Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic factors for metastatic colorectal cancer patients undergoing irinotecan-based second-line chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND No reports about factors that predict prognosis after second-line chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer have been published. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed 124 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who received irinotecan-based second-line chemotherapy after first-line folinic acid/5-fluorouracil (5-FU)/oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) with or without bevacizumab. RESULTS A multivariate Cox model revealed 5 prognostic factors for worse survival: ECOG performance status 2, pathologically poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, peritoneal metastasis, progression-free survival of first-line FOLFOX < 6 months, and lactate dehydrogenase ≥ 400 IU/L. When patients were categorized into 3 risk groups-patients without any prognostic factors (low-risk, n = 55), patients with one prognostic factor (intermediate-risk, n = 32), and patients with 2 or more prognostic factors (high-risk, n = 37)-overall survival from initiation of second-line chemotherapy was 23.5, 14.6, and 5.5 months, respectively. The proportion of patients who were eligible to receive further chemotherapy after disease progression was significantly lower in the high-risk group (41%) than in the intermediate- (67%) and low-risk (95%) groups. CONCLUSION Several prognostic factors for survival after second-line therapy and probability of receiving third-line chemotherapy were identified. This risk classification system might be useful for determining which patients should receive cetuximab in the second-line setting rather than the third-line setting.
Applying the cold plasma dispersion relation to whistler mode chorus waves: EMFISIS wave measurements from the Van Allen Probes

Most theoretical wave models require the power in the wave magnetic field in order to determine the effect of chorus waves on radiation belt electrons. However, researchers typically use the cold plasma dispersion relation to approximate the magnetic wave power when only electric field data are available. In this study, the validity of using the cold plasma dispersion relation in this context is tested using Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) observations of both the electric and magnetic spectral intensities in the chorus wave band (0.1–0.9 fce). Results from this study indicate that the calculated wave intensity is least accurate during periods of enhanced wave activity. For observed wave intensities >10−3 nT2, using the cold plasma dispersion relation results in an underestimate of the wave intensity by a factor of 2 or greater 56% of the time over the full chorus wave band, 60% of the time for lower band chorus, and 59% of the time for upper band chorus. Hence, during active periods, empirical chorus wave models that are reliant on the cold plasma dispersion relation will underestimate chorus wave intensities to a significant degree, thus causing questionable calculation of wave‐particle resonance effects on MeV electrons.
Restoration of Euglycemia After Duodenal Bypass Surgery Is Reliant on Central and Peripheral Inputs in Zucker fa/fa Rats

Gastrointestinal bypass surgeries that result in rerouting and subsequent exclusion of nutrients from the duodenum appear to rapidly alleviate hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia independent of weight loss. While the mechanism(s) responsible for normalization of glucose homeostasis remains to be fully elucidated, this rapid normalization coupled with the well-known effects of vagal inputs into glucose homeostasis suggests a neurohormonally mediated mechanism. Our results show that duodenal bypass surgery on obese, insulin-resistant Zucker fa/fa rats restored insulin sensitivity in both liver and peripheral tissues independent of body weight. Restoration of normoglycemia was attributable to an enhancement in key insulin-signaling molecules, including insulin receptor substrate-2, and substrate metabolism through a multifaceted mechanism involving activation of AMP-activated protein kinase and downregulation of key regulatory genes involved in both lipid and glucose metabolism. Importantly, while central nervous system–derived vagal nerves were not essential for restoration of insulin sensitivity, rapid normalization in hepatic gluconeogenic capacity and basal hepatic glucose production required intact vagal innervation. Lastly, duodenal bypass surgery selectively altered the tissue concentration of intestinally derived glucoregulatory hormone peptides in a segment-specific manner. The present data highlight and support the significance of vagal inputs and intestinal hormone peptides toward normalization of glucose and lipid homeostasis after duodenal bypass surgery.
Decentralized topology inference of electrical distribution networks

Power system operation and control relies heavily on models for decision making. Topology is a critical part of producing these models and maintaining up-to-date topologies of electrical distribution networks is a resource consuming and challenging task. This paper proposes a methodology and system architecture for inference of electrical topology using process and model data from IEC 61850 compliant substation automation devices. A system of autonomous intelligent agents communicating via an overlay network is proposed where agents are capable of communicating on the IEC 61850 station bus. An algorithm for topology inference using structured exchange and comparison of process and model information is developed. The capabilities of structured information exchange and interfacing of substation automation devices enables plug-and-play operation of the topology inference requiring minimal prior knowledge of electrical network structure. Decentralized topology inference forms the basis for future work in operation and management of active distribution networks.
Localized and distributed creep along the southern San Andreas Fault

We investigate the spatial pattern of surface creep and off‐fault deformation along the southern segment of the San Andreas Fault using a combination of multiple interferometric synthetic aperture radar viewing geometries and survey‐mode GPS occupations of a dense array crossing the fault. Radar observations from Envisat during the period 2003–2010 were used to separate the pattern of horizontal and vertical motion, providing a high‐resolution image of uplift and shallow creep along the fault trace. The data reveal pervasive shallow creep along the southernmost 50 km of the fault. Creep is localized on a well‐defined fault trace only in the Mecca Hills and Durmid Hill areas, while elsewhere creep appears to be distributed over a 1–2 km wide zone surrounding the fault. The degree of strain localization is correlated with variations in the local fault strike. Using a two‐dimensional boundary element model, we show that stresses resulting from slip on a curved fault can promote or inhibit inelastic failure within the fault zone in a pattern matching the observations. The occurrence of shallow, localized interseismic fault creep within mature fault zones may thus be partly controlled by the local fault geometry and normal stress, with implications for models of fault zone evolution, shallow coseismic slip deficit, and geologic estimates of long‐term slip rates.
Synergistic Uric Acid-Lowering Effects of the Combination of Chrysanthemum indicum Linne Flower and Cinnamomum cassia (L.) J. Persl Bark Extracts

Chrysanthemum indicum Linne flower (CF) and Cinnamomum cassia (L.) J. Persl bark (CB) extracts have served as the main ingredients in several prescriptions designed to treat hyperuricemia and gout in traditional Chinese and Korean medicine. However, little is known about the combination effects of a CF and CB (CC) mixture on hyperuricemia. In our study, we investigated the antihyperuricemic effects of CC mixture and the mechanisms underlying these effects in normal and potassium oxonate- (PO-) induced hyperuricemic rats. The CC mixture significantly decreased uric acid levels in normal and PO-induced hyperuricemic rats and showed the enhanced hypouricemic effect compared to CF or CB alone. Furthermore, the CC mixture increased renal uric acid excretion in PO-induced hyperuricemic rat. We found that CC mixture and its major components, chlorogenic acid, 3,4-dicaffeoylquinic acid (isochlorogenic acid), coumarin, cinnamaldehyde, trans-cinnamic acid, and o-methoxycinnamaldehyde, inhibit the activity of xanthine oxidase (XOD) in vitro. The CC mixture exerts antihyperuricemic effects accompanied partially by XOD activity inhibition. Therefore, the CC mixture may have potential as a treatment for hyperuricemia and gout.
Hard palate mucosal grafts in the treatment of the contracted socket.

PURPOSE The treatment of the traumatic contracted anophthalmic socket is challenging. The ability to wear an ocular prosthesis may require multiple operations to replace orbital volume, mucosa, or both. Hard palate mucosal grafts are a logical choice to augment mucosa and volume in the reconstruction of a contracted socket. METHODS Ten patients with severely contracted sockets underwent socket reconstruction using hard palate mucosal grafts. The mucosal surface lining the contracted sockets was undermined and recessed toward the lid margins. Hard palate mucosal grafts that were harvested freehand and by using a radiofrequency instrument were placed in the socket fundus and sutured to the recessed mucosal edges. Forniceal sutures were placed full thickness through the lids, and custom conformers were placed in the sockets. In six patients, fixation sutures were passed through the conformer, fornices, and full thickness through the lid. In four patients, temporary tarsorrhaphies were placed for a minimum of 4 weeks postoperatively. RESULTS Postoperatively, 8 of the 10 patients were able to wear an ocular prosthesis comfortably. Cosmesis was acceptable. Two patients had recurrent socket contracture and were unable to wear a prosthesis. CONCLUSIONS Hard palate mucosal grafts are a useful option in the surgical rehabilitation of contracted sockets. A mucosal surface, resistance to contracture, ease of harvesting, and ability for additional harvesting are advantages over other graft materials.
The severity of wheat diseases increases when plants and pathogens are acclimatized to elevated carbon dioxide

Wheat diseases present a constant and evolving threat to food security. We have little understanding as to how increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will affect wheat diseases and thus the security of grain supply. Atmospheric CO2 exceeded the 400 ppmv benchmark in 2013 and is predicted to double or even treble by the end of the century. This study investigated the impact of both pathogen and wheat acclimation to elevated CO2 on the development of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and Septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease of wheat. Here, plants and pathogens were cultivated under either 390 or 780 ppmv CO2 for a period (two wheat generations, multiple pathogen subcultures) prior to standard disease trials. Acclimation of pathogens and the wheat cultivar Remus to elevated CO2 increased the severity of both STB and FHB diseases, relative to ambient conditions. The effect of CO2 on disease development was greater for FHB than for STB. The highest FHB disease levels and associated yield losses were recorded for elevated CO2‐acclimated pathogen on elevated CO2‐acclimated wheat. When similar FHB experiments were conducted using the disease‐resistant cultivar CM82036, pathogen acclimation significantly enhanced disease levels and yield loss under elevated CO2 conditions, thereby indicating a reduction in the effectiveness of the defence pathways innate to this wheat cultivar. We conclude that acclimation to elevated CO2 over the coming decades will have a significant influence on the outcome of plant–pathogen interactions and the durability of disease resistance.
Depressive symptoms and help-seeking intentions in young people

Abstract Whether the help-negation effect as demonstrated for suicidal thoughts was also evident for depressive symptoms was investigated in three studies of young people from diverse urban areas. The studies involved a large sample of younger high school students (years 7 – 10), a sample of older high school students (years 8 – 12), and first year university students. A self-report questionnaire that measured help-seeking intentions, prior help-seeking experiences, and depression was administered. It was found that the strongest inverse association between level of depressive symptoms was with intentions to seek help from parents across all three samples. There was a consistent trend for students to report being more likely to seek help from no one as depressive symptoms increased. Evidence of the help-negation effect being present for depressive symptoms is discussed in terms of ways to encourage appropriate and effective help-seeking in young people.
Temporal Dynamics of Interference Inhibition in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

In the present study activation and inhibition functioning in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was investigated using the Simon task, with the dual process model as theoretical background. Temporal reaction time and accuracy changes, caused by the interference effect of the task, were examined with a delta plot analysis. It was expected that ASD participants would show a slower inhibition build up and overall deficits in inhibition compared with controls. Additionally, the hypothesis was tested that autism features, quantified by the Autism Quotient score, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) features, quantified by the ADHD DSM-IV checklist scores, together were most predictive for the performance. Participants were male adults with ASD between 18 and 35 years (n=16) and healthy controls (n=16) matched on age and intelligence quotient. In line with the dual process model reaction time and accuracy changed over time. But contrary to the hypothesis, the interference effect decreased for both groups equally with increasing response time. Furthermore, only hyperactivity-impulsivity features and not ASD features were predictive for the inhibition performance. The negative predictive value of hyperactivity-impulsivity changed with increasing response time. This highlights the gain of a distributional analysis and also the importance of further investigation of the influence of comorbid ADHD symptoms on inhibition in ASD. In the current study ASD adults seemed to show the same inhibition and activation temporal dynamics on this interference task as healthy controls. More research with a purer and bigger sample and a faster event rate is needed to confirm this statement.
Anatomy of Stroke Injury Predicts Gains From Therapy

Background and Purpose— Many therapies are emerging that aim to improve motor function in people with stroke. Identifying key biological substrates needed for treatment gains would help to predict treatment effects and to maximize treatment impact. The current study addressed the hypothesis that behavioral gains from therapy targeting distal upper extremity are predicted by the structural integrity of key motor system white matter tracts. Methods— Twenty-three subjects with chronic left-sided stroke underwent robotic therapy targeting the distal right upper extremity. MRI was obtained at baseline and used to outline the infarct. For each subject, the degree to which stroke injured each of 4 descending white matter tracts (from the primary motor cortex, supplementary motor area, dorsal premotor cortex, and ventral premotor cortex, respectively) was determined. Correlations between tract-specific injury and behavioral gains from therapy were then examined. Results— Numerous examples were found whereby tract-specific injury predicted treatment gains. The strongest correlations pertained to stroke injury to tracts descending from the primary motor cortex and dorsal premotor cortex. Infarct volume and baseline behavior were weak predictors of treatment gains. Conclusions— Extent of injury to specific motor tracts predicts behavioral gains from treatment in subjects with chronic stroke. This supports a role for these tracts in mediating treatment effects and reinforces the importance of lesion location in stroke. Tract-specific injury was stronger than infarct volume or baseline clinical status at predicting gains, identifies subjects with sufficient biological substrate to improve from therapy, and so might be useful as an entry criterion in repair-based trials.
Aromatase inhibition impairs skeletal modeling and decreases bone mineral density in growing male rats.

Aromatization of androgens into estrogens may explain some of the skeletal action of androgens. We examined the effect of the aromatase inhibitor Vorozole (VOR) on skeletal growth and mineral accumulation in growing 6-week-old male Wistar rats. Rats were either Sham-operated (Sham) or Orchidectomized (Orch) and treated with or without the aromatase inhibitor VOR. One Sham-operated group was killed at Baseline (Base); the four other groups (Sham, Sham+ VOR, Orch, Orch + VOR) were killed 18 weeks after surgery. As expected, all groups gained body weight, but body weight gain was significantly (−25%) lower in Orch, Orch + VOR, and Sham + VOR. Both bone formation, as assessed by serum osteocalcin, and bone resorption, as assessed by urinary (deoxy)pyridinoline, decreased significantly in all groups compared with Base. Orchidectomy resulted in a relative increase of biochemical markers of bone formation and resorption compared with Sham. Treatment with VOR, however, resulted only in a very moderate increase of.
Dynamic Imaging of the Metaphase II Spindle and Maternal Chromosomesin Bovine Oocytes: Implications for Enucleation Efficiency Verification, Avoidanceof Parthenogenesis, and Successful Embryogenesis1

Abstract Manipulations of DNA and cellular structures are essential for the propagation of genetically identical animals by nuclear transfer. However, none of the steps have been optimized yet. This study reports a protocol that improves live dynamic imaging of the unfertilized bovine oocyte's meiotic spindle microtubules with microinjected polymerization-competent X-rhodamine-tubulin and/or with vital long-wavelength excited DNA fluorochrome Sybr14 so that the maternal chromosomes can be verifiably removed to make enucleated eggs the starting point for cloning. Suitability of the new fluorochromes was compared to the conventional UV excitable Hoechst 33342 fluorochrome. Enucleation removed the smallest amount of cytoplasm (4–7%) and was 100% efficient only when performed under continuous fluorescence, i.e., longer fluorescence exposure. This was in part due to the finding that the second metaphase spindle is frequently displaced (60.7 ± 10%) from its previously assumed location subjacent to the first polar body. Removal of as much as 24 ± 3% of the oocyte cytoplasm underneath the polar body, in the absence of fluorochromes, often resulted in enucleation failure (36 ± 6%). When labeled oocytes were exposed to fluorescence and later activated, development to the blastocyst stage was lowest in the group labeled with Hoechst 33342 (3%), when compared to Sybr14 (19%), rhodamine-tubulin (23%), or unlabeled oocytes (37%). This suggests that longer wavelength fluorochromes can be employed for live visualization of metaphase spindle components, verification of their complete removal during enucleation, and avoidance of the confusion between artifactual parthenogenesis versus “cloning” success, without compromising the oocyte's developmental potential after activation.
Desiring disability : queer theory meets disability studies

Introduction: Desiring Disability: Queer Theory Meets Disability Studies - Abby Wilkerson and Robert McRuer Queering the Crip or Cripping the Queer? : Crippled Queer Solo Autobiographical Performance - Carrie Sandahl Sex Education, or How the Blind Became Heterosexual - Patrick White Crippling Masculinity: Queerness and Disability in U>S> Military Culture - David Serlin Feeling Her Way: Audre Lorde and the Power of Touch Sarah E Chinn A Very Troublesome Doctor: Biomedical Binaries, Worldmaking and the Poetry of Rafael Campo - Jo Rendell As Good As It Gets: Queer Theory and Critical Disability - Robert McRuer Phantom Limbs: Film Noir and the Disabled Body - Michael Davidson Bad Boys: Abstactions of Difference and the Politics of Youth "Deviance" - Todd Ramlow My Body, My Closet: Invisible Disability and the Limits of Coming-Out Discourse - Ellen Samuels GLQ ARCHIVE Gawking, Gaping, Staring - Eli Clare The Summer of Her Baldness - Catherine Lord Now What? (So nu? ) - Naomi Finkelstein REVIEW (AIDS / disability theory) : Cris Mayo
Predicting falls in older adults using the four square step test

ABSTRACT The Four Square Step Test (FSST) is a performance-based balance tool involving stepping over four single-point canes placed on the floor in a cross configuration. The purpose of this study was to evaluate properties of the FSST in older adults who lived independently. Forty-five community dwelling older adults provided fall history and completed the FSST, Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Timed Up and Go (TUG), and Tinetti in random order. Future falls were recorded for 12 months following testing. The FSST accurately distinguished between non-fallers and multiple fallers, and the 15-second threshold score accurately distinguished multiple fallers from non-multiple fallers based on fall history. The FSST predicted future falls, and performance on the FSST was significantly correlated with performance on the BBS, TUG, and Tinetti. However, the test is not appropriate for older adults who use walkers. Overall, the FSST is a valid yet underutilized measure of balance performance and fall prediction tool that physical therapists should consider using in ambulatory community dwelling older adults.
Neonatal Near Miss: the need for a standard definition and appropriate criteria and the rationale for a prospective surveillance system

In Latin American, there is currently a regional action with the main purposes of putting the concept of severe neonatal morbidity in practice and formulating proposals for interventions. A general overview of neonatal health conditions, including morbidity and mortality, is provided to update regional knowledge on the topic. An example of the development and implementation of the concept of maternal near miss is also provided, followed by results from a systematic review covering all previously published studies on Neonatal Near Miss. Finally, some proposals for building a common concept on the topic and for launching a prospective surveillance study are presented. A Neonatal Near Miss is a neonate who had a severe morbidity (organ dysfunction or failure) but who survived this condition within the first 27 days of life. The pragmatic criteria recommended to be used are as follows: birth weight below 1700 g, Apgar score below 7 at 5 minutes of life and gestational age below 33 weeks. As a proxy for organ dysfunction, the following management criteria are also confirmed: parenteral therapeutic antibiotics; nasal continuous positive airway pressure; any intubation during the first 27 days of life; phototherapy within the first 24 h of life; cardiopulmonary resuscitation; the use of vasoactive drugs, anticonvulsants, surfactants, blood products and steroids for refractory hypoglycemia and any surgical procedure. Although this study starts from a regional perspective, this topic is clearly globally relevant. All nations, especially low and middle-income countries, could benefit from the proposed standardization.