LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Nonlinear Modeling and Simulation of Tumor Growth

The effects of the interaction between cellularand tumor-scale processes on cancer progression and treatment response remain poorly understood (for instance, the crucial role of the microenvironment in cancer growth and invasion [95, 65, 184, 183, 160, 110, 66, 166]). Three-dimensional tissue morphology, cell phenotype, and molecular phenomena are intricately coupled; they influence cancer invasion potential by controlling tumor-cell proliferation and migration [78, 187, 198]. Hypoxia [88, 210, 186, 70, 91], acidosis [91, 199, 96], and associated diffusion gradients, caused by heterogeneous delivery of oxygen and nutrients and removal of metabolites [104, 103] due to highly disorganized microvasculature [92, 106] and often exacerbated by therapy (e.g., anti-angiogenic [160, 177]), can induce heterogeneous spatial distribution and invasiveness of tumor cells through a variety of molecular [175, 209, 208, 44, 165, 173, 145, 118, 28, 29, 190, 156, 185, 120, 122, 24, 160, 177, 174, 61] and tissue-scale [59, 127, 72] mechanisms corresponding to different tissue-scale invasive patterns [78, 164, 194, 167, 111, 187, 198, 204, 117, 206, 64, 179, 75, 77, 53, 172]. Such complex systems, dominated by large numbers of processes and highly nonlinear dynamics, are difficult to approach by experimental methods alone and can typically be better understood only by using appropriate mathematical models and sophisticated computer simulations, complementary to laboratory and clinical observations. Mathematical modeling has the potential
The neural correlates of social attention: automatic orienting to social and nonsocial cues

Previous evidence suggests that directional social cues (e.g., eye gaze) cause automatic shifts in attention toward gaze direction. It has been proposed that automatic attentional orienting driven by social cues (social orienting) involves a different neural network from automatic orienting driven by nonsocial cues. However, previous neuroimaging studies on social orienting have only compared gaze cues to symbolic cues, which typically engage top-down mechanisms. Therefore, we directly compared the neural activity involved in social orienting to that involved in purely automatic nonsocial orienting. Twenty participants performed a spatial cueing task consisting of social (gaze) cues and automatic nonsocial (peripheral squares) cues presented at short and long stimulus (cue-to-target) onset asynchronies (SOA), while undergoing fMRI. Behaviorally, a facilitation effect was found for both cue types at the short SOA, while an inhibitory effect (inhibition of return: IOR) was found only for nonsocial cues at the long SOA. Imaging results demonstrated that social and nonsocial cues recruited a largely overlapping fronto-parietal network. In addition, social cueing evoked greater activity in occipito-temporal regions at both SOAs, while nonsocial cueing recruited greater subcortical activity, but only for the long SOA (when IOR was found). A control experiment, including central arrow cues, confirmed that the occipito-temporal activity was at least in part due to the social nature of the cue and not simply to the location of presentation (central vs. peripheral). These results suggest an evolutionary trajectory for automatic orienting, from predominantly subcortical mechanisms for nonsocial orienting to predominantly cortical mechanisms for social orienting.
Simulation of an Industrial Experience in French Engineering Education

At the Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs en Electrotechnique et Electronique (ESIEE), students devote their entire fifth year to a real engineering project which is financially supported by an industrial firm. This experience provides an excellent simulation of an industrial environment, and thus prepares the student for his professional life.
Efficient agglomerative hierarchical clustering

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Article history: Available online xxxx
Efficacy and tolerability of intravenous methylergonovine in migraine female patients attending the emergency department: a pilot open-label study

BACKGROUND
Methylergonovine is an ergot alkaloid widely used in postpartum women. It is also an active metabolite of methysergide and previous studies suggest that it could be effective against refractory headache and cluster headache. The purpose of the present study was to assess the potential therapeutic effectiveness of methylergonovine in the emergency treatment of severe migraine.


METHODS
One hundred and twenty five female patients with migraine attending the emergency department received 0.15 mg of methylergonovine intravenously. Pain intensity, heart rate, blood pressure, and methylergonovine side effects were checked 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 minutes after drug administration. An additional 0.075 mg dose of methylergonovine was administered to those patients who did not experienced relevant pain relief 15 minutes after dosing.


RESULTS
Pain intensity decreased markedly from the first minutes after dosing, the 74.4% of patients being pain free at 60 minutes. Only seven patients required an additional dose of methylergonovine. Nausea and vomiting were the most relevant side effects related with methylergonovine administration (84% of patients). A substantial decrease (10 to 25 mmHg) in systolic blood pressure values was observed in 56% of the patients. A significant correlation (p < 0.0001) was found between the decrease in pain intensity and the reduction of systolic blood pressure.


CONCLUSION
Although limited by the non-controlled design of the study, our data suggest that intravenous methylergonovine can be an effective and safe drug in the management of severe migraine attacks in the emergency room.
Electrical source imaging for presurgical focus localization in epilepsy patients with normal MRI.

PURPOSE
Patients with magnetic resonance (MR)-negative focal epilepsy (MRN-E) have less favorable surgical outcomes (between 40% and 70%) compared to those in whom an MRI lesion guides the site of surgical intervention (60-90%). Patients with extratemporal MRN-E have the worst outcome (around 50% chance of seizure freedom). We studied whether electroencephalography (EEG) source imaging (ESI) of interictal epileptic activity can contribute to the identification of the epileptic focus in patients with normal MRI.


METHODS
We carried out ESI in 10 operated patients with nonlesional MRI and a postsurgical follow-up of at least 1 year. Five of the 10 patients had extratemporal lobe epilepsy. Evaluation comprised surface and intracranial EEG monitoring of ictal and interictal events, structural MRI, [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), ictal and interictal perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans. Eight of the 10 patients also underwent intracranial monitoring.


RESULTS
ESI correctly localized the epileptic focus within the resection margins in 8 of 10 patients, 9 of whom experienced favorable postsurgical outcomes.


DISCUSSION
The results highlight the diagnostic value of ESI and encourage broadening its application to patients with MRN-E. If the surface EEG contains fairly localized spikes, ESI contributes to the presurgical decision process.
Treatment of erectile dysfunction with sildenafil citrate (Viagra) after radiation therapy for prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVES
To determine the response to sildenafil citrate (Viagra) in patients with erectile dysfunction after radiation therapy for localized prostate cancer.


METHODS
Baseline and follow-up data from 21 patients presenting with erectile dysfunction after radiation treatment for clinical T1-2 prostate cancer were obtained. Two patients had undergone iodine-125 seed implantation and the remaining 19 conformal external beam irradiation. All 21 patients were considered to have erectile dysfunction as assessed by the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and were prescribed sildenafil at a dosage of 50 mg, with a titration to 100 mg if needed. The mean time between the completion of radiation therapy and initiation of sildenafil was 24.6 +/- 5.8 months. The quality of the erectile function was assessed after a minimum of four doses by using the Cleveland Clinic Erectile Function (CCEF) questionnaire and the IIEF questionnaire. A positive response to sildenafil on the CCEF questionnaire was defined as an erection sufficient for vaginal penetration. The responses on the IIEF questionnaire were rated on a scale of 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always), with 0 being no sexual activity.


RESULTS
On the CCEF questionnaire, 71% (15 of 21) of patients had a positive response, with a mean duration of 12.7 +/- 2.5 minutes of intercourse, and a corresponding spousal satisfaction rate of 71%. Twelve (80%) of the 15 responders required titration to the 100-mg dosage for maximal effect. The most common side effects seen were transient flushing (19%), abnormal color vision (14%), and headaches (10%). No patient discontinued the drug because of side effects. On the IIEF questionnaire, the responses to questions 3 (frequency of penetration), 4 (maintenance of erection), 7 (satisfactory intercourse), and 15 (erection confidence) increased from mean baseline scores of 1.3, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.8 to final mean scores of 4.0, 3.9, 3.2, and 3.4, respectively (P <0.001). On the global efficacy question (ability to achieve firm erections), 71% of the patients responded positively.


CONCLUSIONS
Sildenafil citrate can improve the ability to achieve and maintain an erection in most patients with erectile dysfunction after radiation therapy for prostate cancer.
Adaptive Decision Fusion for Audio-Visual Speech Recognition

While automatic speech recognition technologies have been successfully applied to realworld applications, there still exist several problems which need to be solved for wider application of the technologies. One of such problems is noise-robustness of recognition performance; although a speech recognition system can produce high accuracy in quiet conditions, its performance tends to be significantly degraded under presence of background noise which is usually inevitable in most of the real-world applications. Recently, audio-visual speech recognition (AVSR), in which visual speech information (i.e., lip movements) is used together with acoustic one for recognition, has received attention as a solution of this problem. Since the visual signal is not influenced by acoustic noise, it can be used as a powerful source for compensating for performance degradation of acousticonly speech recognition in noisy conditions. Figure 1 shows the general procedure of AVSR: First, the acoustic and the visual signals are recorded by a microphone and a camera, respectively. Then, salient and compact features are extracted from each signal. Finally, the two modalities are integrated for recognition of the given speech.
Protecting Browsers from Extension Vulnerabilities

Browser extensions are remarkably popular, with one in three Firefox users running at least one extension. Although well-intentioned, extension developers are often not security experts and write buggy code that can be exploited by malicious web site operators. In the Firefox extension system, these exploits are dangerous because extensions run with the user’s full privileges and can read and write arbitrary files and launch new processes. In this paper, we analyze 25 popular Firefox extensions and find that 88% of these extensions need less than the full set of available privileges. Additionally, we find that 76% of these extensions use unnecessarily powerful APIs, making it difficult to reduce their privileges. We propose a new browser extension system that improves security by using least privilege, privilege separation, and strong isolation. Our system limits the misdeeds an attacker can perform through an extension vulnerability. Our design has been adopted as the Google Chrome extension system.
Energy efficient building environment control strategies using real-time occupancy measurements

Current climate control systems often rely on building regulation maximum occupancy numbers for maintaining proper temperatures. However, in many situations, there are rooms that are used infrequently, and may be heated or cooled needlessly. Having knowledge regarding occupancy and being able to accurately predict usage patterns may allow significant energy-savings by intelligent control of the L-HVAC systems. In this paper, we report on the deployment of a wireless camera sensor network for collecting data regarding occupancy in a large multi-function building. The system estimates occupancy with an accuracy of 80%. Using data collected from this system, we construct multivariate Gaussian and agent based models for predicting user mobility patterns in buildings. Using these models, we can predict room usage thereby enabling us to control the HVAC systems in an adaptive manner. Our simulations indicate a 14% reduction in HVAC energy usage by having an optimal control strategy based on occupancy estimates and usage patterns.
Dietary nitrate does not enhance running performance in elite cross-country skiers.

PURPOSE
The objective of this study is to examine the effects of acute ingestion of dietary nitrate on endurance running performance in highly trained cross-country skiers. Dietary nitrate has been shown to reduce the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise and improve tolerance of high-intensity exercise, but it is not known if this holds true for highly trained endurance athletes.


METHODS
Ten male junior cross-country skiers (V˙O(2max)) ≈ 70 mL·kg·min) each completed two trials in a randomized, double-blind design. Participants ingested potassium nitrate (614-mg nitrate) or a nitrate-free placebo 2.5 h before two 5-min submaximal tests on a treadmill at 10 km·h (≈55% of V˙O(2max)) and 14 km·h (≈75% of V˙O(2max)), followed by a 5-km running time trial on an indoor track.


RESULTS
Plasma nitrite concentrations were higher after nitrate supplementation (325 ± 95 nmol·L) compared with placebo (143 ± 59 nmol·L, P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in 5-km time-trial performance between nitrate (1005 ± 53 s) and placebo treatments (996 ± 49 s, P = 0.12). The oxygen cost of submaximal running was not significantly different between placebo and nitrate trials at 10 km·h (both 2.84 ± 0.34 L·min) and 14 km·h (3.89 ± 0.39 vs. 3.77 ± 0.62 L·min).


CONCLUSIONS
Acute ingestion of dietary nitrate may not represent an effective strategy for reducing the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise or for enhancing endurance exercise performance in highly trained cross-country skiers.
Curcumin and lung cancer—a review

Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is the most important component of the spice turmeric and is derived from the rhizome of the East Indian plant Curcuma longa. Curcumin has been used extensively in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, as it is nontoxic and has a variety of therapeutic properties including antioxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic activities. Recently, curcumin has been widely studied for its anticancer properties via its effects on a variety of biological pathways involved in apoptosis, tumor proliferation, chemo- and radiotherapy sensitization, tumor invasion, and metastases. Curcumin can be an effective adjunct in treating solid organ tumors due to its properties of regulating oncogenes like p53, egr-1, c-myc, bcl-XL, etc.; transcription factors like NF-kB, STAT-3, and AP-1; protein kinases like MAPK; and enzymes like COX and LOX. Lung cancer is the most common malignancy worldwide and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Seventy-five percent of lung cancer presents at an advanced stage where the existing treatment is not very effective and may result in tremendous patient morbidity. As a result, there is a significant interest in developing adjunctive chemotherapies to augment currently available treatment protocols, which may allow decreased side effects and toxicity without compromising therapeutic efficacy. Curcumin is one such potential candidate, and this review presents an overview of the current in vitro and in vivo studies of curcumin in lung cancer.
Validation of the MDRF-Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS) in another south Indian population through the Boloor Diabetes Study (BDS).

OBJECTIVE
To validate the MDRF-Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS) in a south Indian population in coastal Karnataka.


METHODS
The study was conducted at Boloor locality in Mangalore on adults aged 20 years or more. The study group comprised 551 participants (68.9% response rate). The OGTT was performed using 75 gms of glucose. The MDRF-IDRS was calculated using age, family history of diabetes, physical activity and waist measurement. ROC curves were constructed to identify the optimum value (> or = 60%) of IDRS for determining diabetes as diagnosed using WHO consulting group criteria.


RESULTS
We found that 71 of the study individuals were known diabetic subjects (KD) while 45 subjects were diagnosed to have newly diagnosed diabetes (NDD). An IDRS score of > or =60 had the best sensitivity (62.2%) and specificity of (73.7%) for detecting undiagnosed diabetes in this community.


CONCLUSION
Our study confirms and validates the MDRF-IDRS as being a valid simple and reliable screening tool to identify undiagnosed diabetes in the community. The MDRF-IDRS score > or =60 had the highest sensitivity and specificity to identify undiagnosed diabetes.
Tacrolimus Decreases Albuminuria in Patients with IgA Nephropathy and Normal Blood Pressure: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial of Efficacy of Tacrolimus on IgA Nephropathy

BACKGROUND
Treatment remains uncertain for IgA nephropathy patients with mild to moderate proteinuria, for whom anti-hypertensive medication or the RAS blocker is not applicable due to low blood pressure.


TRIAL DESIGN
A double blinded randomized trial.


METHODS
The anti-proteinuric effect of tacrolimus was explored for 40 biopsy-proven mild IgA nephropathies for 16 weeks. We randomly assigned patients either to receive tacrolimus or placebo with stratification by using a renin angiotensin system blocker. The primary outcome was the percentage change of final UACR compared to the baseline value (pcUACR).


RESULTS
The mean value of pcUACR at 12-week and 16-week visits (primary outcome) was decreased more in the Tac group compared to the control group (-52.0±26.4 vs -17.3±29.3%, p = 0.001). At each visit, pcUACR was also decreased more in the Tac group compared to the control group. In the Tac group, the pcUACRs were -60.2±28.2%, -62.2±33.9%, -48.5±29.8%, and -55.5±24.0%, and, in the control group, -6.8±32.2%, -2.5±35.9%, -12.7±34.2%, and -21.9±30.6%, at 4-week, 8-week, 12-week, and 16-week visits, respectively. The pre-defined secondary outcomes were better in the Tac group compared to the control group. The frequency of decrease in pcUACR and percentage change of UPCR (pcUPCR) ≥50% at 16 weeks were 65.0% (13/20) and 55.0% (11/20)in the Tac group, and 25.0% (5/20) and 15.0% (3/20), in the control group, respectively (p = 0.025 for pcUACR and p = 0.019 for pcUPCR). However, tacrolimus wasn't effective with a dose of 0.05 mg/kg/day in patients taking ARB. The adverse events were tolerable.


CONCLUSION
Tacrolimus effectively reduced proteinuria in IgA nephropathy with normal blood pressure. This suggested that tacrolimus could be an alternative to corticosteroid and RAS blocker for IgA nephropathy patients who cannot endure anti-hypertensive medication.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Clinicaltrial.gov NCT1224028.
Optimal Placement of Heterogeneous Sensors for Targets with Gaussian Priors

An optimal strategy for geometric sensor placement to enhance target tracking performance is developed. Recently, a considerable amount of work has been published on optimal conditions for single-update placement of homogeneous sensors (same type and same measurement quality) in which the targets are either assumed perfectly known or the target location uncertainty is averaged out via the expected value of the determinant of the Fisher information matrix (FIM). We derive conditions for optimal placement of heterogeneous sensors based on maximization of the information matrix to be updated by the heterogeneous sensors from an arbitrary Gaussian prior characterizing the uncertainty about the initial target location. The heterogeneous sensors can be of the same or different types (ranging sensors, bearing-only sensors, or both). The sensors can also make, over several time steps, multiple independent measurements of different qualities. Placement strategies are derived and their performance is illustrated via simulation examples.
Resource-based theory in marketing

The use of resource-based theory (RBT) in marketing research has increased by more than 500% in the past decade, which suggests its importance as a framework for explaining and predicting competitive advantages and performance outcomes. This article provides a comprehensive review of RBT, including a contemporary definitional foundation for relevant terms and assumptions and a synthesis of empirical findings from marketing literature. This multidimensional analysis of RBT also evaluates extant marketing research according to four perspectives: the marketing domains that use RBT, the characteristics and uses of market-based resources that differentiate it from other research contexts, the extension of RBT to the “marketing exchange” as a unit of analysis, and the connection of RBT to related theories. This analysis also reveals some common pitfalls associated with prior research, offers tentative guidelines on how to improve the use of RBT in marketing, and suggests research directions to advance the theorization and empirical testing of RBT in the future.
Open MRI-Guided Microsurgery of Intracranial Tumours. Preliminary Experience Using a Vertical Open MRI-Scanner

¶ Objectives. A number of different image-guided surgical techniques have been developed during the past decade. None of these methods can provide the surgeon with information about the dynamic changes that occur intra-operatively. The development of open configurated MRI-scanners leads to new perspectives in the intra-operative management and resection control of intracranial tumours.  Material and Method. Using a vertical open 0.5 T MRI-scanner for intra-operative MR image guided neurosurgery, forty-four patients (20 female/24 male) with different intracranial tumours have been operated on since August 1997. The patients ranged in age from 20 to 70 years (mean±standard deviation=47.2±15.9 ys).  Results. In 36 (82%) of 44 patients the tumours were completely removed with the aid of MR image-guidance. In 8 cases (18%) complete removal was not achieved. Postoperatively 6 (14%) of 44 patients developed neurological deficits which were transient in 5 cases (paresis, dysphasia). In these patients the tumours were located in or near eloquent brain areas (sensorimotor cortex/speech center).  Conclusion. Intra-operative MRI is helpful for navigation as well as determining of tumour margins to achieve a complete and safe resection of intracranial lesions. Complications related to the surgical procedure are reduced and the risk of neurological deterioration due to tumour removal and postoperative complications is minimized. It can be concluded that the intra-operative application of interventional MRI technology may represent a major step foreward in the field of neurosurgery.