Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary chemoradiation therapy with fluorouracil and cisplatin for cancer of the anus: results in 35 consecutive patients.

PURPOSE This prospective phase II study was designed to test the activity and toxicity of a regimen of fluorouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin (CDDP) in combination with radiation therapy in the treatment of epidermoid cancer of the anal canal. PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirty-five consecutive patients with untreated epidermoid cancer of the anal canal were candidates for chemoradiation therapy (CRT). Staging of cancer was as follows: T1, 26%; T2, 60%; T3, 14%; and N1, 2,3, 26%. No patient had distant metastases. The treatment protocol consisted of two to three cycles of chemotherapy starting on days 1 and 21 and concurrent radiotherapy at a daily dose of 1.8 Gy up to a total dose of 36 to 38 Gy in 4 weeks, delivered to the anal region, perineum, middle and lower pelvis, and inguinal and external iliac nodes. Radiotherapy was then delivered to the anoperineal region and metastatic inguinal nodes to a total dose of 18 to 24 Gy in 10 fractions. Chemotherapy consisted of 24-hour intravenous (IV) infusion of 5-FU 750 mg/m2 on days 1 to 4 and CDDP 100 mg/m2 by 60-minute IV infusion on day 1. RESULTS All patients received two cycles of chemotherapy; the second was delayed in three patients because of leukopenia that was evident in 11 (31%). In eight patients, a third cycle was added. They all experienced nausea or vomiting; one patient showed signs of cardiotoxicity and one developed proctitis, dermatitis, and diarrhea (grade 3). Complete regression (CR) was assessed in 33 patients (94%); nine patients with metastatic lymph nodes also had CR. Two patients had a partial response (PR); both underwent abdominoperineal resection, which was not curative in one. Two patients (6%) had a local recurrence; in one, this was associated with hepatic metastases. One of these patients underwent surgery and is alive after about 4 years, while the other is undergoing chemotherapy. After a median follow-up duration of 37 months, 94% of patients are alive without evidence of disease and 86% are colostomy-free. CONCLUSION This regimen is well tolerated; its toxicity does not exceed that observed with the combination of 5-FU and mitomycin (MMC). Compared with our previous experience based on the classic CRT (5-FU, MMC, and radiation), the objective response rate observed with this new combination was similar. However, the local recurrence rate, observed in patients treated with the new regimen, was lower (6% v 24%). According to more recent data from the literature, primary CRT is the elective indication in epidermoid cancer of the anus and replacement of MMC with CDDP seems an effective and logical evolution.
Differential Effect of Chronic Antihypertensive Treatment on Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotype in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of chronic losartan or captopril on vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotype and vascular function in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Male 12-week-old rats were treated for 16 weeks with losartan (15 mg/kg per day) or captopril (60 mg/kg per day) in their drinking water. Systolic blood pressure, measured by the tail-cuff method, was reduced ≈40 mm Hg in both treatment groups compared with a nontreated control group. Cell structure and proliferation studies were performed in VSMCs obtained from rat carotid arteries. Cells from the losartan-treated group showed a significant reduction in size, total protein content, and nucleus number, as well as proliferation after stimulation with 10% fetal calf serum and an increased percentage of cells in the G1 phase compared with the control and captopril-treated groups. Functional studies were performed in isolated carotid arteries from these groups. Contractions elicited by 75 mmol/L KCl or 10−7 mol/L norepinephrine and relaxations elicited by acetylcholine were similar in all groups. Concentration-response curves to angiotensin I or angiotensin II (10−10 to 3×10−7 mol/L) were almost abolished in the losartan-treated group and were not modified by preincubation with the angiotensin type 2 receptor antagonist PD 123,319. These results suggest that long-term losartan treatment significantly changes VSMC phenotype and proliferative status, apparently unrelated to blood pressure lowering or to endothelial function improvements.
Result enrichment in commerce search using browse trails

Commerce search engines have become popular in recent years, as users increasingly search for (and buy) products on the web. In response to an user query, they surface links to products in their catalog (or index) that match the requirements specified in the query. Often, few or no product in the catalog matches the user query exactly, and the search engine is forced to return a set of products that partially match the query. This paper considers the problem of choosing a set of products in response to an user query, so as to ensure maximum user satisfaction. We call this the result enrichment problem in commerce search. The challenge in result enrichment is two-fold: the search engine needs to estimate the extent to which a user genuinely cares about an attribute that she has specified in a query; then, it must display products in the catalog that match the user requirement on the important attributes, but have a similar but possibly non-identical value on the less important ones. To this end, we propose a technique for measuring the importance of individual attribute values and the similarity between different values of an attribute. A novelty of our approach is that we use entire browse trails, rather than just clickthrough rates, in this estimation algorithm. We develop a model for this problem, propose an algorithm to solve it, and support our theoretical findings via experiments conducted on actual user data.
Multipass membrane protein structure prediction using Rosetta

We describe the adaptation of the Rosetta de novo structure prediction method for prediction of helical transmembrane protein structures. The membrane environment is modeled by embedding the protein chain into a model membrane represented by parallel planes defining hydrophobic, interface, and polar membrane layers for each energy evaluation. The optimal embedding is determined by maximizing the exposure of surface hydrophobic residues within the membrane and minimizing hydrophobic exposure outside of the membrane. Protein conformations are built up using the Rosetta fragment assembly method and evaluated using a new membrane‐specific version of the Rosetta low‐resolution energy function in which residue–residue and residue–environment interactions are functions of the membrane layer in addition to amino acid identity, distance, and density. We find that lower energy and more native‐like structures are achieved by sequential addition of helices to a growing chain, which may mimic some aspects of helical protein biogenesis after translocation, rather than folding the whole chain simultaneously as in the Rosetta soluble protein prediction method. In tests on 12 membrane proteins for which the structure is known, between 51 and 145 residues were predicted with root‐mean‐square deviation <4 Å from the native structure. Proteins 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Randomised controlled trial of the use of a modified postal reminder card on the uptake of measles vaccination

OBJECTIVE To determine whether rewording postal reminder cards according to the “health belief model”, a theory about preventive health behaviour, would help to improve measles vaccination rates. DESIGN A randomised controlled trial, with blind assessment of outcome status. Parents of children due for their first measles vaccination were randomised to one of two groups, one receiving the health belief model reminder card, the other receiving the usual, neutrally worded card. The proportion of children subsequently vaccinated in each group over a five week period was ascertained from clinical (provider based) records. SETTING A local government operated public vaccination clinic. PARTICIPANTS Parents of 259 children due for measles vaccination. MAIN RESULTS The proportion of children vaccinated in the health belief model card group was 79% compared with 67% of those sent the usual card (95% CI, 2% to 23%), a modest but important improvement. CONCLUSION This study illustrates how the effectiveness of a minimal and widely practised intervention to promote vaccination compliance can be improved with negligible additional effort.
Visceral obesity is associated with outcomes of total mesorectal excision for rectal adenocarcinoma

General obesity, measured by the body mass index (BMI), increases the technical difficulty of total mesorectal excision (TME) but does not affect oncologic outcomes. The purpose of this study is to compare visceral and general obesity as predictors of outcomes of TME for rectal adenocarcinoma.
Higher body mass index is associated with reduced posterior default mode connectivity in older adults

Obesity is a complex neurobehavioral disorder that has been linked to changes in brain structure and function. However, the impact of obesity on functional connectivity and cognition in aging humans is largely unknown. Therefore, the association of body mass index (BMI), resting‐state network connectivity, and cognitive performance in 712 healthy, well‐characterized older adults of the Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases (LIFE) cohort (60–80 years old, mean BMI 27.6 kg/m2 ± 4.2 SD, main sample: n = 521, replication sample: n = 191) was determined. Statistical analyses included a multivariate model selection approach followed by univariate analyses to adjust for possible confounders. Results showed that a higher BMI was significantly associated with lower default mode functional connectivity in the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus. The effect remained stable after controlling for age, sex, head motion, registration quality, cardiovascular, and genetic factors as well as in replication analyses. Lower functional connectivity in BMI‐associated areas correlated with worse executive function. In addition, higher BMI correlated with stronger head motion. Using 3T neuroimaging in a large cohort of healthy older adults, independent negative associations of obesity and functional connectivity in the posterior default mode network were observed. In addition, a subtle link between lower resting‐state connectivity in BMI‐associated regions and cognitive function was found. The findings might indicate that obesity is associated with patterns of decreased default mode connectivity similar to those seen in populations at risk for Alzheimer's disease. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3502–3515, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Evaluation of the Effects of Vaccinium arctostaphylos L. Fruit Extract on Serum Lipids and hs-CRP Levels and Oxidative Stress in Adult Patients with Hyperlipidemia: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Background. Dyslipidemia produces atherosclerosis, which in turn results in coronary artery disease (CAD). Atherosclerosis is being considered as an inflammatory disease. Vaccinium arctostaphylos L. is a plant with fruits rich in anthocyanins. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of fruit extract of this plant on serum levels of lipids, hs-CRP, and malondialdehyde (MDA) as a marker of oxidative stress, in hyperlipidemic adult patients. Methods. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 50 hyperlipidemic adult patients were randomly and equally assigned to receive either medicinal (V. arctostaphylos fruit extract) or placebo capsules twice daily for 4 weeks. Each medicinal capsule contained 45 ± 2 mg of anthocyanins. Fasting serum levels of total cholesterol, TG, LDL-C, HDL-C, hs-CRP, and MDA were obtained before and after the intervention and compared. Results. V. arctostaphylos fruit extract significantly reduced total cholesterol (P < 0.001), LDL-C (P = 0.004), TG (P < 0.001), and MDA (P = 0.013) compared to placebo but did not have any significant effect on HDL-C (P = 0.631) and hs-CRP (P = 0.190). Conclusion. Fruit extract of Vaccinium arctostaphylos has beneficial effects on serum lipid profile and oxidative stress in hyperlipidemic adult patients. Therefore, it could be considered as a supplement for treatment of dyslipidemia and prevention of atherosclerosis development.
Communities of learners: Early years students, new learning pedagogy, and transformations

All teachers have been students, thus every teacher comes to the profession with a personalised understanding of what it means to be both a teacher and a student—but only from personal experience. As students, we knew what content interested or bored us and which strategies were effective or ineffective for us. However, such understandings need to be suspended in an era when technology advances at an ever-increasing pace. This means that information exchange has become fundamentally different from what it was even a decade ago, and ways in which students are informed about their world outside classrooms have become significantly different. The complexity emerges from a plethora of new modes of communication in students’ everyday lives, and as such, begs for a shift in the roles traditionally taken up by learners and teachers. The point is that students are less tolerant of the teacher as a knowledge authority and of teacher-delivered knowledge than they are of interaction with a textual environment in which they are already very familiar. Thus, in this chapter I propose that simply replicating the most positive aspects of our own schooling experiences for our students may not necessarily develop them as effective communicators in current times. While we assumed we knew what constituted interesting content and effective practices for us as students, critical examination of the import of these elements for teacher work is crucial. To expose the differences between then and now, I point out the characteristics of changing education and review new learning in an early years setting. To do this I connect theory to practice by identifying the characteristics of a multiliteracies project and its links to the community in the Northern Italian Municipality of Reggio Emilia. The purpose of this chapter is to show what is possible in the early years, when children are central to the community and the community is central to children's lives. But first it is important to establish a strong justification for change.
Executing incoherency bounded continuous queries at web data aggregators

Continuous queries are used to monitor changes to time varying data and to provide results useful for online decision making. Typically a user desires to obtain the value of some function over distributed data items, for example, to determine when and whether (a) the traffic entering a highway from multiple feed roads will result in congestion in a thoroughfare or (b) the value of a stock portfolio exceeds a threshold. Using the standard Web infrastructure for these applications will increase the reach of the underlying information. But, since these queries involve data from multiple sources, with sources supporting standard HTTP (pull-based) interfaces, special query processing techniques are needed. Also, these applications often have the flexibility to tolerate some incoherency, i.e., some differences between the results reported to the user and that produced from the virtual database made up of the distributed data sources.In this paper, we develop and evaluate client-pull-based techniques for refreshing data so that the results of the queries over distributed data can be correctly reported, conforming to the limited incoherency acceptable to the users.We model as well as estimate the dynamics of the data items using a probabilistic approach based on Markov Chains. Depending on the dynamics of data we adapt the data refresh times to deliver query results with the desired coherency. The commonality of data needs of multiple queries is exploited to further reduce refresh overheads. Effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated using live sources of dynamic data: the number of refreshes it requires is (a) an order of magnitude less than what we would need if every potential update is pulled from the sources, and (b) comparable to the number of messages needed by an ideal algorithm, one that knows how to optimally refresh the data from distributed data sources. Our evaluations also bring out a very practical and attractive tradeoff property of pull based approaches, e.g., a small increase in tolerable incoherency leads to a large decrease in message overheads.
Intravenous Glucose Acutely Stimulates Intestinal Lipoprotein Secretion in Healthy Humans

Objective— Increased production of intestinal triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRLs) contributes to dyslipidemia and increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. We have previously demonstrated that enteral glucose enhances lipid-stimulated intestinal lipoprotein particle secretion. Here, we assessed whether glucose delivered systemically by intravenous infusion also enhances intestinal lipoprotein particle secretion in humans. Approach and Results— On 2 occasions, 4 to 6 weeks apart and in random order, 10 healthy men received a constant 15-hour intravenous infusion of either 20% glucose to induce hyperglycemia or normal saline as control. Production of TRL–apolipoprotein B48 (apoB48, primary outcomes) and apoB100 (secondary outcomes) was assessed during hourly liquid-mixed macronutrient formula ingestion with stable isotope enrichment and multicompartmental modeling, under pancreatic clamp conditions to limit perturbations in pancreatic hormones (insulin and glucagon) and growth hormone. Compared with saline infusion, glucose infusion induced both hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, increased plasma triglyceride levels, and increased TRL-apoB48 concentration and production rate (P<0.05), without affecting TRL-apoB48 fractional catabolic rate. No significant effect of hyperglycemia on TRL-apoB100 concentration and kinetic parameters was observed. Conclusions— Short-term intravenous infusion of glucose stimulates intestinal lipoprotein production. Hyperglycemia may contribute to intestinal lipoprotein overproduction in type 2 diabetes. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT02607839.
Usefulness of basal and pilocarpine-stimulated salivary flow in primary Sjögren's syndrome. Correlation with clinical, immunological and histological features.

OBJECTIVES To examine salivary function in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) by assessing unstimulated and stimulated flows using 5 mg of pilocarpine in a 5% solution, in order to define their clinical usefulness in the evaluation of xerostomia in patients with primary SS as well as to identify those factors related to the increase in salivary flow after pilocarpine stimulation. METHODS We investigated the clinical and immunological characteristics of 60 consecutive patients with primary SS. All patients fulfilled four or more of the preliminary diagnostic European criteria for SS. We measured unstimulated (basal) salivary flow (BSF) in all patients. In patients with BSF </=1.5 ml, stimulated salivary flows (SSF) were also measured after stimulation with an ophthalmic 5% pilocarpine solution (0.1 ml=5 mg, administered sublingually). SSF was also measured after oral administration of 50 mg anetholetrithione (ANTT) in the same patients. These stimulated salivary flows were measured 1, 2 and 3 h after the stimulus. RESULTS Of the 60 patients, 55 were women and five men, with a mean age at the SS onset of 61 yr (range 18-82 yr). The mean BSF for SS patients was 1.40+/-0.17 ml. Fifty (83%) patients showed a BSF less than 1.5 ml. The stimulated salivary flow after 1 h was 3.23 ml in the pilocarpine group and 0.57 in the ANTT group (P<0.001); after 2 h it was 1.32 ml in the pilocarpine group and 0.52 in the ANTT group (P=0.02) and after 3 h it was 0.80 ml in the pilocarpine group and 0.41 in the ANTT group (P=0.046). No clinical or immunological differences were found between SS patients with BSF more or less than 1.5 ml, although patients with a BSF less than 1.5 ml showed a parotid scintigraphy class III or IV more frequently (42 vs 0%, P=0.01). SS patients with a pilocarpine SSF less than 1.5 ml had a longer duration of SS (73.3 vs 31.3 months, P=0.03) and a higher prevalence of positive anti-Ro/SS-A (70 vs 36%, P=0.038), anti-La/SS-B (65 vs 32%, P=0.038), parotid scintigraphy class III-IV (79 vs 9%, P<0.001) and positive salivary gland biopsy (90 vs 43%, P<0.001). CONCLUSION The study of xerostomia using basal and pilocarpine SSF is simple to perform, acceptable to patients and needs no special equipment. We describe a significant increase in SSF using a solution of 5% pilocarpine in comparison with salivary flow obtained after stimulation with ANTT. Twenty-two of the 46 patients with low BSF had stimulated flows over 1.5 ml. These 'responder' patients showed a shorter duration of sicca symptoms, a lower frequency of positive immunological markers and milder grades of scintigraphic patterns and lymphocytic infiltrates in salivary gland biopsies. This subset of patients probably maintain a residual capacity of their salivary glands, as opposed to the 'non-responder' patients, who had a longer duration of sicca syndrome evolution with more severe involvement of the salivary glands.
Designing efficient architectures for modeling temporal features with convolutional neural networks

Many researchers use convolutional neural networks with small rectangular filters for music (spectrograms) classification. First, we discuss why there is no reason to use this filters setup by default and second, we point that more efficient architectures could be implemented if the characteristics of the music features are considered during the design process. Specifically, we propose a novel design strategy that might promote more expressive and intuitive deep learning architectures by efficiently exploiting the representational capacity of the first layer - using different filter shapes adapted to fit musical concepts within the first layer. The proposed architectures are assessed by measuring their accuracy in predicting the classes of the Ballroom dataset. We also make available1 the used code (together with the audio-data) so that this research is fully reproducible.
Orthopedic surgery in ancient Egypt

Background — Ancient Egypt might be considered the cradle of medicine. The modern literature is, however, sometimes rather too enthusiastic regarding the procedures that are attributed an Egyptian origin. I briefly present and analyze the claims regarding orthopedic surgery in Egypt, what was actually done by the Egyptians, and what may have been incorrectly ascribed to them. Methods — I reviewed the original sources and also the modern literature regarding surgery in ancient Egypt, concentrating especially on orthopedic surgery. Results — As is well known, both literary sources and the archaeological/osteological material bear witness to treatment of various fractures. The Egyptian painting, often claimed to depict the reduction of a dislocated shoulder according to Kocher’s method, is, however, open to interpretation. Therapeutic amputations are never depicted or mentioned in the literary sources, while the specimens suggested to demonstrate such amputations are not convincing. Interpretation — The ancient Egyptians certainly treated fractures of various kinds, and with varying degrees of success. Concerning the reductions of dislocated joints and therapeutic amputations, there is no clear evidence for the existence of such procedures. It would, however, be surprising if dislocations were not treated, even though they have not left traces in the surviving sources. Concerning amputations, the general level of Egyptian surgery makes it unlikely that limb amputations were done, even if they may possibly have been performed under extraordinary circumstances.