Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
UPFRONT DPD DEFICIENCY DETECTION TO SECURE 5-FU ADMINISTRATION: PART 2- APPLICATION TO HEAD-AND-NECK CANCER PATIENTS.

Background Upfront screening for dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency in patients scheduled for 5-FU should help reduce the risk of toxicities by preventive adaptive dosing. Our group has developed a simple functional testing categorizing patients upon their DPD status, i.e. extensive metabolizer (EM) or poor metabolizer (PM) patients, using UH2/U ratio measurement in plasma as a surrogate for DPD activity. 5-FU dosing can then be tailored according to DPD deficiency status. Objectives We present here an observational study of this strategy implemented in routine clinical practice when treating head-and-neck cancer patients. Results A total of 218 evaluable adult patients were treated with a 5-FU-regimen, with DPD-based adaptive dosing. Among them, 20 (9%) were identified as PM and received subsequently a 20-50% reduced dosing of 5-FU as compared with EM patients (2102 ±254 mg VS. 2577 ±353mg, p<0.001 ttest). Gender (Female) was associated with higher risk for being PM (p=0.01, Pearson's Chi squared test). Overall, early severe toxicities were seen only in 5% of patients, all being EM with standard dosing. Similarly, overall severe toxicities were observed in 12.8% of patients only, both figures being markedly lower than usually reported with standard 5-FU. Despite the average -20% reduction in 5-FU dosing between PM and EM patients, clinical efficacy was not statistically different between the two groups (p = 0.2774, chi-square test). Conclusion This study shows that 5-FU-related toxicities can be greatly reduced in routine clinical practice by the upfront detection of DPD deficient patients with simple adaptive dosing strategy.
Work engagement and occupational stress in nurses and other healthcare workers: the role of organisational and personal factors.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aims of this study were to: (1) identify the role of organisational and personal factors in predicting work engagement in healthcare workers and (2) compare work engagement and occupational stress perceptions of healthcare professional categories. BACKGROUND Healthcare professionals, with particular regard to nurses, are exposed to several job stressors that can adversely affect both their mental and physical health and also decrease work engagement. Work engagement can be considered as the positive opposite of burnout, and it is characterised by energy, involvement and professional efficacy. DESIGN A cross-sectional survey research was conducted with self-report questionnaires. METHODS The Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey, the Areas of Worklife Scale and four scales from the Occupational Stress Indicator were administered to a sample of 198 hospital staff (registered nurses, nurse aides, physicians and physiotherapists), of which 110 participated in the study. RESULTS The most significant predictors of energy were workload, mental health and job satisfaction; the best predictors of involvement were community, workload, mental health and job satisfaction; professional efficacy was best predicted by values and job satisfaction. In relation to the second aim, physiotherapists had the highest levels of occupational stress and disengagement from their work, while nurse aides were the most work-engaged and job-satisfied professional category, with positive perceptions of the work environment. CONCLUSIONS Both organisational and personal factors were found to be significantly associated with work engagement. In this study, physiotherapists were the category with the highest risk of work-related psychological problems, whereas nurse aides had the lowest risk. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Interventions aimed at improving clinical practice and psychological health of nurses and hospital staff should focus on workload, workers' personal expectations and job satisfaction.
A LEISURELY INTRODUCTION TO SIMPLICIAL SETS

Simplicial sets are introduced in a way that should be pleasing to the formally-inclined. Care is taken to provide both the geometric intuition and the categorical details, laying a solid foundation for the reader to move on to more advanced topological or higher categorical applications. The highlight, and the only possibly non-standard content, is a unied presentation of every adjunction whose left adjoint has the category of simplicial sets as its domain: geometric realization and the total singular complex functor, the ordinary nerve and its left adjoint, the homotopy coherent nerve and its left adjoint, and subdivision and extension are some of the many examples that t within this framework.
1.5-T multiparametric MRI using PI-RADS: a region by region analysis to localize the index-tumor of prostate cancer in patients undergoing prostatectomy

Background The use of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) to detect and localize prostate cancer has increased in recent years. In 2010, the European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) published guidelines for mpMRI and introduced the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) for scoring the different parameters. Purpose To evaluate the reliability and diagnostic performance of endorectal 1.5-T mpMRI using the PI-RADS to localize the index tumor of prostate cancer in patients undergoing prostatectomy. Material and Methods This institutional review board IRB-approved, retrospective study included 63 patients (mean age, 60.7 years, median PSA, 8.0). Three observers read mpMRI parameters (T2W, DWI, and DCE) using the PI-RADS, which were compared with the results from whole-mount histopathology that analyzed 27 regions of interest. Inter-observer agreement was calculated as well as sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predicted value (NPV) by dichotomizing the PI-RADS criteria scores ≥3. A receiver-operating curve (ROC) analysis was performed for the different MR parameters and overall score. Results Inter-observer agreement on the overall score was 0.41. The overall score in the peripheral zone achieved sensitivities of 0.41, 0.60, and 0.55 with an NPV of 0.80, 0.84, and 0.83, and in the transitional zone, sensitivities of 0.26, 0.15, and 0.19 with an NPV of 0.92, 0.91, and 0.92 for Observers 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The ROC analysis showed a significantly increased area under the curve (AUC) for the overall score when compared to T2W alone for two of the three observers. Conclusion 1.5 T mpMRI using the PI-RADS to localize the index tumor achieved moderate reliability and diagnostic performance.
Measured electric and magnetic fields from an unusual cloud‐to‐ground lightning flash containing two positive strokes followed by four negative strokes

[1] We present electric and magnetic fields measured at multiple stations between about 300 and 800 m of a cloud-to-ground “bipolar” lightning flash containing two initial positive strokes, separated in time by 53 ms and striking ground at two locations separated by about 800 m, followed by four negative strokes that traversed the same path as the second positive stroke. The leader electric field durations for the positive first, positive second, and negative third strokes were about 120 ms, 35 ms, and 1 ms, respectively. The first-stroke leader electric field changes measured at five stations ranged from about +16 to +35 kV/m, the second stroke +8 to +13 kV/m, and the third stroke −0.9 to −1.8 kV/m (atmospheric electricity sign convention). The microsecond-scale return stroke waveforms of the first and second (positive) strokes exhibited a similar “slow-front/fast-transition” to those observed for close negative first strokes. The peak rate-of-change of the positive first stroke electric field normalized to 100 km was about 20 V m−1μs−1, similar to the values observed for close negative first strokes. The positive second stroke was followed by a long continuing current of duration at least 400 ms, while the positive first stroke had a total current duration of only about 1 ms. All four negative strokes were followed by long continuing current, with durations ranging from about 70 ms to about 230 ms. The overall flash duration was about 1.5 s.
The welfare implications of public healthcare financing: a macro‐micro simulation analysis of Uganda

&NA; Studies on global health and development suggest that there is a strong correlation between the burden of disease and a country's level of income. Poorer countries tend to suffer more deaths from preventable causes such as communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions, compared with high‐income countries. In low‐income countries, the government health expenditure share in the general government budget is low and out‐of‐pocket payments for healthcare relatively high. They also rely heavily on external resources for health funding, yet sustainability of external resource flows is not guaranteed. This article explores increasing public healthcare funding from domestic resources mobilization, and evaluates the impact of measures to achieve this on sectoral growth and poverty reduction rates in Uganda using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model. This article shows that increasing the government health budget share, facilitates expanded healthcare services, improved population health, higher sectoral growth and reduced poverty. The agricultural sector is predicted to post the highest growth when compared with services and industry sectors under both domestic taxation and aid funding scenarios, while national poverty is predicted to decline from 31 to 12% of the population by 2020. This article demonstrates that the most effective measure is to frontload investment in healthcare and generate additional domestic funding for health from a household tax earmarked for health.
Exogenous T3 Elicits Long Day–Like Alterations in Testis Size and the RFamides Kisspeptin and Gonadotropin-Inhibitory Hormone in Short-Day Siberian Hamsters

Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) exhibit robust seasonal rhythms of reproduction driven by changes in day length. Day length is encoded endogenously by the duration of nocturnal melatonin (Mel) secretion from the pineal gland. Short duration Mel signals stimulate whereas long duration Mel signals inhibit reproduction. The mechanism by which Mel regulates the reproductive axis has not been fully characterized. In Siberian hamsters, the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3) is thought to be part of the photoperiodic mechanism. The availability of T3 is decreased in hamsters housed in short day lengths, and injections of exogenous T3 stimulate testicular growth in short-day (SD) Siberian hamsters. Thus, T3 acts as a neuroendocrine intermediate between the Mel rhythm and the reproductive axis. The RFamides kisspeptin (Kiss1) and gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH) also act as a link between the Mel rhythm and the reproductive axis. Expression of both of these neuropeptides is regulated by photoperiod and Mel. Kiss1 stimulates, and GnIH inhibits, the reproductive axis in long-day housed hamsters. It remains unknown whether T3 acts through changes in RFamide expression in the regulation of reproduction or whether these molecules act independently of one another. We tested the hypothesis that exogenous T3 administered to SD hamsters, a treatment that stimulates testicular growth, would also result in alterations in the patterns of Kiss1- and GnIH-immunoreactivity. Administration of T3 to SD hamsters resulted in significant testicular growth as well as a long day–like pattern of RFamide peptide expression. Thus, exogenous T3 elicited increased numbers of Kiss1-positive cells in the hypothalamic anteroventral periventricular nucleus, decreased numbers of Kiss1-positive cells in the arcuate nucleus, and a greater number of GnIH-positive cells in the dorsomedial hypothalamus compared with SD controls. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that T3 elicits alterations in the reproductive axis through alterations in RFamide peptide expression.
Measurement of dynamic hyperinflation after a 6-minute walk test in patients with COPD.

BACKGROUND Dynamic hyperinflation (DH) develops in patients with COPD during incremental exercise with a cycle ergometer. The aims of this study were to determine whether DH can be evidenced after walking with a handheld spirometer and to determine its functional consequences. METHODS Fifty patients with COPD (39 men; median age, 60 years [interquartile range (IQR), 54 to 69 years]; FEV(1), 45% predicted [IQR, 31 to 67% predicted]) underwent pulmonary function tests and a 6-min walk test (6MWT). Inspiratory capacity (IC) was measured with the patient in the standing position at rest and immediately after the 6MWT with a portable spirometer. Dyspnea was evaluated directly (change in Borg score during 6MWT) and indirectly (Medical Research Council scale). The first 20 patients performed an incremental exercise test with cycle ergometer that allowed for the measurement of IC at peak exercise and repeatedly during the first 3 min of recovery. RESULTS The median change in IC during the 6MWT was -210 mL (IQR, 55 to -440; n = 50), whereas the median change in IC during the exercise test was -295 mL (IQR, -145 to -515; n = 20). Both the IC and IC changes after 6MWT correlated to values after the exercise test. DH decreased rapidly after the end of the exercise test but was nonsignificantly different from the baseline value after 75 s of recovery. The percentage of decrease in IC during the 6MWT correlated with dyspnea (change in Borg score during 6MWT: r(2) = 0.21; p = 0.0006). CONCLUSIONS DH can be measured during a 6MWT with a handheld spirometer to allow for its evaluation in daily practice and its contribution to dyspnea while walking.
WILDTRACK: A Multi-camera HD Dataset for Dense Unscripted Pedestrian Detection

People detection methods are highly sensitive to occlusions between pedestrians, which are extremely frequent in many situations where cameras have to be mounted at a limited height. The reduction of camera prices allows for the generalization of static multi-camera set-ups. Using joint visual information from multiple synchronized cameras gives the opportunity to improve detection performance. In this paper, we present a new large-scale and high-resolution dataset. It has been captured with seven static cameras in a public open area, and unscripted dense groups of pedestrians standing and walking. Together with the camera frames, we provide an accurate joint (extrinsic and intrinsic) calibration, as well as 7 series of 400 annotated frames for detection at a rate of 2 frames per second. This results in over 40 000 bounding boxes delimiting every person present in the area of interest, for a total of more than 300 individuals. We provide a series of benchmark results using baseline algorithms published over the recent months for multi-view detection with deep neural networks, and trajectory estimation using a non-Markovian model.
A new clustering approach for learning transcriptional modules

In modern biology, we had an explosion of genomic data from multiple sources, like measurements of RNA levels, gene sequences, annotations or interaction data. These heterogeneous data provide important information that should be integrated through suitable learning methods aimed at elucidating regulatory networks. We propose an iterative relational clustering procedure for finding modules of co-regulated genes. This approach integrates information concerning known Transcription Factors (TFs)--gene interactions with gene expression data to find clusters of genes that share a common regulatory program. The results obtained on two well-known gene expression data sets from Saccharomyces cerevisiae are shown.
Colonoscopy quality measures: experience from the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme

Objectives Colonoscopy is central to colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Success of CRC screening is dependent on colonoscopy quality. The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) offers biennial faecal occult blood (FOB) testing to 60–74 year olds and colonoscopy to those with positive FOB tests. All colonoscopists in the screening programme are required to meet predetermined standards before starting screening and are subject to ongoing quality assurance. In this study, the authors examine the quality of colonoscopy in the NHS BCSP and describe new and established measures to assess and maintain quality. Design The NHS BCSP database collects detailed data on all screening colonoscopies. Prospectively collected data from the first 3 years of the programme (August 2006 to August 2009) were analysed. Colonoscopy quality indicators (adenoma detection rate (ADR), polyp detection rate, colonoscopy withdrawal time, caecal intubation rate, rectal retroversion rate, polyp retrieval rate, mean sedation doses, patient comfort scores, bowel preparation quality and adverse event incidence) were calculated along with measures of total adenoma detection. Results 2 269 983 individuals returned FOB tests leading to 36 460 colonoscopies. Mean unadjusted caecal intubation rate was 95.2%, and mean withdrawal time for normal procedures was 9.2 min. The mean ADR per colonoscopist was 46.5%. The mean number of adenomas per procedure (MAP) was 0.91; the mean number of adenomas per positive procedure (MAP+) was 1.94. Perforation occurred after 0.09% of procedures. There were no procedure-related deaths. Conclusions The NHS BCSP provides high-quality colonoscopy, as demonstrated by high caecal intubation rate, ADR and comfort scores, and low adverse event rates. Quality is achieved by ensuring BCSP colonoscopists meet a high standard before starting screening and through ongoing quality assurance. Measuring total adenoma detection (MAP and MAP+) as adjuncts to ADR may further enhance quality assurance.
MM G Mathematical Modelling and Geometry Volume 4 , No 1 , p . 41 – 50 ( 2016 ) Computer simulation of radiation dose absorption in biological specimens

The radiation in biological tissues is considered. It is studied how the kind of a biological tissue determined by its chemical composition and physical characteristics, as well as the beam parameters, affect the radiation depth-dose distribution. Numerical results are obtained using the application using the software package Geant4. The results of our simulations may be used for better understanding of processes that play a crucial role in hadron therapy. The efficiency of hadron therapy is based on the Bragg peak phenomenon and more precise localization of the biological effect of a therapeutic beam.
Handwriting forgery detection based on ink colour features

Document forgery detection is a vitally important field because the forensic role is used in many types of crimes. Adding new text is the most common type of document forgery methods because it is easy to apply and hard to detect. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to detect the forgery in a text by detecting different ink using image processing instead of conventional methods. All documents are scanned as an image and segmented into objects. Then nine features are extracted from each object based on red, green and blue channels. Distance measurements between each nearby pairs of feature vectors are computed using root mean square error. Modified Thompson Tau test is applied to extract anomaly points. The tampered points are then obtained exactly from anomaly points. Modified Thompson Tau test has a high-efficiency detection and a low omission ratio but its precision is not ideal. Therefore, the second outlier detection has been used to help to make up the difference in precision. The experimental results show that our proposed method can not only detect but also localize tampered objects efficiently.
Theanine and Caffeine Content of Infusions Prepared from Commercial Tea Samples

Background: Caffeine and L-theanine are pharmacologically important constituents of tea, especially due to their effects on the central nervous system. The effects of these two compounds are opposite: While caffeine is a well-known stimulant, theanine has a relaxing effect. Tea processing may influence the caffeine and theanine content of tea leaves. Objective: The aim of our work was to quantify these constituents from a set of commercial products to reveal the possible correlations of caffeine and theanine content and processing methods. Materials and Methods: Theanine and caffeine contents of 37 commercial white, green, oolong, black, and pu-erh tea samples were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector. Results: The mean L-theanine content of white, green, oolong, and black teas were 6.26, 6.56, 6.09, and 5.13 mg/g, respectively. The same values for caffeine content were 16.79, 16.28, 19.31, and 17.73 mg/g. Conclusion: Though the effect of processing on theanine content was evident, quantification for these analytes does not seem to be a good criterion to discriminate the different types of tea. Caffeine content provided no information on the effect of processing, and the theanine content of the samples was rather variable, independently from the type of the tea. The quantitative analysis of caffeine and theanine is essential to assess the stimulating effect of the tea, however, for chemical profiling further secondary metabolites have to be determined.
Analysis and Experimental Evaluation of Power Line Transmission Parameters for Power Line Communication

Abstract The article describes a way of evaluating the power line channel frequency response and input impedance by means of the linear time-invariant (LTI) power line generator. Two possible methods are introduced for the calculation of primary parameters: the first method depends on the physical realization and physical dimension of the cable, and the second method is derived from the data provided by typical electrical cable manufacturers. Based on these methods, a comparison of transfer functions was made. This is followed by measurement evaluation and numerical verification on a simple topology
The Effect of Maternal Language on Bilingual Children's Vocabulary and Emergent Literacy Development During Head Start and Kindergarten

This investigation examined the impact of maternal language and children's gender on bilingual children's vocabulary and emergent literacy development during 2 years in Head Start and kindergarten. Seventy-two mothers and their children who attended English immersion programs participated. Questionnaires administered annually over a 3-year period revealed that mothers increased their usage of English to their children. In addition, more mothers of sons reported using “More or All English” with their children than mothers of daughters. Growth curve modeling indicated that increased usage of English did not impact children's English vocabulary or emergent literacy development. However, increased usage of English slowed the growth of children's Spanish vocabulary. Despite differences in mother-to-child language usage, gender did not impact growth in either language. These findings provide evidence that maternal usage of Spanish does not negatively affect children's developing English vocabulary or emergent literacy abilities. Maternal usage of Spanish appears necessary to maximize children's developing Spanish vocabulary.
Comparative study of the efficacy of Platelet‐rich plasma combined with carboxytherapy vs its use with fractional carbon dioxide laser in atrophic acne scars

Acne scars are a major concerning problem to all acne patients affecting their quality of life. Platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) and fractional CO2 laser are innovative treatment modalities for acne scars. Carboxytherapy can also be used to improve scar tissue through the increase in collagen deposition and reorganization, and the improvement in skin texture and tone.