Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bendamustine in Combination With Gemcitabine and Vinorelbine Is an Effective Regimen As Induction Chemotherapy Before Autologous Stem-Cell Transplantation for Relapsed or Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma: Final Results of a Multicenter Phase II Study.

PURPOSE This multicenter, open-label, phase II study evaluated the combination of bendamustine, gemcitabine, and vinorelbine (BeGEV) as induction therapy before autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with HL who were refractory to or had relapsed after one previous chemotherapy line were eligible. The primary end point was complete response (CR) rate after four cycles of therapy. Secondary end points were: overall response rate, stem-cell mobilization activity, and toxicity. Progression-free and overall survival were also evaluated. RESULTS In total, 59 patients were enrolled. After four cycles of therapy, 43 patients (73%) achieved CR, and six (10%) achieved partial response, for an overall response rate of 83%. The most common grade 3 to 4 nonhematologic toxicities included febrile neutropenia (n = 7) and infection (n = 4). Regarding hematologic toxicities, grade 3 to 4 thrombocytopenia and neutropenia were each experienced by eight patients (13.5%). CD34+ cells were successfully harvested in 55 of 57 evaluable patients, and 43 of 49 responding patients underwent ASCT. With a median follow-up of 29 months, the 2-year progression-free and overall survival rates for the total population were 62.2% and 77.6%, respectively. The same figures for patients undergoing autograft were 80.8% and 89.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION This phase II study demonstrates that BeGEV is an effective salvage regimen able to induce CR in a high proportion of patients with relapsed or refractory HL before ASCT. These data provide a strong rationale for further development of the BeGEV regimen.
Extensive polymorphism and geographical variation at a positively selected MHC class II B gene of the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni)

Understanding the selective forces that shape genetic variation in natural populations remains a high priority in evolutionary biology. Genes at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) have become excellent models for the investigation of adaptive variation and natural selection because of their crucial role in fighting off pathogens. Here we present one of the first data sets examining patterns of MHC variation in wild populations of a bird of prey, the lesser kestrel, Falco naumanni. We report extensive polymorphism at the second exon of a putatively functional MHC class II gene, Fana‐DAB*1. Overall, 103 alleles were isolated from 121 individuals sampled from Spain to Kazakhstan. Bayesian inference of diversifying selection suggests that several amino acid sites may have experienced strong positive selection (ω = 4.02 per codon). The analysis also suggests a prominent role of recombination in generating and maintaining MHC diversity (ρ = 4Nc = 0.389 per codon, θ = 0.017 per codon). Both the Fana‐DAB*1 locus and a set of eight polymorphic microsatellite markers revealed an isolation‐by‐distance pattern across the Western Palaearctic (r = 0.67; P = 0.01 and r = 0.50; P = 0.04, respectively). Nonetheless, geographical variation at the MHC contrasts with relatively uniform distributions in the frequencies of microsatellite alleles. In addition, we found lower fixation rates in the MHC than those predicted by genetic drift after controlling for neutral mitochondrial sequences. Our results therefore underscore the role of balancing selection as well as spatial variations in parasite‐mediated selection regimes in shaping MHC diversity when gene flow is limited.
Infected with SARS-CoV Protein Causes Severe Pneumonia in Mice Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) Nucleocapsid Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-Associated Prior Immunization with Severe Acute

The details of the mechanism by which severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) causes severe pneumonia are unclear. We investigated the immune responses and pathologies of SARS-CoV-infected BALB/c mice that were immunized intradermally with recombinant vaccinia virus (VV) that expressed either the SARS-CoV spike (S) protein (LC16m8rVV-S) or simultaneously all the structural proteins, including the nucleocapsid (N), membrane (M), envelope (E), and S proteins (LC16m8rVV-NMES) 7–8 wk before intranasal SARS-CoV infection. The LC16m8rVV-NMES-immunized group exhibited as severe pneumonia as the control groups, although LC16m8rVV-NMES signiﬁcantly decreased the pulmonary SARS-CoV titer to the same extent as LC16m8rVV-S. To identify the cause of the exacerbated pneumonia, BALB/c mice were immunized with recombinant VV that expressed the individual structural proteins of SARS-CoV (LC16mOrVV-N, -M, -E, -S) with or without LC16mOrVV-S (i.e., LC16mOrVV-N, LC16mOrVV-M, LC16mOrVV-E, or LC16mOrVV-S alone or LC16mOrVV-N (cid:1) LC16mOrVV-S, LC16mOrVV-M (cid:1) LC16mOrVV-S, or LC16mOrVV-E (cid:1) LC16mOrVV-S), and infected with SARS-CoV more than 4 wk later. Both LC16mOrVV-N-immunized mice and LC16mOrVV-N (cid:1) LC16mOrVV-S-immunized mice exhibited severe pneumonia. Furthermore, LC16mOrVV-N-immunized mice upon infection exhibited signiﬁcant up-regulation of both Th1 (IFN- (cid:2) , IL-2) and Th2 (IL-4, IL-5) cytokines and down-regulation of anti-inﬂammatory cytokines (IL-10, TGF- (cid:3) ), resulting in robust inﬁltration of neutrophils, eosinophils, and lymphocytes into the lung, as well as thickening of the alveolar epithelium. These results suggest that an excessive host immune response against the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV is involved in severe pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV infection. These ﬁndings increase our understanding of the pathogenesis of SARS. The Journal of Immunology, 2008, 181: 6337–6348.
Effects of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs) on Circulating Adiponectin and Leptin in Subjects with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract Recent evidence suggests that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids [n-3 PUFAs: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)], improve insulin sensitivity in humans. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover study, we investigated the effects of EPA/DHA on paraoxonase-1 activity as well as fasting and postprandial levels of circulating adiponectin and leptin in 34 subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus who received daily for 6 weeks either 2 g purified EPA/DHA or olive oil (placebo), separated by a 6 weeks washout. At the end of each treatment, measurements were performed in fasting state and 2, 4, and 6 h following a standardized high-fat meal (600 kcal). No significant differences in fasting and postprandial circulating adiponectin, leptin, and paraoxonase-1 activity were seen between n-3 PUFAs and placebo. Our data do not support an insulin sensitizing effect of n-3 PUFAs by means of influencing circulating adipocytokines in this population. Clinical Trial Register Number: NCT00328536.
Context-based segmentation of image sequences

We describe an algorithm for context-based segmentation of visual data. New frames in an image sequence (video) are segmented based on the prior segmentation of earlier frames in the sequence. The segmentation is performed by adapting a probabilistic model learned on previous frames, according to the content of the new frame. We utilize the maximum a posteriori version of the EM algorithm to segment the new image. The Gaussian mixture distribution that is used to model the current frame is transformed into a conjugate-prior distribution for the parametric model describing the segmentation of the new frame. This semisupervised method improves the segmentation quality and consistency and enables a propagation of segments along the segmented images. The performance of the proposed approach is illustrated on both simulated and real image data.
Adolescent Bullying, Dating, and Mating

Traditionally believed to be the result of maladaptive development, bullying perpetration is increasingly being viewed as a potentially adaptive behavior. We were interested in determining whether adolescents who bully others enjoy a key evolutionary benefit: increased dating and mating (sexual) opportunities. This hypothesis was tested in two independent samples consisting of 334 adolescents and 144 university students. The data partly supported our prediction that bullying, but not victimization, would predict dating behavior. The data for sexual behavior more clearly supported our hypothesis that bullying behavior predicts an increase in sexual opportunities even when accounting for age, sex, and self-reports of attractiveness, likeability, and peer victimization. These results are generally congruent with the hypothesis that bullying perpetration is, at least in part, an evolutionary adaptive behavior.
Functional status, anxiety, cardiac self-efficacy, and health beliefs of patients with coronary heart disease.

BACKGROUND Beliefs and emotions could effect on functional status, quality of life, and mortality amongst patients who are suffering coronary heart disease (CHD). Current study examined the role of anxiety: trait/ state, self-efficacy, health beliefs, and functional status among patient with history of CHD. METHOD In this correlational study, 105 hospitalized and outpatients patients suffering CHD in Tehran Heart Center Hospital participated by using convenience sampling method in 2012. Cardiac self-efficacy, Seattle Angina, and research-designed health beliefs questionnaires were used to gather data. RESULTS The functional status in CHD patients showed significant relationships with gender, job, and type of medical insurance of the participants (All ps<0.05). In addition , perceived vulnerability to face again cardiac attack in the future, per-ceived severity of next cardiac attack, anxiety, state anxiety and trait anxiety (All ps<0.05) had significant and negative relationships with functional status. Con-versely, the cardiac self-efficacy had a positive and significant relationship (P<0.001) with functional status. CONCLUSION Psychological factors have important role in functional status and quality of life of patients who suffering CHD. Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize on supportive and complementary programs to promote Cardiac Reha-bilita-tion Programs.
Relaxed data consistency with CONStanza

Data replication is an important aspect in a data grid for increasing fault tolerance and availability. Many grid replication tools or middleware systems deal with read-only files which imply that replicated data items are always consistent. However, there are several applications that do require updates to existing data and the respective replicas. In this article, we present a replica consistency service that allows for replica updates in a single-master scenario with lazy update synchronisation. The system allows for updates of (heterogeneous) relational databases, and it is designed to support flat files as well. It keeps remote replicas synchronised and partially ("lazily") consistent. We report on the design and implementation of a novel "relaxed" replica consistency service and show its usefulness in a typical application use case.
Source Coding With a Side Information “Vending Machine”

We study source coding in the presence of side information, when the system can take actions that affect the availability, quality, or nature of the side information. We begin by extending the Wyner-Ziv problem of source coding with decoder side information to the case where the decoder is allowed to choose actions affecting the side information. We then consider the setting where actions are taken by the encoder, based on its observation of the source. Actions may have costs that are commensurate with the quality of the side information they yield, and an overall per-symbol cost constraint may be imposed. We characterize the achievable tradeoffs between rate, distortion, and cost in some of these problem settings. Among our findings is the fact that even in the absence of a cost constraint, greedily choosing the action associated with the “best” side information is, in general, suboptimal. A few examples are worked out.
Exploring Children's Attitudes towards Mathematics

This paper explores the behaviour, attitudes and beliefs of primary school pupils towards mathematics in the classroom and the impact that this may have on their mathematical ability. The study focused on year 3 pupils from a local school, some of whom took part in focus groups towards the end of the project. The children completed short worksheets, which were used to stimulate a guided discussion on what aspects of mathematics the children liked and disliked. The aim of this project was to isolate possible causes of negative attitudes towards mathematics and to discuss what their implications might be.
VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey (VUDS): Witnessing the assembly of a massive cluster at z ~ 3.3

Using new spectroscopic observations obtained as part of the VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey (VUDS), we performed a systematic search for overdense environments in the early universe (z> 2) and report here on the discovery of Cl J0227-0421, a massive protocluster at z = 3.29. This protocluster is characterized by both the large overdensity of spectroscopically confirmed members, δgal = 10.5 ± 2.8, and a significant overdensity in photometric redshift members. The halo mass of this protocluster is estimated by a variety of methods to be ~3 × 1014ℳ⊙ at z ~ 3.3, which, evolved to z = 0 results in a halo mass rivaling or exceeding that of the Coma cluster. The properties of 19 spectroscopically confirmed member galaxies are compared with a large sample of VUDS/VVDS galaxies in lower density field environments at similar redshifts. We find tentative evidence for an excess of redder, brighter, and more massive galaxies within the confines of the protocluster relative to the field population, which suggests that we may be observing the beginning ofenvironmentally induced quenching. The properties of these galaxies are investigated, including a discussion of the brightest protocluster galaxy, which appears to be undergoing vigorous coeval nuclear and starburst activity. The remaining member galaxies appear to have characteristics that are largely similar to the field population. Though we find weaker evidence of the suppression of the median star formation rates among and differences in the stacked spectra of member galaxies with respect to the field, we defer any conclusions about these trends to future work with the ensemble of protostructures that are found in the full VUDS sample.
Connectionist Viterbi training: a new hybrid method for continuous speech recognition

A hybrid method for continuous-speech recognition which combines hidden Markov models (HMMs) and a connectionist technique called connectionist Viterbi training (CVT) is presented. CVT can be run iteratively and can be applied to large-vocabulary recognition tasks. Successful completion of training the connectionist component of the system, despite the large network size and volume of training data, depends largely on several measures taken to reduce learning time. The system is trained and tested on the TI/NBS speaker-independent continuous-digits database. Performance on test data for unknown-length strings is 98.5% word accuracy and 95.0% string accuracy. Several improvements to the current system are expected to increase these accuracies significantly. <<ETX>>
Trends in admissions to a state hospital, 1942-1964.

THIS IS A study of trends in admissions to a state psychiatric institution during the past 23 years—from 1942, the first complete year of direct admissions to this hospital, through 1964. This institution, with a current census of approximately 2,700 inpatients, is one of three major state hospitals in Connecticut. Each first admission * to the hospital was recorded and tabulated by year of admission and diagnosis. In order to avoid an excessively detailed statistical presentation, the data were finally recorded in terms of the annual averages of four-year periods. Thus the first admission figures in the Table represent an annual average of the yearly admissions during the period, 1942-1945. This procedure was continued until the last figures which represent the annual average of the remaining three-year period, 1962-1964. Data for the general population of Connecticut were obtained from the registration reports of the
Examining the commitment for competitive sports: development of Japanese version of sports commitment scale.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the Sport Commitment Scale (SCS-J), originally developed by Scanlan et al. (1993a; 1993b), and examine the relationship between sports commitment and the frequency of competitive sports participation. The participants were 1125 college students who played competitive sports in collegiate athletics or another sports activity (male: 822, female: 285). The Sport Commitment Scale (Scanlan et al., 1993a; 1993b) was translated into Japanese using the back translation method, and the reliability and validity of the SCS-J were examined. The results indicated the reliability (internal consistency, reproducibility) and validity (construct validity, criterion-related validity) of the SCS-J and illustrated the scale’s usefulness. In addition, the result of examining the relationship between sports commitment and frequency of sports participation, sports commitment was positively associated with the frequency of sports participation. This result supported previous findings of a relationship between sports commitment and sports participation. In conclusion, this study confirmed the reliability, validity, and usefulness of the SCS-J.
Genetic Diversity of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) Accession in Kenya Gene Bank Based on Simple Sequence Repeat Markers

Increased agricultural production is an urgent issue. Projected global population is 9 million people by mid of this century. Estimation projects death of 1 million people for lack of food quality (micronutrient deficit) and quantity (protein deficit). Majority of these people will be living in developing countries. Other global challenges include shrinking cultivable lands, salinity, and flooding due to climate changes, new emerging pathogens, and pests. These affect crop production. Furthermore, they are major threats to crop genetic resources and food security. Genetic diversity in cultivated crops indicates gene pool richness. It is the greatest resource for plant breeders to select lines that enhance food security. This study was conducted by Masinde Muliro University to evaluate genetic diversity in 19 cowpea accessions from Kenya national gene bank. Accessions clustered into two major groups. High divergence was observed between accessions from Ethiopia and Australia and those from Western Kenya. Upper Volta accessions were closely related to those from Western Kenya. Low variation was observed between accessions from Eastern and Rift Valley than those from Western and Coastal regions of Kenya. Diversity obtained in this study can further be exploited for the improvement of cowpea in Kenya as a measure of food security.
Brief mindfulness meditation group training in aphasia: exploring attention, language and psychophysiological outcomes.

BACKGROUND Stroke is currently the leading cause of long-term disability in adults in the United States. There is a need for accessible, low-cost treatments of stroke-related disabilities such as aphasia. AIMS To explore an intervention for aphasia utilizing mindfulness meditation (MM). This preliminary study examines the feasibility of teaching MM to individuals with aphasia. Since physiological measures have not been collected for those with aphasia, the study was also an exploration of the potential attention, language and physiological changes after MM in adults with aphasia during a brief, daily group training. METHODS & PROCEDURES A 5-day MM group training was provided to adults with aphasia (n = 5) with a waitlist control group (n = (3) who engaged in 'mind wandering'. Participants were assigned to groups in a pseudo-random manner. A double baseline (2 days apart) was administered prior to the training and/or control group beginning. Both the training and the control groups met in a group setting. Salivary cortisol, heart rate and heart rate variability were measured during each day for both groups. Measures of attention, auditory comprehension and fluency were collected immediately after the study period and 1 week post-completion. OUTCOME & RESULTS This study reinforces findings from previous work indicating that adults with aphasia can learn MM. Although not statistically significant, the training group demonstrated improved fluency immediately after MM; however, changes were not maintained at follow-up. Physiological measures showed little effect associated with MM training. No changes in attention were observed for either group. CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS This is an emerging area of interest due to the potential low cost of MM training. Furthermore, MM is easily taught to patients, suggesting the possibility for widespread use in clinical practice as a supplement to existing language-focused interventions.
On the Outside Teaching in

This study uses a quasi-experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of Internet videoconferencing technology. The instructor used a laptop, webcam, high-speed DSL connection, and Polycom™ Viewstation to teach a course unit of introductory sociology from a remote location to an experimental group of students in a large multimedia classroom. The same instructor taught a control group of introductory sociology students without videoconferencing. The groups were compared using exam scores, attendance, classroom observations, and student evaluations. The use of Internet videoconferencing did not affect exam scores or attendance. However, it substantially lowered student evaluation scores. In comparison to classroom-based instruction and due to problems with and limitations of the technology, students experienced greater difficulty communicating with the instructor, felt more separated, and were less engaged in the course. Therefore, they perceived the instructor's teaching to be less effective, and evaluations reflected lower scores, thereby “punishing” the instructor. Symbolic interactionism is used to interpret the results. This research is compared and contrasted with a previous study conducted by one of the authors (Koeber 2005), also published in Teaching Sociology, which yielded opposite results. In Koeber's study the instructor was rewarded with favorable student evaluations for the use of new technology that enhanced engagement. We conclude that when instructors choose whether or not to use Internet videoconferencing, they must weigh the potential benefits associated with bridging distance gaps versus potential costs associated with reduction in quantity and quality of symbolic interaction that may cause students to disengage.