Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pregnancy Outcomes After Conservative Surgical Management of Ovarian Neoplasms Treated at a Single Institution

Hypothesis: Conservative surgical management of ovarian neoplasms can result in favorable oncologic and obstetric outcomes. Methods: All reproductive-age women (18-45 years old) with stage IA to stage IIC ovarian neoplasms (N = 161) were retrospectively identified from a single institution's tumor registry between 1990 and 2007. Operative, pathological, outpatient, and delivery records were reviewed to confirm histological findings, stage, extent of surgical resection, adjuvant treatment, oncologic outcomes, and pregnancy outcomes. Results: Women who underwent conservative surgical management for ovarian neoplasms (n = 61 [37.9%]) were identified, including those with low malignant potential (LMP, n = 36), epithelial (n = 12), germ cell (n = 6), and sex cord (n = 7) tumors. Thirteen women conceived 23 pregnancies, producing a pregnancy rate of 25.0% overall and of 68.4% for those attempting conception. Women with LMP tumors conceived most pregnancies and had the highest number of antenatal complications. Of those receiving adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 8), 12.5% were able to conceive after their treatment and with no reported congenital anomalies. Pregnancy after a diagnosis of ovarian neoplasm did not impact disease recurrence (0% vs 7.7%, P = 0.56) or survival (100% vs 100%, P = 1.0). Conclusions: Conservative surgery may be an acceptable option for reproductive-age women with early-stage ovarian neoplasms. We report pregnancy and oncologic outcomes for a cohort of women managed conservatively for LMP, epithelial, germ cell, and sex cord ovarian neoplasms.
Learning motivation from a cross-cultural perspective: a moving target?

This paper investigates the relationship between educational achievement and the motivation to learn. We used the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that contains representative samples from 55 nations. A strong negative correlation between educational achievement and motivation toward science learning emerged at the national level. We found that differences in the socioeconomic levels of nations are associated with this unexpected negative correlation. Children from developed societies achieve higher educational results but may tend to be rather critical in describing their learning motivation, and vice versa, students from developing countries do not attain very high educational outcomes, but their motivation, as stated on the self-report questionnaires, is high. We offer different explanations for this phenomenon. The motivation to learn in relation to the level of development of countries is a moving target, and this should be taken into account at all levels of education policymaking, from schools to national governments.
Challenges, illiterate caregivers experience to support their children’s education

Primary Caregiver’s ability to provide a healthy, nurturing and stimulating environment is critical, but Caregivers in South Africa, especially those living in rural communities, are facing many challenges, including a combination of poverty, lack of education and skills, as well as social isolation, which directly and indirectly affect their ability to care for their children in a way to ensure their optimal developmental outcomes. Residents in far rural communities, such as in the Eastern Cape, have had less opportunities to go to school, due to various reasons and Caregivers therefore face multiple burdens. For the purposes of this study, it is important to clarify with reference the term “Caregiver”. The South African Children’s Act (Act 38 of 2005) differentiates between biological parents, guardians and caregivers. According to the Act(Children’s 2005),parents may be a biological father or biological father, a guardian being an honorary parent to the child and a caregiver is any family member rather than the biological parent or guardian who is concerned with care, welfare and development of the child. Although there is such differentiation, caregiving remains central to the holistic care required of any adult responsible for the nurturing of children. This will include biological father, mother, grandparents, extended family members, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles as well as any person who is concerned with the care, welfare and development of the child and has been, after application to court of law, granted permission to exercise parental responsibilities over the child. The population for this study encompassed caregivers who are least educated and or never attended school in the Ku-Jonga rural settlement in Coffee bay and research participants were purposively selected from the populations. Data was collected by means of focus groups with the aid of an interview guide. The interviews were conducted in Xhosa and later translated into English . A Thematic system was used according to the Tesch’s eight steps and ethical considerations such as voluntary participation, informed consent and confidentiality were adheredto.The community has most citizens who identified with the target population. This is based on historical factors. The participants freely expressed themselves and contributed to the findings and thereby assisting the researcher reach the conclusions about experiences illiterate caregivers experience to support their children’s education.
Electrical Vestibular Stimulation after Vestibular Deafferentation and in Vestibular Schwannoma

Background Vestibular reflexes, evoked by human electrical (galvanic) vestibular stimulation (EVS), are utilized to assess vestibular function and investigate its pathways. Our study aimed to investigate the electrically-evoked vestibulo-ocular reflex (eVOR) output after bilateral and unilateral vestibular deafferentations to determine the characteristics for interpreting unilateral lesions such as vestibular schwannomas. Methods EVOR was recorded with dual-search coils as binocular three-dimensional eye movements evoked by bipolar 100 ms-step at EVS intensities of [0.9, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0]mA and unipolar 100 ms-step at 5 mA EVS intensity. Five bilateral vestibular deafferented (BVD), 12 unilateral vestibular deafferented (UVD), four unilateral vestibular schwannoma (UVS) patients and 17 healthy subjects were tested with bipolar EVS, and five UVDs with unipolar EVS. Results After BVD, bipolar EVS elicited no eVOR. After UVD, bipolar EVS of one functioning ear elicited bidirectional, excitatory eVOR to cathodal EVS with 9 ms latency and inhibitory eVOR to anodal EVS, opposite in direction, at half the amplitude with 12 ms latency, exhibiting an excitatory-inhibitory asymmetry. The eVOR patterns from UVS were consistent with responses from UVD confirming the vestibular loss on the lesion side. Unexpectedly, unipolar EVS of the UVD ear, instead of absent response, evoked one-third the bipolar eVOR while unipolar EVS of the functioning ear evoked half the bipolar response. Conclusions The bidirectional eVOR evoked by bipolar EVS from UVD with an excitatory-inhibitory asymmetry and the 3 ms latency difference between normal and lesion side may be useful for detecting vestibular lesions such as UVS. We suggest that current spread could account for the small eVOR to 5 mA unipolar EVS of the UVD ear.
Three-dimensional registration of images obtained before and after radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma to assess treatment adequacy.

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to evaluate the value of 3D registration images reconstructed by fusion of pre- and posttreatment CT or MRI for the assessment of ablative margins after percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS From January 2007 to May 2011, we performed RFA in 84 patients to treat 139 HCC nodules, the margins of which had been assessed by comparing pre- and postablation images side by side. The same nodules were retrospectively assessed again with 3D registration images after classification into four margin grades. We analyzed the cumulative local recurrence rate for each grade and reviewed the origin of recurrence. RESULTS Three-dimensional registration images predicted local recurrences more accurately than did the conventional side-by-side method (area under the curve, 0.678 and 0.536, respectively; p = 0.0144). The cumulative rates of local recurrence were significantly different among the margin grades assessed with 3D registration images (p = 0.0088). Three-dimensional registration images detected that the major origins of recurrence (n = 22) were residuals (n = 13) and sites of no margin (n = 6), especially proximate to blood vessels more than 3 mm in diameter. CONCLUSION Three-dimensional registration of pre- and postablation CT or MRI more accurately assesses the ablative margin than the conventional method. It can predict a proclivity for local recurrence after RFA according to margin grade. It also indicated that residuals and sites of no margin proximate to blood vessels that are more than 3 mm in diameter are high-risk locations for local recurrence after ablation.
Work, Family, and Well-Being at Midlife

This study addressed work and family enhancement and conflict among adults at midlife (N = 125). The study included personal well-being measured 25 years earlier. Participants were classified into groups on the basis of latent class analysis. Qualitative analyses of narratives within groups enhanced understanding of the experiences of those in the groups. The first of the three groups identified by latent class analysis consisted of a fairly large number of women who seemed to have achieved balance in roles and enjoyed marital and job satisfaction. The second group, almost exclusively male, was characterized by a low degree of work and family enhancement. In the small third group, a profound lack of marital satisfaction coupled with high work and family conflict and low enhancement identified men and women with seemingly enduring low levels of well-being. Narratives largely validated the quantitative analysis but also provided additional avenues for further research.
CD11c/CD18, a transmembrane signaling receptor for lipopolysaccharide

CD11c/CD18 is a member of the leukocyte integrin family, heterodimeric adhesion molecules that interact with a diverse repertoire of ligands, including bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Their role as signal transducing receptors remains uncertain. We used a heterologous expression system to determine if CD11c/CD18 was capable of initiating signal transduction in response to LPS-binding, as assessed by the induced translocation of nuclear factor-kappa B. We have previously reported that Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)-K1 fibroblasts, normally unresponsive to LPS, acquire serum-dependent macrophage-like responses to LPS when transfected with CD14 (Golenbock, D.T., Y. Liu, F. Millham, M. Freeman, and R. Zoeller. 1993. J. Biol. Chem. 268:22055-22059), a known LPS receptor. In contrast, CHO cells acquired serum-independent responses to Gram-negative bacteria and LPS when transfected with CD11c/CD18 (CHO/CD11c). In comparison to CHO cells transfected with CD14 (CHO/CD14), responses in CHO/CD11c cells were slower, required higher endotoxin concentrations for maximal response, and were not inhibited by the presence of antibodies to CD14. CD11c/CD18 is, thus, the second phagocyte receptor, in addition to CD14, which has been shown to have the capacity to activate cells after binding to LPS. The function of this receptor in normal phagocytes may be limited to the recognition of LPS in infected tissues, where LPS-CD14 interactions are not favored because of the absence of serum proteins.
Redundancy Does Not Imply Fault Tolerance

We analyze how modern distributed storage systems behave in the presence of file-system faults such as data corruption and read and write errors. We characterize eight popular distributed storage systems and uncover numerous problems related to file-system fault tolerance. We find that modern distributed systems do not consistently use redundancy to recover from file-system faults: a single file-system fault can cause catastrophic outcomes such as data loss, corruption, and unavailability. We also find that the above outcomes arise due to fundamental problems in file-system fault handling that are common across many systems. Our results have implications for the design of next-generation fault-tolerant distributed and cloud storage systems.
Different histological types of non‐small cell lung cancer have distinct folate and DNA methylation levels

Aberrant DNA methylation is a commonly observed epigenetic change in lung cancer. Folate has been suggested to play a role in the homeostasis of DNA methylation and has also been implicated in cancer chemotherapy. We investigated a possible role for folate in DNA methylation by measuring folate concentrations in tumors and adjacent normal tissues from 72 non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. These were compared to DNA methylation levels and to clinicopathological features. Folate concentrations were determined as the sum of 5,10‐methylenetetrahydrofolate and tetrahydrofolate. The MethyLight assay was used to quantitate methylation in promoter regions of P16(CDKN2A), APC, CDH13, RARB, RASSF1, RUNX3, and MYOD1. Methylation of LINE‐1 repeats was used as a surrogate for global methylation. Folate levels in tumors correlated positively with LINE‐1, CDH13, and RUNX3 methylation. Folate concentrations and methylation of LINE‐1, RASSF1, and RUNX3 were significantly higher in adenocarcinoma compared to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Two sets of array‐based data retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus consistently showed that expression of FOLR1, a folate transport enzyme, and GGH, an enzyme that prevents folate retention, were higher and lower, respectively, in adenocarcinomas compared to SCC. This was independently validated by quantitative RT‐PCR in 26 adenocarcinomas and 13 SCC. Our results suggest that folate metabolism plays a role in aberrant DNA methylation in NSCLC. The histological subtype differences in folate concentration and DNA methylation observed here were associated with distinct expression patterns for folate metabolizing enzymes. These findings may have clinical applications for histology‐directed chemotherapy with fluoropyrimidine and anti‐folates in NSCLC. (Cancer Sci 2009l; 100: 2325–2330)
Improving Face-To-Face Brainstorming Through Modeling and Facilitation

It has been demonstrated repeatedly that groups who brainstorm while interacting face-to-face (FTF) generate fewer ideas than nominal groups. Some researchers have suggested that there is little justification for groups to brainstorm FTF. Most of the results that support this conclusion have been obtained from laboratory groups working in artificial situations with little structure and no training, a situation quite different from most organizational settings. The purpose of this research was to determine if the use of trained facilitators, different recording techniques, and videotape modeling improved performance. The results of two experiments demonstrated that FTF groups generate as many ideas as nominal groups when assisted by a trained facilitator. Videotape modeling helps increase performance in some instances. Neither of two recording techniques affected performance. Because FTF groups can do as well as nominal groups, more research should identify mechanisms to improve FTF brainstorming, particularly because there are numerous potential benefits derived from interacting groups.
Protein fold recognition using geometric kernel data fusion

Motivation: Various approaches based on features extracted from protein sequences and often machine learning methods have been used in the prediction of protein folds. Finding an efficient technique for integrating these different protein features has received increasing attention. In particular, kernel methods are an interesting class of techniques for integrating heterogeneous data. Various methods have been proposed to fuse multiple kernels. Most techniques for multiple kernel learning focus on learning a convex linear combination of base kernels. In addition to the limitation of linear combinations, working with such approaches could cause a loss of potentially useful information. Results: We design several techniques to combine kernel matrices by taking more involved, geometry inspired means of these matrices instead of convex linear combinations. We consider various sequence-based protein features including information extracted directly from position-specific scoring matrices and local sequence alignment. We evaluate our methods for classification on the SCOP PDB-40D benchmark dataset for protein fold recognition. The best overall accuracy on the protein fold recognition test set obtained by our methods is ∼86.7%. This is an improvement over the results of the best existing approach. Moreover, our computational model has been developed by incorporating the functional domain composition of proteins through a hybridization model. It is observed that by using our proposed hybridization model, the protein fold recognition accuracy is further improved to 89.30%. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of our approach on the protein remote homology detection problem by fusing multiple string kernels. Availability and implementation: The MATLAB code used for our proposed geometric kernel fusion frameworks are publicly available at http://people.cs. kuleuven.be/∼raf.vandebril/homepage/software/geomean.php? menu=5/ Contact: pooyapaydar@gmail.com or yves.moreau@esat.kuleuven.be Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumor: focus on imatinib mesylate

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is a rare primary neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract, mesentery, or omentum. In the past, surgery has been the only effective treatment. The diagnosis and treatment of GIST has been revolutionized over the past decade, since expression of the receptor tyrosine kinase KIT was shown to occur on these tumors. Mutations in this proto-oncogene commonly cause constitutive activation of the KIT tyrosine kinase receptor, an important factor in the pathogenesis of the disease. The development of specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as imatinib mesylate, has led to a breakthrough in the treatment of advanced GIST. Treatment with this drug has led to significant improvements in survival, with overall response rates in excess of 80%. Side effects are common, but usually manageable. The success of this drug has led to further trials investigating its use in the pre- and postoperative situation. This review summarizes the current knowledge of GIST and imatinib treatment and possible future developments.
Mesoporous Silicas with Tunable Morphology for the Immobilization of Laccase

Siliceous ordered mesoporous materials (OMM) are gaining interest as supports for enzyme immobilization due to their uniform pore size, large surface area, tunable pore network and the introduction of organic components to mesoporous structure. We used SBA-15 type silica materials, which exhibit a regular 2D hexagonal packing of cylindrical mesopores of uniform size, for non-covalent immobilization of laccase. Synthesis conditions were adjusted in order to obtain supports with different particle shape, where those with shorter channels had higher loading capacity. Despite the similar isoelectric points of silica and laccase and the close match between the size of laccase and the pore dimensions of these SBA-15 materials, immobilization was achieved with very low leaching. Surface modification of macro-/mesoporous amorphous silica by grafting of amine moieties was proved to significantly increase the isoelectric point of this support and improve the immobilization yield.
Gender Differences in the Effects of Socioeconomic Background

This article examines two related questions: (1) Are there gender differences in the influence of socioeconomic background on students' educational performance? and (2) Is student performance influenced more by the socioeconomic characteristics of the same-sex parent? Seven hypotheses are derived and tested using data from 30 countries on student performance in reading and mathematics. There is little or no gender difference in the effects of socioeconomic background on educational performance in almost all countries examined. In no country are all the hypotheses relating to the same-sex socialization model supported, although there is a tendency for father's socioeconomic characteristics and father's occupation to have a stronger impact among boys in some countries. There were very few instances where mother's characteristics were stronger among girls. In sum, there is only limited evidence to support the same-sex socialization model for educational performance.
Comparison of apoptosis and mortality measurements in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) using multiple methods

Abstract. Death through apoptosis is the main process by which aged cells that have lost their function are eliminated. Apoptotic cells are usually detected microscopically by changes in their morphology. However, determination of early apoptotic events is important for in vitro (and ex vivo) studies. The main objective of the present study is to find the most sensitive method for apoptosis detection in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) by comparing six different methods following five different means of immunological stimulation at 3 and 5 days. Each of six apoptosis quantification methods, except the trypan blue exclusion test, is a combination of two stains, one for the specific detection of apoptotic cells and the other for the unspecific detection of dead cells. Values for apoptosis and mortality were compared with a reference method. The choice of apoptosis detection method is more important following 3 days of stimulation than after 5 days of stimulation (P = 2 × 10−6 versus P = 1 × 10−2). In contrast, we find mortality measurements following the different means of stimulation highly significant at both 3 and 5 days (F2.28 = 7.9, P = 1.4 × 10−6 at 3 days and F2.28 = 8.5, P = 4.5 × 10−7 at 5 days). Variation as a result of the combination of specific PBMC stimulation and the method used to detect apoptosis is reduced considerably with time (F1.58 + 3.7, P + 3 × 10−7 at 3 days to F = (1.58) = 0.97, P = 0.5 at 5 days). Based on Tukey's test, YO‐PRO‐1 is the most sensitive stain for apoptosis and, when combined with 7‐AAD, provides an accurate measure of apoptosis and mortality. In conclusion, we propose YO‐PRO‐1/7‐AAD as a new combination and low‐cost alternative for the sensitive detection of early apoptosis.
Suppression of IgE B Cells and IgE Binding to FcεRI by Gene Therapy with Single-Chain Anti-IgE1

IgE plays a pivotal role in allergic reactions and asthma through its ability to bind to the mast cell FcR for IgE (FcεRI). Current therapies to suppress such reactions include passive treatment with neutralizing Abs to IgE that block its binding to FcεRI. In theory, induction of immune tolerance in the B lymphocytes that carry IgE Ag receptors and give rise to IgE-secreting cells should provide longer term efficacy. However, recent data have suggested that such memory cells may lack cell surface IgE. Using a gene therapy approach, we show that a recombinant single-chain neutralizing anti-IgE could not only neutralize circulating IgE, but also reduce IgE+ B cell numbers and H chain transcripts. Therapeutic anti-IgE stimulated a calcium response in primary B cells or in a B cell line expressing membrane IgE and suppressed IgE secretion in vitro, suggesting that active signaling through membrane IgE likely promoted tolerance. Interestingly, upon subsequent challenge of anti-IgE-treated mice with an IgE cross-linking reagent capable of inducing activation of IgE-decorated mast cells, an anaphylaxis reaction was induced, apparently via a FcγRIII pathway involving recognition of anti-IgE Ab itself. These studies have important implications for the optimal design of safe and effective anti-IgE therapies and suggest that the IgE memory B cells may be targeted by such genetic Ab therapies.