Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase I Study of Tirapazamine Plus Cisplatin/Etoposide and Concurrent Thoracic Radiotherapy in Limited-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer (S0004)

Purpose: To determine the feasibility and a recommended phase II dose of tirapazamine when combined with chemoradiotherapy in limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LSCLC). Experimental Design: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy consisted of two cycles of cisplatin, etoposide, and once-daily radiation to 61 Gy. Tirapazamine (260 mg/m2) was given 1 h before cisplatin with planned dose escalation to 330 mg/m2 in the absence of dose-limiting toxicity, defined as ≥33% esophagitis (grade 3 or above). Consolidation therapy consisted of two cycles of tirapazamine (330 mg/m2), cisplatin, and etoposide. Complete responders received prophylactic cranial irradiation. Results: Thirty patients were enrolled at the 260 mg/m2 tirapazamine dose. All had performance status of 0–1. By comparison with S9713, a predecessor Southwest Oncology Group study in LSCLC that used the same concurrent chemoradiotherapy without tirapazamine, the present trial showed a higher rate of grade 3–4 esophagitis (34% versus 22%), vomiting (34% versus 23%), and febrile neutropenia (7% versus 2%). The consolidation phase was relatively well tolerated, with grade 4 neutropenia in 44% and febrile neutropenia in 5% of patients. There were two treatment-related deaths: one from neutropenic fever and one from respiratory infection. The overall response rate was 80%, and the median survival was 22 months. Conclusions: Protocol-defined dose-limiting toxicity was observed at the initial tirapazamine dose, precluding dose escalation. Compared with S9713, the addition of tirapazamine increased the incidence of vomiting, neutropenia, and febrile neutropenia, although the overall toxicity profile remained acceptable. In view of the observed favorable survival, further study of tirapazamine in LSCLC is warranted.
Computers in Human Behavior

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are at the core of every firm. Making people use this costly and time-consuming investment is one of the most important issues to deal with. The main objective of the present study is to find the key determinants that open the door to user satisfaction and adoption. A theoretical model was set and an online survey was conducted to understand ERP users' perspective on such matters. The outcome was the model validation and the understanding that top management support, training, and the system quality are important constructs to assess adoption and user satisfaction. In fact, the latter (system quality) has a significant influence on the behavioural intention to use and also in the overall user satisfaction. As management support is a very relevant determinant to ERP usage. Accordingly, this study enlightens theory, by contributing to a new model of ERP adoption and satisfaction. It also provides relevant evidence to companies involved in the ERP implementation process.
Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Is Associated With Autophagy and Cardiomyocyte Remodeling in Experimental and Human Atrial Fibrillation

Background Derailment of proteostasis, the homeostasis of production, function, and breakdown of proteins, contributes importantly to the self‐perpetuating nature of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common heart rhythm disorder in humans. Autophagy plays an important role in proteostasis by degrading aberrant proteins and organelles. Herein, we investigated the role of autophagy and its activation pathway in experimental and clinical AF. Methods and Results Tachypacing of HL‐1 atrial cardiomyocytes causes a gradual and significant activation of autophagy, as evidenced by enhanced LC3B‐II expression, autophagic flux and autophagosome formation, and degradation of p62, resulting in reduction of Ca2+ amplitude. Autophagy is activated downstream of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress: blocking ER stress by the chemical chaperone 4‐phenyl butyrate, overexpression of the ER chaperone‐protein heat shock protein A5, or overexpression of a phosphorylation‐blocked mutant of eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) prevents autophagy activation and Ca2+‐transient loss in tachypaced HL‐1 cardiomyocytes. Moreover, pharmacological inhibition of ER stress in tachypaced Drosophila confirms its role in derailing cardiomyocyte function. In vivo treatment with sodium salt of phenyl butyrate protected atrial‐tachypaced dog cardiomyocytes from electrical remodeling (action potential duration shortening, L‐type Ca2+‐current reduction), cellular Ca2+‐handling/contractile dysfunction, and ER stress and autophagy; it also attenuated AF progression. Finally, atrial tissue from patients with persistent AF reveals activation of autophagy and induction of ER stress, which correlates with markers of cardiomyocyte damage. Conclusions These results identify ER stress–associated autophagy as an important pathway in AF progression and demonstrate the potential therapeutic action of the ER‐stress inhibitor 4‐phenyl butyrate.
Limited Utility of Culture for Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydophila pneumoniae for Diagnosis of Respiratory Tract Infections

ABSTRACT We assessed the utility of culture for Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydophila pneumoniae to diagnose respiratory tract infections. Compared to PCR and IgM serology, culture was less sensitive and had extremely low yield. Culture is not recommended for these pathogens, and this method should be eliminated from routine practice.
Effect of nitric oxide on integrity, blood flow and cyclic GMP levels in the rat gastric mucosa: modulation by sialoadenectomy

1 The effects of the nitrosothiol, S‐nitroso N‐acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) which liberates nitric oxide (NO), on ethanol‐mediated gastric damage, blood flow and cyclic GMP levels in siaoloadenectomized (SALX) rats have been investigated. 2 Intraluminal instillation of ethanol (5–50% w/v) dose‐dependently induced haemorrhagic damage and decreased NO synthase activity in the gastric mucosa. Both the extent of mucosal damage and inhibition of NO synthase activity were exacerbated in SALX rats. 3 Epidermal growth factor administration (5 and 10 μg kg−1, s.c.) reduced mucosal damage but did not restore NO synthase activity in ethanol‐treated SALX rats. 4 SNAP infusion (0.01‐1.0 μg kg−1 min−1, i.v.) attenuated haemorrhagic damage in ethanol‐treated rats. The reduction in mucosal damage was significantly greater in SALX rats. 5 SNAP administration also caused an increase in gastric mucosal blood flow and cyclic GMP levels in control rats and both responses were augmented in SALX animals. 6 These data suggest that SALX is associated with increases in mucosal susceptibility to ethanol‐mediated damage and reduces mucosal NO synthase activity. Epidermal growth factor does not appear to influence mucosal NO synthase in ethanol‐treated rats. Furthermore, SALX augments the responsiveness of the gastric mucosa to NO administration. Therefore, factors from the salivary glands influence gastric NO formation and mucosal responsiveness to a NO donor.
andsat 8 vs . Landsat 5 : A comparison based on urban and peri-urban and cover mapping

An image dataset from the Landsat OLI spaceborne sensor is compared with the Landsat TM in order to evaluate the excellence of the new imagery in urban landcover classification. Widely known pixel-based and object-based image analysis methods have been implemented in this work like Maximum Likelihood, Support Vector Machine, k-Nearest Neighbor, Feature Analyst and Sub-pixel. Classification results from Landsat OLI provide more accurate results comparing to the Landsat TM. Object-based classifica-
Relationship Between 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Uptake and V-Ki-Ras2 Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Viral Oncogene Homolog Mutation in Colorectal Cancer Patients

AbstractTo evaluate clinical values of clinicopathologic and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT)-related parameters for prediction of v-Ki-ras2 Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) mutation in colorectal cancer (CRC) and to investigate their variability depending on C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.In total, 179 CRC patients who underwent PET/CT scans before curative resection and KRAS mutation evaluation following surgery were enrolled. Maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), peak standardized uptake value (SUVpeak), metabolic tumor volume, and total lesion glycolysis were determined semiquantitatively. Associations between clinicopathologic and PET/CT-related parameters and KRAS expression were analyzed.Elevated CRP (>6.0 mg/L; n = 47) was associated with higher primary tumor size, higher SUVmax, SUVpeak, metabolic tumor volume, and total lesion glycolysis, compared with those for the group with a CRP lower than that the cutoff value (<6.0 mg/L; n = 132). Interestingly, the CRC patients (having CRP < 6.0 mg/L) with KRAS mutations had significantly higher (P < 0.05) SUVmax and SUVpeak values than the patients expressing wild-type KRAS mutations. Multivariate analysis revealed SUVmax and SUVpeak to be significantly associated with KRAS mutations (odds ratio = 3.3, P = 0.005, and odds ratio = 3.9, P = 0.004), together with histologic grade and lymph node metastasis.18F-FDG uptake was significantly higher in CRC patients with KRAS mutations and with normal CRP levels. A severe local inflammation with raised CRP levels, however, might affect accurate 18F-FDG quantification in CRC tumors. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography-related parameters could supplement genomic analysis to determine KRAS expression in CRC; however, care should be exercised to guarantee proper patient selection.
Preventive effects of early anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 treatment on Borna disease in rats

Borna disease is a virus-induced, immunopathological encephalomyelitis in which CD4+ cells and macrophages dominate the pathological picture. However, significant numbers of CD8+ cells have been morphologically identified in perivascular infiltrates as well. To determine the contribution of different T-cell subsets to the pathogenesis of Borna disease, virus-infected rats were treated with monoclonal antibodies specific for CD4+ and CD8+ cells. Both types of monoclonal antibodies were able to significantly decrease or even prevent the local inflammatory reaction in the brain if given early during the infection. However, CD8-specific monoclonal antibodies appeared to be more effective than antibodies directed against CD4+ cells. Treatment initiated 4 days postinfection did not result in inhibition of encephalitis and disease. Virus titers in the brain of infected rats treated with T-cell-specific antibodies did not differ from titers in untreated infected control animals. The results indicate an important functional role of CD8+ cells, in addition to CD4+ cells, in the pathogenesis of Borna disease.
Noise threshold for universality of 2-input gates

Evans and Pippenger showed in 1998 that e-noisy gates with 2 inputs are universal for arbitrary computation (i.e. can compute any function with bounded error), if all gates fail independently with probability isin and isin< isin0 = (3 - radic7)/4 ap8.856%. We show that formulas built from gates with 2 inputs, in which each gate fails with probability at least isin0 cannot be universal. Hence, there is a threshold on the tolerable noise for formulas with 2-input gates and it is isin0. We conjecture that the same threshold also holds for circuits.
Correlation of Rk39-Specific Antibodies and Thyroid Function in Patients with Visceral Leishmaniasis.

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine whether anti-rK39 antibodies were diagnostic markers for visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) and to evaluate the correlation between age and gender in disease occurrence in Iraqi patients. In addition, it aimed to evaluate the correlation between thyroid hormones, i.e., thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) and anti-rK39 antibodies. MATERIALS AND METHODS Immunochromatographic technique used for anti-rK39 antibodies detection. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used for determining the serum TSH, T3, and T4 levels. RESULTS One hundred thirty-eight patients with visceral leishmaniasis were included. The mean age was 27.65±11.60 years. Sixty-one patients (44.2%) were males, and their mean age was 29.65±11.10 years. The mean age of females was 26.12±11.89 years. Anti-rK39 antibodies were detected in 11.59% of patients. Anti-rK39 antibodies were equally detected (5.8%) in both genders without a significant difference (p=0.212) or correlation between gender and anti-rK39 antibodies (p=0.623). There was neither a significant difference (p>0.05) nor correlation between gender; age groups according to gender and anti-rK39 antibodies (p>0.05). Both males and females who were positive for anti-rK39 antibodies had normal TSH, T3, and T4 levels. Only one patient who was positive for anti-rK39 antibodies had an elevated T4 level (>12 μg/dL). Neither a significant difference nor correlation was reported among genders; anti-rK39 antibody positivity (p>0.05); and TSH, T3, and T4 levels. CONCLUSION Anti-rK39 antibodies, a daignostic marker for visceral leishmaniasis have no correlation with patients age and gender. Serum TSH and T3 levels were not affected by visceral leishmaniasis. Visceral leishmaniasis causes the increase in serum T4 levels. Thyroid involvement appears to be uncommon in patients who present with visceral leishmaniasis.
Statistical performance of control charts with variable parameters for autocorrelated processes

espanolProcesos quimicos y automatizacion en la recoleccion de datos en procesos productivos son reconocidos por producir datos autocorrelacionados. La independencia de las observaciones es uno de los supuestos basicos de las herramientas tradicionales para el monitoreo estadistico de procesos, omitirlo hace que se incremente el numero de falsas alarmas y los costos de calidad. Esta investigacion considera a traves de tecnicas de simulacion, la utilizacion de cartas de control con parametros variables (VP) en presencia de datos autocorrelacionados con el objetivo de determinar el impacto en la velocidad de deteccion y falsas alarmas de diferentes grados de autocorrelacion y su interaccion con diferentes condiciones de proceso como la varianza y longitudes del corrimiento de la media, en busqueda de realizar una seleccion efectiva de parametros. La carta VP mostro mejoras en su desempeno en la deteccion de grandes corrimientos de media en la medida que incrementaba el coeficiente de auto correlacion y sostenidamente mejores resultados en una mayor cantidad de condiciones de simulacion, en contraste al sistema VSI y ݔ tradicional. Esta investigacion demuestra la superioridad de sistemas de calidad vasados en esquemas con parametros variables comparado con las tecnicas tradicionales de control estadistico de procesos. EnglishChemical process and automation of data collection for industrial processes are known to result in auto-correlated data. The independence of observations is a basic assumption made by traditional tools that are used for the statistical monitoring of processes. If this is not adhered to then the number of false alarms and quality costs are increased. This research considers the use of variable parameters (VP) charts in the presence of autocorrelation. The objective is to determine the impact on the detection velocity and false alarms of different degrees of autocorrelation and their interaction with process conditions—the aim being to effectively select parameters. The VP chart showed improvements in its performance when detecting large average runs as the autocorrelation coefficient increased in contrast with the traditional variable sample interval (VSI) and ݔ quality systems. This research demonstrates the superiority of variable parameters quality monitoring architectures over traditional statistical process monitoring tools.
Does the Tail Wag the Dog? The Effect of Credit Default Swaps on Credit Risk

Concerns have been raised, especially since the global financial crisis, about whether trading in credit default swaps (CDS) increases the credit risk of the reference entities. We use a unique, comprehensive sample covering 901 CDS introductions on North American corporate issuers between June 1997 and April 2009 to address this question. We present evidence that the probability of credit rating downgrade and the probability of bankruptcy both increase after the inception of CDS trading. The effect is robust to controlling for the endogeneity of CDS introduction, i.e., the possibility that firms with upcoming deterioration in creditworthiness are more likely to be selected for CDS trading. We show that the CDS-protected lenders' reluctance to restructure is the most likely cause of the increase in credit risk. We present evidence that firms with relatively larger amounts of CDS contracts outstanding, and those with more "No Restructuring" contracts, are more likely to be adversely affected by CDS trading. We also document that CDS trading increases the level of participation of bank lenders to the firm. Our findings are broadly consistent with the predictions of the "empty creditor" model of Bolton and Oehmke (2011).
Cross-task crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is an effective method for collecting labeled data for various data mining tasks. It is critical to ensure the veracity of the produced data because responses collected from different users may be noisy and unreliable. Previous works solve this veracity problem by estimating both the user ability and question difficulty based on the knowledge in each task individually. In this case, each single task needs large amounts of data to provide accurate estimations. However, in practice, budgets provided by customers for a given target task may be limited, and hence each question can be presented to only a few users where each user can answer only a few questions. This data sparsity problem can cause previous approaches to perform poorly due to the overfitting problem on rare data and eventually damage the data veracity. Fortunately, in real-world applications, users can answer questions from multiple historical tasks. For example, one can annotate images as well as label the sentiment of a given title. In this paper, we employ transfer learning, which borrows knowledge from auxiliary historical tasks to improve the data veracity in a given target task. The motivation is that users have stable characteristics across different crowdsourcing tasks and thus data from different tasks can be exploited collectively to estimate users' abilities in the target task. We propose a hierarchical Bayesian model, TLC (Transfer Learning for Crowdsourcing), to implement this idea by considering the overlapping users as a bridge. In addition, to avoid possible negative impact, TLC introduces task-specific factors to model task differences. The experimental results show that TLC significantly improves the accuracy over several state-of-the-art non-transfer-learning approaches under very limited budget in various labeling tasks.
Neonatal Encephalopathy, MRI Lesions, and Later Epilepsy: No Harm, No Foul?

Commentary Neonatal encephalopathy refers to the clinical manifestations of acute perinatal brain injury, most commonly as a result of a hypoxic-ischemic insult. Neonatal seizures are a potentially treatable manifestation of moderate to severe neonatal encephalopathy and have long been recognized as a risk factor for later developmental deficits (1). The million-dollar question is: are seizures merely a marker for injury severity (2) or do neonatal seizures contribute to the injury (3)? If the latter is true, then seizures should be treated aggressively. However, neonatal seizures can only reliably be identified by electrographic monitoring (4) and are frequently refractory to anticonvulsant treatment (5). Further, there are theoretical reasons to be concerned that some treatment strategies for neonatal seizures could be toxic (6). Experimental anticonvulsant neurotoxicity has only been demonstrated with high dosages, has only been demonstrated acutely, and has only been demonstrated in normal animals rather than injured animals, let alone in animals with repetitive seizures. Nevertheless, the possibility of toxicity makes it all the more important to know whether successful treatment of neonatal seizures actually benefits the patient. Unfortunately, the evidence regarding the harm conferred by neonatal seizures is complex, and the absence of effective therapies has made it impossible to rigorously test whether developmental outcomes are improved if seizures are stopped. Syndromes such as benign familial neonatal convulsions and transient hypocalcemia provide reasonable clinical evidence that neonatal seizures in otherwise healthy infants don’t cause obvious harm (7). Experimental data from otherwise healthy animals support the idea that perinatal seizures can be well tolerated (8), at least in modest amounts (3, 9). The key descriptor for both clinical and experimental studies is “otherwise healthy. ” Recent experimental studies have found that seizures occurring in the setting of a variety of brain injuries do induce substantial neuronal death (10, 11). Further, experimental (12) and clinical (13) observations are leading to more effective treatments for neonatal seizures, and studies utilizing these new treatments are beginning to demonstrate improved neuronal survival after brain injury (14). However, direct evidence that the improved outcome is owing to improved seizure control has not yet been published. The difficult clinical decisions as to how aggressively to search for and treat neonatal seizures can be made more confidently when we can accurately assess an encephalopathic neonate’s risk for permanent injury. One robust outcome is the development of chronic epilepsy. The National Collaborative Perinatal Project (NCPP) established that the risk of epilepsy after moderate to severe neonatal encephalopathy was 20 to 25 percent in survivors (15). The NCPP study collected neonatal Risk Factors for Epilepsy in Children With Neonatal Encephalopathy.
Recent changes in heat waves and cold waves detected based on excess heat factor and excess cold factor in Romania

In this paper, we investigated changes in heat and cold waves in Romania over the period 1961–2015 by employing a new and superior approach. It consists in using excess heat factor to identify heat waves and excess cold factor to identify cold waves. Five indices were calculated and then analysed for both heat waves and cold waves resulting in a set of ten indices. Indices for heat waves were analysed for the extended summer season (May–September), whereas those for cold waves were assessed for the extended winter (November–March). The intensity threshold was set to be equal or above the 90th percentile for heat waves, and equal or below the 10th percentile for cold waves, while the duration threshold for both heat and cold waves was of at least three consecutive days. For a better comparison with other studies conducted worldwide, and to get more information from the data sets, the percentile thresholds for heat and cold waves identification were calculated based on three reference periods: 1961–1990, 1971–2000, and 1981–2010. Trends were calculated using ordinary least square method, whereas statistical significance was assessed by the t‐test. The main results indicated that changes are more substantial in the case of indices calculated based on excess heat factor compared to those based on excess cold factor, suggesting that the warming process is more reflected in heat waves rather than in cold waves. Thus, heat waves became more frequent, longer, and more intense, while cold waves became less frequent, but more intense. When the reference period for percentile threshold calculation was changed from the earliest to the most recent ones, the frequency of increasing and significant increasing trends decreased for some of the heat wave indices, while for the cold wave indices the significant downward trends increased.