Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tumor-targeted Dual-modality Imaging to Improve Intraoperative Visualization of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: A First in Man Study

Intraoperative imaging with antibodies labeled with both a radionuclide for initial guidance and a near-infrared dye for adequate tumor delineation may overcome the main limitation of fluorescence imaging: the limited penetration depth of light in biological tissue. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility and safety of intraoperative dual-modality imaging with the carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX)-targeting antibody 111In-DOTA-girentuximab-IRDye800CW in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients. Methods: A phase I protein dose escalation study was performed in patients with a primary renal mass who were scheduled for surgery. 111In-DOTA-girentuximab-IRDye800CW (5, 10, 30, or 50 mg, n=3 ccRCC patients per dose level) was administered intravenously and after 4 days SPECT/CT imaging was performed. Seven days after antibody injection, surgery was performed with the use of a gamma probe and near-infrared fluorescence camera. Results: In total, fifteen patients were included (12 ccRCC, 3 CAIX-negative tumors). No study-related serious adverse events were observed. All ccRCC were visualized by SPECT/CT and localized by intraoperative gamma probe detection (mean tumor-to-normal kidney (T:N) ratio 2.5 ± 0.8), while the T:N ratio was 1.0 ± 0.1 in CAIX-negative tumors. ccRCC were hyperfluorescent at all protein doses and fluorescence imaging could be used for intraoperative tumor delineation, assessment of the surgical cavity and detection of (positive) surgical margins. The radiosignal was crucial for tumor localization in case of overlying fat tissue. Conclusion: This first in man study shows that tumor-targeted dual-modality imaging using 111In-DOTA-girentuximab-IRDye800CW is safe and can be used for intraoperative guidance of ccRCC resection.
Nonlinearity in stock networks

Stock networks, constructed from stock price time series, are a well-established tool for the characterization of complex behavior in stock markets. Following Mantegna's seminal paper, the linear Pearson's correlation coefficient between pairs of stocks has been the usual way to determine network edges. Recently, possible effects of nonlinearity on the graph-theoretical properties of such networks have been demonstrated when using nonlinear measures such as mutual information instead of linear correlation. In this paper, we quantitatively characterize the nonlinearity in stock time series and the effect it has on stock network properties. This is achieved by a systematic multi-step approach that allows us to quantify the nonlinearity of coupling; correct its effects wherever it is caused by simple univariate non-Gaussianity; potentially localize in space and time any remaining strong sources of this nonlinearity; and, finally, study the effect nonlinearity has on global network properties. By applying this multi-step approach to stocks included in three prominent indices (New York Stock Exchange 100, Financial Times Stock Exchange 100, and Standard & Poor 500), we establish that the apparent nonlinearity that has been observed is largely due to univariate non-Gaussianity. Furthermore, strong nonstationarity in a few specific stocks may play a role. In particular, the sharp decrease in some stocks during the global financial crisis of 2008 gives rise to apparent nonlinear dependencies among stocks.
A clinical decision support system algorithm for intravenous to oral antibiotic switch therapy: validity, clinical relevance and usefulness in a three-step evaluation study

Objectives To evaluate a clinical decision support system (CDSS) based on consensus-based intravenous to oral switch criteria, which identifies intravenous to oral switch candidates. Methods A three-step evaluation study of a stand-alone CDSS with electronic health record interoperability was performed at the Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. During the first step, we performed a technical validation. During the second step, we determined the sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value and positive predictive value in a retrospective cohort of all hospitalized adult patients starting at least one therapeutic antibacterial drug between 1 and 16 May 2013. ICU, paediatric and psychiatric wards were excluded. During the last step the clinical relevance and usefulness was prospectively assessed by reports to infectious disease specialists. An alert was considered clinically relevant if antibiotics could be discontinued or switched to oral therapy at the time of the alert. Results During the first step, one technical error was found. The second step yielded a positive predictive value of 76.6% and a negative predictive value of 99.1%. The third step showed that alerts were clinically relevant in 53.5% of patients. For 43.4% it had already been decided to discontinue or switch the intravenous antibiotics by the treating physician. In 10.1%, the alert resulted in advice to change antibiotic policy and was considered useful. Conclusions This prospective cohort study shows that the alerts were clinically relevant in >50% (n = 449) and useful in 10% (n = 85). The CDSS needs to be evaluated in hospitals with varying activity of infectious disease consultancy services as this probably influences usefulness.
Explicit Lower Bounds on Strong Quantum Simulation

We consider the problem of classical strong (amplitude-wise) simulation of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-qubit quantum circuits, and identify a subclass of simulators we call monotone. This subclass encompasses almost all prominent simulation techniques. We prove an <italic>unconditional</italic> (i.e. without relying on any complexity-theoretic assumptions) and <italic>explicit</italic> <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(n-2)(2^{n-3}-1)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> lower bound on the running time of simulators within this subclass. Assuming the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH), we further remark that a universal simulator computing <italic>any</italic> amplitude to precision <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{-n}/2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> must take at least <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{n - o(n)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> time. We then compare strong simulators to existing SAT solvers, and identify the time-complexity below which a strong simulator would improve on state-of-the-art general SAT solving. Finally, we investigate Clifford+<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T$ </tex-math></inline-formula> quantum circuits with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$t~T$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-gates. Using the sparsification lemma, we identify a time complexity lower bound of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{2.2451\times 10^{-8}t}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> below which a strong simulator would improve on state-of-the-art 3-SAT solving. This also yields a conditional exponential lower bound on the growth of the stabilizer rank of magic states.
QUITTING : THE DOWNSIDE OF HIGH PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS

The benefits of high performance expectations are well documented. We identify a novel disadvantage of high performance expectations: Compared to individuals with low performance expectations, individuals with high performance expectations are less likely to persist in the face of adversity and have greater image management concerns. In a field study of 328,515 men’s professional tennis matches (Study 1), we employ a regression discontinuity design to demonstrate that favorites are significantly more likely to quit than are underdogs after losing the first set of the match. We replicate this pattern of results in a laboratory experiment (Study 2); individuals with high performance expectations are less persistent following early disappointments than those with low performance expectations. In another laboratory experiment (Study 3), we show that following poor initial performance, individuals with high expectations experience greater embarrassment and shame than those with low expectations. Taken together, we find that when the going gets tough, having high performance expectations can cause people to be less persistent. We do not observe this pattern, however, when initial performance is strong (Studies 1 and 3). We discuss organizational and managerial implications of our findings.
CD44v6 as innovative sarcoma target for CAR-redirected CIK cells

ABSTRACT Purpose of our study was to explore a new immunotherapy for high grade soft tissue sarcomas (STS) based on cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) redirected with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) against the tumor-promoting antigen CD44v6. We aimed at generating bipotential killers, combining the CAR specificity with the intrinsic tumor-killing ability of CIK cells (CAR+.CIK). We set a patient-derived experimental platform. CAR+. CIK were generated by transduction of CIK precursors with a lentiviral vector encoding for anti-CD44v6-CAR. CAR+. CIK were characterized and assessed in vitro against multiple histotypes of patient-derived STS. The anti-sarcoma activity of CAR+. CIK was confirmed in a STS xenograft model. CD44v6 was expressed by 40% (11/27) of patient-derived STS. CAR+. CIK were efficiently expanded from patients (n = 12) and killed multiple histotypes of STS (including autologous targets, n = 4). The killing activity was significantly higher compared with unmodified CIK, especially at low effector/target (E/T) ratios: 98% vs 82% (E/T = 10:1) and 68% vs 26% (1:4), (p<0.0001). Specificity of tumor killing was confirmed by blocking with anti-CD44v6 antibody. CAR+. CIK produced higher amounts of IL6 and IFN-γ compared to control CIK. CAR+. CIK were highly active in mice bearing subcutaneous STS xenografts, with significant delay of tumor growth (p<0.0001) without toxicities. We report first evidence of CAR+. CIK's activity against high grade STS and propose CD44v6 as an innovative target in this setting. CIK are a valuable platform for the translation of CAR-based strategies to challenging field of solid tumors. Our findings support the exploration of CAR+. CIK in clinical trials against high grade STS.
E-mail May Not Reflect The Social Network

This paper aims to demonstrate that ties obtained by mining e-mails archives do not necessarily provide a complete and realistic approximation of interactions by other communication media. The results of our project indicate that factors such as co-location and the nature of working relationships influence the preference for face-to-face interactions and chat. Peers who are co-located and who are working on the same project are more likely to use synchronous media rather than email. By adopting a social network approach we compared the complete networks implied by four different media (e-mail, face-to-face, chat and phone), measuring network properties like betweeness centrality, density, and core/periphery structure, in order to identify at what extent the network implied by e-mail differs from the network based on other communication media.
Frequency of psychological distress in gynecologic cancer patients seen in a large urban medical center

ABSTRACT Psychological distress in cancer is a well-documented phenomenon, but additional information is needed about demographic and disease correlates in diverse populations with different forms of cancer. This study focused on gynecologic cancers. Using the Distress Thermometer and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, this study examined distress levels in 94 women with gynecologic cancer who were being treated as outpatients at a large urban medical center. The distress levels in this sample were lower than in comparable studies, raising questions about openness to reporting distress. Those who reported higher levels of distress were more likely to also report a mental health diagnosis or psychiatric medication. This suggests that an alternate form for distress screening may involve inquiring about mental health treatment. In this sample, younger women and those with higher educational achievement or private health insurance had higher levels of distress. Conversely, there were no relations between distress levels and disease characteristics, indicating that, for example, women with early stage disease have just as much risk of distress as those with later-stage disease.
Lymph node metastases near the celiac trunk should be considered separately from other nodal metastases in patients with cancer of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction after neoadjuvant treatment and surgery.

Background The aim of the present study is to identify the incidence and prognostic significance of lymph node metastases near the celiac trunk in patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemo(radio)therapy followed by esophagectomy. Methods Between March 1994 and September 2013 a total of 462 consecutive patients with cancer of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) who underwent potentially curative esophageal resection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (N=88; 19.0%) or neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) (N=374; 81.0%) were included. Results Seventy one (15.4%) patients had truncal node metastases in the resection specimen. Metastases to these nodes occurred more frequently in male patients with adenocarcinoma and in tumors at the gastro-esophageal junction. A lower response to neoadjuvant treatment, higher ypT and ypN stages and a poorer grade of differentiation were significantly related with truncal node metastases. Patients with tumor positive truncal nodes had a worse median overall survival (17 vs. 55 months). In multivariate analysis, truncal node metastases were independently associated with a worse survival. Only 22 (31.0%) of the 71 patients with tumor positive truncal nodes were identified preoperatively with EUS or CT. In contrast, 37 patients had suspicious truncal nodes on EUS or CT, but metastases in the pathology specimen were absent. Conclusions In the present study, it is demonstrated that positive truncal nodes in the resection specimen after neoadjuvant therapy, are associated with advanced tumor stages and are an independent factor for inferior survival.
Talk at Mealtimes.

It shows that a vast majority of children and young people sit down with their family at mealtimes and most talk daily with their family at mealtimes. However, 1 in 4 children and young people (25.8%) don’t have a daily mealtime chat. Talking daily at mealtimes is related to higher communication confidence and more positive views about communication skills. Interestingly, children and young people who sit down with their family at mealtimes but who never or rarely talk are less confident in their communication skills and have more negative attitudes towards communication than children and young people who do not sit down with their family at mealtimes at all.
The clinical value of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in patients undergoing pulmonary metastasectomy for metastatic colorectal cancer.

Background Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are a potential surrogate for distant metastasis and are considered a useful clinical prognostic marker for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). This prospective study evaluated the preoperative CTC count as a prognostic factor for pulmonary metastasectomy in mCRC patients. Methods Seventy-nine mCRC patients who underwent curative-intent pulmonary metastasectomy were included. Preoperatively, 7.5 mL of peripheral blood from each patient was quantitatively evaluated for CTCs with the CellSearch® system. The clinical significance of CTC count was evaluated according to Kaplan-Meier analyses and log-rank test. Multivariate analyses of the perioperative variables were performed. Results The distribution of CTC counts were as follows; 0 in 66 patients (83.5%), 1 in eight patients (10.1%), 2 in three patients (3.8%), and 3 and 6 in one patient (1.3%). The patients with multiple CTCs (CTC count ≥2) had significant shorter disease-free survival (DFS) (P=0.005, median DFS; 19.8 vs. 8.6 months) and overall survival (OS) (P=0.035, median DFS; not reached vs. 37.8 months), respectively. Multivariate analysis showed the patients with multiple CTCs had elevated risk of recurrence [hazard ratio (HR), 3.28; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.24-8.67; P=0.017]. Conclusions The detected rate of CTCs was quite low in mCRC patients who underwent pulmonary metastasectomy. The patient with multiple CTCs had shorter DFS in this study. The larger prospective clinical study is needed to establish the meaning of CTC in mCRC candidate for pulmonary metastasectomy.
Learning 3D Segment Descriptors for Place Recognition

In the absence of global positioning information, place recognition is a key capability for enabling localization, mapping and navigation in any environment. Most place recognition methods rely on images, point clouds, or a combination of both. In this work we leverage a segment extraction and matching approach to achieve place recognition in Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) based 3D point cloud maps. One challenge related to this approach is the recognition of segments despite changes in point of view or occlusion. We propose using a learning based method in order to reach a higher recall accuracy then previously proposed methods. Using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), which are state-of-the-art classifiers, we propose a new approach to segment recognition based on learned descriptors. In this paper we compare the effectiveness of three different structures and training methods for CNNs. We demonstrate through several experiments on real-world data collected in an urban driving scenario that the proposed learning based methods outperform hand-crafted descriptors.
Effects of Different Irrigation Solutions and Protocols on Mineral Content and Ultrastructure of Root Canal Dentine

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different irrigating solutions and irrigation protocols on the chemical and physical structure of root dentin. Materials and Methods: Thirty extracted single-rooted human teeth were selected and then distributed into the following treatment groups (n=10): G1, saline solution (0.9% NaCl); G2, 2.5% NaOCl + 17% EDTA + 2.5% NaOCl; G3, 2.5% NaOCl + 9% Etidronate (HEBP) + 2.5% NaOCl; G4, mixture of 5% NaOCl + 18% HEBP; G5, 2.5% NaOCl + 17% EDTA + 0.9% NaCl, and G6, 2.5% NaOCl + 9% HEBP + 0.9% NaCl. The ultrastructure of dentin was characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS) determined the chemical composition in terms of the calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg) and potassium (K) content and the Ca/P ratio; and the crystalline phase was analyzed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). A descriptive analysis was performed on the ultrastructure and the crystallography data of dentin. Data analysis included a chemical composition analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and a subsequent multiple comparison test (Tukey’s test). Results: Except for the control group, all groups showed morphological changes upon visualization with SEM. For EDS, G2 and G5 showed significant mineral loss and changes in the Ca/P ratio (P<0.05); the highest values of Ca and P were observed in G3, G4 and G6. Conclusion: All the irrigating solutions and irrigation protocols tested promoted changes in the morphology and physical and chemical composition of the dentin. However, no significant differences were observed crystallographically.
Adversarial Task Assignment

The problem of task assignment to workers is of long-standing fundamental importance. Examples of this include the classical problem of assigning computing tasks to nodes in a distributed computing environment, assigning jobs to robots, and crowdsourcing. Extensive research into this problem generally addresses important issues such as uncertainty and incentives. However, the problem of adversarial tampering with the task assignment process has not received as much attention. We are concerned with a particular adversarial setting in task assignment where an attacker may target a set of workers in order to prevent the tasks assigned to these workers from being completed. For the case when all tasks are homogeneous, we provide an efficient algorithm for computing the optimal assignment. When tasks are heterogeneous, we show that the adversarial assignment problem is NP-Hard, and present an algorithm for solving it approximately. Our theoretical results are accompanied by extensive simulation results showing the effectiveness of our algorithms.
Efficacy of prophylactic cranial irradiation in patients with limited-disease small-cell lung cancer who were confirmed to have no brain metastasis via magnetic resonance imaging after initial chemoradiotherapy

Background Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) is recommended for patients with limited-disease small-cell lung cancer (LD-SCLC) who achieved good response to definitive chemoradiotherapy. However, most clinical studies lacked brain imaging scans before PCI. Our study aimed to investigate whether PCI has a survival benefit in patients who have no brain metastases (BM) confirmed via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before PCI. Results Eighty patients were included in this study. Sixty patients received PCI (PCI group) and 20 patients did not (non-PCI group). OS was not significantly different between the two groups. The median OS time was 4.3 years (95% CI: 2.6 years–8.6 years) in the PCI group and was not reached (NR) (95% CI: 1.9 years–NR) in the non-PCI group (p = 0.542). Moreover, no differences were observed in the 3-year rates of PFS (46.2% and 44.4%, p = 0.720) and cumulative incidence of BM (24.0% vs. 27%, p = 0.404). Conclusions Our result suggests that PCI may not have a survival benefit in patients with LD-SCLC confirmed to have no BM after initial therapy, even if patients achieve a good response to definitive chemoradiotherapy. Patients and Methods We retrospectively evaluated patients with LD-SCLC who were confirmed to have no BM via MRI after initial chemoradiotherapy at the Shizuoka Cancer Center between September 2002 and August 2015. The overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and cumulative incidence of BM were estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method between patients who received PCI and those who did not. Propensity score matching was used to balance baseline characteristics.