Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Economic evaluation of voriconazole for the treatment of candidemia in Canadian adults.

BACKGROUND Candidemia is a common cause of nosocomial bloodstream infection. When selecting therapeutic treatments for candidemia, cost-effectiveness is an important consideration. The present study assessed the cost-effectiveness of voriconazole for the treatment of candidemia. METHODS A decision-analytical model was used for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of voriconazole compared with a regimen of conventional amphotericin B (CAB) followed by fluconazole (FLU) in the treatment of non-neutropenic patients diagnosed with candidemia in the Canadian setting, based on the Global Candidemia Study. The time frame of the model was 98 days (14 weeks). Model parameters were based primarily on clinical outcome, and resource use data collected from the clinical trial were used. Supplemental data were obtained from an independent panel of 12 Canadian experts for parameters not available from the clinical trial. Unit costs were collected from Canadian sources. The outcome variables selected in the study were the number of patients cured within 98 days, the number of patients surviving at 98 days and the number of patients avoiding toxicity. Incremental costs per outcome were calculated to compare the cost-effectiveness analyses (both probabilistic and one-way sensitivity analyses were performed). RESULTS The cost-effectiveness analysis demonstrated a difference of $1,121 in the total average cost of treatment with voriconazole ($70,489) versus CAB/FLU ($69,368). While the costs of voriconazole exceeded the costs of CAB/FLU, these costs were almost completely offset by lower hospitalization costs. While patients in both treatment arms experienced cure rates of 41%, both the percentage of patients surviving at day 98 (64.5% versus 58.2%) and the percentage of patients avoiding toxicity (64.5% versus 52.5%) were higher in the voriconazole arm. Accounting for differences in total costs and clinical outcomes, this analysis estimated an incremental cost per patient surviving at day 98 of $17,739, and an incremental cost per patient avoiding toxicity of $9,298. In the case of cost per patient cured, voriconazole had a higher cost ($1,121) than CAB/FLU. The results of the deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses indicated that the model was robust. CONCLUSIONS Results of the decision-analytical model provided evidence to support the cost-effectiveness of voriconazole relative to a regimen of CAB/FLU in the treatment of non-neutropenic patients diagnosed with candidemia in the Canadian setting.
Quantitative Ultrasound Evaluation of Tumor Cell Death Response in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy

Purpose: Quantitative ultrasound techniques have been recently shown to be capable of detecting cell death through studies conducted on in vitro and in vivo models. This study investigates for the first time the potential of early detection of tumor cell death in response to clinical cancer therapy administration in patients using quantitative ultrasound spectroscopic methods. Experimental Design: Patients (n = 24) with locally advanced breast cancer received neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatments. Ultrasound data were collected before treatment onset and at 4 times during treatment (weeks 1, 4, and 8, and preoperatively). Quantitative ultrasound parameters were evaluated for clinically responsive and nonresponding patients. Results: Results indicated that quantitative ultrasound parameters showed significant changes for patients who responded to treatment, and no similar alteration was observed in treatment-refractory patients. Such differences between clinically and pathologically determined responding and nonresponding patients were statistically significant (P < 0.05) after 4 weeks of chemotherapy. Responding patients showed changes in parameters related to cell death with, on average, an increase in mid-band fit and 0-MHz intercept of 9.1 ± 1.2 dBr and 8.9 ± 1.9 dBr, respectively, whereas spectral slope was invariant. Linear discriminant analysis revealed a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 83.3% for distinguishing nonresponding patients by the fourth week into a course of chemotherapy lasting several months. Conclusion: This study reports for the first time that quantitative ultrasound spectroscopic methods can be applied clinically to evaluate cancer treatment responses noninvasively. The results form a basis for monitoring chemotherapy effects and facilitating the personalization of cancer treatment. Clin Cancer Res; 19(8); 2163–74. ©2013 AACR.
Differential Kinetics and Distribution of Antibodies in Serum and Nasal and Vaginal Secretions after Nasal and Oral Vaccination of Humans

ABSTRACT Although nasal vaccination has emerged as an interesting alternative to systemic or oral vaccination, knowledge is scarce about the immune responses after such immunization in humans. In the present study, we have compared the kinetics and organ distribution of the antibody responses after nasal and oral vaccination. We immunized female volunteers nasally or orally with cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) and determined the specific antibody levels in serum and nasal and vaginal secretions, as well as the number of circulating antibody-secreting cells, before immunization and 1, 2, 3, 6, and 26 weeks thereafter. Nasal vaccination induced 9-fold CTB-specific immunoglobulin A (IgA) and 56-fold specific IgG antibody increases in nasal secretions, whereas no significant IgA increase was seen after oral vaccination. Both oral and nasal vaccination resulted in 5- to 6-fold CTB-specific IgA and 20- to 30-fold specific IgG increases in vaginal secretions. Strong serum responses to CTB were also induced by both routes of vaccination. A notable difference between nasal and oral vaccination was that the nasal route elicited a specific antibody response with a later onset but of much longer duration than did the oral route. We conclude from this study that the nasal route is superior to the oral route for administering at least nonliving vaccines against infections in the upper respiratory tract, whereas either oral or nasal vaccination might be used for eliciting antibody responses in the female genital tract.
Reducing Undercarboxylated Osteocalcin With Vitamin K Supplementation Does Not Promote Lean Tissue Loss or Fat Gain Over 3 Years in Older Women and Men: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Osteocalcin (OC) is a vitamin K–dependent protein synthesized during bone formation. Mice injected with the undercarboxylated form of OC (ucOC) had more skeletal muscle mass and less fat mass than sham‐treated controls, suggesting a unique metabolic role for ucOC. UcOC decreases in response to vitamin K supplementation. Our objective was to determine the effect of reducing ucOC on change in lean tissue and fat mass in older community‐dwelling adults (n = 401, mean ± SD 69 ± 6 years) using data from a randomized controlled trial of vitamin K supplementation. Over 3 years, serum ucOC was reduced by 58% in women and by 61% in men randomized to vitamin K, whereas in the control group, ucOC decreased by 1% in women and 4% in men (supplementation*time p < 0.001 in men and women). However, there were no differences in the change in appendicular lean mass (calculated as arm lean mass + leg lean mass) or total body fat mass between women randomized to vitamin K and control over 3 years (supplementation*time p values all ≥ 0.18) or between men randomized to vitamin K and control (supplementation*time p values all ≥ 0.54). Consistent with these findings, ucOC was not associated cross‐sectionally with appendicular lean mass or fat mass in men or women after adjustment for total OC at baseline (all p ≥ 0.12). These findings indicate the undercarboxylated form of OC is not implicated in age‐related changes in skeletal muscle or adipose tissue mass in older community‐dwelling adults. © 2016 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Long-term Functional and Radiographic Outcome of a Mobile Bearing Ankle Prosthesis

Background: Total ankle arthroplasty is an accepted alternative to arthrodesis of the ankle. However, complication and failure rates remain high. Long-term results of the Scandinavian Total Ankle Replacement (STAR) are limited, with variable complication and failure rates observed. This prospective study presents the long-term survivorship and postoperative complications of the STAR prosthesis. Methods: Between May 1999 and June 2008, 134 primary total ankle arthroplasties were performed using the STAR prosthesis in 124 patients. The survivorship, postoperative complications, and reoperations were recorded, with a minimum follow-up period of 7.5 years. Clinical results were assessed using the Foot Function Index and the Kofoed score. The presence of component migration, cysts, and radiolucency surrounding the prosthesis components, heterotopic ossification, and progression of osteoarthritis in adjacent joints were determined. Results: The cumulative survival was 78% after the 10-year follow-up period. An ankle arthrodesis was performed in 20 ankles (14.9%) that failed. Fourteen polyethylene insert fractures occurred (10.4%). Other complications occurred in 29 ankles (21.6%), requiring secondary procedures in 21 ankles (15.7%). Nevertheless, the postoperative clinical results improved significantly. Osteolytic cysts were observed in 61 ankles (59.8%) and the surface area of these cysts increased during follow-up, without any association with the prosthesis alignment or clinical outcome. Heterotopic ossification at the medial malleolus was present in 58 cases (56.8%) and at the posterior tibia in 73 cases (71.6%), with no effect on clinical outcome. Osteoarthritis of the subtalar and talonavicular joint developed in 9 (8.8%) and 11 cases (10.8%), respectively. Conclusion: The long-term clinical outcomes for the STAR were found to be satisfactory. Although these results are consistent with previous studies, the survival and complication rates are disappointing compared to knee and hip arthroplasty. Higher rates of successful outcomes following ankle arthroplasty are important, and these results highlight the need for further research to clarify the origin and significance of the reported complications. Level of Evidence: Level II, prospective comparative study.
Multiscale Keypoint Detection using the Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform

We present a novel approach to detecting multiscale keypoints using the dual tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT). We show that it is a well-suited basis for this problem as it is directionally selective, smoothly shift invariant, optimally decimated at coarse scales and invertible (no loss of information). Our detection scheme is fast because of the decimated nature of the DTCWT and yet provides accurate and robust keypoint localisation, thanks to the use of the "accumulated energy map". The regularity of this map is used to introduce a new mechanism for robust keypoint scale selection. Key-points of different nature and size can be detected with limited redundancy, in a way which is consistent with our visual perception. Furthermore results show better robustness against rotation compared to the SIFT detector.
Investigation of Traps at MoS2/Al2O3 Interface in nMOSFETs by Low-Frequency Noise

A new method is proposed to distinguish the contributions of the low-frequency noise (LFN) from the channel and the source/drain Schottky contacts in MOS devices. The method is applied to back-gated nMOSFETs with MoS<sub>2</sub> channel and Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> gate dielectric. To avoid a possible noise signal contamination from the top MoS<sub>2</sub> surface by oxygen or water molecules absorption, the nMOSFETs with multilayer MoS<sub>2</sub> are fabricated, and the measurements are carried out in the vacuum. The trap density Not at the MoS<sub>2</sub>/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> interface is derived for the first time using the proposed method. It is found that the Not responsible to LFN depends strongly on the surface potential, ranging from 4 × 10<sup>10</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup> in the weak over-drive region to 5 × 10<sup>11</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup> in the strong over-drive region.
A Negative Conjunctive Query is Easy if and only if it is Beta-Acyclic

It is known that the data complexity of a Conjunctive Query (CQ) is determined *only* by the way its variables are shared between atoms, reflected by its hypergraph. In particular, Yannakakis [Yannakakis VLDB'81,Beeri/Fagin/Maier/Yannakakis JACM'83] proved that a CQ is decidable in linear time when it is alpha-acyclic, i.e. its hypergraph is alpha-acyclic; Bagan et al. [Bagan/Durand/Grandjean CSL'07] even state: * Any CQ is decidable in linear time iff it is alpha-acyclic. (under certain hypotheses) (By linear time, we mean a query on a structure S can be decided in time O(|S|)) A natural question is: since the complexity of a *Negative* Conjunctive Query (NCQ), a conjunctive query where *all* atoms are negated, also only depends on its hypergraph, can we find a similar dichotomy in this case? To answer this question, we revisit a result of Ordyniak et al. --- that states that satisfiability of a beta-acyclic CNF formula is decidable in polynomial time --- by proving that some part of their procedure can be done in linear time. This implies, under an algorithmic hypothesis that is likely true: (precisely: one cannot decide whether a graph is triangle-free in time O(n²log n) where n is the number of vertices. ) * Any NCQ is decidable in quasi-linear time iff it is beta-acyclic. (By quasi-linear time, we mean a query on a structure S can be decided in time O(|S|log|S|)) We extend the easiness result to 'Signed' Conjunctive Query (SCQ) where 'some' atoms are negated. This has great interest since using some negated atoms is natural in the frameworks of databases and CSP. Furthermore, it implies straightforwardly the following: * Any beta-acyclic existential first-order query is decidable in quasi-linear time.
Making Brain Training Effective- A Review of Training Features that lead to Durable Performance Increases Beyond the Training Context

A Review of Training Features that lead to Durable Performance Increases Beyond the Training Context Floris Martijn Verhoeven Supervised by Stella F. Donker In almost all fields of experimental psychology, enhancements in performance have been achieved after extensive training. These improvements however, are classically confined to the context in which the learning takes place. Considering the relevance of real-world training tasks or rehabilitation paradigms, this context specificity is a problem for the aim of general learning. Nevertheless, recent studies employing video games and working memory tasks as training have produced learning effects that have generalized to previously untrained tasks. This review discusses the mechanisms and essential features that cause this transferability with the aim to provide guidance for future training paradigms. By identifying the characteristics responsible for the success of these regimens, like including tasks that span multiple modalities, minimizing the use of specific strategies and attaining maximal participant engagement, recommendations can be made about implementing these features to achieve a maximal learning effect, increasing the effectiveness of the training paradigm.
Name disambiguation in author citations using a K-way spectral clustering method

An author may have multiple names and multiple authors may share the same name simply due to name abbreviations, identical names, or name misspellings in publications or bibliographies (citations). This can produce name ambiguity which can affect the performance of document retrieval, web search, and database integration, and may cause improper attribution of credit. Proposed here is an unsupervised learning approach using K-way spectral clustering that disambiguates authors in citations. The approach utilizes three types of citation attributes: co-author names, paper titles, and publication venue titles. The approach is illustrated with 16 name datasets with citations collected from the DBLP database bibliography and author home pages and shows that name disambiguation can be achieved using these citation attributes
A set of tetra-nucleotide core motif SSR markers for efficient identification of potato (Solanum tuberosum) cultivars

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) is a popular tool for individual fingerprinting. The long-core motif (e.g. tetra-, penta-, and hexa-nucleotide) simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are preferred because they make it easier to separate and distinguish neighbor alleles. In the present study, a new set of 8 tetra-nucleotide SSRs in potato (Solanum tuberosum) is reported. By using these 8 markers, 72 out of 76 cultivars obtained from Japan and the United States were clearly discriminated, while two pairs, both of which arose from natural variation, showed identical profiles. The combined probability of identity between two random cultivars for the set of 8 SSR markers was estimated to be 1.10 × 10−8, confirming the usefulness of the proposed SSR markers for fingerprinting analyses of potato.
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Phosphatase Myotubularin-related Protein 6 (MTMR6) Is Regulated by Small GTPase Rab1B in the Early Secretory and Autophagic Pathways*

Background: The activity of myotubularin-related protein 6 (MTMR6) is regulated by an unknown mechanism. Results: The cellular localization of MTMR6 was regulated by Rab1B via the GRAM domain. They were functionally related in the early secretory and autophagic pathways. Conclusion: MTMR6 is regulated by Rab1B via the conserved GRAM domain. Significance: Our results reveal a novel regulatory mechanism of MTM phosphatases. A large family of myotubularin phosphatases dephosphorylates phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate, which are known to play important roles in vesicular trafficking and autophagy. The family is composed of 16 members, and understanding their regulatory mechanisms is important to understand their functions and related genetic diseases. We prepared anti-myotubularin-related protein 6 (MTMR6) monoclonal antibody and used it to study the regulatory mechanism of MTMR6. Endogenous MTMR6 was present in the cytoplasm and was condensed in the perinuclear region in a microtubule-dependent manner. MTMR6 preferentially interacted with GDP-bound Rab1B via the GRAM domain and partly overlapped with Rab1B in the pericentrosomal and peri-Golgi regions in normal rat kidney cells. Overexpression of GDP-bound Rab1B and the reduction of Rab1B disrupted the localization of MTMR6, suggesting that Rab1B regulates the localization of MTMR6. The reduction of MTMR6 accelerated the transport of vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein in which Rab1B is involved. Furthermore, reduction of MTMR6 or Rab1B inhibited the formation of the tubular omegasome that is induced by overexpression of DFCP1 in autophagy. Our results indicate that the cellular localization of MTMR6 is regulated by Rab1B in the early secretory and autophagic pathways. We propose a new regulatory mechanism of myotubularin phosphatase by the small GTPase Rab1B.
Lagrangians Galore

Searching for a Lagrangian may seem either a trivial endeavour or an impossible task. In this paper we show that the Jacobi last multiplier associated with the Lie symmetries admitted by simple models of classical mechanics produces (too? ) many Lagrangians in a simple way. We exemplify the method by such a classic as the simple harmonic oscillator, the harmonic oscillator in disguise [H Goldstein, Classical Mechanics, 2nd edition (Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1980)] and the damped harmonic oscillator. This is the first paper in a series dedicated to this subject.
Transient Modeling in Simulation of Hospital Operations for Emergency Response

Abstract Rapid estimates of hospital capacity after an event that may cause a disaster can assist disaster-relief efforts. Due to the dynamics of hospitals, following such an event, it is necessary to accurately model the behavior of the system. A transient modeling approach using simulation and exponential functions is presented, along with its applications in an earthquake situation. The parameters of the exponential model are regressed using outputs from designed simulation experiments. The developed model is capable of representing transient, patient waiting times during a disaster. Most importantly, the modeling approach allows real-time capacity estimation of hospitals of various sizes and capabilities. Further, this research is an analysis of the effects of priority-based routing of patients within the hospital and the effects on patient waiting times determined using various patient mixes. The model guides the patients based on the severity of injuries and queues the patients requiring critical care depending on their remaining survivability time. The model also accounts the impact of prehospital transport time on patient waiting time.
Population genetic structure of annual and perennial populations of Zostera marina L. along the Pacific coast of Baja California and the Gulf of California

The Baja California peninsula represents a biogeographical boundary contributing to regional differentiation among populations of marine animals. We investigated the genetic characteristics of perennial and annual populations of the marine angiosperm, Zostera marina, along the Pacific coast of Baja California and in the Gulf of California, respectively. Populations of Z. marina from five coastal lagoons along the Pacific coast and four sites in the Gulf of California were studied using nine microsatellite loci. Analyses of variance revealed significant interregional differentiation, but no subregional differentiation. Significant spatial differentiation, assessed using θST values, was observed among all populations within the two regions. Z. marina populations along the Pacific coast are separated by more than 220 km and had the greatest θST (0.13–0.28) values, suggesting restricted gene flow. In contrast, lower but still significant genetic differentiation was observed among populations within the Gulf of California (θST = 0.04–0.18), even though populations are separated by more than 250 km. This suggests higher levels of gene flow among Gulf of California populations relative to Pacific coast populations. Direction of gene flow was predominantly southward among Pacific coast populations, whereas no dominant polarity in the Gulf of California populations was observed. The test for isolation by distance (IBD) showed a significant correlation between genetic and geographical distances in Gulf of California populations, but not in Pacific coast populations, perhaps because of shifts in currents during El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events along the Pacific coast.