Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma in children and adolescents: Israel Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology retrospective study.

BACKGROUND Survival in T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma has improved over the past 30 years, largely due to treatment protocols derived from regimens designed for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. OBJECTIVES To assess the outcome of the NHL-BFM-95 protocol in children and adolescents hospitalized during the period 1999-2006. METHODS We conducted a retrospective multi-institutional, non-randomized study of children and adolescents up to age 21 with T cell lymphoma admitted to pediatric departments in six hospitals in Israel, with regard to prevalence, clinical characteristics, pathological characteristics, prognostic factors, overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS). All patients had a minimal follow-up of one year after diagnosis. The study was based on the NHL-BFM-95 protocol. RESULTS At a median follow-up of 4 years (range 1-9 years), OS and EFS for all patients was 86.5% and 83.8%, respectively. OS was 86.7% and 83.3% for patients with stage III and stage IV, respectively, and EFS was 83.3% and 83.3%, respectively. EFS was 62.5% for Arab patients and 89.7% for Jewish patients (P = 0.014). Patients who did not express CD45 antigen showed superior survival (P = 0.028). Five patients (13.5%) relapsed, four of whom died of their disease. Death as a consequence of therapy toxicity was documented in one patient while on the re-induction protocol (protocol IIA). CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that OS and EFS for all patients was 86.5% and 83.8%, respectively.
Dynamics of a stochastic spatially extended system predicted by comparing deterministic and stochastic attractors of the corresponding birth–death process

Living cells may be considered as biochemical reactors of multiple steady states. Transitions between these states are enabled by noise, or, in spatially extended systems, may occur due to the traveling wave propagation. We analyze a one-dimensional bistable stochastic birth–death process by means of potential and temperature fields. The potential is defined by the deterministic limit of the process, while the temperature field is governed by noise. The stable steady state in which the potential has its global minimum defines the global deterministic attractor. For the stochastic system, in the low noise limit, the stationary probability distribution becomes unimodal, concentrated in one of two stable steady states, defined in this study as the global stochastic attractor. Interestingly, these two attractors may be located in different steady states. This observation suggests that the asymptotic behavior of spatially extended stochastic systems depends on the substrate diffusivity and size of the reactor. We confirmed this hypothesis within kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of a bistable reaction– diffusion model on the hexagonal lattice. In particular, we found that although the kinase–phosphatase system remains inactive in a small domain, the activatory traveling wave may propagate when a larger domain is considered.
Some Like it Smooth, and Some Like it Rough: Untangling Continuous and Jump Components in Measuring, Modeling, and Forecasting Asset Return Volatility

For use in the molding of gold crowns for teeth, and of jewelry articles, in a preferred embodiment for gold-crown production, a threaded male insert structure with the male threaded portion being insertable downwardly into a plaster-molding rubber-base hole such that the sides of the hole are supportable uprightly of the insert structure, with the insert structure defining a head structure having a threaded female receptacle centrally thereof extending downwardly in an end of the insert opposite from the threaded male portion, and the head structure defining a plurality of recesses around the periphery thereof with the openings to the recesses facing upwardly and the recess-defining structures being such as to make the recesses receivable of each of a wax stem mountable of a wax crown-form.
Emerging Functions of Regulatory T Cells in Tissue Homeostasis

CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells (Tregs) are a unique subset of helper T-cells, which regulate immune response and establish peripheral tolerance. Tregs not only maintain the tone and tenor of an immune response by dominant tolerance but, in recent years, have also been identified as key players in resolving tissue inflammation and as mediators of tissue healing. Apart from being diverse in their origin (thymic and peripheral) and location (lymphoid and tissue resident), Tregs are also phenotypically heterogeneous as per the orientation of ongoing immune response. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in the field of Treg biology in general, and non-lymphoid and tissue-resident Tregs in particular. We elaborate upon well-known visceral adipose tissue, colon, skin, and tumor-infiltrating Tregs and newly identified tissue Treg populations as in lungs, skeletal muscle, placenta, and other tissues. Our attempt is to differentiate Tregs based on distinctive properties of their location, origin, ligand specificity, chemotaxis, and specific suppressive mechanisms. Despite ever expanding roles in maintaining systemic homeostasis, Tregs are employed by large varieties of tumors to dampen antitumor immunity. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of Treg biology in the context of inflammation can be instrumental in effectively managing tissue transplantation, autoimmunity, and antitumor immune responses.
Use of a novel receptor-targeted (CD206) radiotracer, 99mTc-tilmanocept, and SPECT/CT for sentinel lymph node detection in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma: initial institutional report in an ongoing phase 3 study.

IMPORTANCE Sentinel lymph node biopsy has been proposed as an alternative to up-front elective neck dissection (END) for determination of pathologic nodal status in patients undergoing surgical treatment for oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) with clinically negative neck (cN0). Sentinel lymph node biopsy using current standard tracer agents and imaging adjuncts such as radiolabeled sulfur-colloid and planar lymphoscintigraphy (LS), however, is associated with several drawbacks. OBJECTIVE To assess the preliminary utility of technetium Tc 99m (99mTc)-tilmanocept, a novel molecular imaging agent for sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping, in OSCC. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective, nonrandomized, single-arm, part of an ongoing phase 3 clinical trial. Patients had previously untreated, clinically and radiographically node-negative OSCC (T1-4aN0M0) at an academic tertiary referral center. INTERVENTIONS Patients received a single dose of 50 µg 99mTc-tilmanocept injected peritumorally followed by dynamic planar LS and fused single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) prior to surgery. Surgical intervention consisted of excision of the primary tumor and radioguided SLN dissection followed by planned END. The excised lymph nodes (SLNs and non-SLNs) underwent histopathologic evaluation for presence of metastatic disease. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES False-negative rate and negative predictive value of SLNB using 99mTc-tilmanocept and comparison of planar LS with SPECT/CT in SLN localization. RESULTS Twelve of 20 patients (60%) had metastatic neck disease on pathologic examination. All 12 had at least 1 SLN positive for metastases. No patients had a positive END node who did not have at least 1 positive SLN. These data yield a false-negative rate of 0% and negative predictive value of 100% using 99mTc-tilmanocept in this setting. Dynamic planar LS and SPECT/CT revealed a mean (range) number of hot spots per patient of 2.9 (1-7) and 3.7 (1-12), respectively. Compared with planar LS, SPECT/CT identified additional putative SLNs in 11 of 20 cases (55%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The high negative predictive value and low false-negative rate in identification of occult metastases shows 99mTc-tilmanocept to be a promising agent in SLN identification in patients with OSCC. Use of SPECT/CT improves preoperative SLN localization including delineation of SLN locations near the primary tumor when compared with planar LS imaging. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00911326.
Robotic-Assisted Infrarenal Para-aortic Lymphadenectomy in Gynecological Cancers: Technique and Surgical Outcomes

Objective Mini-invasive surgery has essentially replaced open laparotomy in surgery for endometrial and cervical carcinoma. Of the procedures needed for a complete staging, especially para-aortic lymphadenectomy (PALND) is challenging to perform. The present study was undertaken to investigate the technical and surgical outcomes of robotic-assisted PALND for gynecological cancers in the setting of a tertiary university hospital in Finland. Methods This was a retrospective chart review of 283 robotic-assisted para-aortic lymphadenectomies using the single-docking transperitoneal technique performed at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Tampere University Hospital, in 2009–2016. The primary outcome measure was the extent of the operation in terms of the height, that is, how often the level cranial to the inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) was achieved. The secondary outcome measures included operation time and surgical outcome. Results The majority of operations (n = 239 [84.4%]) were performed for endometrial carcinoma. The most common operation type was robotic-assisted hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and pelvic lymphadenectomy and PALND, which took a median of 3:38 hours or 218 minutes (range, 140–341 minutes) to perform. The high PALND (above the level of IMA) succeeded in 235 operations (83%). In the total cohort, the median number of para-aortic lymph nodes removed was 12 (range, 0–38), with a learning curve approximately more than 40 operations. Para-aortic lymph node metastases were found in 43 patients (15.2%). Seven conversions to laparotomy (2.5%) were done. The conversion and intraoperative complication rates were 2.5% and 3.5%, respectively, and postoperative complications was 18%, according to the classification of Clavien-Dindo. The median length of the postoperative hospital stay was 2 days (range, 1–8 days). Conclusions Using the transperitoneal technique for PALND, the area between IMA and the renal veins can be reached in more than 80% of the operations, with a very low or 2.5% conversion rate.
Polynomial chaos and scaling limits of disordered systems

Inspired by recent work of Alberts, Khanin and Quastel, we formulate general conditions ensuring that a sequence of multi-linear polynomials of independent random variables (called polynomial chaos expansions) converges to a limiting random variable, given by a Wiener chaos expansion over the d-dimensional white noise. A key ingredient in our approach is a Lindeberg principle for polynomial chaos expansions, which extends earlier work of Mossel, O'Donnell and Oleszkiewicz. These results provide a unified framework to study the continuum and weak disorder scaling limits of statistical mechanics systems that are disorder relevant, including the disordered pinning model, the (long-range) directed polymer model in dimension 1+1, and the two-dimensional random field Ising model. This gives a new perspective in the study of disorder relevance, and leads to interesting new continuum models that warrant further studies.
Phase stability, electronic structure, and optical properties of indium oxide polytypes

¯ are indirect band gap semiconductors, while the other phase of space group Ia3 is having direct band gap. The calculated carrier effective masses for all these three phases are compared with available experimental and theoretical values. From charge-density and electron localization function analysis, it is found that these phases have dominant ionic bonding with noticeable covalent interaction between indium and oxygen. The magnitudes of the absorption and reflection coefficients for In2O3 with space groups Ia3 and R3 are small in the energy range 0 – 5 eV, indicating that these phases can be regarded and classified as transparent.
Diagnosing Cartman

Recent changes to the diagnosis of child antisocial behavior provide different methods of conceptualizing it (e.g., traditional symptom-based diagnoses and alternative trait-based methods). However, there is little research on how psychology students might use these different methods and what kind of instructional formats might be amenable to teaching students about them. In this study, we examined how students in an advanced psychopathology course used symptom-based and trait-based methods to conceptualize child antisocial behavior in a case study format. Results indicated that students perceived symptom-based and trait-based methods as providing complementary information that students found useful for diagnosis. Implications and future directions are also discussed.
An in-Depth Investigation of a Model Sport Program for Athletes with a Physical Disability

While previous research highlights the important benefits that sport participation can have for youth development, limited research has examined the sport experiences of athletes with disabilities (Martin, 2006). The purpose of this study was to describe the sport experiences of athletes with physical disabilities in a model swim program that has been widely recognized for the development of positive values in athletes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight athletes with a physical disability. Participants were both male (n = 3) and female (n = 5), between 9 - 19 years of age, and averaged 5.9 years of swimming experience. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and were subjected to a content analysis procedure in which raw meaning units were grouped into salient themes (Cote, Salmela, Baria, & Russell, 1993; Tesch, 1990). Athletes’ responses regarding the outcomes derived from this program revealed four themes: 1) Redefined capabilities, 2) affirmed sense of self, 3) strengthened social connection, and 4) enhanced acceptance. Social and contextual processes facilitating the development of these outcomes are also discussed. Practical implications for programmers, coaches, and athletes are presented along with recommendations for future sport research.
Hierarchical Agglomerative Cluster Analysis as a Trial Method RevealingDevelopmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) Subtypes

Background: There is increasing evidence that children with DCD have been classified into distinguishable ‘subtypes’ mainly based on perceptual-motor, fine and gross motor skills. Previous research efforts define and describe in detail subgroups of DCD using the methods of cluster analysis. The hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis seems to be an effective statistical method to identify homogeneous subtypes in the developmental disorder literature. Methods: The present study investigated the nature of possible cognitive-motor profiles of DCD using clustering methods. Dependent variables were selected on the basis of the characteristics of children with DCD and the specific difficulties observed in cognitive- motor domain according to the DCD literature. For the purpose of the study we adopted “PASS” neurocognitive theory (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive) and the norm-referenced Cognitive Assessment System. Results: Based on this hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis six (6) statistical sub-groups emerged with number of participants ranged from 5-43 students with or without DCD. Internal and external validity of the clustering solution was controlled by different clustering methods (Wards method analysis, Complete Linkage method, Centroid method, K-Means iterative partitioning method and split-sample replication), as well as other parametric methods (MANOVA, ANOVA and discriminant analyses). Conclusions: Future research examining the impact of DCD classification is warranted and it could be apply for other developmental disorders. The impact of different DCD profiles may provide larger benefits for alternative and effective instructional methods and early intervention programs in order to avoid motor learning disabilities and low academic achievement.
Short-Term Memory Development

In their first year of life, infants face the enormous task of making sense of the world around them. Without the ability to store and reason about representations of the individual objects, actions, and sounds in their environment, infants would never accomplish the monumental changes they do. Storing representations of such individuals in memory allows infants to perform computations that, while seemingly simple, are critical to learning about the world. Comparing a scene to one observed earlier, keeping track of the presence of objects even when the objects are temporarily occluded, and making predictions about the outcomes of hidden events are some examples of such computations. The thesis of this chapter is that the short-term memory system that enables infants to store object representations, and many of the computations infants perform over these representations, are continuous throughout the human life span. Infants and adults show similar capacities and similar limitations regarding their ability to represent and reason about objects. At the same time, infants’ and adults’ short-term memory abilities may differ in some important respects. This chapter explores what is shared and what may differ in early versus mature short-term memory. First, I would like to lay out some rough definitions. When I talk about short-term memory in this chapter, I am referring to the ability to form and store mental tokens that stand for entities in the outside world. Maintaining these tokens over short durations allows the entities to be thought about even when direct perceptual information is absent, as is the case when objects undergo occlusion. This short-term memory enables infants to represent the
Fast Computer Search for Trees with Minimal ABC Index Based on Tree Degree Sequences

The atom-bond connectivity (ABC) index of a graph ( , ) G V E is defined as ( ) [ ( ) ( ) 2] / [ ( ) ( )] i j i j i j v v E ABC G d v d v d v d v , where ( ) i d v denotes the degree of vertex i v of G . This recently introduced molecular structure descriptor found interesting applications in chemistry. However, the problem of characterizing trees with minimal ABC index remains open. In attempts to guess the general structure of such trees, some computer search algorithms were developed. Dimitrov [Appl. Math. Comput. 224 (2013)] presented an algorithm based on tree degree sequences. In this paper we improve this algorithm. Our algorithm generates only less than 2% tree degree sequences, and can find all the n -vertex tree(s) with minimal ABC index for 350 n within 8 days. Our search results support Dimitrov’s "modulo 7 conjecture" concerning trees with minimal ABC index, and disprove a conjecture we proposed before.
Forward versus backward semantic priming: What movement dynamics during lexical decision reveal

Separate processes underlying forward (e.g., crescent MOON) and backward (e.g., office POST) priming have previously been inferred from button-press lexical decision response times, with an automatic prospective mechanism and a strategic retrospective mechanism presumed responsible for forward and backward priming, respectively. We tracked hand/mouse kinematics during lexical decision, and found that forward, backward, and symmetrical (e.g., cat DOG) priming exhibited different movement trajectories, with the effect of forward priming emerging earlier than that of backward priming and with symmetrical priming taking the lead around the time when the backward priming effect came online. The findings provide strong converging evidence for different mechanisms driving forward and backward priming, and demonstrate that continuous kinematic measures can shed light on cognitive processes as they unfold in real time.
Modulatory Effects of Eschscholzia californica Alkaloids on Recombinant GABAA Receptors

The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica Cham.) contains a variety of natural compounds including several alkaloids found exclusively in this plant. Because of the sedative, anxiolytic, and analgesic effects, this herb is currently sold in pharmacies in many countries. However, our understanding of these biological effects at the molecular level is still lacking. Alkaloids detected in E. californica could be hypothesized to act at GABAA receptors, which are widely expressed in the brain mainly at the inhibitory interneurons. Electrophysiological studies on a recombinant α 1 β 2 γ 2 GABAA receptor showed no effect of N-methyllaurotetanine at concentrations lower than 30 μM. However, (S)-reticuline behaved as positive allosteric modulator at the α 3, α 5, and α 6 isoforms of GABAA receptors. The depressant properties of aerial parts of E. californica are assigned to chloride-current modulation by (S)-reticuline at the α 3 β 2 γ 2 and α 5 β 2 γ 2 GABAA receptors. Interestingly, α 1, α 3, and α 5 were not significantly affected by (R)-reticuline, 1,2-tetrahydroreticuline, codeine, and morphine—suspected (S)-reticuline metabolites in the rodent brain.
The Power-Series Algorithm for Polling Systems with Time Limits

This paper deals with evaluation and optimization of polling systems with time limits. Performance measures are evaluated with the power-series algorithm, a flexible technique for computing performance measures for multiqueue systems. The constant time limits are approximated by Erlang distributed variables. The algorithm is extended to compute derivatives of performance measures. This allows for optimization of cost functions with respect to the mean values of the time limits by gradient methods. Several properties of the optimal time limits are revealed by the numerical solution of various optimization problems.
The efficacy and safety of triple inhaled treatment in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis using Bayesian methods

Purpose Although tiotropium (TIO) and inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/long-acting β-agonists are frequently prescribed together, the efficacy of “triple therapy” has not been scientifically demonstrated. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis using Bayesian methods to compare triple therapy and TIO monotherapy. Methods We searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases for randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy and safety of triple therapy and TIO monotherapy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We conducted a meta-analysis to compare the effectiveness and safety of triple therapy and TIO monotherapy using Bayesian random effects models. Results Seven trials were included, and the risk of bias in the majority of the studies was acceptable. There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of death and acute exacerbation of disease in the triple therapy and TIO monotherapy groups. Triple therapy improved the prebronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second (mean difference [MD], 63.68 mL; 95% credible interval [CrI], 45.29–82.73), and patients receiving triple therapy showed more improvement in St George Respiratory Questionnaire scores (MD, −3.11 points; 95% CrI, −6.00 to −0.80) than patients receiving TIO monotherapy. However, both of these differences were lower than the minimal clinically important difference (MCID). No excessive adverse effects were reported in triple therapy group. Conclusion Triple therapy with TIO and ICSs/long-acting β-agonists was only slightly more efficacious than TIO monotherapy in treating patients with COPD. Further investigations into the efficacy of new inhaled drugs are needed.