Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive value of SUVmax measured by 18 F-FDG PET / CT in patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer

In this study we aimed toinvestigate the predictive value of maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) detected by fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) in stage I and II non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The records of 240 NSCLC patients were analyzed retrospectively. Clinicopathologic characteristics were evaluated to identify the independent factors that affect SUVmax. The diagnostic efficiency and optimal cut-off value of SUVmax were calculated by the receiver operating characteristic curve. Survival curves were estimated according to the Kaplan-Meier method and statistical differences were assessed using the log-rank test. Univariate analysis showed that the gender, smoking history, tumor size, histology, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), visceral pleural invasion (VPI), p-T factor, p-N factor and p-TNM stage were correlated to SUVmax. Multivariate regression analysisidentified tumor size (P = 0.001), histology (P < 0.001), LVI (P = 0.023), and p-TNM stage (P = 0.027) as independent factors. SUVmax was a predictor for LVI and nodal metastasis with the highest diagnostic accuracy at a cut-off value of 7. Patients with SUVmax < 7 had significantly better relapse-free survival than those with SUVmax ≥ 7 (P < 0.001). While there was no significant difference in overall survival (OS) between the two groups (P = 0.107), patients with SUVmax < 7 had a higher 5-y OS rate than those with SUVmax ≥ 7 (86.3% versus 74.1%). In conclusion, preoperative SUVmax indicates the aggressiveness of the primary tumor, and shows a significant association with relapse after complete resection of early stage NSCLC.
Cooperative Roles of Hepatocyte Growth Factor and Plasminogen Activator in Tubular Morphogenesis by Human Microvascular Endothelial Cells

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) or transforming growth factor‐α (TGF‐α) stimulated cell migration, chemotaxis, and the expression of tissue‐type plasminogen activator (t‐PA) in human omental microvascular endothelial (HOME) cells. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) stimulated cell proliferation, but had a negligible stimulatory effect on cell migration, the expression of t‐PA and tube‐like formation into collagen gel in HOME cells. Basic fibroblast growth factor stimulated cell proliferation, cell migration, tubulogenesis and the expression of urokinase‐type plasminogen activator (u‐PA) in bovine aortic endothelial (BAE) cells. HOME and BAE cells had both high‐ and low‐affinity receptors for HGF. In BAE cells, u‐PA activity and tube‐like structures in collagen gel were induced in the presence of HGF alone. In contrast, in HOME cells, t‐PA activity and tube‐like structures were induced in the presence of TGF‐a alone, but not in the presence of HGF alone. However, we observed a marked induction of tube formation by HOME cells when both t‐PA and HGF were added simultaneously. In the model system for tumor angiogenesis, when HOME cells were co‐cultured with a renal cancer cell line, KPK13, tube‐like structures were induced in the presence of HGF: KPK13 cells expressed large amounts of t‐PA mRNA. Our present study suggested that HGF in concert with active t‐PA could be angiogenic in HOME cells.
Expected years ever married

Background: In the second half of the 20th century, remarkable marriage changes were seen: a great proportion of never married population, high average age at ﬁrst marriage, and large variance in ﬁrst marriage timing. Although it is theoretically possible to separate these three elements, disentangling them analytically remains a challenge. Objective: This study’s goal is to answer the following questions: Which of the three effects, nonmarriage, delayed marriage, or expansion, has the most impact on nuptiality changes? How does the most inﬂuential factor differ by time periods, birth cohorts, and countries? Methods: To quantify nuptiality changes over time, we deﬁne the measure ‘expected years ever married’ (EYEM). We illustrate the use of EYEM, looking at time trends in 15 countries (six countries for cohort analysis) and decompose these trends into three components: scale (the changes in the proportion of never married – nonmarriage), location (the changes in timing of ﬁrst marriage – delayed marriage), and variance (the changes in the standard deviation of ﬁrst marriage age – expansion). We used population counts by sex, age, and marital status from national statistical ofﬁces and the United Nations database. Results: Results show that delayed marriage is the most inﬂuential factor on period EYEM’s changes, while nonmarriage has recently begun to contribute to the change in North and West Europe and Canada. Period and cohort analysis complement each other. Conclusions: This study introduces a new index of nuptiality and decomposes its change into the contribution of three components: scale, location, and variance. The decomposition steps presented here offer an open possibility for more elaborate parametric marriage models.
Scoliosis conservative treatment: A review of literature

Background: Scoliosis is defined as lateral curvature of the spine which is also associated with a change in the curves in sagittal plane and vertebral rotation. Various types of conservative treatment approaches have been recommended for the patients with scoliosis. The aim of this review article was to introduce the various methods of conservative treatment which can be used for the patients with scoliosis. Methods: A search was done in some databases including PubMed, ISI Web of knowledge, Google scholar, Ebsco, Embasco, and Scopus. Some keywords such as conservative treatment, orthosis, brace, exercise, and physical therapy were used in combination with scoliosis. As the aim of this paper was to introduce the conservative methods, no quality assessment was done in this review study. Results: Forty papers were found on various conservative treatments approaches which have been used for the patients with scoliosis, in which most of the papers focused on different designs of braces. There were a few studies on other interventions such as wedge, functional electrical stimulation, and yoga. Conclusion: Various treatment approaches have been used to treat scoliosis based on conservative approach. It is suggested that the efficiency of various methods be evaluated based on available literature.
A Review of the Pedunculopontine Nucleus in Parkinson's Disease

The pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) is situated in the upper pons in the dorsolateral portion of the ponto-mesencephalic tegmentum. Its main mass is positioned at the trochlear nucleus level, and is part of the mesenphalic locomotor region (MLR) in the upper brainstem. The human PPN is divided into two subnuclei, the pars compacta (PPNc) and pars dissipatus (PPNd), and constitutes both cholinergic and non-cholinergic neurons with afferent and efferent projections to the cerebral cortex, thalamus, basal ganglia (BG), cerebellum, and spinal cord. The BG controls locomotion and posture via GABAergic output of the substantia nigra pars reticulate (SNr). In PD patients, GABAergic BG output levels are abnormally increased, and gait disturbances are produced via abnormal increases in SNr-induced inhibition of the MLR. Since the PPN is vastly connected with the BG and the brainstem, dysfunction within these systems lead to advanced symptomatic progression in Parkinson's disease (PD), including sleep and cognitive issues. To date, the best treatment is to perform deep brain stimulation (DBS) on PD patients as outcomes have shown positive effects in ameliorating the debilitating symptoms of this disease by treating pathological circuitries within the parkinsonian brain. It is therefore important to address the challenges and develop this procedure to improve the quality of life of PD patients.
The CRF Family of Neuropeptides and their Receptors - Mediators of the Central Stress Response

Background: Dysregulated stress neurocircuits, caused by genetic and/or environmental changes, underlie the development of many neuropsychiatric disorders. Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is the major physiological activator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and conse-quently a primary regulator of the mammalian stress response. Together with its three family members, urocortins (UCNs) 1, 2, and 3, CRF integrates the neuroendocrine, autonomic, metabolic and behavioral responses to stress by activating its cognate receptors CRFR1 and CRFR2. Objective: Here we review the past and current state of the CRF/CRFR field, ranging from pharmacologi-cal studies to genetic mouse models and virus-mediated manipulations. Results: Although it is well established that CRF/CRFR1 signaling mediates aversive responses, includ-ing anxiety and depression-like behaviors, a number of recent studies have challenged this viewpoint by revealing anxiolytic and appetitive properties of specific CRF/CRFR1 circuits. In contrast, the UCN/CRFR2 system is less well understood and may possibly also exert divergent functions on physiol-ogy and behavior depending on the brain region, underlying circuit, and/or experienced stress conditions. Conclusion: A plethora of available genetic tools, including conventional and conditional mouse mutants targeting CRF system components, has greatly advanced our understanding about the endogenous mecha-nisms underlying HPA system regulation and CRF/UCN-related neuronal circuits involved in stress-related behaviors. Yet, the detailed pathways and molecular mechanisms by which the CRF/UCN-system translates negative or positive stimuli into the final, integrated biological response are not completely un-derstood. The utilization of future complementary methodologies, such as cell-type specific Cre-driver lines, viral and optogenetic tools will help to further dissect the function of genetically defined CRF/UCN neurocircuits in the context of adaptive and maladaptive stress responses.
Turning Clicks into Purchases: Revenue Optimization for Product Search in E-Commerce

In recent years, product search engines have emerged as a key factor for online businesses. According to a recent survey, over 55% of online customers begin their online shopping journey by searching on an E-Commerce (EC) website like Amazon as opposed to a generic web search engine like Google. Information retrieval research to date has been focused on optimizing search ranking algorithms for web documents while little attention has been paid to product search. There are several intrinsic differences between web search and product search that make the direct application of traditional search ranking algorithms to EC search platforms difficult. First, the success of web and product search is measured differently; one seeks to optimize for relevance while the other must optimize for both relevance and revenue. Second, when using real-world EC transaction data, there is no access to manually annotated labels. In this paper, we address these differences with a novel learning framework for EC product search called LETORIF (LEarning TO Rank with Implicit Feedback). In this framework, we utilize implicit user feedback signals (such as user clicks and purchases) and jointly model the different stages of the shopping journey to optimize for EC sales revenue. We conduct experiments on real-world EC transaction data and introduce a a new evaluation metric to estimate expected revenue after re-ranking. Experimental results show that LETORIF outperforms top competitors in improving purchase rates and total revenue earned.
Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

The platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is reported to be a prognostic factor in multiple malignancies. The aim of this study was to assess its prognostic value in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We performed comprehensive searches of electronic databases for relevant studies. A total of eleven studies comprising 2,507 patients were included. Elevated PLR was significantly associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.78; 95% CI = 1.36-2.34; P < 0.001) and disease-free survival (DFS)/recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR = 1.82; 95% CI = 1.56-2.13; P < 0.001). The findings from most subgroup analyses were consistent with those from the overall analysis. In addition, a high PLR correlated with tumor size > 3 cm, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and vascular invasion. We therefore conclude that elevated pretreatment PLR may be predicative of a poor prognosis in patients with HCC.
Analysis of Common-Mode Interference and Jitter of Clock Receiver Circuits With Improved Topology

This paper presents an analysis based on the impulse sensitivity function to precisely characterize and estimate the jitter caused by the common-mode interference (CMI). Unlike the conventional common-mode rejection ratio concept, the proposed method considers the CMI jitter in a transient rather than in an ac perspective. Inspired by the analytical results, we propose a clock receiver circuit (CRC) based on the self-bias amplifier topology. The accuracy of the analysis and the efficiency of the proposed CRC are verified both in simulations and measurements. A 1-GS/s ADC was fabricated in 65-nm CMOS containing simultaneously three CRCs, including an inverter-chain, a differential amplifier and the proposed structure, serving as the sampling clock. Both simulation and measurement results show a good agreement with the presented analysis. The proposed CRC achieves a 30-fsms jitter with a 620- $\mu \text{W}$ power at 1.2 V supply. With a similar CMI rejection and random jitter performance, the proposed CRC exhibits a 20-fold power reduction when compared with the state-of-art designs.
Ecological legacies of civil war: 35‐year increase in savanna tree cover following wholesale large‐mammal declines

Large mammalian herbivores (LMH) exert strong effects on plants in tropical savannas, and many wild LMH populations are declining. However, predicting the impacts of these declines on vegetation structure remains challenging. Experiments suggest that tree cover can increase rapidly following LMH exclusion. Yet it is unclear whether these results scale up to predict ecosystem‐level impacts of LMH declines, which often alter fire regimes, trigger compensatory responses of other herbivores and accompany anthropogenic land‐use changes. Moreover, theory predicts that grazers and browsers should have opposing effects on tree cover, further complicating efforts to forecast the outcomes of community‐wide declines. We used the near‐extirpation of grazing and browsing LMH from Gorongosa National Park during the Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992) as a natural experiment to test whether megafaunal collapse increased tree cover. We classified herbaceous and tree cover in satellite images taken (a) at the onset of war in 1977 and (b) in 2012, two decades after hostilities ceased. Throughout the 3620‐km2 park, proportional tree cover increased by 34% (from 0.29 to 0.39) – an addition of 362 km2. Four of the park's five major habitat zones (including miombo woodland, Acacia–Combretum–palm savanna, and floodplain grassland) showed even greater increases in tree cover (51–134%), with an average increase of 94% in ecologically critical Rift Valley habitats. Only in the eastern Cheringoma Plateau, which had historically low wildlife densities, did tree cover decrease (by 5%). The most parsimonious explanation for these results is that reduced browsing pressure enhanced tree growth, survival and/or recruitment; we found no directional trends in rainfall or fire that could explain increased tree cover. Synthesis. Catastrophic large‐herbivore die‐offs in Mozambique's flagship national park were followed by 35 years of woodland expansion, most severely in areas where pre‐war wildlife biomass was greatest. These findings suggest that browsing release supersedes grazer–grass–fire feedbacks in governing ecosystem‐level tree cover, consistent with smaller‐scale experimental results, although the potentially complementary effect of CO2 fertilization cannot be definitively ruled out. Future work in Gorongosa will reveal whether recovering LMH populations reverse this trend, or alternatively whether woody encroachment hinders ongoing restoration efforts.
Goals and goal setting for people with aphasia, their family members and clinicians

According to Playford, Siegert, Levack, and Freeman (2009), professionals understand goal setting to be a ‘process of discussion and negotiation in which the individual and staff determine the key priorities for rehabilitation for that individual’ (p. 335). Most terms used to describe goal setting and patient-centredness (e.g. participation, involvement, agreement, interaction, collaboration, partnership, negotiation, sharing) incorporate the concept of at least two parties participating in a discussion about goals. However, for people with aphasia, participation may, at best, be challenging and, at worst, be virtually impossible. In many cases, there are likely to be three parties involved rather than two, because families may need to take a more prominent role in the process.
Students-as-customers’ satisfaction, predictive retention with marketing implications: The case of Malaysian higher education business students

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate two areas of interest: first, to determine business student customer satisfiers that could be contributors to students’ current and predicted retention in a higher educational institution (HEI) and second, to use these satisfiers to inform HEI marketing planning. Design/methodology/approach – The survey used 10 per cent of the sampling frame from the faculty total business students population. Descriptive statistics and correlation were employed to describe and measure the relationship between the teaching and non-teaching antecedents of student satisfaction and their five constructs (academic experience, teaching quality, campus life, facilities and placement support) and current and intended retention. Standard multiple regressions were run to measure the β and significant values of the composite variables as stated. Findings – Quantitative results revealed that students were most satisfied with academic experience and it was also the most dominant p.
Coronal and Root Caries in Southern Chinese Adults

Southern China is the most prosperous part of China, but information useful for oral care planning is very limited. A large-scale epidemiological survey was conducted in 1996-97. The objectives of this report were to describe the coronal and root caries of the adult Southern Chinese and to analyze the influence of selected demographic and socio-economic factors on the disease pattern. A total sample of 1573 35- to 44-year-olds and 1515 65- to 74-year-olds from 8 urban and 8 rural survey sites in Guangdong Province participated in an oral health interview and underwent clinical examination. World Health Organization examination procedures and diagnostic criteria were used. The weighted mean DMFT scores of the middle-aged and the elderly subjects were 4.8 and 16.1, respectively. People living in rural areas had a higher DMFT score than those living in urban areas (4.9 vs. 4.3 in the 35- to 44-year-olds and 16.5 vs. 14.7 in the 65- to 74-year-olds). In both age groups, MT was the major component of the DMFT score. Analysis of covariance showed that women and those who were economically less well off had higher DMFT scores in both age groups. The weighted prevalence rates of decayed/filled roots were 12% and 37%, with a mean of 0.2 and 0.7 teeth affected, in the middle-aged and the elderly, respectively. In conclusion, socio-economic factors had a considerable effect on the dental caries status of adults in Southern China.
The Characteristics of Epstein‐Barr Virus (EBV)‐positive Diffuse Large B‐Cell Lymphoma: Comparison between EBV+ and EBV‐ Cases in Japanese Population

We have investigated 114 cases with diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) to clarify the characteristics of DLBCL with Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) infection. Thirteen cases (11.4%) showed EBVencoded RNA 1 (EBER1) signals by RNA in situ hybridization. EBV‐encoded latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) and EBV‐encoded nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA2) were expressed in 11 and 4 cases, respectively. Expression of CD30, Bcl‐6 and immunoglobulin (Ig) was found in 92%, 31% and 23% with EBV+ DLBCL, and in 15%, 79% and 82% with EBV‐ DLBCL, respectively. The sequence of rearranged Ig heavy chain (IgH) variable (V) region gene was analyzed in 5 cases with EBV+ DLBCL and 61 cases with EBV‐ DLBCL. Somatic mutation was found in all cases except one with EBV‐ DLBCL. Average mutation frequency was 9.6% in EBV+ DLBCL vs. 11.5% in EBV‐ DLBCL. The rates of replacement mutation vs. silent mutation (R/S values) in complementarity determining region II and framework region III were 2.7 and 1.5 in EBV+ DLBCL, 2.6 and 1.4 in EBV‐ DLBCL. Crippling mutation generating a stop codon was found in 2 of 5 cases (40%) with EBV+ DLBCL, but none of 61 cases (0%) with EBV‐ DLBCL. These findings suggest that EBV+ DLBCL and EBV‐ DLBCL were both derived from germinal center (GC) or post‐GCB cells, and EBV+ DLBCL frequently have a non‐functional IgH gene owing to crippling mutation.
Scaling Interpersonal Checklist Items to a Circular Model

The items of the Interpersonal Checklist (ICL) were scaled to a circular model by two different procedures: (1) the items were sorted by two differ ent samples into categories corresponding to the la bels of the eight ICL octants and (2) each item was scaled twice by a third sample, first on the 9-point bipolar scale Hate-Love, and second on the 9-point bipolar scale Dominance-Submissiveness. The two sets of ratings were found to correlate -. 09, indicat ing that the two postulated dimensions presumed to underly the circular order are orthogonal. The items were then plotted into the plane formed by using the two scales as axes. The circular scale values calculated for the two sorting procedures correlated . 95. The scale values obtained from the sorting procedure and those from the two-dimen sional procedure correlated . 89. In general, the plotted items followed a circular order from close synonymity to antonymity and back. Several gaps on the circle were found, indicating an inadequate sampling of items. Scale values were calculated for each of the eight ICL scales using the circular scale values as item weights. When these values were plotted and compared with a factor plot of the eight ICL scales, the plots were remarkably similar. Many items were found to be displaced by the scal ing procedures from the placements given by the authors of the ICL. Most of these displacements were found to be related to an intensity dimension postulated by the authors of the ICL. In general, the mild/moderate items were scaled toward the Love and Dominance poles, and the strong/extreme items were scaled toward the Hate and Submissive poles, thus pulling the items away from the scales they were intended to represent. Some of the major implications of the use of these procedures in the construction of personality instruments are dis cussed.