Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Factors for Chemotherapy-Related Toxicity and Adverse Events in Elderly Thai Cancer Patients: A Prospective Study

Objectives: To assess factors predisposing to severe chemotherapy-related toxicity and adverse events (AEs) and dose modification in aging cancer patients. Methods: Cancer patients aged ≥70 years scheduled to receive the first cycle of a new chemotherapy regimen were enrolled. On the day of starting chemotherapy, demographic data, performance status (PS), and geriatric parameters were recorded. AEs and chemotherapy modification were recorded. Quality of life (QOL) was assessed at baseline and 3 months after starting chemotherapy or at the end of chemotherapy. Results: We included 151 patients (mean age, 76.4 years) with gastrointestinal (47%), lung (24%), breast (9%), or genitourinary (6%) cancer. All-grade and severe AEs occurred in 83 and 42% of patients, respectively; 51.6% of patients required chemotherapy modification due to toxicities. A higher incidence of severe AEs (71% vs. 39%, p = 0.01) and poorer QOL was found in patients with PS 2 than in those with PS 0-1. Patients with PS 2 or who received palliative-intent chemotherapy or had multiple comorbidities were more likely to discontinue chemotherapy because of toxicity. Conclusions: PS remains a key predictor of chemotherapy-related toxicity in elderly patients. PS 2 was correlated with higher incidence of severe AEs, premature treatment discontinuation, and worsening QOL after treatment.
Insufficient chunk concatenation may underlie changes in sleep-dependent consolidation of motor sequence learning in older adults

Sleep enhances motor sequence learning (MSL) in young adults by concatenating subsequences (“chunks”) formed during skill acquisition. To examine whether this process is reduced in aging, we assessed performance changes on the MSL task following overnight sleep or daytime wake in healthy young and older adults. Young adult performance enhancement was correlated with nREM2 sleep, and facilitated by preferential improvement of slowest within-sequence transitions. This effect was markedly reduced in older adults, and accompanied by diminished sigma power density (12–15 Hz) during nREM2 sleep, suggesting that diminished chunk concatenation following sleep may underlie reduced consolidation of MSL in older adults.
Larval development of the barnacle Amphibalanus improvisus responds variably but robustly to near-future ocean acidification

Increasing atmospheric CO2 decreases seawater pH in a phenomenon known as ocean acidification. In two separate experiments we found that larval development of the barnacle Amphibalanus (Balanus) improvisus was not significantly affected by the level of reduced pH that has been projected for the next 150 years. After 3 and 6 days of incubation, we found no consistent effects of reduced pH on developmental speed or larval size at pH 7.8 compared with the control pH of 8.1. After 10 days of incubation, there were no net changes in survival or overall development of larvae raised at pH 7.8 or 7.6 compared with the control pH of 8.0. In all cases, however, there was significant variation in responses between replicate batches (parental genotypes) of larvae, with some batches responding positively to reduced pH. Our results suggest that the non-calcifying larval stages of A. improvisus are generally tolerant to near-future levels of ocean acidification. This result is in line with findings for other barnacle species and suggests that barnacles do not show the greater sensitivity to ocean acidification in early life history reported for other invertebrate species. Substantial genetic variability in response to low pH may confer adaptive benefits under future ocean acidification.
Genetic variation among mainland and island populations of a native perennial grass used in restoration

Knowledge of species-level patterns of genetic diversity can inform and improve protocols when population reintroduction is a restoration objective. We describe the population genetic structure of a geographically widespread species, Elymus glaucus, which is now rare in temperate grasslands as a result of biological invasion and land conversion. Our study contrasts data for mainland and Channel Island locations, and makes recommendations for seed provenance selection in ecological restoration using genetic marker data and considering prior field studies of adaptive divergence
Placental restriction in multi-fetal pregnancies and between-twin differences in size at birth alter neonatal feeding behaviour in the sheep

Most individuals whose growth was restricted before birth undergo accelerated or catch-up neonatal growth. This is an independent risk factor for later metabolic disease, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that natural and experimentally induced in utero growth restriction increase neonatal appetite and milk intake. Control (CON) and placentally restricted (PR) ewes carrying multiple fetuses delivered naturally at term. Outcomes were compared between CON (n=14) and PR (n=12) progeny and within twin lamb pairs. Lamb milk intake and feeding behaviour and ewe milk composition were determined using a modified weigh-suckle-weigh procedure on days 15 and 23. PR lambs tended to have lower birth weights than CON (−15%, P=0.052). Neonatal growth rates were similar in CON and PR, whilst heavier twins grew faster in absolute but not fractional terms than their co-twins. At day 23, milk protein content was higher in PR than CON ewes (P=0.038). At day 15, PR lambs had fewer suckling bouts than CON lambs and in females light twins had more suckling attempts than their heavier co-twins. Birth weight differences between twins positively predicted differences in milk intakes. Lactational constraint and natural prenatal growth restriction in twins may explain the similar milk intakes in CON and PR. Within twin comparisons support the hypothesis that prenatal constraint increases lamb appetite, although this did not increase milk intake. We suggest that future mechanistic studies of catch-up growth be performed in singletons and be powered to assess effects in each sex.
Escape Room Recruitment Event: Description and Lessons Learned.

BACKGROUND The U.S. nursing workforce is facing a severe shortage of professionals due to an anticipated retirement of more than 500,000 RNs in the next 5 years. METHOD An Escape to Nursing event was created and delivered in a rural medical center college of nursing in the spring of 2017. This faculty team developed four distinct rooms that were designed with key nursing concepts and patient health conditions. Recruits worked in teams to solve the patient health care puzzle, which then enabled them to proceed to the next room. RESULTS Feedback was positive from the recruits, including comments about expanding the game to more health care scenarios and reaching out to more recruits. Additional recruitment may lead to better turnout of recruits. CONCLUSION Linear, sequential formatting for the escape room game design is recommended for use with recruits into nursing. The use of escape rooms for recruitment is a positive activity. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(3):184-187. ].
Virtual function placement for service chaining with partial orders and anti‐affinity rules

Software‐Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization are two paradigms that offer flexible software‐based network management. Service providers are instantiating Virtualized Network Functions, for example, firewalls, DPIs, gateways—to highly facilitate the deployment and reconfiguration of network services with reduced time‐to‐value. They use Service Function Chaining technologies to dynamically reconfigure network paths traversing physical and virtual network functions. Providing a cost‐efficient virtual function deployment over the network for a set of service chains is a key technical challenge for service providers, and this problem has recently caught much attention from both Industry and Academia. In this article, we propose a formulation of this problem as an Integer Linear Program that allows one to find the best feasible paths and virtual function placement for a set of services with respect to a total financial cost, while taking into account the (total or partial) order constraints for Service Function Chains of each service and other constraints such as end‐to‐end latency, anti‐affinity rules between network functions on the same physical node and resource limitations in terms of network and processing capacities. Furthermore, we propose a heuristic algorithm based on a linear relaxation of the problem that performs close to optimum for large scale instances. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 71(2), 97–106 2018
Predicting poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy among treatment-naïve veterans infected with human immunodeficiency virus

Abstract Previous studies suggested that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients at risk of poor adherence were not distinguishable only based on the baseline characteristics. This study is to identify patient characteristics that would be consistently associated with poor adherence across regimens and to understand the associations between initial and long-term adherence. HIV treatment-naïve patients initiated on protease inhibitors, nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or integrase strand transfer inhibitors were identified from the Veteran Health Administration system. Initial adherence measured as initial coverage ratio (ICR) and long-term adherence measured as thereafter 1-year proportion days covered (PDC) of base agent and complete regimen were estimated for each patient. The patients most likely to exhibit poor adherence were African-American, with lower socioeconomic status, and healthier. The initial coverage ratio of base agent and complete regimen were highly correlated, but the correlations between ICR and thereafter 1-year PDC were low. However, including initial adherence as a predictor in predictive model would substantially increase predictive accuracy of future adherence.
Environmental DNA (eDNA): A tool for quantifying the abundant but elusive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus)

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is revolutionizing biodiversity monitoring, occupancy estimates, and real-time detections of invasive species. In the Great Lakes, the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), an invasive benthic fish from the Black Sea, has spread to encompass all five lakes and many tributaries, outcompeting or consuming native species; however, estimates of round goby abundance are confounded by behavior and habitat preference, which impact reliable methods for estimating their population. By integrating eDNA into round goby monitoring, improved estimates of biomass may be obtainable. We conducted mesocosm experiments to estimate rates of goby DNA shedding and decay. Further, we compared eDNA with several methods of traditional field sampling to compare its use as an alternative/complementary monitoring method. Environmental DNA decay was comparable to other fish species, and first-order decay was lower at 12°C (k = 0.043) than at 19°C (k = 0.058). Round goby eDNA was routinely detected in known invaded sites of Lake Michigan and its tributaries (range log10 4.8–6.2 CN/L), but not upstream of an artificial fish barrier. Traditional techniques (mark-recapture, seining, trapping) in Lakes Michigan and Huron resulted in fewer, more variable detections than eDNA, but trapping and eDNA were correlated (Pearson R = 0.87). Additional field testing will help correlate round goby abundance with eDNA, providing insight on its role as a prey fish and its impact on food webs.
Genome‐Wide Association Analysis of Grain Yield‐Associated Traits in a Pan‐European Barley Cultivar Collection

The GWAS revealed associations for 8 yield‐associated traits in 379 barley cultivars. Many barley grain and ear dimension traits are highly correlated. In 29 corresponding hotspots, 45% of the grain trait component QTLs overlap. Nine hotspots map to barley yield loci or grain trait orthologues of other cereals.
Fix the First, Ignore the Rest: Dealing with Multiple Compiler Error Messages

In order to help students learning to develop computer programs, several computing education researchers have analyzed the compiler error messages generated by novices' attempts to compile their programs. The goal is to help students diagnose the errors they make through the messages generated by the compiler. This paper builds on that previous work by applying a technique based on a heuristic well-known to programmers - fix the first error and ignore the rest - to the analysis of over 21 million compiler error messages from the Blackbox dataset. We find that the ranks and frequencies obtained by considering all error messages are generally consistent with previously published lists, but when we consider first messages only, these ranks and frequencies are different. These differences could have important implications for teaching, and can inform tool design and future research efforts.
SUMOylation of the m6A-RNA methyltransferase METTL3 modulates its function

Abstract The methyltransferase like 3 (METTL3) is a key component of the large N6-adenosine-methyltransferase complex in mammalian responsible for N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification in diverse RNAs including mRNA, tRNA, rRNA, small nuclear RNA, microRNA precursor and long non-coding RNA. However, the characteristics of METTL3 in activation and post-translational modification (PTM) is seldom understood. Here we find that METTL3 is modified by SUMO1 mainly at lysine residues K177, K211, K212 and K215, which can be reduced by an SUMO1-specific protease SENP1. SUMOylation of METTL3 does not alter its stability, localization and interaction with METTL14 and WTAP, but significantly represses its m6A methytransferase activity resulting in the decrease of m6A levels in mRNAs. Consistently with this, the abundance of m6A in mRNAs is increased with re-expression of the mutant METTL3-4KR compared to that of wild-type METTL3 in human non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cell line H1299-shMETTL3, in which endogenous METTL3 was knockdown. The alternation of m6A in mRNAs and subsequently change of gene expression profiles, which are mediated by SUMOylation of METTL3, may directly influence the soft-agar colony formation and xenografted tumor growth of H1299 cells. Our results uncover an important mechanism for SUMOylation of METTL3 regulating its m6A RNA methyltransferase activity.
The use of virtual reality and audiovisual eyeglass systems as adjunct analgesic techniques: A review of the literature

Background: This review focuses on the application of technologically advanced methods of audiovisual distraction as adjunct analgesic techniques; more specifically, (a) virtual reality (VR) and (b) audiovisual (A/V) eyeglass systems (A/V distraction). Purpose: It is assumed that distraction taxes the patient’s limited attention capacity, resulting in the withdrawal of attention from the noxious stimulus with a subsequent reduction in pain.Methods: Twenty studies evaluating the analgesic potential of both methods in different patient groups and in healthy volunteers were identified in the scientific literature.Results: Although the majority of these studies are hampered by serious methodological drawbacks, particularly a small number of participants, the results nevertheless strongly suggest that both VR and A/V distraction can be a very promising analgesic technique that may be used safely and effectively for the reduction of pain and discomfort during medical procedures. An additional important aspect is that few negative side effects have been reported.Conclusions: Directions for future research are presented.
Association of BRCA1/2 mutations with ovarian cancer prognosis

Objective: A meta-analysis was performed to determine if BRCA1/2 mutations are associated with improved overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with ovarian cancer. Research design and methods: Studies of patients with primary or recurrent ovarian cancer that examined the relationship between BRCA1/2 mutation status and outcomes were included. Main outcome measures: The primary outcomes were OS and PFS of patients with and without BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. The secondary outcome was treatment response: complete response, partial response, and overall response. Results: Overall analysis revealed BRCA1/2 mutations were associated with improved OS [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.75; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.64, 0.88; P < . 001] and PFS (HR = 0.80; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.99; P = .039). BRCA1 mutations were significantly associated with improved OS (HR = 0.75) but not PFS, and BRCA2 mutations alone were not associated with either improved OS or PFS. The presence of BCRA1/2 mutations was associated with a better overall response rate, higher complete response rate, and lower partial response rate; however, BRCA1 or BRCA2 alone was not associated with overall response rate. Conclusions: BRCA1 mutations appear to be associated with improved OS in patients with ovarian cancer. However, the effect of BRCA1 mutations on PFS and BRCA2 mutations alone on OS and PFS is less clear.
Towards Virus Scanning as a Service in Mobile Cloud Computing: Energy-Efficient Dispatching Policy Under ${N}$ -Version Protection

In this paper, we present a cloud-based architecture of virus scanning as a service (VSaaS) for resource-poor mobile devices. Specifically, we investigate energy-efficient dispatching policy for VSaaS under <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-version protection, which dispatches a file to multiple service engines for scanning in parallel to reduce the missed detection error cost. However, the benefit of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-version protection is at the cost of increasing energy consumption and the queue length of service engines. To manage this tradeoff, we aim to reduce the energy consumption of service engines and the missed detection error cost, while satisfying the queue stability for VSaaS. We formulate the file-scan dispatching policy as a stochastic optimization problem, and then propose an online algorithm to dispatch file-scan requests under <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-version protection. We show that we can achieve the penalty function, i.e., the combination of the energy consumption and the missed detection error cost, arbitrarily close to the minimum but at the cost of increasing the queue length. Moreover, we compare the proposed dispatching algorithm with the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-least delay algorithm and show by simulation that the proposed dispatching algorithm is more energy efficient to provide <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-version protection for VSaaS.
Dispersion Strengthening of Copper Alloys

Abstract Copper alloys with high electrical and thermal conductivities in combination with high strength at elevated temperature have been developed by including very fine thermodynamically stable TiC dispersoids into a Cu or an age-hardenable CuTi4 matrix. TiC dispersion strengthened copper alloys were prepared by mechanical alloying in a planetary ball mill using a blend of atomized prealloyed CuTi(X) powder and graphite powder. The mechanism of the formation of TiC dispersoids during milling and heating at various temperatures was investigated using X-ray diffraction and by TEM investigations. The processing technique was found to result in TiC dispersoids of different sizes (diameter 10 to 50 nm) preferentially localized on the grain boundaries. The matrix of the alloys is microcrystalline (grain size 100 to 500 nm). The observed creep behaviour of the alloys is described in dependence on size and volume fraction of the dispersoids and the composition of the matrix. It is demonstrated that these alloys – despite their microcrystalline microstructure – show a high creep strength, provided numerous small dispersoids are located on the grain boundaries, thus effectively preventing grain boundary sliding.
Luteolin inhibits cell proliferation and induces cell apoptosis via down-regulation of mitochondrial membrane potential in esophageal carcinoma cells EC1 and KYSE450

In current study, we investigated the anti-tumor effect of luteolin in human ESCC cell lines in vitro and in vivo and tried to explore the potential mechanisms. Results from flow cytometry showed that luteolin could induce apoptosis and caspase-3 activation and induce cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase in a dose- and time-dependent manner in EC1 and KYSE450 cells. JC-1 test results showed that membrane potential of mitochondria after luteolin treatment was down-regulated and this was an indicator for intrinsic apoptosis. Western Blot results showed the expression of cell cycle regulatory protein p21 and p53 increased and three apoptosis related proteins that participate in mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, namely, Bim, CYT-c and cPARP, also increased in luteolin treated cells compared with control groups. We further confirmed that luteolin could significantly inhibit the growth of ESCC tumors in xenograft mouse models and no evidence of systemic toxicity was observed. Our results suggest that luteolin can induce cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase through mitochondrial pathway in EC1 and KYSE450 cell lines and proper utilization of luteolin might be a practical approach in ESCC chemotherapy.
Associations of Physical Activity Intensities with Markers of Insulin Sensitivity

Background Objectively measured physical activity (PA) intensity has traditionally been categorized as light, moderate, and vigorous using laboratory calibrated cut points. The relative contribution of time spent across a spectrum of accelerometer-determined intensities on health outcomes is less clear. Purpose This study aimed to assess the relationship between objectively measured PA intensity on a continuous scale and markers of insulin sensitivity (IS). Methods Participants at high risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus were recruited from primary care (Leicestershire, UK). PA was measured using an ActiGraph accelerometer. Fasting and postchallenge glucose and insulin levels were assessed using an oral glucose tolerance test. IS was calculated using the Matsuda-IS and the HOMA-IS indices. Log-linear regression modeling was used to assess the relationship between PA intensity, in increments of 500 counts per minute, with markers of IS. Models were controlled for known confounders. Results Complete data were available for 569 participants. PA intensity was favorably associated with fasting and 2 h of insulin and IS, with the association increasing in magnitude with each increment of 500 counts per minute. Differences in HOMA-IS per 10 min of PA ranged from 12.4% (95% confidence interval = 3.7%–21.8%) to 26.8% (11.0%–44.7%) within the moderate-intensity PA category (from 2000–2499 to 3500–3999 counts per minute). For Matsuda-IS, these differences were 22.0% (10.3%–34.9%) and 34.7% (13.9%–59.3%), respectively. Significant associations for fasting insulin were no longer observed after controlling for body mass index, whereas differences associated with 2-h insulin and IS were attenuated but still significant. Conclusion PA of any intensity may positively influence glucose regulation and insulin sensitivity in individuals at high risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in a dose–response manner. Further research is required to identify the intensity thresholds at which clinically relevant benefits occur in this population.