Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Resectable Rectal Adenocarcinoma

Abstract:The goal of treatment is to cure whereas maintaining sphincter function and minimizing toxicity. Although the mainstay of the treatment is surgery, radiotherapy (RT) is used in a substantial proportion of patients depending on the location and extent of the tumor. The aim of this article is to discuss the role of RT in patients with resectable rectal adenocarcinoma. This article is a review of the pertinent literature.Results show that patients with T1N0 exophytic, well to moderately differentiated, mobile tumors ≤3 cm in diameter may be treated with either transanal excision or endocavitary RT. The probability of cure with either approach is approximately 80% to 90% and depends on selection criteria. The advantages of endocavitary RT are that it is an outpatient procedure requiring, at most, local anesthesia and is suitable for elderly, infirm patients. The disadvantage is that few of these treatment units are available. Patients who experience a local-regional recurrence may be surgically salvaged.Patients who undergo transanal excision and have unfavorable pathologic findings including equivocal or close margins, poor differentiation, invasion of the muscularis propria, and/or endothelial-lined space invasion have a high risk of local-regional recurrence after surgery alone. The addition of postoperative RT improves the likelihood of cure from 85% to 90%. Patients presenting with unfavorable tumors that are borderline resectable with a transanal excision may be downstaged with preoperative RT and rendered suitable for a wide local excision. The addition of concomitant chemotherapy probably enhances downstaging and may improve the likelihood of sphincter preservation.Patients with T3 and/or N1 rectal cancers have a relatively high probability of local-regional recurrence after surgery alone. Preoperative RT and postoperative RT combined with adjuvant chemotherapy have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of local-regional recurrence and improve survival. Whether preoperative RT alone or combined with chemotherapy is more efficacious than postoperative chemoradiation remains unclear.Endocavitary RT or transanal excision is suitable for patients with T1N0 cancers. Depending on tumor location and extent, adjuvant RT may improve the probability of local-regional control and survival for patients with locally advanced rectal adenocarcinomas.
Ensuring Spatio-Temporal Consistency in Distributed Networks of Smart Cameras

Spatio-temporal consistency is essential to ensure validity in coordinated replies generated from a wide area distributed sensor system. Consistency requirements are particularly stringent for analyzing composite images from a network of smart cameras, where even modest inconsistency in either space or time often results in misinterpretations of the composite scene. In this paper, we describe techniques to ensure spatio-temporally consistent analysis of composite images from distributed camera networks. We have incorporated our techniques into IrisNet, a prototype wide-area distributed system for cameras and other sensors. We demonstrate how our techniques apply in the context of two real-world applications, nearshore oceanography and parking space finder, which require spatio-temporal consistency.
DSSD : Deconvolutional Single Shot Detector

The main contribution of this paper is an approach for introducing additional context into state-of-the-art general object detection. To achieve this we first combine a state-of-the-art classifier (Residual-101[14]) with a fast detection framework (SSD[18]). We then augment SSD+Residual-101 with deconvolution layers to introduce additional large-scale context in object detection and improve accuracy, especially for small objects, calling our resulting system DSSD for deconvolutional single shot detector. While these two contributions are easily described at a high-level, a naive implementation does not succeed. Instead we show that carefully adding additional stages of learned transformations, specifically a module for feed-forward connections in deconvolution and a new output module, enables this new approach and forms a potential way forward for further detection research. Results are shown on both PASCAL VOC and COCO detection. Our DSSD with $513 \times 513$ input achieves 81.5% mAP on VOC2007 test, 80.0% mAP on VOC2012 test, and 33.2% mAP on COCO, outperforming a state-of-the-art method R-FCN[3] on each dataset.
Leuprorelin Acetate Long-Lasting Effects on GnRH Receptors of Prostate Cancer Cells: An Atomic Force Microscopy Study of Agonist/Receptor Interaction

High cell-surface GnRH receptor (GnRH-R) levels have been shown to have a major influence on the extent of GnRH agonist-mediated tumor growth inhibition. The ability of the GnRH agonist leuprorelin acetate (LA) to induce a post-transcriptional upregulation of GnRH-R at the plasma membrane of androgen-sensitive (LNCaP) and -insensitive (PC-3) prostate cancer (PCa) cells has been previously demonstrated by Western blotting. Here we performed single molecule force spectroscopy by using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), which has proven to be a powerful tool allowing for investigation of living cell surface biological features, such as the so far unclear GnRH agonist/receptor interaction. Thus, in the hormone-insensitive PC-3 cells, we characterized the strength of the LA-receptor binding, and the amount and distribution of the functional receptor molecules on the cell surface. The effect of a long and continuous treatment (up to 30 days) with the agonist (10−11 and 10−6 M) on the same parameters was also investigated. A GnRH-R increase was observed, reaching the maximum (∼80%) after 30 days of treatment with the highest dose of LA (10−6 M). The analogue-induced increase in GnRH-R was also demonstrated by Western blotting. In addition, two different receptor bound strengths were detected by AFM, which suggests the existence of two GnRH-R classes. A homogeneous distribution of the unbinding events has been found on untreated and treated PC-3 cell surfaces. The persistence of high receptor levels at the membrane of these living cells may warrant the maintenance of the response to LA also in androgen-unresponsive PCa. Moreover, the determination of ligand/receptor bond strength could shed light on the poorly understood event of LA/GnRH-R interaction and/or address structural/chemical agonist optimizations.
Endocytosis of light chains induces cytokines through activation of NF-kappaB in human proximal tubule cells.

BACKGROUND In proteinuric states increased cytokine production through endocytosis of filtered proteins by proximal tubule cells (PTCs) has been proposed as a major mechanism mediating tubulointerstitial injury and progressive kidney disease. We studied the effects of six different light chains (LCs) on the production of cytokines in cultured human PTCs. METHODS LCs were isolated and purified from the urine of patients with myeloma and human PTCs were exposed to either LC or human serum albumin (HSA) for up to 24 hours. LC endocytosis was monitored by immunocytochemistry. Cytokines were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the supernatants and activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) was detected by electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) and immunocytochemistry. RESULTS Endocytosis of LCs induced the release of interleukins (IL) IL-6, IL-8 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1); however, there was considerable variability among the six different LCs. In contrast, HSA had no effect on cytokine production even at very high concentrations. Removal of LC-containing media resulted in cessation of IL-6 release. LC-induced cytokine release was associated with nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB subunits p50 and p65, as demonstrated by both EMSA and immunocytochemistry. Inhibitors of NF-kappaB, aspirin and pyrrolidineditiocarbamate (PDTC) markedly suppressed LC-induced cytokine production. CONCLUSION LC endocytosis leads to production of inflammatory cytokines through activation of NF-kappaB. This may be an important mechanism of chronic tubulointerstitial inflammation process commonly seen in multiple myeloma. These findings also point out a potential role by filterable low-molecular-weight proteins, like LCs, in PTC injury during all proteinuric diseases.
An Improved Fuzzy Neural Network for Traffic Speed Prediction Considering Periodic Characteristic

This paper proposes a new method in construction fuzzy neural network to forecast travel speed for multi-step ahead based on 2-min travel speed data collected from three remote traffic microwave sensors located on a southbound segment of a fourth ring road in Beijing City. The first-order Takagi–Sugeno system is used to complete the fuzzy inference. To train the evolving fuzzy neural network (EFNN), two learning processes are proposed. First, a $K$ -means method is employed to partition input samples into different clusters and a Gaussian fuzzy membership function is designed for each cluster to measure the membership degree of samples to the cluster centers. As the number of input samples increases, the cluster centers are modified and membership functions are also updated. Second, a weighted recursive least squares estimator is used to optimize the parameters of the linear functions in the Takagi–Sugeno type fuzzy rules. Furthermore, a trigonometric regression function is introduced to capture the periodic component in the raw speed data. Specifically, the predicted performance between the proposed model and six traditional models are compared, which are artificial neural network, support vector machine, autoregressive integrated moving average model, and vector autoregressive model. The results suggest that the prediction performances of EFNN are better than those of traditional models due to their strong learning ability. As the prediction time step increases, the EFNN model can consider the periodic pattern and demonstrate advantages over other models with smaller predicted errors and slow raising rate of errors.
Parental Sex and Age: Their Effect on Pain Assessment of Young Children

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether mothers and fathers assess pain in their offspring differently and to assess other variables that may affect the way parents assess their child's pain. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted at a university-affiliated hospital in Israel. Children who were 0 to 4 years, who came to the emergency department with both parents and underwent a painful procedure, were included. The investigators provided instructions regarding the use of a visual analog scale (VAS) to both parents at the same time using a standard information kit. Both parents were asked to rank the child's pain on a 100-mm VAS. Parents were blinded to each other's score. Results: A total of 61 couples were examined. There was no significant difference between mothers' VAS (59.1 ± 27.4) compared with father's VAS (57.9 ± 26.3) (P = 0.75). When analyses were stratified by mothers' age, the VAS declined from 67.4 ± 29 among mothers at the lowest age tertile to 48.4 ± 29 among mothers at the oldest age tertile. The fathers' VAS declined from 63.1 ± 25 among participants at the lowest age tertile to 51.3 ± 27 in the oldest age tertile. Conclusions: Fathers and mothers do not differ in their evaluation of their children's rating of pain. Younger parents, compared with older ones, tend to evaluate pain as more severe.
Victim and non-victim perceptions and experiences of cyber-harassing and cyberstalking behaviours

People are increasingly using the Internet and mobile phone technology to communicate with others in their daily lives. Despite researchers' claims that cyber-harassment is becoming increasingly widespread, little is known about the phenomenon. This thesis adopted a mixed methods approach to gain a holistic understanding of the experience of cyber-harassment, how it is perceived by non-victims, and police officers' perceptions of, and role in combating the crime. Although cyber-harassment is a crime within the UK, prosecuted using the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), few may perceive it as such due to the virtual nature of the perpetrator's behaviour. Using data gathered in an online survey completed by 320 undergraduate students, principal axis factoring revealed three dimensions underlying perceived criminality of 18 cyber-harassing behaviours – deception/disclosure, harassing messages, and malicious software. Sending malicious software and harassing messages were perceived as criminal but participants were unsure about more ambiguous acts associated with deceiving or disclosing information to the victim. High Internet self-efficacious individuals (i.e., those who feel more in control of online interactions) were more likely than low Internet self-efficacious individuals to perceive malicious software as criminal. Low-agreeable individuals were more likely than high-agreeable individuals to perceive harassing messages as criminal. Whilst personality and Internet self-efficacy influenced perceived criminality for some cyber-harassing behaviours the findings were not consistent. However, females were more likely than males to perceive harassing messages and behaviours associated with deception/disclosure as criminal.
Materials and methods.

T ranscranial laser therapy (TLT) is being tested as a therapy for patients with acute ischemic stroke. The NeuroThera Efficacy and Safety Trials, NEST-1 and NEST-2, demonstrated that TLT was safe. NEST-1, with 120 subjects, showed a significant clinical treatment benefit, whereas NEST-2, with 660 subjects, indicated a trend suggesting a possible benefit. Pooled analysis of these 2 trials showed that 41% of patients treated with TLT had a good outcome (modified Rankin Scale score ≤2) compared with 32% of those treated with sham (P=0.003; odds ratio, 1.67; 95% confidence interval , 1.19–2.35). 3 The exact mechanisms of the treatment effect are unknown. A leading concept is that infrared energy increases ATP in the brain and stimulates (or prevents) apoptotic cascades in mito-chondria. 4 The depth of brain penetration and putative therapeutic effect is also uncertain, but it is likely a few centimeters; therefore, superficial cerebral cortex is most likely to benefit from this intervention. We hypothesized that TLT would be most likely to have a measureable effect on cortical infarc-tion. We analyzed the NEST-2 data to determine whether TLT impacted cortical infarct volumes as well as total infarct volumes in subjects with probable cortical involvement. NEST-2 was a double-blind, sham-controlled, 1:1 randomized, clinical trial in which 660 patients were enrolled at 57 centers in 4 countries. Patients were eligible if they were 40 to 90 years of age, had a clinical diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke with a baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score of 7 to 22, had no evidence of cerebral hemorrhage, had not received thrombolytic therapy, and provided informed consent. Initiation of treatment had to occur within 24 hours after stroke onset. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria are detailed in the primary report of this trial. 2 Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either TLT or sham. All subjects received standard medical management throughout the trial. Clinical assessments, including the NIHSS and modified Rankin Scale, were performed at baseline and day 90. Neuroimaging was performed at baseline and day 5 (±2). Total infarct volumes were measured quantitatively using Alice software (Hayden Image Processing Solutions). Total infarct volumes also were assessed semiquantita-tively using the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) 5 on all protocol-required computed tomography (CT) scans (or MRI, if clinically indicated) performed on day 5 (±2). All scans were interpreted for ASPECTS by 2 independent raters who were blinded to treatment …
Direct Power Control of an AFE Using Predictive Control

This paper presents a new control scheme for an active front-end rectifier using model-based predictive control. The control strategy minimizes a cost function, which represents the desired behavior of the converter. Future values of currents and power are predicted using a discrete-time model. The active and reactive powers are directly controlled by selecting the optimal switching state. The main advantages of this method are that there is no need of linear current controllers, coordinates transformations or modulators. The rectifier operates with sinusoidal input currents and unity power factor. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the performance of the proposed power control scheme.
A Baseline Temporal Tagger for all Languages

Temporal taggers are usually developed for a certain language. Besides English, only few languages have been addressed, and only the temporal tagger HeidelTime covers several languages. While this tool was manually extended to these languages, there have been earlier approaches for automatic extensions to a single target language. In this paper, we present an approach to extend HeidelTime to all languages in the world. Our evaluation shows promising results, in particular considering that our approach neither requires language skills nor training data, but results in a baseline tagger for 200+ languages.
Ca2+‐permeable non‐NMDA glutamate receptors in rat magnocellular basal forebrain neurones

1 Ionotropic glutamate receptor‐mediated responses were recorded from rat magnocellular basal forebrain neurones under voltage clamp from a somatically located patch‐clamp pipette. Currents were recorded from both acutely dissociated neurones and neurones maintained in culture for up to 6 weeks. 2 Non‐NMDA and NMDA receptor‐mediated events could be distinguished pharmacologically using the selective agonists (S)‐α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA), kainate and N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA), and antagonists 6‐cyano‐7‐nitroquinoxaline‐2,3‐dione (CNQX) and D(‐)‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonopentanoic acid (AP5). 3 Responses to rapid application of AMPA displayed pronounced and rapid desensitization. Responses to kainate showed no desensitization. Steady‐state EC50 values for AMPA and kainate were 2.7 ± 0.4 μM (n= 5) and 138 ± 25 μM (n= 10), respectively. Cyclothiazide markedly increased current amplitude of responses to both agonists, whereas concanavalin A had no clear effect on either response. The selective AMPA receptor antagonist GYKI 53655 inhibited responses to kainate with an IC50 of 1.2 ± 0.08 μM (n= 5) at ‐70 mV. These data strongly suggest that AMPA receptors are the predominant non‐NMDA receptors expressed by basal forebrain neurones. 4 At ‐70 mV, approximately 6 % of control current amplitude remained, at a maximally effective concentration of GYKI 53655. This residual response displayed desensitization, was insensitive to cyclothiazide and was potentiated by concanavalin A, suggesting that it was mediated by a kainate receptor. 5 Current‐voltage relationships for non‐NMDA receptor‐mediated currents were obtained from both nucleated patches pulled from neurones in culture and from acutely dissociated neurones. With 30 μM spermine in the recording pipette, currents frequently displayed double‐rectification characteristic of non‐NMDA receptors with high Ca2+ permeabilities. Ca2+ permeability, relative to Na+ and Cs+, was investigated using constant field theory. The measured Ca2+ to Na+ permeability coefficient ratio was 0.26‐3.6; median, 1.27 (n= 15). 6 Current flow through non‐NMDA receptors was inhibited by Ca2+, Cd2+ and Co2+ ions. At a holding potential of ‐70 mV, a maximally effective concentration of Cd2+ (> 30 mM) reduced current amplitude by approximately 90 %, with an IC50 of 44 μM. In six out of seven cells tested, block by Cd2+ was voltage sensitive. 7 Ca2+ permeability of many of the non‐NMDA receptors expressed by magnocellular basal forebrain neurones may underlie the unusual sensitivity of cholinergic basal forebrain neurones to non‐NMDA receptor‐mediated excitotoxicity.
Trajectories of positive aging: observations from the women's health initiative study

ABSTRACT Background: The purpose of this study was to describe the longitudinal trajectories and bidirectional relationships of the physical-social and emotional functioning (EF) dimensions of positive aging and to identify their baseline characteristics. Methods: Women age 65 and older who enrolled in one or more Women's Health Initiative clinical trials (WHI CTs) and who had positive aging indicators measured at baseline and years 1, 3, 6, and 9 were included in these analyses (N = 2281). Analytic strategies included latent class growth modeling to identify longitudinal trajectories and multinomial logistic regression to examine the effects of baseline predictors on these trajectories. Results: A five-trajectory model was chosen to best represent the data. For Physical-Social Functioning (PSF), trajectory groups included Low Maintainer (8.3%), Mid-Low Improver (10.4%), Medium Decliner (10.7%), Mid-High Maintainer (31.2%), and High Maintainer (39.4%); for EF, trajectories included Low Maintainer (3%), Mid-Low Improver (9%), Medium Decliner (7.7%), Mid-High Maintainer (22.8%), and High Maintainer (57.5%). Cross-classification of the groups of trajectories demonstrated that the impact of a high and stable EF on PSF might be greater than the reverse. Low depression symptoms, low pain, and high social support were the most consistent predictors of high EF trajectories. Conclusion: Aging women are heterogeneous in terms of positive aging indicators for up to 9 years of follow-up. Interventions aimed at promoting sustainable EF might have diffused effects on other domains of healthy aging.
MOTOR UNIT NUMBER ESTIMATION (MUNE) AS A QUANTITATIVE MEASURE OF DISEASE PROGRESSION AND MOTOR UNIT REORGANIZATION IN AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS

Motor Unit Number Estimation (MUNE), a technique allowing to estimate the number of functioning Motor Units (MU) in single muscles, was used to score the disease's severity and progression rate in a group of 58 patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). All patients underwent MUNE in the abductor digiti minimi (ADM) muscle during the diagnostic work-up (T0), after three (T1) and six (T2) months. A significant loss [p < . 001] of MU and a decrease [p < . 001] of the maximal M wave area at T0 was found, whereas mean step area was increased [p < . 001]. During the follow-up (T1 and T2), MU loss continued, maximal M wave decreased, and mean step area increased significantly. The results confirm that MUNE is a suitable tool to quantify the pathological changes in MU in patients with ALS.
ANALYSIS OF ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

— India is the world’s largest democracy with a population of more than 1 billion; India has an electorate of more than 668 million and covers 543 parliamentary constituencies. Voting is the bridge between the governed and government. The last few years have brought a renewed focus on to the technology used in the voting process. The current voting system has many security holes, and it is difficult to prove even simple security properties about them. A voting system that can be proven correct has many concerns. There are some reasons for a government to use electronic systems are to increase elections activities and to reduce the elections expenses. Still there is some scope of work in electronic voting system because there is no way of identification by the electronic voting system whether the user is authentic or not and securing electronic voting machine from miscreants. This paper provides an overview of the experiences of other countries using electronic voting machine. The comparative focus is on the adoption of electronic voting systems adopted at the international level.