

Make more knowledge even in less time every day. You may not always spend your time and money to go abroad and get the experience and knowledge by yourself. Reading is a good alternative to do in getting this desirable knowledge and experience. You may gain many things from experiencing directly, but of course it will spend much money. So here, by reading four hundred years of english education, you can take more advantages with limited budget.
Three dimensional analysis of brace biomechanical efficacy for patients with AIS

Corrective three dimensional (3D) effect of different braces is debatable. We evaluated differences in in-brace radiographic correction comparing a custom thoracic-lumbo-sacral-orthosis (TLSO) (T) brace to a Chêneau type TLSO (C) brace using 3D EOS reconstruction technology. Our primary research question was the 3D effect of brace on the spine and in particularly the apical vertebra rotation (AVR). This was a retrospective comparative analysis of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis who had orthogonal AP and lateral X-rays with and without brace. A 3D image of the spine was reconstructed. Coronal, sagittal and axial spine parameters were measured before bracing and then on the first post-brace X-ray. Brace efficacy in controlling coronal, sagittal and axial parameters was evaluated. Eighteen patients treated with the C brace and ten patients treated with the T brace were included. No difference was found regarding patients’ age, gender, magnitude of Cobb angle, sagittal parameters or AVR at inclusion. Following bracing, AVR was significantly reduced by the C brace compared to the T brace [average correction of 8.2° vs. 4.9° (P = 0.02)]. Coronal and sagittal correction did not differ significantly between the two groups. By utilizing a novel 3D reconstruction technology, we were able to demonstrate that braces differ in their immediate effects on the spine. Although clinical relevance should be evaluated in a future trial we feel that the ability to measure treatment effects in 3D, and especially the transverse plane, is an important tool when evaluating different treatments.
Clustering of unconventional cardiovascular risk factors among Taiwanese hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular disease (CAVD) is the most common cause of mortality for chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients, yet the risk factors for the events have not been well established.


METHODS
We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional survey in 995 chronic HD patients recruited from 12 HD centers in Taiwan to investigate the prevalence of CAVD, including coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CVD), and peripheral vascular disease (PVD), and related them to 30 different parameters.


RESULTS
The mean age of 995 patients (499 males/496 females) was 56.4 +/- 12.3 years, and average HD duration was 59.8 +/- 51.2 months. The prevalence rates of CHD, CVD, and PVD were 24.0, 6.0, and 5.3%, respectively. Results of our multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that out of the conventional CAVD risk factors, only old age and diabetes could be significantly associated with CAVD. Meanwhile, we found some novel clinical correlates, including low apolipoprotein A-I and creatinine for CHD, low uric acid for CVD, and low hematocrit and low diastolic blood pressure for PVD. Interestingly, left ventricular hypertrophy was found to be an independent correlate for all three: CHD, CVD, and PVD.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study suggests that consideration of conventional cardiovascular risk factors as well as unconventional risk factors might better assess the risk for CAVD among HD patients.
MFCC VQ based Speaker Recognition and Its Accuracy Affecting Factors

The present study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy affecting factors of a Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Vector Quantization (VQ) based speaker recognition system. This investigation analyses the factors that affecting recognition accuracy using speech signal from day to day life in surrounding environments. It was studied the mismatch affects of text-dependency, voice sample length, speaking language, speaking style, mimicry, the quality of microphone, utterance sample quality and surrounding noise. The corpuses of 10 people of 20 utterance subjects were collected which were indicate that any mismatch degrades recognition accuracy. It was found that most dominating factors that degrades the accuracy of speaker recognition systems were surrounding noise, quality of microphone by which voice sample were collected, disguise, and degrading of the sample rate and quality. Speech-related factors and sample length were less critical. General Terms: Speaker recognition, Speaker recognition based ATM machine, Phone banking, Database services and Man machine interface.
[Exclusive enteral nutrition continues to be first line therapy for pediatric Crohn's disease in the era of biologics].

INTRODUCTION
Exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) has been to be more effective than corticosteroids in achieving mucosal healing without their side effects.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the efficacy of EEN in terms of inducing clinical remission in newly diagnosed CD children and to study the efficacy of this therapeutic approach in improving the degree of intestinal mucosa inflammation.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
The medical records of patients with newly diagnosed Crohn's disease treated with EEN were reviewed retrospectively. The degree of mucosal inflammation was assessed by fecal calprotectin (FC). Remission was defined as a PCDAI<10.


RESULTS
Forty patients (24 males) were included, the age at diagnosis was 11.6 ± 3.6 years. Of the 34 patients who completed the EEN period, 32 (94% per-protocol analysis) achieved clinical remission. This percentage fell to 80% in the intention-to-treat analysis. The compliance rate was 95%. Duration of EEN was 6.42 weeks (IQR 6.0-8.14). FC was significantly higher in patients with moderate and severe disease. Median baseline FC levels (680 μg/g) decreased significantly to 218 μg/g (P<0.0001) after EEN. We found a statistically significant correlation between FC and PCDAI (rho=0.727; P<0.0001). Early use of thiopurines (< 8 weeks) versus subsequent use was not associated with improved outcomes during the follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
EEN administered for 6-8 weeks is effective for inducing clinical remission and decreasing the degree of mucosal inflammation. We did not find differences in terms of maintenance of remission in patients treated early with thiopurines.