Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Irinotecan or oxaliplatin combined with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin as first-line therapy for advanced colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND To compare clinical efficacy and toxicity of irinotecan combined with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin with those of oxaliplatin combined with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin as first-line therapy for advanced colorectal cancer. METHODS Literature search was performed by keywords "irinotecan", "oxaliplatin" and "colorectal cancer" on all randomized controlled trails reported on irinotecan versus oxaliplatin combined with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin as first-line therapy for advanced colorectal cancer in MEDLINE, OVID, Springer, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR) and CBMdisc (Chinese Biology and Medicine disc) before January 2010. Two authors drew the details of trial design, characteristics of patients, outcomes, and toxicity from the studies included. Data analysis was performed by RevMan 4.2. RESULTS According to the screening criteria, 7 clinical studies with 2095 participants of advanced colorectal cancer were included in this meta analysis. The baseline characteristics of irinotecan group were similar to those of oxaliplatin group. The response rate of oxaliplatin group was higher than that of irinotecan group (relative risk (RR) = 0.82, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) (0.70, 0.96), P = 0.01), and the median overall survival of oxaliplatin group was longer by 2.04 months than that of irinotecan group (95%CI (-3.54, -0.54), P = 0.008). In the comparison of grade 3 - 4 toxicity between the two groups, the incidences of nausea, emesis, diarrhoea and alopecia in irinotecan group were higher than those in oxaliplatin group (RR = 1.94, 95%CI (1.22, 3.09), P = 0.005; 1.71, 95%CI (1.34, 2.18), P < 0.001; 14.56, 95%CI (4.11, 51.66), P < 0.0001), respectively. However, the incidence of neurotoxicity, neutropenia and thrombocytopenia in irinotecan group were lower than those in oxaliplatin group (RR = 0.06, 95%CI (0.03, 0.14), P < 0.00001; 0.70, 95%CI (0.55, 0.91), P = 0.006; 0.18, 95%CI (0.05, 0.61), P = 0.006), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Both irinotecan and oxaliplatin combined with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin were effective in the first-line therapy of advanced colorectal cancer. However, the combined regimen of oxaliplatin plus 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin is more excellent. Irinotecan tended to result in more gastrointestinal tract reactions than oxaliplatin did, but the myelosuppression and neurotoxicity were more frequent in oxaliplatin regimen than irinotecan regimen.
Denial and Confirmatory Search: Paradoxical Consequences of Medical Diagnosis1

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of medical diagnostic-test results on illness appraisal and the recall of symptoms and behavior. Subjects were tested for a fictitious enzyme deficiency and were told either that the test result was positive (deficiency present) or that it was negative (deficiency absent). In addition, some of the subjects were told the test was accurate 95% of the time and others were told it was accurate 75% of the time. As predicted, subjects judged the enzyme deficiency as less serious and more prevalent when presented with positive test results. Subjects with positive test results also recalled more behaviors that had been labeled as risk factors. Although positive test subjects tended to report more deficiency-related symptoms, diagnosis did not affect the free recall of general symptoms. In addition, information concerning the reliability of the diagnostic test had no effect on judgments or recall but did affect information seeking. Subjects with positive test results were less likely to request a definitive follow-up test when their results were unreliable. The results are interpreted as evidence for independent confirmatory search and denial processes following medical diagnosis.
Foundations of the Trace Assertion Method of Module Interface Specification

The trace assertion method is a formal state machine based method for specifying module interfaces. A module interface specification treats the module as a black-box, identifying all the module's access programs (i.e., programs that can be invoked from outside of the module) and describing their externally visible effects. In the method, both the module states and the behaviors observed are fully described by traces built from access program invocations and their visible effects. A formal model for the trace assertion method is proposed. The concept of step-traces is introduced and applied. The stepwise refinement of trace assertion specifications is considered. The role of nondeterminism, normal and exceptional behavior, value functions, and multiobject modules are discussed. The relationship with algebraic specifications is analyzed. A tabular notation for writing trace specifications to ensure readability is adapted.
Association of direct‐to‐consumer genome‐wide disease risk estimates and self‐reported disease

The ongoing controversy surrounding direct‐to‐consumer (DTC) personal genomic tests intensified last year when the U.S. Government Accountability Office released results of an undercover investigation of four companies that offer such testing. Among their findings, they reported that some of their donors received DNA‐based predictions that conflicted with their actual medical histories. We aimed to more rigorously evaluate the relationship between DTC genomic risk estimates and self‐reported disease by leveraging data from the Scripps Genomic Health Initiative. We prospectively collected self‐reported personal and family health history data for 3,416 individuals, who went on to purchase a commercially available DTC genomic test. For 5 out of 15 total conditions studied, we found that risk estimates from the test were significantly associated with self‐reported family and/or personal health history. The five conditions included Graves' disease, Type 2 Diabetes, Lupus, Alzheimer's disease, and Restless Leg Syndrome. To further investigate these findings, we ranked each of the 15 conditions based on published heritability estimates and conducted post hoc power analyses, based on the number of individuals in our sample who reported significant histories of each condition. We found that high heritability, coupled with high prevalence in our sample and thus adequate statistical power, explained the pattern of associations observed. Our study represents one of the first evaluations of the relationship between risk estimates from a commercially available DTC personal genomic test and self‐reported health histories in the consumers of that test. Genet. Epidemiol. 36 : 66–70, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
DRIVERS' RATINGS OF DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF THEIR OWN DRIVING SKILL: A GREATER ILLUSION OF SUPERIORITY FOR SKILLS THAT RELATE TO ACCIDENT INVOLVEMENT

Different components of driving skill relate to accident involvement in different ways. For instance, while hazard-perception skill has been found to predict accident involvement, vehicle-control skill has not. We found that drivers rated themselves superior to both their peers and the average driver on 18 components of driving skill (N = 181 respondents). These biases were greater for hazard-perception skills than for either vehicle-control skills or driving skill in general. Also, ratings of hazard-perception skill related to self-perceived safety after overall skill was controlled for. We suggest that although drivers appear to appreciate the role of hazard perception in safe driving, any safety benefit to be derived from this appreciation may be undermined by drivers' inflated opinions of their own hazard-perception skill. We also tested the relationship between illusory beliefs about driving skill and risk taking and looked at ways of manipulating drivers' illusory beliefs.
A New Quick-Response and High-Efficiency Control Strategy of an Induction Motor

New quick-response and high-efficiency control of an induction motor, which is quite different from that of the field-oriented control is proposed. The most obvious differences between the two are as follows. 1) The proposed scheme is based on limit cycle control of both flux and torque using optimum PWM output voltage; a switching table is employed for selecting the optimum inverter output voltage vectors so as to attain as fast a torque response, as low an inverter switching frequency, and as low harmonic losses as possible. 2) The efficiency optimization in the steady-state operation is also considered; it can be achieved by controlling the amplitude of the flux in accordance with the torque command. To verify the feasibility of this scheme, experimentation, simulation, and comparison with field-oriented control are carried out. The results prove the excellent characteristics for torque response and efficiency, which confirm the validity of this control scheme.
Microscale profiling of photosynthesis‐related variables in a highly productive biofilm photobioreactor

In the present study depth profiles of light, oxygen, pH and photosynthetic performance in an artificial biofilm of the green alga Halochlorella rubescens in a porous substrate photobioreactor (PSBR) were recorded with microsensors. Biofilms were exposed to different light intensities (50–1,000 μmol photons m−2 s−1) and CO2 levels (0.04–5% v/v in air). The distribution of photosynthetically active radiation showed almost identical trends for different surface irradiances, namely: a relatively fast drop to a depth of about 250 µm, (to 5% of the incident), followed by a slower decrease. Light penetrated into the biofilm deeper than the Lambert‐Beer Law predicted, which may be attributed to forward scattering of light, thus improving the overall light availability. Oxygen concentration profiles showed maxima at a depth between 50 and 150 μm, depending on the incident light intensity. A very fast gas exchange was observed at the biofilm surface. The highest oxygen concentration of 3.2 mM was measured with 1,000 μmol photons m−2 s−1 and 5% supplementary CO2. Photosynthetic productivity increased with light intensity and/or CO2 concentration and was always highest at the biofilm surface; the stimulating effect of elevated CO2 concentration in the gas phase on photosynthesis was enhanced by higher light intensities. The dissolved inorganic carbon concentration profiles suggest that the availability of the dissolved free CO2 has the strongest impact on photosynthetic productivity. The results suggest that dark respiration could explain previously observed decrease in growth rate over cultivation time in this type of PSBR. Our results represent a basis for understanding the complex dynamics of environmental variables and metabolic processes in artificial phototrophic biofilms exposed to a gas phase and can be used to improve the design and operational parameters of PSBRs. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1046–1055. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Theory of the Thermal Diffusion of Electrolytes in a Clusius Column

A theory is presented which accounts approximately for the apparently anomalous difference between the thermal diffusion coefficients of an ion in the presence and in the absence of other electrolytes; the theory is based on the existence of an electric field parallel to the thermal gradient in the electrolyte as a consequence of the variation in mobility among the various ions present. It is pointed out also that some data on the behavior of electrolytes in a Clusius column are at variance with the Debye exponential law concerning the steady‐state distribution of solute.
Abuse of disabled children in Ghana

Even though disabled children are targets of various forms of abuse, such issues remain mostly undocumented open secrets in many countries including Ghana. The article is based on a qualitative data provided by three key informants. Six stories emerged from the data and are discussed in terms of four main forms of abuse. Labelling theories are employed to strengthen the discussions. The article is aimed at increasing awareness on the various forms of abuse experienced by disabled children in Ghana. The study is also meant to capture the attentions of stakeholders that have the responsibility to end abusive practices against disabled children in Ghana.
Statistical analysis of dynamic variability in 28nm FD-SOI MOSFETs

The impact of the dynamic variability due to low frequency and RTS fluctuations on single MOSFET operation from 28nm FD-SOI technology is investigated for the first time. It is shown that, for small rise time of ramp gate voltage, the drain current characteristics Id(Vg) exhibit a huge sweep-to-sweep dispersion due to the low frequency noise. Such a single device dynamic variability, which scales as the reciprocal square root of device area, is added to the static mismatch contribution and could amount up to ≈30% of static variability sources.
Spectrum of EGFR gene mutations in Vietnamese patients with non–small cell lung cancer

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutational status is a crucial biomarker for prediction of response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Although these mutations have been well characterized in other countries, little is known about the frequency or spectrum of EGFR mutations in Vietnamese NSCLC patients.
Expression of Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase ( iNOS ) in Astrocytomas of Various WHO Grades with and without Malignant Progression

Nitric Oxide (NO), a free radical gas implicated in a wide variety of biological processes, is generated in many mammalian cells by a family of enzymes, i.e. Nitric Oxide Synthases (NOS). Nitric oxide produced by the inducible NOS isoform (iNOS or NOS II) seems to play an important role in tumor biology showing both tumor promoter and antitumor activity. The aim of the present study was to determine the cellular localization of iNOS in astrocytoma (WHO grade II), anaplastic astrocytoma (WHO grade III) and glioblastoma (GBM) (WHO grade IV) by immunohistochemistry using commercially available antibodies, as well as to detect possible changes in astrocytomas with malignant progression compared to the non-progressive group. Positive iNOS immunostaining was detected in all samples of astrocytoma specimens, whereas non-tumorous brain tissue adjacent to the tumor did not show any iNOS positivity. The tumor tissue revealed a highly inhomogeneous staining pattern. We found uniformly stained tumor specimens and groups of markedly iNOS-positive tumor cells, besides unstained tumor tissue as well as randomly scattered individual tumor cells expressing a marked staining. Immunoreactivity was located within the cytoplasm of neoplastic astrocytes.There were no statistically significant differences among astrocytomas of WHO grades II, III, and IV, between astrocytomas with and without malignant progression. Furthermore, there was no clear correlation between the density of iNOS-immunopositive cells and survival time. Further studies will be necessary to elucidate the role of iNOS in concert with other signaling pathways played in astrocytomas in order to see how and to what extent they are functionally interrelated.
Semantic connection or visual connection: Investigating the true source of confusion

It has been repeatedly argued among vocabulary researchers that semantically related words should not be taught simultaneously because they can interfere with each other. However, the question of what types of relatedness cause interference has rarely been examined carefully. In addition, there are disagreements among the past studies that have examined this issue, with some providing results showing that semantic clustering does not cause interference and confusion (e.g. Papathanasiou, 2009) and some seeming to suggest that different types of semantic similarity affect memory in different ways (Tinkham, 1997). Replicating a study by Ishii (2013), this article reports the results of a study conducted with the hypothesis that the shared visual feature of the referents of the words learned simultaneously is a significant causal factor in interference. The study compared the learning of (1) unrelated, (2) semantically related, and (3) physically related sets of words; the results confirmed that physically related sets were harder to learn than the other two sets and exhibited more cases of confusion in a test conducted after an interval of 20 minutes. The semantically related sets, which were controlled for physical relatedness, were neither harder nor easier to learn than the unrelated sets, although there were some signs of confusion in the process of learning them. This suggests the possibility that the impeding effect of semantic clustering repeatedly reported in the past (e.g. Tinkham, 1993, 1997; Waring 1997) could be partly due to the visual features sometimes shared between the referents of semantically similar words.
Identification and Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus Strains with an Incomplete Hemolytic Phenotype

Staphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen causing both hospital and community-acquired infections. Hemolysin is one of the important virulence factors for S. aureus and causes the typical β-hemolytic phenotype which is called complete hemolytic phenotype as well. Recently, S. aureus with an incomplete hemolytic phenotype (SIHP) was isolated from clinical samples. To study the microbiologic characteristics of SIHP, the special hemolytic phenotype of SIHP was verified on the sheep blood agar plates supplied by different manufacturers. Expression of hemolysin genes hla, hlb, hlgC, and hld of SIHP was detected by qRT-PCR and it was showed that expression of hlb in SIHP was obviously increased compared to the control S. aureus strains with complete hemolytic phenotype (SCHP), while the expression of hla, hlgC, and hld in SIHP was significantly decreased. In addition, the α-hemolysin encoded by gene hla was decreased obviously in SIHP compared to SCHP by western blot. All 60 SIHP strains were identified to be the methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and moreover these SIHP strains all contains mecA gene. The virulence gene tst were all present in SIHP, and the intracellular survival ability of SIHP was much greater than that of the gene tst negative S. aureus. We also found that IL-2, IL-6, and IL-17A secreted in the supernatant of SIHP infected macrophages increased significantly compared to tst negative control strains infected ones. MLST analysis showed that all of SIHP strains were classified into ST5 clone. To our knowledge, this study firstly showed that SIHP strains are a kind of methicillin resistant strains which express β-hemolysin highly and possess a potential high virulence, and it was suggested that SIHP should be paid more attention in hospital.
Developmental changes in attentional performance in urban children from eight to thirteen years

Abstract In an earlier study of an epidemiological sample of 435 urban 8-year-old children, factor analytically-derived components of attention, as assessed by neuropsychological tests, were identified and were found to be significantly related to adaptive functioning. In this study we followed that cohort longitudinally and assessed developmental changes in specific aspects of attentional function into early adolescence. Significant reductions in omission errors and improvements in reaction times were found from ages 8 to 13 years on different versions of the Continuous Performance Task, a measure of sustained attention, with the effects varying by task difficulty level and subjects' gender. Significant improvements across age also were found on measures of the ability to focus attention and execute a response, shift attentional focus, and encode information in memory. In general, the most rapid changes in attention occurred between ages 8 to 10 years with more gradual changes occurring between ages 10 t.
Ameliorative Potentials of Ginger (Z. officinale Roscoe) on Relative Organ Weights in Streptozotocin induced Diabetic Rats

The ameliorating potentials of ginger incorporated feed (10%) on the relative organ weights of Streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats was investigated. The experiment lasted for three weeks. Results show that administration of 10% ginger feed to the diabetic rats of group 3, resulted in a 29.81% decrease in their resulting hyperglycemia with a corresponding amelioration of elevated urinary protein, sugars, specific gravity as well as renal growth. In addition, administration of the ginger incorporated feeds to the diabetic rats of group 3, resulted in 9.88% increase in body weight with a corresponding 60.24% increase in growth compared with the non-diabetic rats administered standard rat pellets that had 6.21% increase in weight with a corresponding 60.14% increase in growth unlike the diabetic control rats that recorded 28.62% decrease in body weight with a corresponding 239.9% decrease in growth rates. Analysis of the chemical composition of the flour of the ginger incorporated feed indicated that it contained moderate amounts of moisture, crude fibre, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, Fe and Zn but considerable amounts of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, ash, flavonoids, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous and energy value. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the liver and relative liver weights of the diabetic control rats and the diabetic -ginger treated rats. In addition, there were no significant differences in the kidney weights of the non-diabetic, diabetic control and diabetic treated rats (P>0.05) while there were significant differences in the relative kidney weights of the non-diabetic rats and the diabetic rats treated with ginger feeds (P<0.05). Results show that the use of ginger in the dietary management of diabetes mellitus could be a breakthrough in the search for novel plants that could prevent the development of diabetic glomerular hypertrophy.
Different Rates of Spontaneous Mutation during Mitosis and Meiosis in Yeast.

cultures in the logarithmic phase of growth and by sampling from sporulated cultures after one meiotic duplication. The mutations studied in this work are reversions from auxotrophy (recessive) to prototrophy (dominant) in diploid cells carrying the specific biochemical requirement in the homozygous state. Specifically, estimates of phenotypic reversion frequency have been performed in strain 5160 for met to Met, in strain 5207 for ar to Ar, and strain 5209 for hi to Hi.