Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical activity and safety of Pembrolizumab in Ipilimumab pre-treated patients with uveal melanoma

ABSTRACT Background: Untreated metastatic uveal melanoma (UM) carries a grave prognosis. Unlike cutaneous melanoma (CM), there are no established treatments known to significantly improve outcomes for a meaningful proportion of patients. Inhibition of the PD1–PDL1 axis has shown promise in the management of CM and we here report a two center experience of UM patients receiving pembrolizumab. Methods: To assess the efficacy and safety of pembrolizumab, we retrospectively analyzed outcome data of 25 consecutive UM patients participating in the MK3475 expanded access program (EAP) who received pembrolizumab at 2 mg/kg 3 weekly. Tumor assessment was evaluated using RECIST 1.1 and immune-related Response Criteria (irRC) by CT scanning. Toxicity was recorded utilizing Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (“CTCAE”) v4.03. Results: Twenty-five patients were identified receiving a median of six cycles of treatment. Two patients achieved a partial response and six patients stable disease. After a median follow-up of 225 d median progression free survival (PFS) was 91 d and overall survival (OS) was not reached. There was a significant trend for improved outcomes in patients with extrahepatic disease progression as opposed to liver only progression at the outset. Five patients experienced grade 3 or 4 adverse events (AEs); there were no treatment related deaths. Conclusions: Pembrolizumab 2mg/kg q3w is a safe option in UM patients. Disease control rates, particularly in the subgroup of patients without progressive liver disease at the outset are promising; these results merit further investigation in clinical trials possibly incorporating liver targeted treatment modalities.
Effect of Salt Intake on Renal Excretion of Water in Humans

Two studies were performed to determine the quantitative relationship between salt intake and urinary volume (Uv) in humans. In study 1, 104 untreated hypertensives were studied on the fifth day of a high- and a low-salt diet. The 24-hour Uv was 2.2 L (urinary sodium [UNa] 277 mmol) on the high-salt diet and decreased to 1.3 L (P <0.001) (UNa 20.8 mmol) on the low-salt diet. The reduction in 24-hour Uv was significantly related to the decrease in 24-hour UNa (P <0.001) and predicts that a 100-mmol/d reduction in salt intake would decrease 24-hour Uv by 367 mL. In study 2, 634 untreated hypertensives were studied on their usual diet. There was a significant relationship between 24-hour Uv and UNa (P <0.001). This predicts that a 100-mmol/d reduction in salt intake would decrease 24-hour Uv by 454 mL. The International Study of Salt and Blood Pressure (INTERSALT) of 1731 hypertensives and 8343 normotensives on their usual diet showed that 24-hour Uv was significantly related to UNa (P <0.001) and predicted that a 100-mmol/d reduction in salt intake would decrease 24-hour Uv by 379 and 399 mL in hypertensives and normotensives, respectively. These findings document the important effect that salt intake has on Uv. The recommended reduction in salt intake in the general population is from 10 to 5 g/d. This would reduce fluid intake in the population by ≈350 mL/d per person. This would have a large impact on the sales of soft drinks, mineral water, and beer.
Impact of topmouth gudgeon (Pseudorasbora parva) on production of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) — question of natural food structure

Four production fishponds in the Czech Republic were investigated in 2003 and 2004 during a feeding experiment on common carp (Cyprinus carpio). In 2003, topmouth gudgeon (Pseudorasbora parva) was detected in enormous amounts in all of the investigated fishponds. P. parva got into the fishponds spontaneously by water inflow from connecting channels. The objective of this paper is to describe the condition of natural food in the presence of P. parva and its subsequent effect on carp production. The estimation of the population density of P. parva achieved at least 44 kg ha−1 in 2003. In 2004, precautions against P. parva invasion were taken and its presence wasn’t recorded during the season. The impact of P. parva on natural food structure was described in terms of zooplankton and zoobenthos amounts and main fish production parameters. A special focus has been taken on the density of Daphnia genus and chironomid larvae, the most preferred zooplanktonic and zoobenthic groups in feed of P. parva, respectively. In 2003, P. parva suppressed the zooplankton populations significantly, especially large cladocerans of the Daphnia genus. Influence of P. parva on zoobenthos structure and density was not detectable. Unfavorable natural food condition in 2003 caused extremely low carp production which fell to the mean value of 283 kg ha−1 and food conversion ratio reached 3.5. On the contrary, in 2004 the mean carp production and food conversion ratio attained 634 kg ha−1 and 1.6, respectively. The results described harmful competitive effect of huge populations of P. parva and its surprising economic consequences. Costs per 1 kg of growth were increased by approximately 100% in 2003 compared with results from season 2004.
An Intelligent Economic Approach for Dynamic Resource Allocation in Cloud Services

With Inter-Cloud, distributed cloud and open cloud exchange (OCX) emerging, a comprehensive resource allocation approach is fundamental to highly competitive cloud market. Oriented to infrastructure as a service (IaaS), an intelligent economic approach for dynamic resource allocation (IEDA) is proposed with the improved combinatorial double auction protocol devised to enable various kinds of resources traded among multiple consumers and multiple providers at the same time enable task partitioning among multiple providers. To make bidding and asking reasonable in each round of the auction and determine eligible transaction relationship among providers and consumers, a price formation mechanism is proposed, which is consisted of a back propagation neural network (BPNN) based price prediction algorithm and a price matching algorithm. A reputation system is proposed and integrated to exclude dishonest participants from the cloud market. The winner determination problem (WDP) is solved by the improved paddy field algorithm (PFA). Simulation results have shown that IEDA can not only help maximize market surplus and surplus strength but also encourage participants to be honest.
Comparison of Two Devices and Two Breathing Patterns for Exhaled Breath Condensate Sampling

Introduction Analysis of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a noninvasive method to access the epithelial lining fluid of the lungs. Due to standardization problems the method has not entered clinical practice. The aim of the study was to assess the comparability for two commercially available devices in healthy controls. In addition, we assessed different breathing patterns in healthy controls with protein markers to analyze the source of the EBC. Methods EBC was collected from ten subjects using the RTube and ECoScreen Turbo in a randomized crossover design, twice with every device - once in tidal breathing and once in hyperventilation. EBC conductivity, pH, surfactant protein A, Clara cell secretory protein and total protein were assessed. Bland-Altman plots were constructed to display the influence of different devices or breathing patterns and the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated. The volatile organic compound profile was measured using the electronic nose Cyranose 320. For the analysis of these data, the linear discriminant analysis, the Mahalanobis distances and the cross-validation values (CVV) were calculated. Results Neither the device nor the breathing pattern significantly altered EBC pH or conductivity. ICCs ranged from 0.61 to 0.92 demonstrating moderate to very good agreement. Protein measurements were greatly influenced by breathing pattern, the device used, and the way in which the results were reported. The electronic nose could distinguish between different breathing patterns and devices, resulting in Mahalanobis distances greater than 2 and CVVs ranging from 64% to 87%. Conclusion EBC pH and (to a lesser extent) EBC conductivity are stable parameters that are not influenced by either the device or the breathing patterns. Protein measurements remain uncertain due to problems of standardization. We conclude that the influence of the breathing maneuver translates into the necessity to keep the volume of ventilated air constant in further studies.
Understanding the Role of Incomplete and Asymmetric Information in a Multi-Asset Market By

This paper continues Admati (1985)’s study of multi-asset model to the case where the payoffs for each asset are generated by two underlying factors. This framework allows us to study the effectiveness of incomplete information. A rational expectations equilibrium can be obtained in a closed-form solution for some important special cases. We show when the equilibrium prices depend on the two payoffs, but with different coefficients. This model produces a check-shape relationship between price changes and trading volume, which is consistent with empirical evidence. Furthermore, this model draws many other unique conclusions. For example, high stock prices need not be associated with high realizations in fundamentals; the same asset can be viewed as a Giffen good by some agents and a normal good by others; asset prices can have weak correlations with their fundamentals; and the model can generate high price volatilities and large risk premiums.
Pelvic Exenteration: Experience from a Rural Cancer Center in Developing World

Background. Pelvic exenteration (PE) is a morbid procedure. Ours is a rural based cancer center limited trained surgical oncology staff. Hence, this audit was planned to evaluate morbidity and outcomes of all patients undergoing PE at our center. Methods. This is a IRB approved retrospective audit of all patients who underwent PE at our center from January 2010 to August 2013. The toxicity grades were retrospectively assigned according to the CTCAE version 4.02 criteria. Chi-square test was done to identify factors affecting grades 3–5 morbidity. Kaplan Meier survival analysis has been used for estimation of median PFS and OS. Results. 34 patients were identified, with the median age of 52 years (28–73 years). Total, anterior, posterior, and modified posterior exenterations were performed in 4 (11.8%), 5 (14.7%), 14 (41.2%), and 11 (32.4%) patients, respectively. The median time for surgery was 5.5 hours (3–8 hours). The median blood loss was 500 mL (200–4000 mL). CTCAE version 4.02 grades 3-4 toxicity was seen in nine patients (25.7%). The median estimated progression free survival was 31.76 months (25.13–38.40 months). The 2-year overall survival was 97.14%. Conclusion. PE related grades 3–5 morbidity of 25.7% and mortality of 2.9% at our resource limited center are encouraging.
Packet Delay and Loss at the Auckland Internet Access Path

−− In this paper we study packet delay and loss for IP data traversing the University of Auckland Internet ac− cess path. The ISP uplink of the university has been the subject of previous measurements and studies [1]. The fo− cus of this paper is to evaluate the information derived from a multipoint measurement, Auckland−VI [2], which was collected for a duration of four days during June 2001 at the ISP uplink and Ethernet hubs outside and inside relative to the Internet firewall host. The specific value of this data set lies in the hop−by−hop instrumentation of all devices operating at the packet level, combined with the duration of observation and the fine−grained timestamping process of packet arrivals. We provide measures for the normal day−to−day operation of the access link system. We show the impact of operating the same links at 10MBit/sec Ethernet vs. 100MBit/sec Ethernet hubs. The data set includes a number of areas where service qual− ity (delay and packet loss) is extreme; we examine the causes and impacts on network users. Index terms−− packet delay, packet loss, multipoint meas− urement, passive measurement
Association of napping and night-time sleep with impaired glucose regulation, insulin resistance and glycated haemoglobin in Chinese middle-aged adults with no diabetes: a cross-sectional study

Objective To assess associations between napping and night-time sleep duration with impaired glucose regulation, insulin resistance (IR) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Fujian Province, China, from June 2011 to January 2012. Participants This study enrolled 9028 participants aged 40–65 years. Data of 7568 participants with no diabetes were included for analysis. Type 2 diabetes was defined applying WHO criteria. Outcome measures Participants’ daytime napping and night-time sleep duration data were collected using a standardised self-reported Chinese-language questionnaire about sleep frequency and quality. Anthropometric and laboratory parameters were also measured. IR was defined as a HOMA-IR index value >2.50. ORs and 95% CIs were derived from multivariate logistic regression models. Results Participants (mean age 51.1±7.0 years) included 3060 males and 4508 females with average night-time sleep of 7.9 h. A higher proportion of males napped than females. After adjustment for potential confounders, ORs for HbA1c >6.0% were 1.28 and 1.26 for those napping ≤1 h and >1 h (p=0.002 and p=0.018), respectively. Statistically significant differences in IR between nappers and non-nappers were only marginal clinically. Odds for HbA1c >6.0% were significantly lower in participants with longer night-time sleep durations than in the reference group (>8 h vs 6–8 h). Odds for IR were significantly lower in participants whose night-time sleep hours deviated from the reference group (<6 h, >8 h vs 6–8 h) Conclusions Chinese middle-aged adults with no diabetes who napped had higher HbA1c and IR; those with shorter night-time sleep durations had increased HbA1c. Night-time sleep hours that are either <6 or >8 tend to be associated with lower odds for IR. Further studies are necessary to determine the underlying clinical significance and mechanisms behind these associations.
Trench migration and overriding plate stress in dynamic subduction models

On Earth, oceanic plates subduct beneath a variety of overriding plate (OP) styles, from relatively thin and negatively buoyant oceanic OPs to thick and neutrally/positively buoyant continental OPs. The inclusion of an OP in numerical models of self-consistent subduction has been shown to reduce the rate that subducting slabs roll back relative to the equivalent single plate models. We use dynamic, 2-D subduction models to investigate how the mechanical properties, namely viscosity, thickness, and density, of the OP modify the slab rollback rate and the state of stress of the OP. In addition, we examine the role of the subducting plate (SP) viscosity. Because OP deformation accommodates the difference between the slab rollback rate and the far-ﬁeld OP velocity, we ﬁnd that the temporal variations in the rollback rate results in temporal variations in OP stress. The slabs in our models roll back rapidly until they reach the lower mantle viscosity increase, at which point the rollback velocity decreases. Concurrent with this reduction in rollback rate is a switch from an OP dominated by extensional stresses to a compressional OP. As in single plate models, the viscosity of the SP exerts a strong control on subducting slab kinematics; weaker slabs exhibit elevated sinking velocities and rollback rates. The SP viscosity also exerts a strong control on the OP stress regime. Weak slabs, either due to reduced bulk viscosity or stress-dependent weakening, have compressional OPs, while strong slabs have dominantly extensional OPs. While varying the viscosity of the OP alone does not substantially affect the OP stress state, we ﬁnd that the OP thickness and buoyancy plays a substantial role in dictating the rate of slab rollback and OP stress state. Models with thick and/or negatively buoyant OPs have reduced rollback rates, and increased slab dip angles, relative to slabs with thin and/or positively buoyant OPs. Such elevated trench rollback for models with positively buoyant OPs induces extensional stresses in the OP, while OPs that are strongly negatively buoyant are under compression. While rollback is driven by the negative buoyancy of the subducting slab in such models of free subduction, we conclude that the physical properties of the OP potentially play a signiﬁcant role in modulating both rollback rates and OP deformation style on Earth.
Segmentation and 3D reconstruction of the vocal tract from MR images - a comparative study

Speech production is an important human function involving a set of organs with specific morphological and dynamic aspects. The inter-speaker variability, the coarticulation or the nasality are some interesting aspects to improve a realistic 3D modeling of the vocal tract. For this, the understanding of the mechanism of speech production is crucial, as the current image data is not sufficient to reproduce truthfully the speaker’s anatomy and articulation. Hence, the goal of 3D modeling is to generate the complete geometrical and dynamical information concerning the vocal tract from medical images, such as from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This work aims to describe and compare two different segmentation techniques to attain the 3D shape of the vocal tract during speech production from MR images: the former based on manual tracing of the vocal tract contours and the latter based on image thresholding. Thus, the segmented cross-sectional areas were measured, and 3D models were built from the sagittal data by blending the contours obtained from the two segmentation techniques. The mean error of the measures computed were low for both segmentation techniques, which let us conclude that the techniques are useful to evaluate the vocal tract geometry accurately. Additionally, the 3D models built using both segmentation techniques were also very similar and truthful. However, when the coronal data was used, various difficulties occurred. Despite the level of automation in performing the image processing tasks, the analysis of vocal tract from images remains complex, given the various problems that persist. Some of these problems are related with the MR image acquisition technique and with the morphology of the vocal tract (i.e. the nonidentification of teeth and the similarity of signal intensity between the vocal tract and of some of the surrounding structures). According to (Soquet et al. 1998), that presents a comparative study to assess the accuracy of three different segmentation techniques, the image thresholding method revealed an inferior dispersion, but the overall results presented small average error and large error distribution. In this work, we describe and compare two different segmentation techniques to extract the contours to be used in 3D reconstruction of the vocal tract during speech production from MR images: one based on the manual tracing of the segmentation contours, and another based on image threshold. The remaining of this paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the description of the MRI protocol, the speech corpus and the image analysis and assessment are described. Then, in section three, the area measurements obtained by using the two segmentation techniques under comparison are presented and discussed, and the 3D models built for the vocal tract are shown and examined. Finally, the conclusions are pointed out in the last section.
The Handbook of Growth and Growth Monitoring in Health and Disease Springer ( c ) Nov 2009

We review seven methods for adult height prediction (AHP) based on bone age, ranging from the BayleyPinneau method, published in 1952, to the BoneXpert method, published in 2009. These models are based on four different methods for bone age assessment including Greulich Pyle, Tanner Whitehouse, Fels, and the automated BoneXpert method. The aim of this chapter is to convey an understanding of the various parameters which contribute to AHP and how to best incorporate them into the AHP methods. The starting point is the Bayley-Pinneau method which predicts the fraction of adult height achieved from the bone age. Children with advanced bone age (early maturers) tend to have a stronger growth spurt, and late maturers have a weaker growth spurt. Accordingly, Bayley and Pinneau provided special AHP tables for early, average and late maturers. The other five AHP methods reviewed are the three variants of the Tanner Whitehouse method, TW Mark I (1975), TW Mark II (1983) and TW3 (2001), and the RWT methods from 1975 and 1993. They all model the expected adult height of children at each age using a linear model of height and bone age, and for the RWT models, also by using terms with midparental height and body weight. The main short-coming of these models is that the linear bone age dependence is unable to describe children with constitutional delay of growth and puberty or precocious puberty. The recently developed automated BoneXpert method improves the Bayley-Pinneau method by modelling the growth potential (the fraction of adult height left to grow) as a nonlinear function of two variables, bone age and bone age delay. The BoneXpert AHP method was based on the original images from the First Zürich Longitudinal Study, and was subsequently validated on the more recent Third Zürich Longitudinal study of 198 Swiss children. An additional validation study on 164 Danish children is also presented. The main advantage of the BoneXpert method is that it is based on an automated bone age which removes rater variability.
Cognition and Removal of Impulse Noise With Uncertainty

Uncertainties are the major inherent feature of impulse noise. This fact makes image denoising a difficult task. Understanding the uncertainties can improve the performance of image denoising. This paper presents a novel adaptive detail-preserving filter based on the cloud model (CM) to remove impulse noise. It is called the CM filter. First, an uncertainty-based detector identifies the pixels corrupted by impulse noise. Then, a weighted fuzzy mean filter is applied to remove the noise candidates. The experimental results show that, compared with the traditional switching filters, the CM filter makes a great improvement in image denoising. Even at a noise level as high as 95%, the CM filter still can restore the image with good detail preservation.
Evaluation of a mentorship program for new and more-experienced nursing faculty

Objective: Evaluation of a nursing faculty mentorship program available to every faculty member regardless of seniority.Methods: Design: The faculty mentorship program was developed and implemented in a university-affiliated nursing department in Montreal in 2018. Mentors and mentees evaluated the program using self-reported surveys one-year post-implementation. The surveys addressed three main themes: (a) determining goals of the mentoring partnership; (b) overall level of satisfaction with the program; and (c) characteristics of each dyad’s mentoring agreement (strategies used to communicate, where the dyads met, etc.). Method: Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted.Results: A total of 19 mentees and 15 mentors completed the survey. The program was judged to be a worthwhile use of time by 89% of mentees and 93% of mentors. Even though specific mentoring needs differed according to seniority level, the program was shown to be beneficial to both less-experienced and more-experienced faculty. The main barriers to mentorship that were identified were related to timing, scheduling and time commitment issues. Clinical relevance: A successful mentorship program aimed at fostering relationships between nursing faculty members, regardless of seniority, has the potential to improve the productivity of a healthy workplace including the quality of both teaching and research.Conclusions: The mentorship program proposed herein was found to be useful and effective, as well as being beneficial as much for younger as for more experienced faculty members.