Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic Parameters and Spinal Metastases: A Research Study

Object To identify pre-operative prognostic parameters for survival in patients with spinal epidural neoplastic metastasis when the primary tumour is unknown. Methods This study was a retrospective chart review of patients who underwent surgery for spinal epidural neoplastic metastases between February 1997 and January 2011. The inclusion criteria were as follows: known post-operative survival period, a Karnofsky Performance Score equal to or greater than 30 points and a post-operative neoplastic metastasis histological type. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate post-operative survival, and the Log-Rank test was used for statistical inference. Results A total of 52 patients who underwent 52 surgical procedures were identified. The mean age at the time of spinal surgery was 53.92 years (std. deviation, 19.09). The median survival after surgery was 70 days (95% CI 49.97–90.02), and post-operative mortality occurred within 6 months in 38 (73.07%) patients. Lung cancer, prostate cancer, myeloma and lymphoma, the 4 most common primary tumour types, affected 32 (61.53%) patients. The three identified prognostic parameters were the following: pre-operative walking incapacity (American Spinal Injury Association, A and B), present in 86.53% of the patients (p-value = 0.107); special care dependency (Karnofsky Performance Score, 10–40 points), present in 90.38% of the patients (p-value = 0.322); and vertebral epidural neoplastic metastases that were in contact with the thecal sac (Weinstein-Boriani-Biagini, sector D), present in 94.23% of the patients (p-value = 0.643). When the three secondary prognostic parameters were combined, the mean post-operative survival was 45 days; when at least one was present, the survival was 82 days (p-value = 0.175). Conclusions Walking incapacity, special care dependency and contact between the neoplastic metastases and the thecal sac can help determine the ultimate survival of this patient population and, potentially, which patients would benefit from surgery versus palliation alone. A 2- to 3-month post-operative survival period justified surgical treatment.
Deep Learning Techniques for Classification of P300 Component

Deep learning techniques have proved to be beneficial in many scientific disciplines and have beaten stateof-the-art approaches in many applications. The main aim of this article is to improve the success rate of deep learning algorithms, especially stacked autoencoders, when they are used for detection and classification of P300 event-related potential component that reflects brain processes related to stimulus evaluation or categorization. Moreover, the classification results provided by stacked autoencoders are compared with the classification results given by other classification models and classification results provided by combinations of various types of neural network layers.
Perceived functioning, well-being and psychiatric symptoms in patients with stable schizophrenia treated with long-acting risperidone for 1 year.

BACKGROUND The extent to which antipsychotics improve patients' well-being is uncertain. AIMS To examine psychopathology and patient-rated functioning and well-being in patients treated with risperidone. METHOD In a 1-year, open-label, international multicentre trial of long-acting risperidone in 615 stable adult patients with schizophrenia, self-rated functioning and well-being were measured every 3 months using the Short Form 36-item questionnaire (SF-36). Psychopathology was quantified using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). RESULTS Significant improvements were found on the SF-36 mental component summary score and vitality and social functioning scales. PANSS and mental component summary scores were moderately correlated. CONCLUSIONS Patient-reported functioning and well-being appear to differ from investigator-rated psychotic symptoms. Patient-rated well-being should be assessed with symptoms to help measure treatment outcomes.
Patterns of alternative splicing vary between species during heat stress

Alternative splicing (AS) can generate significant protein variation from a single gene. While the basic process of AS has been known for some time, little is known about how AS varies across species. In addition, there are many unanswered questions about the role of AS in plant responses to abiotic stress. In this study of the model plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, and a native California mustard, Boechera depauperata, researchers report that the genes that undergo AS are distinct in each species. This provides evidence that AS plays an important and species-specific role in the plant stress response.
Short-term and long-term effects of a progressive resistance and balance exercise program in individuals with chronic stroke: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Purpose: To evaluate the effects of progressive resistance and balance (PRB) exercises on physical and psychological functions of post-stroke individuals. Materials and methods: In a randomized controlled trial with follow-up at 3, 6 and 15 months, 67 community-living individuals (76% male; 65–85 years) with a stroke 1–3 years previously were allocated to an intervention group (IG, n = 34; PRB exercises combined with motivational group discussions twice weekly for 3 months) or a control group (CG, n = 33). The primary outcomes were balance (Berg Balance Scale, 0–56 points) and mobility (Short Physical Performance Battery, 0–12 points) at 3 months. The secondary outcomes were 10 m comfortable walking speed, physical activity levels, health-related quality of life, depression and fall-related self-efficacy. Results: At 3 months, the IG exhibited significant improvements in balance (MD 2.5 versus 0 points; effect size [ES], 0.72; p < 0.01) and comfortable walking speed (MD 0.04 versus -0.05 m/s; ES, 0.68; p = 0.01) relative to the CG. A faster walking speed persisted at 6 months. No differences were found for the other outcomes. Conclusions: In chronic stroke patients, 3 months of PRB exercises and motivational discussions induced improvements in balance at 3 months and in walking speed at 3 and 6 months. Implications for Rehabilitation A progressive resistance and balance exercise program supported by motivational group discussions and one home-based exercise appears to be an effective means of improving the short-term balance and the walking speed in individuals with chronic stroke. People with poor balance and motor function discontinued the study more often and may require additional support. There is a need for powerful and cost-effective strategies that target changes in behavior to obtain long-term changes in physical function after exercising.
When risk communication backfires: randomized controlled trial on self-affirmation and reactance to personalized risk feedback in high-risk individuals.

OBJECTIVE Health promotion often faces the problem that populations with high behavioral risk profiles respond defensively to health promotion messages by negating risk or reactant behavior. Self-affirmation theory proposes that defensive reactions are an attempt of the self-system to maintain integrity. In this article, we examine whether a self-affirmation manipulation can mitigate defensive responses to personalized visual risk feedback in the skin cancer prevention context (ultraviolet [UV] photography), and whether the effects pertain to individuals with high behavioral risk status (high personal relevance of tanning). METHOD We conducted a full-factorial randomized controlled trial (N = 292; age 11-71) following a 2 * 2 design (UV photo yes/no, self-affirmation yes/no). Follow-up period was 2 weeks. Subsequent tanning behavior, sun avoidance intentions, and risk perception. RESULTS A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a three-way interaction between risk feedback, the self-affirmation manipulation, and risk status for the three outcome measures. Follow-up analyses of variance (ANOVAs) indicated that high-risk individuals receiving only the risk feedback intervention reacted defensively and reported higher exposure. A self-affirmation manipulation mitigates this reactance effect both on the level of cognitions and behavior. CONCLUSION Self-affirmation has influential implications not only for Social Psychology but also for health prevention measures. The findings support the effectiveness of self-affirmation in reducing reactant and defensive reactions to personalized visual risk feedback. Interactions with health risk status indicate that self-affirmation might increase the effectiveness of health promotion messages in high-risk populations.
Quality indicators for eye bank

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify quality indicators of the eye bank and validate their effectivity. Methods: Adverse reaction rate, discard rate, protocol deviation rate, and compliance rate were defined as Quality Indicators of the eye bank. These were identified based on definition of quality that captures two dimensions – “result quality” and “process quality. ” The indicators were measured and tracked as part of quality assurance (QA) program of the eye bank. Regular audits were performed to validate alignment of standard operating procedures (SOP) with regulatory and surgeon acceptance standards and alignment of activities performed in the eye bank with the SOP. Prospective study of the indicators was performed by comparing their observed values over the period 2011–2016. Results: Adverse reaction rate decreased more than 8-fold (from 0.61% to 0.07%), discard rate decreased and stabilized at 30%, protocol deviation rate decreased from 1.05% to 0.08%, and compliance rate reported by annual quality audits improved from 59% to 96% at the same time. In effect, adverse reaction rate, discard rate, and protocol deviation rate were leading indicators, and compliance rate was the trailing indicator. Conclusion: These indicators fulfill an important gap in available literature on QA in eye banking. There are two ways in which these findings can be meaningful. First, eye banks which are new to quality measurement can adopt these indicators. Second, eye banks which are already deeply engaged in quality improvement can test these indicators in their eye bank, thereby incorporating them widely and improving them over time.
An Assessment of the State-of-the-art in Multidisciplinary Aeromechanical Analyses

Abstract : This paper presents a survey of the current state-of-the-art in multidisciplinary aeromechanical analyses which integrate advanced Computational Structural Dynamics (CSD) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. The application areas to be surveyed include fixed wing aircraft, turbomachinery, and rotary wing aircraft. The objective of the authors in the present paper -- together with a companion paper on requirements -- is to lay out a path for a High Performance Computing (HPC) based next generation comprehensive rotorcraft analysis. From this survey of the key technologies in other application areas it is possible to identify the critical technology gaps that stem from unique rotorcraft requirements.
Modeling of III-nitride alloys by ab-initio methods

Modern parameter-free calculations using many-body approaches are actually the state-of-art in theory of condensed matter physics. The enormous effort dedicated to the ab initio description of the properties of materials is increasing exponentially based on advances of calculations taking the quasiparticle electronic structure, excitonic effects and local field effects into consideration. In this work, it was modeled properties of group-III nitrides and their alloys by means of ab initio methods. The ground-state (energetic, structural, elastic) and excited-state (energy bands, band parameters, dielectric functions) properties of the zincblend and the wurtzite polytypes of AlN, GaN, InN, and their “wurtzitic” alloys InxGa1-xN and InxAl1-xN are investigated within a cluster expansion approach using density functional theory together with the AM05 exchange-correlation functional. The total energies and the optimized atomic geometries of all 22 clusters classes of the cluster expansion for each compound are calculated. The computationally demanding calculation of the corresponding quasiparticle electronic structures is achieved for all cluster classes by means of a recently developed scheme to approximately solve the quasiparticle equation based on the HSE06 hybrid functional and the G0W0 approach. Using two different alloy statistics, strict-regular solution model and microscopic decomposition model, the configurational averages are calculated. The composition-dependent electronic structures of the alloys are discussed based on configurationally averaged properties of the ground and excited states. The influence of the alloy statistics on the composition dependencies and the corresponding bowing parameters of the band gaps is found to be significant and should, hence, lead to different signatures in the optical-absorption or -emission spectra of these Materials.
Relaxation induced changes in electrical behavior of glassy chalcogenide semiconductors

Effects of structural relaxation and the glass-transition process are clearly manifested in the electrical behavior of glassy-chalcogenide films. Analysis of the transport and trapping of photoinjected carriers and of the thermal generation of free carriers in the bulk reveal that in chalcogenides each of these processes is mediated by a specific manifold of localized electronic states residing in the mobility (forbidden) gap. It is demonstrated that in the vicinity of Tg the population of these states varies systematically with the structural state of the glassy film always tending toward a temperature-dependent quasi-equilibrium. The present-observations thus clearly establish the structural origin of key electronic-gap states and simultaneously reveal the mechanism by which relaxation impacts electrical behavior.
Child neglect and its relation to emotional and behavioral problems: A cross-sectional study of primary school-aged children in Tanzania

Abstract Child maltreatment is known to engender negative emotional and behavioral consequences. Although neglect is the most frequent form of maltreatment, it has thus far only received little attention, especially when looking at low-resource countries. The current study investigated possible associations between neglect and internalizing and externalizing problems. As neglect and abuse often co-occur, the latter was controlled for. In total, 409 Tanzanian primary school students (52% boys, M = 10.5 years, range = 6–15) participated in the cross-sectional study. Structured clinical interviews were conducted assessing maltreatment, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Overall, 31% (n = 128) of the children reported at least one type of physical neglect and 31% (n = 127) of emotional neglect. Using structural equation modeling, we found a significant association between neglect and internalizing (β = 0.59, p < .01) and externalizing problems (β = 0.35, p < .05). However, these associations could only be detected in younger children (ages 6–9), whereas in older children (ages 10–15), mental health problems were significantly related to violence and abuse. Our findings suggest that the current age may influence the association between maltreatment type and the development of internalizing and/or externalizing problems.
An estimate of the structural parameters of the Large Magellanic Cloud using red clump stars

Aims. We used the red clump stars from the VI photometric data of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE III) survey and from the Magellanic Cloud Photometric Survey (MCPS) to estimate the structural parameters of the LMC disk, such as the inclination, i and the position angle of the line of nodes (PAlon), φ. Methods. The observed disk region is divided into sub-regions. The dereddened peak I magnitude of the red clump stars in each sub-region is used to obtain the relative distances and hence the z coordinate. The RA and Dec of each sub-region is converted into x and y cartesian coordinates. A weighted least-square plane-fitting method is applied to these x ,y ,z data to estimate the structural parameters of the LMC disk. Results. We find an inclination of i = 23. ◦ 0 ± 0. ◦ 8a nd PAlon, φ = 163. ◦ 7 ± 1. ◦ 5 for the LMC disk using the OGLE III data and an inclination of i = 37. ◦ 4 ± 2. ◦ 3a nd PAlon φ = 141. ◦ 2 ± 3. ◦ 7 for the LMC disk using the MCPS data. Extra-planar features, which are in front as well as behind the fitted plane, are seen in both the data sets. Conclusions. Our estimates of the inclination and position angle of the line of nodes are comparable with some of the previous estimates. The effect of choice of center, reddening, and area covered on the estimated parameters are discussed. Regions in the northwest, southwest and southeast of the LMC disk are warped with respect to the fitted plane. We also identify a symmetric but off-centered warp in the inner LMC. We identify that the structure of the LMC disk inside the 3 degree radius is different from the outside disk in a way that the inner LMC has relatively less inclination and relatively large PAlon. The 3D plot of the LMC disk suggests an off-centered increase in the inclination for the northeastern regions, which might be due to tidal effects. We suggest that the variation in the planar parameters estimated by various authors as well as in this study is caused by the difference in coverage and the complicated inner structure of the LMC disk. In the inner LMC, the stellar and the HI disk are found to have similar properties.
A method to support search string building in systematic literature reviews through visual text mining

Despite the increasing popularity of systematic literature reviews in Software Engineering, several researchers still indicate it as a costly and challenging process. Aiming at alleviating this costly process, we propose an iterative method to support the process of building the search string for a systematic review. This method uses Visual Text Mining techniques to support the researcher by suggesting new terms for the string. In order to do so, the method extracts relevant terms from studies selected by the researcher and displays them in a way that facilitate their visualization and supports building and refining the search string. In order to check the feasibility of this approach, we developed a tool that implements the proposed method. Interviews with researchers identified their difficulties in performing systematic reviews and captured their feedback with regards the use of the proposed method in a user study. The researchers indicated that this approach could be used to improve the process of building the search strings for systematic reviews. The study indicates that our approach can be used to facilitate the construction of the systematic literature review search string.
Removal and biodegradation of different petroleum hydrocarbons using the filamentous fungus Aspergillus sp. RFC‐1

Petroleum pollution inevitably occurs at any stage of oil production and exerts a negative impact on the environment. Some microorganisms can degrade petroleum hydrocarbons (PHs). Polluted sludge of Rumaila oil field was use to isolate the highly efficient hydrocarbon‐degrading fungal strain. Aspergillus sp. RFC‐1 was obtained and its degradation ability for petroleum hydrocarbons was evaluated through surface adsorption, cell uptake, hydrophobicity, surface tension, biosurfactant production, and emulsification activity. In addition, the degradation mechanism was investigated. The results indicated the strain RFC‐1 showed high removal activity for PHs, including biodegradation, adsorption, and emulsifiability. On the day 7 of incubation, the removal efficiencies of crude oil, naphthalene (NAP), phenanthrene (PHE), and pyrene (PYR) reached 60.3%, 97.4%, 84.9%, and 90.7%, respectively. Biodegradation efficiencies of crude oil, NAP, PHE, and PYR were 51.8%, 84.6%, 50.3%, and 55.1%, respectively. Surface adsorption and cell absorption by live mycelial pellets followed a decreasing order: PYR ≥ PHE > NAP > crude oil. Adsorption by heat‐killed mycelial pellets increased within 40 and 10 min for crude oil and PAHs, respectively, and remained constant thereafter. Effects of cell surface hydrophobicity, surface tension, and emulsification index were discussed. Intra‐ and extracellular enzymes of strain RFC‐1 played important roles in PHs degradation. The strain RFC‐1 is a prospective strain for removing PHs from aqueous environments.
Microbial quality of pork nuggets incorporated with fish flesh under refrigeration

Meat nuggets were prepared with pork (80%) and fish flesh (20%) under standardized processing conditions and were stored under refrigeration in aerobically packaged conditions with control samples of control-I (100% pork) and control-II (100% fish flesh). The samples were taken at regular interval of 7 days and analyzed for the microbial quality. Total plate counts showed no significant difference between treatment and controls but showed increasing trend as storage period increased. The psychrotroph and coliform counts were not detected till 14 th
Emergence of Novel Human Norovirus GII.17 Strains Correlates With Changes in Blockade Antibody Epitopes

Background Human norovirus is a significant public health burden, with >30 genotypes causing endemic levels of disease and strains from the GII.4 genotype causing serial pandemics as the virus evolves new ligand binding and antigenicity features. During 2014-2015, genotype GII.17 cluster IIIb strains emerged as the leading cause of norovirus infection in select global locations. Comparison of capsid sequences indicates that GII.17 is evolving at previously defined GII.4 antibody epitopes. Methods Antigenicity of virus-like particles (VLPs) representative of clusters I, II, and IIIb GII.17 strains were compared by a surrogate neutralization assay based on antibody blockade of ligand binding. Results Sera from mice immunized with a single GII.17 VLP identified antigenic shifts between each cluster of GII.17 strains. Ligand binding of GII.17 cluster IIIb VLP was blocked only by antisera from mice immunized with cluster IIIb VLPs. Exchange of residues 393-396 from GII.17. 2015 into GII.17. 1978 ablated ligand binding and altered antigenicity, defining an important varying epitope in GII.17. Conclusions The capsid sequence changes in GII.17 strains result in loss of blockade antibody binding, indicating that viral evolution, specifically at residues 393-396, may have contributed to the emergence of cluster IIIb strains and the persistence of GII.17 in human populations.
Reliable Stereoscopic Video Streaming Considering Important Objects of the Scene

In this paper, we introduce a new reliable method of stereoscopic Video Streaming based on multiple description coding strategy. The proposed multiple description coding generates 3D video descriptions considering interesting objects contained in its scene. To be able to find interesting objects in the scene, we use two metrics from the second order statistics of the depth map image in a block-wise manner. Having detected the objects, the proposed multiple description coding algorithm generates the 3D video descriptions for the color video using a non-identical decimation method with respect to the identified objects. The objective test results verify the fact that the proposed method provides an improved performance than that provided by the polyphase subsampling multiple description coding and our previous work using pixel variation.