Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research Chromophobe Renal Cell Cancer -review of the Literature and Potential Methods of Treating Metastatic Disease

Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC) is a subtype of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). ChRCC is diagnosed mainly in 6th decade of life. An incidence of ChRCC is similar in both men and woman. Eighty six percent of ChRCCs cases are diagnosed in stage 1 or 2. Prognosis of ChRCC is better than in other types of RCC. Five-and 10-year disease free survival (DFS) for ChRCC was 83.9% and 77.9%, respectively. Expression of immunohistological markers: cytokeratins (CK), vimentin, epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), CD10 could be potentially helpful in diagnosis of different subtypes of RCC. From all conventional RCC, CD 117 was detected (overexpression) in membrane of cells ChRCC. Overexpression of CD117 on cellular membranes of ChRCC could be a potential target for kinase inhibitors like: imatinib, dasatinib, nilotinib. The potential targets for other kinase inhibitors (sunitinib and sorafenib) in ChRCC seem to be VEGFR and PDGFR. On the basis for formulating research hypotheses which should be verified by prospective studies. Epidemiology Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is rather a rare neoplasm (in Poland about 3% of all tumors). According to the most recent National Cancer Register in Poland, 2150 men and 1501 women were diagnosed with renal cancer in 2004 [1].
Analgesic efficacy of orally administered buprenorphine in rats.

The analgesic effect of orally administered buprenorphine was compared with that induced by a standard therapeutic injected dose (0.05 mg/kg of body weight, s.c.) in male Long-Evans rats. Analgesia was assessed by measuring pain threshold, using the hot-water tail-flick assay before and after administration of buprenorphine. The results suggest that a commonly used formula for oral buprenorphine in flavored gelatin, at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg, does not increase pain threshold in rats. Instead, oral buprenorphine doses of 5 and 10 mg/kg were necessary to induce significant increases in pain threshold. However, these doses had to be administered by orogastric infusion because the rats would not voluntarily eat flavored gelatin containing this much buprenorphine. The depth of analgesia induced by these infused doses was comparable to that induced by the clinically effective s.c. treatment (0.05 mg/kg).
Structural analysis of DNA complexation with cationic lipids

Complexes of cationic liposomes with DNA are promising tools to deliver genetic information into cells for gene therapy and vaccines. Electrostatic interaction is thought to be the major force in lipid–DNA interaction, while lipid-base binding and the stability of cationic lipid–DNA complexes have been the subject of more debate in recent years. The aim of this study was to examine the complexation of calf-thymus DNA with cholesterol (Chol), 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane (DOTAP), dioctadecyldimethylammoniumbromide (DDAB) and dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE), at physiological condition, using constant DNA concentration and various lipid contents. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), UV-visible, circular dichroism spectroscopic methods and atomic force microscopy were used to analyse lipid-binding site, the binding constant and the effects of lipid interaction on DNA stability and conformation. Structural analysis showed a strong lipid–DNA interaction via major and minor grooves and the backbone phosphate group with overall binding constants of KChol = 1.4 (±0.5) × 104 M−1, KDDAB = 2.4 (±0.80) × 104 M−1, KDOTAP = 3.1 (±0.90) × 104 M−1 and KDOPE = 1.45 (± 0.60) × 104 M−1. The order of stability of lipid–DNA complexation is DOTAP>DDAB>DOPE>Chol. Hydrophobic interactions between lipid aliphatic tails and DNA were observed. Chol and DOPE induced a partial B to A-DNA conformational transition, while a partial B to C-DNA alteration occurred for DDAB and DOTAP at high lipid concentrations. DNA aggregation was observed at high lipid content.
A Robust and Fast Method for Sidescan Sonar Image Segmentation Using Nonlocal Despeckling and Active Contour Model

Sidescan sonar image segmentation is a very important issue in underwater object detection and recognition. In this paper, a robust and fast method for sidescan sonar image segmentation is proposed, which deals with both speckle noise and intensity inhomogeneity that may cause considerable difficulties in image segmentation. The proposed method integrates the nonlocal means-based speckle filtering (NLMSF), coarse segmentation using ${k}$ -means clustering, and fine segmentation using an improved region-scalable fitting (RSF) model. The NLMSF is used before the segmentation to effectively remove speckle noise while preserving meaningful details such as edges and fine features, which can make the segmentation easier and more accurate. After despeckling, a coarse segmentation is obtained by using ${k}$ -means clustering, which can reduce the number of iterations. In the fine segmentation, to better deal with possible intensity inhomogeneity, an edge-driven constraint is combined with the RSF model, which can not only accelerate the convergence speed but also avoid trapping into local minima. The proposed method has been successfully applied to both noisy and inhomogeneous sonar images. Experimental and comparative results on real and synthetic sonar images demonstrate that the proposed method is robust against noise and intensity inhomogeneity, and is also fast and accurate.
Conceptualizing community in the context of work and family

In recent years, many work-family scholars and practitioners have called for expanding the analysis of work and family to include community. This paper uses the ecological systems approach as a framework for selecting and reviewing community concepts thought to be relevant to the analysis of work, community, and family. Based on the work-family literature and the review of community concepts, the paper creates a set of common categories of characteristics for the analysis of relationships among community, work, and family. The development of such categories is a first step in understanding work, community, and family as interrelated domains. Hopefully, they will be useful for developing and testing hypotheses regarding interrelationships among work, community, and family and the effects of work, community, and family characteristics on domain quality and individual well-being. On a vu, au cours de ces dernières années, de nombreux professeurs et praticiens demander que soit étendue l'analyse du travail et de la famille pour inclure la communauté. Cet article utilise l'approche des systèmes écologiques comme base de sélection et d'étude des principes de communauté considérés pertinents dans l'analyse du travail, de la communauté et de la famille. Ensuite, en s'appuyant sur la littérature visant le travail et la famille, ainsi que sur l'étude des principes de communauté, l'article établit un jeu de catégories communes des caractéristiques permettant l'analyse de rapports entre communauté, travail et famille. L'établissement de telles catégories constitue un premier pas envers une meilleure compréhension de l'interrelation entre les domaines du travail, de la communauté et de la famille. Il est à espérer que cela sera utile envers le développement et l'évaluation des hypothèses visant à établir une relation entre le travail, la communauté et la famille, ainsi que l'influence qu'auraient les caractéristiques du travail, de la communauté et de la famille sur la qualité du domaine et la qualité de la vie.
A study on short-time phase and multipulse LPC

Multipulse LPC, as is often designated the model proposed by Atal and Remae, has been directed towards 9.6 kb/s speech coding. However, at such bit rate, the speech quality is not yet generally acceptable. This paper has a double purpose - one is to investigate the role of short-time phase in multipulse LPC. The other is to look for different modelling structures to be used with this method. This study was prompted by direct observation of the structure of the excitation, where patterns of pulses may be found which are associated with phase-correcting mechanisms of the LPC impulse response. Consequently, a new multipulse technique was developed, based on a special ARMA model formed by cascading an all-pole with an all-pass network. This new model will be referred to as the MAPAP (Multipulse All-Pole All-Pass) method. Another one was tried in which the synthetic speech is formed by combination of several MAPAP signals. We therefore denoted it "multichannel multipulse" method. The potential advantages of both single and multichannel models seem rather promising.
Detection of deceptive behavior: A cross-cultural test

This article contains a report of a cross-cultural test for the detection of deception from behavior. Jordanians and Malaysians were videotaped while lying and telling the truth, and Jordanians and Malaysians judged the resulting tapes for deception. The experiment was conducted at Yarmouk University; the participants were 40 Jordanian students and 32 Malaysian students. Results show that lies can be detected across cultures from an audiovisual presentation. Ancillary results reveal cross-cultural consensus in judgments of deception from both auditory and visual cues. Discrimination between lies and the truth was clear – and was more accurate for targets who tried to convey, rather than conceal, it.
Impaired Chemosensitivity of Mouse Dorsal Raphe Serotonergic Neurons Overexpressing Serotonin 1A (Htr1a) Receptors

Background Serotonergic system participates in a wide range of physiological processes and behaviors, but its role is generally considered as modulatory and noncrucial, especially concerning life-sustaining functions. We recently created a transgenic mouse line in which a functional deficit in serotonin homeostasis due to excessive serotonin autoinhibition was produced by inducing serotonin 1A receptor (Htr1a) overexpression selectively in serotonergic neurons (Htr1a raphe-overexpressing or Htr1aRO mice). Htr1aRO mice exhibit episodes of autonomic dysregulation, cardiovascular crises and death, resembling those of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and revealing a life-supporting role of serotonergic system in autonomic control. Since midbrain serotonergic neurons are chemosensitive and are implicated in arousal we hypothesized that their chemosensitivity might be impaired in Htr1aRO mice. Principal findings Loose-seal cell-attached recordings in brainstem slices revealed that serotonergic neurons in dorsal raphe nucleus of Htr1aRO mice have dramatically reduced responses to hypercapnic challenge as compared with control littermates. In control mice, application of 9% CO2 produced an increase in firing rate of serotonergic neurons (0.260±0.041 Hz, n = 20, p = 0.0001) and application of 3% CO2 decreased their firing rate (−0.142±0.025 Hz, n = 17, p = 0.0008). In contrast, in Htr1aRO mice, firing rate of serotonergic neurons was not significantly changed by 9% CO2 (0.021±0.034 Hz, n = 16, p = 0.49) and by 3% CO2 (0.012±0.046 Hz, n = 12, p = 0.97). Conclusions Our findings support the hypothesis that chemosensitivity of midbrain serotonergic neurons provides a physiological mechanism for arousal responses to life-threatening episodes of hypercapnia and that functional impairment, such as excessive autoinhibition, of midbrain serotonergic neuron responses to hypercapnia may contribute to sudden death.
Precision of the optimized carbon monoxide rebreathing method to determine total haemoglobin mass and blood volume

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of different apparatuses, procedures and calculations on the precision of the optimized carbon monoxide method. Total haemoglobin mass was determined twice on consecutive days in 11 subjects using both venous and capillary blood samples. To estimate loss of carbon monoxide due to exhalation, carbon monoxide concentration was measured by two portable carbon monoxide analysers (Fluke CO-220, Fluke, Norwich, UK and Pac 7000 Carbon Monoxide, Draeger Safety, Northumberland, UK) and alveolar ventilation was specified using an automated metabolic gas analysis system (Cosmed Quark b2, Cosmed, Rome, Italy). Blood volume was derived from total haemoglobin mass using haemoglobin concentration and haematocrit obtained in both the supine and the seated position. Two different formulae to calculate blood volume were also compared. Precision was good for both total haemoglobin mass and blood volume measurements performed on consecutive days (typical error < 2%). Using Fluke CO-220 analyser, an estimated alveolar ventilation and capillary blood, total haemoglobin mass (917±136 g) was similar when compared to the Pac 7000 Draeger CO-analyser (904±137 g; mean bias –13 g with 95% limits of agreement –26 to + 1 g, P=0.76), specified alveolar ventilation (911±132 g, mean bias –6 g with 95% limits of agreement –18 g to + 6 g, P =0.87) and venous blood (917±134 g, mean bias 0 g with 95% limits of agreement –38 to + 38 g, P=0.99), respectively. Blood volume determination was also not significantly affected by the supine vs. seated position (6.7±0.8 l vs. 6.6±0.8 l, P=0.56) but can deviate by ~0.6 l (P=0.01) depending on the formula applied. Thus, the good precision of the assessment of total haemoglobin mass and blood volume using the optimized carbon monoxide rebreathing method is not significantly influenced by the make of CO analyser, method of obtaining alveolar ventilation, blood sampling method and subject position, but should for longitudinal monitoring purposes use the same formula.
Gender and the use of pragmatic particles in Indonesian

Studies of male and female conversational styles in several cultures have shown differences in a number of areas, including the use of pragmatic particles. In most studies, women have been shown to behave more cooperatively, and men more competitively. This paper presents a study of two pragmatic particles in Indonesian conversations, kan ;and iya/ya, which cover a range of functions similar to English tag questions and the pragmatic particle you know. Given these similarities, parallel differences in usage might have been expected. However, differences occur much less frequently than has been the case in these other studies, and although the direction of such gender biases as were observed was generally in the same direction as found in other studies, on the whole Indonesian usage by both genders was facilitative. This result is then seen as a reflection of Indonesian cultural values, which place a premium on maintaining the appearance of cooperative behavior.
Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Its Genetic Determinants in Relation to Incident Myocardial Infarction and Stroke in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Germany Study

Circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) has been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in observational studies. Also, SNPs to explain variation in 25(OH)D have been identified by genome-wide association studies. Detection of direct associations between SNPs that significantly affect 25(OH)D and CVD risk would indicate a causal role of vitamin D, as reverse causation could be excluded and confounding could be better controlled. Thus, a combined analysis of candidate SNPs in relation to circulating 25(OH)D and CVD risk was carried out. A case-cohort study within the EPIC-Germany study was conducted comprising a randomly drawn subcohort of 2,132 subjects (57.9% women, mean age: 50.6 years) and incident cases of myocardial infarction (n=559) and stroke (n=471) that occurred during a mean follow-up duration of 7.6 years. 25(OH)D concentrations were measured by LC-MS/MS in baseline plasma samples. Additionally, eight candidate SNPs were assayed. Associations between 25(OH)D, SNPs and the risks of myocardial infarction and stroke were assessed by multivariable regression analyses. Mean 25(OH)D level was 47.2 nmol/L in the subcohort. Four SNPs were associated with 25(OH)D (p<0.05). In subjects with 25(OH)D levels <25 nmol/L, the risks of CVD as composite endpoint (Hazard Ratio: 1.53, 95% confidence interval: 1.12–2.09), myocardial infarction, and stroke were significantly increased compared to subjects with levels ≥50 nmol/L, while no significant linear associations were observed. A SNP score was not related to the risks of total CVD (Hazard Ratio: 1.0, 95% confidence interval: 0.71–1.42), myocardial infarction, or stroke. The same was true concerning single SNPs. Given the lack of association between SNPs and the risks of stroke and myocardial infarction, the present findings do not point to a major causal role of vitamin D in the development of these diseases. However, a detection of modest associations between genetic markers and CVD risk in larger consortia cannot be ruled out.
Dual-Dimension Naming Speed and Language-Dominance Ratings by Bilingual Hispanic Adults

Abstract This study compared the efficacy of measures of naming speed, verbal fluency and self-ratings for establishing language dominance in 25 bilingual English–Spanish adults with college degrees. Naming speed was measured by total naming times (in seconds) for five Alzheimer's Quick Test tasks (Wiig, Nielsen, Minthon & Warkentin, 2002) and verbal fluency with the Word Listing by Domain (Lambert, Havelka, & Crosby, 1958; Fishman & Cooper, 1969). Self-ratings of English–Spanish competence (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and frequency of use of each spoken language served as standards for comparisons. For the aggregate sample, color–form, color–animal, and color–object naming times were significantly shorter for English than Spanish (p < .01). There was 100% agreement in language-dominance judgments between self-ratings of language competence and frequency of use, and color–form, color–animal, and color–object naming-time differences in the two languages. Word Listing by Domain quotients for language dominance showed a lower degree of agreement (52%) with self-ratings and naming-time differences. The findings suggest that cross-linguistic comparisons of naming times for color–form, color–animal, and color–object naming may be helpful in screening adults for language dominance for psychoeducational assessment purposes.
SVM ranking with backward search for feature selection in type II diabetes databases

Clinical databases have accumulated large quantities of information about patients and their clinical history. Data mining is the search for relationships and patterns within this data that could provide useful knowledge for effective decision-making. Classification analysis is one of the widely adopted data mining techniques for healthcare applications to support medical diagnosis, improving quality of patient care, etc. Usually medical databases are high dimensional in nature. If a training dataset contains irrelevant features (i.e., attributes), classification analysis may produce less accurate results. Data pre-processing is required to prepare the data for data mining and machine learning to increase the predictive accuracy. Feature selection is a preprocessing technique commonly used on high-dimensional data and its purposes include reducing dimensionality, removing irrelevant and redundant features, reducing the amount of data needed for learning, improving algorithms' predictive accuracy, and increasing the constructed models' comprehensibility. Much research work in data mining has gone into improving the predictive accuracy of the classifiers by applying the techniques of feature selection. The importance of feature selection in medical data mining is appreciable as the diagnosis of the disease could be done in this patient-care activity with minimum number of features. Feature selection may provide us with the means to reduce the number of clinical measures made while still maintaining or even enhancing accuracy and reducing false negative rates. In medical diagnosis, reduction in false negative rate can, literally, be the difference between life and death. In this paper we propose a feature selection approach for finding an optimum feature subset that enhances the classification accuracy of Naive . Bayes classifier. Experiments were conducted on the Pima Indian Diabetes Dataset to assess the effectiveness of our approach. The results confirm that SVM Ranking with Backward Search approach leads to promising improvement on feature selection and enhances classification accuracy.
New evidence on the impact of China’s New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme and its implications for rural primary healthcare: multivariate difference-in-difference analysis

Objectives To determine whether China’s New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), which aims to provide health insurance to 800 million rural citizens and to correct distortions in rural primary care, and the individual policy attributes have affected the operation and use of village health clinics. Design We performed a difference-in-difference analysis using multivariate linear regressions, controlling for clinic and individual attributes as well as village and year effects. Setting 100 villages within 25 rural counties across five Chinese provinces in 2004 and 2007. Participants 160 village primary care clinics and 8339 individuals. Main outcome measures Clinic outcomes were log average weekly patient flow, log average monthly gross income, log total annual net income, and the proportion of monthly gross income from medicine sales. Individual outcomes were probability of seeking medical care, log annual “out of pocket” health expenditure, and two measures of exposure to financial risk (probability of incurring out of pocket health expenditure above the 90th percentile of spending among the uninsured and probability of financing medical care by borrowing or selling assets). Results For village clinics, we found that NCMS was associated with a 26% increase in weekly patient flow and a 29% increase in monthly gross income, but no change in annual net revenue or the proportion of monthly income from drug revenue. For individuals, participation in NCMS was associated with a 5% increase in village clinic use, but no change in overall medical care use. Also, out of pocket medical spending fell by 19% and the two measures of exposure to financial risk declined by 24-63%. These changes occurred across heterogeneous county programmes, even in those with minimal benefit packages. Conclusions NCMS provides some financial risk protection for individuals in rural China and has partly corrected distortions in Chinese rural healthcare (reducing the oversupply of specialty services and prescription drugs). However, the scheme may have also shifted uncompensated new responsibilities to village clinics. Given renewed interest among Chinese policy makers in strengthening primary care, the effect of NCMS deserves greater attention.
Impact of photoinitiators on the photopolymerization and the optical properties of inorganic-organic hybrid polymers

Sol-gel synthesis allows one to produce inorganic–organic hybrid polymer materials which can be functionalized in order to tailor their physical and chemical properties. Besides, the resulting material properties are significantly influenced by further technological processing of the materials in thin film technology, i.e., the photochemical and thermal curing of the materials. In order to investigate the relationship between technological processing and material properties, a model system containing methacrylic groups as organically polymerizable units is chosen. The degree of conversion of the C=C double bond of the methacrylic group in dependence of the ultraviolet (UV) initiator concentration upon processing is characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The data are correlated to measurements of the refractive indices at selected wavelengths.