Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
18F-Fluoride PET/CT tumor burden quantification predicts survival in breast cancer

Purpose In bone-metastatic breast cancer patients, there are no current imaging biomarkers to identify which patients have worst prognosis. The purpose of our study was to investigate if skeletal tumor burden determined by 18F-Fluoride PET/CT correlates with clinical outcomes and may help define prognosis throughout the course of the disease. Results Bone metastases were present in 49 patients. On multivariable analysis, skeletal tumor burden was significantly and independently associated with overall survival (p < 0.0001) and progression free-survival (p < 0.0001). The simple presence of bone metastases was associated with time to bone event (p = 0.0448). Materials and Methods We quantified the skeletal tumor burden on 18F-Fluoride PET/CT images of 107 female breast cancer patients (40 for primary staging and the remainder for restaging after therapy). Clinical parameters, primary tumor characteristics and skeletal tumor burden were correlated to overall survival, progression free-survival and time to bone event. The median follow-up time was 19.5 months. Conclusions 18F-Fluoride PET/CT skeletal tumor burden is a strong independent prognostic imaging biomarker in breast cancer patients.
One‐year clinical outcomes of locking taper Equator attachments retaining mandibular overdentures to narrow diameter implants

BACKGROUND Narrow diameter implants (NDI) are recommended to retain mandibular overdentures (MOs) in cases of limited bone thickness. It is necessary to evaluate the clinical behavior of NDI as MO retainers connected to a new screwless locking taper abutments, their predictability and maintenance problems. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the peri-implant tissue behavior around NDI and the performance of locking taper stud abutments as MO retainers. METHODOLOGY Thirty patients (average age of 67.5 years) received 2 NDI implants (2.9 × 10 mm) loaded after 12 weeks using Equator stud attachments. The plaque index (PI), calculus index (CI), gingival index (GI), probing depth (PD), bleeding on probing (BOP), and implant stability quotient (ISQ) were monitored during osseointegration at 0, 4, 8, and 12 weeks and postloading at 24, 48, and 60 weeks. The marginal bone level (MBL) and bone level changes (BLC) were determined at baseline and 60 weeks. RESULTS The cumulative success rate was 83.3%. The PI oscillated in the first 24 weeks and decreased from 48 weeks onward, while the CI score showed significantly higher values at week 8 (22%). The GI also peaked at week 8 (18.6%) and decreased from week 12 onward. The PD decreased gradually over time, but no significant differences were found between weeks 8 and 12. The ISQ decreased significantly between 0 and 12 weeks. After MO loading, the ISQ values increased linearly and significantly between 12 and 24, 24 and 48, and 48 and 60 weeks and reached values similar to the primary stability after 60 weeks [56.1(42.0-65.3)]. No significant MBL was observed at 60 weeks, with an average BLC of -0.06 ± 0.64 mm. CONCLUSION NDI connected to locking taper Equator attachments showed a stable clinical behavior as an MO retainer for edentulous patients with clinical mandibular atrophy.
Predictors of premenstrual impairment among women undergoing prospective assessment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder: a cycle-level analysis

Background Women who experience significant premenstrual symptoms differ in the extent to which these symptoms cause cyclical impairment. This study clarifies the type and number of symptoms that best predict premenstrual impairment in a sample of women undergoing prospective assessment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) in a research setting. Central research goals were to determine (1) which emotional, psychological, and physical symptoms of PMDD are uniquely associated with premenstrual impairment, and (2) how many cyclical symptoms optimally predict the presence of a clinically significant premenstrual elevation of impairment. Method A total of 267 naturally cycling women recruited for retrospective report of premenstrual emotional symptoms completed daily symptom reports using the Daily Record of Severity of Problems (DRSP) and occupational, recreational, and relational impairment for 1–4 menstrual cycles (N = 563 cycles). Results Multilevel regression revealed that emotional, psychological, and physical symptoms differ in their associations with impairment. The core emotional symptoms of PMDD were predictors of impairment, but not after accounting for secondary psychological symptoms, which were the most robust predictors. The optimal number of premenstrual symptoms for predicting clinically significant premenstrual impairment was four. Conclusion Results enhance our understanding of the type and number of premenstrual symptoms associated with premenstrual impairment among women being evaluated for PMDD in research contexts. Additional work is needed to determine whether cognitive symptoms should receive greater attention in the study of PMDD, and to revisit the usefulness of the five-symptom diagnostic threshold.
Molecular Dynamic Simulation of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Nanocomposites: The Effect of Interface Interaction on Mechanical Properties

Polymer nanocomposites are known to exhibit enhanced mechanical properties compared to neat polymeric system [1]. Fillers can be used as reinforcement in polymer composites for the enhancement of mechanical properties [2]. Reinforced” polymers consist of a polymeric matrix and relatively stiff filler that exhibit a drastic change in modulus or stress at given strain in compare with the pure polymer [3].
Evidence that implementation intentions can overcome the effects of smoking habits.

OBJECTIVE In this study, the aim was to (a) test for the first time whether implementation intentions formed outside the laboratory can overcome the effects of habits, and (b) see whether the operation of implementation intentions could be improved by asking people to form certain "when-then" plans as opposed to uncertain "if-then" plans. METHOD The study employed a 2 × 2 fully factorial design with baseline and follow-up measures of smoking status and habits. Smokers (N = 168; circa 33 years of age; 79 women, 89 men) were randomly allocated to 1 of 2 intervention groups to form either if-then plans or when-then plans using supporting tools, or to 1 of 2 control conditions in which they were exposed to identical supporting tools but were not asked to form if-then plans or when-then plans. RESULTS Certainty did not affect the operation of implementation intentions, but smokers who formed implementation intentions were significantly more likely to quit, χ2(1, N = 168) = 8.86, p < . 01, and the effect was mediated by changes in smoking habits (95% CI [0.02, 0.14]). Similar effects were observed when cigarettes smoked per day, nicotine dependence, and craving served as the dependent variables. CONCLUSION The findings demonstrate that people who have formed implementation intentions can overcome habits, such as smoking, outside the laboratory. The supporting tools described in the present research could be deployed at low cost with high public health reach to support behavior change. (PsycINFO Database Record
E-Government users’ privacy and security concerns and availability of laws in Dubai

The purpose of the study was to review privacy and security concerns and their impact on e-government adoption in Dubai. The research analyzed the literature on e-government, security and privacy concerns of e-government adoption and the legislative provision relating to privacy and security protection. A survey on e-government user concerns on privacy, security and ease of use was also carried out. The data for the survey in this research were collected from 190 respondents in Dubai. The results of the analysis revealed that perceived security, privacy and perceived ease of use were important constructs in e-government adoption. The analysis of legal framework showed that the Federal Constitution, the Penal Code, the new Data Protection Act and the Computer Crime Act could be used to address various privacy and security concerns. Thus, it is important that the policy makers facilitate an appropriate awareness campaign of the existence of both information privacy and security to attract more participation towards the e-government services.
One Size Does Not Fit All: An Ensemble Approach Towards Information Extraction from Adverse Drug Event Narratives

Recognizing named entities in Adverse Drug Reactions narratives is a fundamental step towards extracting valuable patient information from unstructured text into a structured thus actionable format. This then unlocks advanced data analytics towards intelligent pharmacovigilance. Yet existing biomedical named entity recognition (NER) tools are limited in their ability to identify certain entity types from these domain-specific narratives and result in significant performance differences in terms of accuracy. To address these challenges, we propose an ensemble approach that integrates a rich variety of named entity recognizers to procure the final result. First, one critical problem faced by NER in the biomedical context is that the data is highly skewed. That is, only 1% of words belong to a certain medical entity type, such as, the reason for medication usage compared to all other non-reason words. We propose a balanced, under-sampled bagging strategy that is dependent on the imbalance level to overcome the class imbalance problem. Second, we present an ensemble of heterogeneous recognizers approach that leverages a novel ensemble combiner. Our experimental results show that for biomedical text datasets: (i) a balanced learning environment along with an Ensemble of Heterogeneous Classifiers constantly improves the performance over individual base learners and, (ii) stacking-based ensemble combiner methods outperform simple Majority Voting by 0.30 F-measure.
Gating kinetics of four classes of voltage-dependent K+ channels in pheochromocytoma cells

Clonal pheochromocytoma (PC-12) cells have four different types of voltage-dependent K+ channels whose activation does not require high concentrations of Ca++ on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane (Hoshi, T., and R. W. Aldrich, 1988, Journal of General Physiology, 91:73-106). The durations of open and closed events of these four different types of voltage-dependent K+ channels were measured using the excised configuration of the patch-clamp method. The open durations of a class of K+ channels termed the Kz channel, which activates rapidly and inactivates slowly in response to depolarizing pulses, had two exponential components. The closed durations of the Kz channel had at least four exponential components. The time constants of the fastest of the two exponential components in the closed durations were very similar to those of the two exponential components present in the first- latency distribution. The first latencies of the Kz channel decreased steeply with depolarization, contributing to the increased probability of the channel being open with depolarization. The Kz channel also had a very slow gating process that resulted in a clustering of blank sweeps. A gating scheme containing two open states and five closed states is consistent with the observations. The Ky channel had one exponential component in the open durations and three exponential components in the closed durations. The first latencies varied greatly depending on the prepulse voltage and duration. The results were consistent with a sequential model with a large number of closed states and one open state. The Kx channel, which required large hyperpolarizing prepulses to remove steady state inactivation and did not show inactivation with maintained depolarization, had two exponential components in the open durations and three exponential components in the closed durations. The burst behavior of the Kx channel involved many more than two states. The transient Kw channel had one exponential component in the open durations and the mean open time increased with depolarization. The first latencies of the Kw channel were steeply dependent on the voltage, decreasing with depolarization.
Being in safe hands: Patients’ perceptions of how cancer services may support psychological well‐being

AIMS To explore how cancer services may positively promote and support patients' well-being throughout treatment. Specifically to identify components of care that are important to patients and meet their needs. BACKGROUND Patients commonly experience stress and uncertainty during their cancer journey which can have a negative impact on their psychological health and quality of life. Comparatively, little is known about how patients may experience positive well-being during their treatment experience. DESIGN Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. METHODS Interviews were conducted between 2014 - 2015 with a purposive sample of 30 individuals who were at the beginning, middle or end of treatment for lung, colorectal and head and neck cancer. The majority were outpatients and receiving radiotherapy, chemotherapy or a combination of these. The recordings were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS Patients may obtain a range of positive health benefits derived from contact with staff, patients and public. Positive emotional gains were based on "being in safe hands" and part of the collective effort to eradicate cancer. This appeared to assist patients achieve favourable treatment responses, however, a range of factors encouraged and hindered them to express concerns. CONCLUSION Interactions with staff, patients and the hospital environment supported well-being in those receiving cancer treatment. Findings demonstrate additional areas for research including the development of interventions to facilitate peer support and the implementation of communication strategies that promote well-being.
A Comparative Study on the Properties of Al-7%Si-Rice Husk Ash and Al-7%Si-Bagasse Ash Composites Produced by Stir Casting

and alumina contents of the ashes obtained at 700 o C were 98.24wt% and 88.24wt% for RHA and BA, respectively. Density and mechanical properties of the produced composites were determined. The results show that the composites produced with addition of BA with low density of 238.269kgm -3 have better density decreasing ability as BA decreases the density of the alloy by 19% compared with RHA with density of 397.114kgm -3 and 15% decrease. The results of mechanical properties show that RHA and BAimproved the mechanical properties upto 10.2% and 7.5% for UTS, respectively. Impact strength increased upto 84.8% and 52.7%, hardness upto 55.2% and 28.8% and fatigue strength upto 316.7% and 190.0% for RHA and BA, respectively. These results show better improvement in mechanical properties with RHA addition however, the statistical analysis results show that there is no significant difference among the pairs of some properties (UTS, Young modulus and fatigue strength) of the two composites and hence both could be used in similar applications where tensile and fatigue strength are of importance.
Influence of Pre-wetted Lightweight Aggregate on Early-age Shrinkage of High Strength Concrete

Influence of substituting volume fraction of pre-wetted light weight aggregate(LWA) on the early-age free shrinkage,internal relative humidity and elastic modulus of four high strength concrete(HSC),with induced curing water to cement ratios of 0,0.04,0.08,0.12 and with a similar compressive strength,under plastic film sealing and environmental drying was investigated.The internal humidity reduction and total free shrinkage of internal-cured concrete(IC) within 28 days were mitigated when the amount of induced curing water was increased,especially for the case of sealed specimens.On the contrary,the elastic modulus of IC decreases with the increase of substituting volume fraction of pre-wetted LWA.Therefore an optimized amount of induced curing water needs to be considered in practical application.Furthermore,in the case of drying environment,drying shrinkage of HSC can not be fully eliminated by internal curing with pre-wetted LWA.Relative remarkable humidity gradient and near-surface drying phenomenon could exist.
Caulobacter PopZ forms an intrinsically disordered hub in organizing bacterial cell poles

Significance Despite being the simplest organisms, bacteria have complex subcellular anatomies. How does such organization occur in openly diffusive cytoplasm? We find that the cell pole organizing protein PopZ facilitates network formation by binding directly to at least eight other proteins. The binding region in PopZ is intrinsically disordered, suggesting PopZ has a flexible structure that adopts a different interface for each partner protein. In this way, PopZ resembles eukaryotic hub proteins, such as p53 and BRCA1, which coordinate complex signaling networks. Rapid cycles of binding, unbinding, and rebinding within PopZ networks indicate that bacterial cell poles, similar to their eukaryotic counterparts, are highly dynamic structures. Despite their relative simplicity, bacteria have complex anatomy at the subcellular level. At the cell poles of Caulobacter crescentus, a 177-amino acid (aa) protein called PopZ self-assembles into 3D polymeric superstructures. Remarkably, we find that this assemblage interacts directly with at least eight different proteins, which are involved in cell cycle regulation and chromosome segregation. The binding determinants within PopZ include 24 aa at the N terminus, a 32-aa region near the C-terminal homo-oligomeric assembly domain, and portions of an intervening linker region. Together, the N-terminal 133 aa of PopZ are sufficient for interacting with all binding partners, even in the absence of homo-oligomeric assembly. Structural analysis of this region revealed that it is intrinsically disordered, similar to p53 and other hub proteins that organize complex signaling networks in eukaryotic cells. Through live-cell photobleaching, we find rapid binding kinetics between PopZ and its partners, suggesting many pole-localized proteins become concentrated at cell poles through rapid cycles of binding and unbinding within the PopZ scaffold. We conclude that some bacteria, similar to their eukaryotic counterparts, use intrinsically disordered hub proteins for network assembly and subcellular organization.
Phase transformation of poled "chem-prep" PZT 95/5-2Nb ceramic under quasi-static loading conditions.

Specimens of poled 'chem-prep' PNZT ceramic from batch HF803 were tested under hydrostatic, uniaxial, and constant stress difference loading conditions at three temperatures of -55, 25, and 75 C and pressures up to 500 MPa. The objective of this experimental study was to obtain the electro-mechanical properties of the ceramic and the criteria of FE (Ferroelectric) to AFE (Antiferroelectric) phase transformations so that grain-scale modeling efforts can develop and test models and codes using realistic parameters. The poled ceramic undergoes anisotropic deformation during the transition from a FE to an AFE structure. The lateral strain measured parallel to the poling direction was typically 35 % greater than the strain measured perpendicular to the poling direction. The rates of increase in the phase transformation pressures per temperature changes were practically identical for both unpoled and poled PNZT HF803 specimens. We observed that the retarding effect of temperature on the kinetics of phase transformation appears to be analogous to the effect of shear stress. We also observed that the FE-to-AFE phase transformation occurs in poled ceramic when the normal compressive stress, acting perpendicular to a crystallographic plane about the polar axis, equals the hydrostatic pressure at which the transformation otherwise takes place.
Factors associated with inconsistency in self-reported mild traumatic brain injury over time among military personnel in Iraq

Background Estimates of the prevalence of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) among military personnel and combat veterans rely almost exclusively on retrospective self-reports; however, reliability of these reports has received little attention. Aims To examine the consistency of reporting of mTBI over time and identify factors associated with inconsistent reporting. Method A longitudinal cohort of 948 US National Guard Soldiers deployed to Iraq completed self-report questionnaire screening for mTBI and psychological symptoms while in-theatre 1 month before returning home (time 1, T 1) and 1 year later (time 2, T 2). Results Most respondents (n = 811, 85.5%) were consistent in their reporting of mTBI across time. Among those who were inconsistent in their reports (n = 137, 14.5%), the majority denied mTBI at T 1 and affirmed mTBI at T 2 (n = 123, 89.8%). Respondents rarely endorsed mTBI in-theatre and later denied mTBI (n = 14, 10.2% of those with inconsistent reports). Post-deployment post-traumatic stress symptoms and non-specific physical complaints were significantly associated with inconsistent report of mTBI. Conclusions Military service members' self-reports of mTBI are generally consistent over time; however, inconsistency in retrospective self-reporting of mTBI status is associated with current posttraumatic stress symptoms and non-specific physical health complaints.
Influence of warm-up duration on physical performance and psychological perceptions in handball players

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to analyse the effect of two warm-up protocols of different duration on physical performance, perceived load and perception of being ready for a match in handball players. Eighteen handball players were randomly divided into two groups (Wup34min, warm-up protocol of 34 min, Wup17min, warm-up protocol of 17 min). Before and after the warm-up protocols, they performed a battery of physical tests and recorded their perception of feeling ready for a match. At the end of the warm-up protocols, all the players evaluated their differentiated perceived effort (dRPE). The results showed that neither of the protocols significantly modified (p > 0.05) the players’ physical performance. However, the Wup34min group showed higher values in the differentiated warm-up perceived load (dRPE-WL) (p < 0.01, TE = 0.97–1.27, high) than the Wup17min group. The players with a greater perceived muscular load (RPEMUSC) experienced a greater decrease in their acceleration capacity (r = 0.48–0.49, p < 0.05). In spite of the fact that neither of the warm-up protocols significantly modified the players’ physical performance, a greater perceived muscular load may cause a greater decrease in acceleration capacity.
Tag based models for Arabic text compression

Text compression is needed to reduce the space required to store information contained in the text and the amount of time needed to transmit that information. Compression-based models such as the Prediction-by-Partial Matching (PPM) compression scheme have been found very effective for many further natural language processing tasks such as authorship ascription, text categorization, and word segmentation for various languages, including English, Chinese and Arabic. Therefore, this paper explores an approach of compressing Arabic text using parts-of-speech (tags) along with the text based on the PPM compression scheme. This new approach produces significantly better compression results when compared to state-of-the-art compression algorithms for Arabic text.
Clinical and Microbiological Characteristics of Candida guilliermondii and Candida fermentati

ABSTRACT A total of 46 clinical isolates of Candida guilliermondii and Candida famata were reidentified genetically, resulting in 27 C. guilliermondii and 12 Candida fermentati strains. The majority of C. guilliermondii strains, but not C. fermentati strains, were isolated from blood cultures. C. fermentati was more sensitive to antifungals, hydrogen peroxide, and killing by murine macrophages than was C. guilliermondii. The C. guilliermondii isolates were echinocandin susceptible in vitro but resistant to micafungin in a murine model of invasive candidiasis.