Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Guidelines for Management of Metastatic Breast Cancer: Combination vs Sequential Single-Agent Chemotherapy

Compared with treatment options for early-stage breast cancer, few data exist regarding the optimal use of chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The choice of using a combination of cytotoxic chemotherapies vs sequential single agents is controversial. At the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference, the European School of Oncology Metastatic Breast Cancer Task Force convened an open debate on the relative benefits of combination vs sequential therapy. Based on the available data, the Task Force recommends sequential monotherapy as the preferred choice in advanced disease, in the absence of rapid clinical progression, life-threatening visceral metastases, or the need for rapid symptom and/or disease control. Patient- and disease-related factors should be used to choose between combination and sequential single-agent chemotherapy for MBC. Additional research is needed to determine the impact of therapy on patient-rated quality of life and to identify predictive factors that can be used to guide therapy.
Serial MRI evaluation of cardiac structure and function in mice after reperfused myocardial infarction

This study evaluated the utility of cardiac MRI for assessing the impact of myocardial infarction (MI) on cardiac structure and function in mice following reperfused 1‐ or 2‐hr occlusions of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). When assessed 1 day after MI, the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) had declined by more than half, and remained depressed for the duration of the study. Furthermore, MI initiated dramatic increases in both LV end‐systolic volume (LVESV) and end‐diastolic volume (LVEDV), with a greater than threefold increase in LVESV and a twofold increase in LVEDV by 4 weeks post‐MI. Transmural LV wall thickening (WTh) analysis revealed that noninfarcted myocardium in the remote septal region exhibited an early deficit in contractile function after MI that transiently resolved by day 7, only to be followed by a late phase of dysfunction that became fully manifest by day 28 post‐MI. In conclusion, MRI allows the serial assessment of cardiac structure and function after MI in mice, with a resolution adequate to document both regional and temporal changes. The application of these imaging techniques in transgenic and knock‐out mice will greatly expedite research aimed at defining the functional roles of individual genes in the pathophysiology of LV remodeling (LVR) after reperfused MI. Magn Reson Med 47:1158–1168, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
THE CHALLENGE OF MAKING AND REDRAWING BOUNDARIES: A PERSPECTIVE ON SOCIO-RHETORICAL CRITICISM

Introduction Formulating a perspective on the work of Vernon Robbins (Robbins 1996a) and (Robbins 1996b), I would like to link to the metaphor of boundaries which is evidently of great importance to Robbins and which he prefers over against the well known metaphor of texts as mirrors and windows. In his preface to New Boundaries in old territory (Robbins 1994:xif), he remarks that the choice for new methods inevitably led him to the discovery of new boundaries, but even more to the recognition of the varying significance of boundaries for different people. This is taken up in (Robbins 1996a: 20) where the author reflects on the necessity of creating and dismantling boundaries in and around texts as a necessary step in the process of interpretation. It seems to me that this respect for the boundaries of others but at the same time an unwillingness to bow too deeply before any set of boundaries created by humans, is very characteristic of the socio-rhetorical approach of Robbins. In honouring our late friend and colleague, Hannes Olivier, with this contribution, it seems that the metaphor of challenging and redrawing boundaries in many ways also very aptly fit his contributions as scholar and academic –though not necessarily in the manner referred to by Robbins.
Improved Global Range Alignment for ISAR

An improved global range alignment is presented for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging. The shifts of the echoes are modeled as a polynomial, and the coefficients of this polynomial are chosen to optimize a quality measure of range alignment. The shift in the time domain is carried out by introducing a phase ramp in the frequency domain in order to remove the limitation of integer steps. Because the quality measure of range alignment is calculated directly in the frequency domain, this method is computationally more efficient than the original global method.
Impact of Exposure to Pressure of 50 MPa on the Specific Surface Area of Clay

The paper presents results of laboratory tests conducted to determine the impact of pressure of 50 MPa on specific surface area of clay. These tests were carried out in an original, high-pressure test stand. The specific surface area of clay extracted directly from an open pit mine was compared with the specific surface area of the same clay subjected to the pressure of 50 MPa in a high-pressure chamber. The study found that the specific surface area of the clay subjected to the pressure of 50 MPa increased distinctly by over 35 %. The increase in specific surface can be a result of changes in the microstructure of clay particles and microstructural alteration in the soil skeleton, caused by the pressure.
Evaluating and Combining Name Entity Recognition Systems

Name entity recognition (NER) is an important subtask in natural language processing. Various NER systems have been developed in the last decade. They may target for different domains, employ different methodologies, work on different languages, detect different types of entities, and support different inputs and output formats. These conditions make it difficult for a user to select the right NER tools for a specific task. Motivated by the need of NER tools in our research work, we select several publicly available and well-established NER tools to validate their outputs against both Wikipedia gold standard corpus and a small set of manually annotated documents. All the evaluations show consistent results on the selected tools. Finally, we constructed a hybrid NER tool by combining the best performing tools for the domains of our interest.
Digital enhancement of television signals for people with visual impairments: Evaluation of a consumer product

Abstract— Technology to improve the clarity of video for home‐theater viewers is available utilizing a low‐cost enhancement chip (DigiVision DV1000). The impact of such a device on the preference for enhanced video was tested for people with impaired vision and normally sighted viewers. Viewers with impaired vision preferred the enhancement effects more than normally sighted viewers. Preference for enhancement was correlated with loss in contrast sensitivity and visual acuity. Preference increased with increased enhancement settings (designed for those with normal vision) in the group with vision impairments. This suggests that higher enhancement levels may be of even greater benefit, and a similar product could be designed to meet the needs of the large, growing population of elderly television viewers with impaired vision.
The L1 adhesion molecule is a cellular ligand for VLA-5

The L1 adhesion molecule is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily shared by neural and immune cells. In the nervous system L1 can mediate cell binding by a homophilic mechanism. To analyze its function on leukocytes we studied whether L1 could interact with integrins. Here we demonstrate that VLA-5, an RGD-specific fibronectin receptor on a wide variety of cell types, can bind to murine L1. Mouse ESb-MP cells expressing VLA-5 and L1 could be induced to aggregate in the presence of specific mAbs to CD24 (heat-stable antigen), a highly and heterogeneously glycosylated glycophosphatidylinositol-linked differentiation antigen of hematopoietic and neural cells. The aggregation was blocked by both mAbs to L1 and VLA-5, respectively. Aggregation was blocked also by a synthetic RGD-containing peptide derived from the Ig-domain VI of the L1 protein. ESb-MP subclones with low L1 expression could not aggregate. In heterotypic binding assays mouse bone marrow cells could adhere in an L1-dependent fashion to platelets that expressed VLA-5. Also purified L1 coated to polystyrene beads could bind to platelets. The binding of L1-beads was again inhibited by mAbs to L1 and VLA-5, by soluble L1 and the L1-RGD peptide in a dose-dependent manner. Thymocytes or human Nalm-6 tumor cells expressing VLA-5 could adhere to affinity-purified L1 and to the L1- derived RGD-containing peptide coated to glass slides. The adhesion was strongly enhanced in the presence of Mn(2+)-ions and blocked by mAbs to VLA-5. We also demonstrate a direct L1-VLA-5 protein interaction. Our results suggest a novel binding pathway, in which the VLA-5 integrin binds to L1 on adjacent cells. Given its rapid downregulation on lymphocytes after induction of cell proliferation, L1 may be important in integrin-mediated and activation-regulated cell-cell interactions.
Quantized Hall effect in the presence of backscattering.

L'effet quantique de Hall inclut des etats limites «flottant»» dans des directions opposees sur des limites opposees d'un gaz d'electrons a deux dimensions. Dans une ligne etroite, la presence d'une barriere de potentiel peut reflechir en arriere l'etat vers l'etat directement oppose de la limite exterieure de l'echantilon. Des experiences sur de fines lignes de GaAs-Al x Ga 1−x , avec de petites grilles de croisement, confirment que la diffraction retour est due a la barriere faite par la grille. La barriere, en reflechissant une fraction des etats, provoque des plateaux quantifies dans toute mesure a quatre detecteurs de resistance
Characteristic MRI Findings of Spinal Metastases from Various Primary Cancers: Retrospective Study of Pathologically-Confirmed Cases

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to find and categorize the various magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of spinal metastases that correlate with the type of primary cancer. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance images of 30 patients with 169 spinal metastatic lesions from lung cancer (n = 56), breast cancer (n = 29), colorectal cancer (n = 20), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (n = 17), and stomach cancer (n = 47). The size, location, extent of invasion, signal intensity, margin, enhancement pattern, and osteoblastic or osteolytic characteristics of each metastatic tumor were analyzed. Results: The metastatic lesions from HCC were larger than those from the other primary tumors (P < 0.05) except for colorectal cancer (P = 0.268). Well-defined metastatic tumor margins were more frequently seen in lung cancer and breast cancer (P < 0.01). All but HCC showed a tendency to invade the vertebral body rather than the posterior elements (P < 0.02). Colorectal cancer and HCC showed a tendency toward extraosseous invasion without statistical significance. HCC showed a characteristic enhancement pattern of ‘worms-in-a-bag’. Rim enhancement with a sclerotic center was only seen in spinal metastases from stomach cancer.
Isolation, characterization and extracellular enzyme detection of microbial isolates from deteriorated apple ( malus domestica ) fruits

Studies were carried out on deteriorated apples obtained from the Just Rite supermarket, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, to isolate microorganisms associated with post-harvest deterioration of apple ( Malus domestica ) fruits. The bacterial species were identified using microscopy, morphology and various biochemical tests while macroscopy and morphology was used to identify the fungi isolated. The ability of the isolate to elaborate extracellular amylase and protease were tested for. Results revealed Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus as the fungal species while the bacterial species isolated were Bacillus spp and Micrococcus spp. All the isolates except Aspergillus nige r produced amylase in substantial amount. Micrococcus spp , Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus produced protease. The results of this investigation if combined with further studies can be used in identifying organisms which could be used as a biological method in the control of apple pathogens. Keywords: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Bacillus spp, Micrococcus spp, agar.
A unique methodology for at-speed test of cDSP/sup TM/ and ASIC devices

This paper presents a new design to test methodology used to create at-speed system tests for complex integrated circuits. The unique approach discussed in this paper has been termed TADJUST, for Timing ADJUSTment, and offers a solution which enables the creation of robust at speed functional tests. The Tadjust approach provides a method for improving at-speed testability by using multiple dynamic timing references in the design to test flow. The at-speed testability problems, Tadjust concept, and supporting results from a cDSP(TM) design are discussed.
Convex programming for scheduling unrelated parallel machines

We consider the classical problem of scheduling parallel unrelated machines. Each job is to be processed by exactly one machine. Processing job j on machine i requires time pij. The goal is to find a schedule that minimizes the lp norm. Previous work showed a 2-approximation algorithm for the problem with respect to the l∞ norm. For any fixed lp norm the previously known approximation algorithm has a performance of θ(p). We provide a 2-approximation algorithm for any fixed lp norm (p>1). This algorithm uses convex programming relaxation. We also give a √ 2-approximation algorithm for the l2 norm. This algorithm relies on convex quadratic programming relaxation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that general convex programming techniques (apart from SDPs and CQPs) are used in the area of scheduling. We show for any given lp norm a PTAS for any fixed number of machines. We also consider the multidimensional generalization of the problem in which the jobs are d-dimensional. Here the goal is to minimize the lp norm of the generalized load vector, which is a matrix where the rows represent the machines and the columns represent the jobs dimension. For this problem we give a (d+1)-approximation algorithm for any fixed lp norm (p>1).
Proof search when equality is a logical connective : Extended Abstract

We explore how one might do proof search in a simple, firstorder logic where equality is treated as a logical connective. That is, equality over first-order terms has a left and right introduction rule and the formulation of the left-introduction rule involves unification of eigenvariables. The usual strategy for implementing proof search also involves unification, but this time for “existential variables” (not eigenvariables). In this paper, we show such unification over these two species of variables can at times be solved by a reduction to a particular subset of secondorder unification problems that we call the argument-constrained subset. We then show that solving such constrained unification is undecidable. Finally, we show that solvability of a given second-order unification problem can be related to solvability of an argument-constrained version of that unification problem.
Development of battery management system for cell monitoring and protection

Battery has an important role as energy storage in electricity system utilization such as in electric vehicle and in smart microgrid system. Battery Management System (BMS) is needed to treat the dynamics of energy storage process in the battery in order to improve the performance and extend the life time of battery. In this paper, BMS cell monitoring and protection has been designed and tested for Lithium Ferro Phosphate (LFP) battery cells. The BMS cell monitoring function has been able to measure the battery parameters such as the voltage and current dynamics of each cell. The data taken from the BMS cell monitoring experiment is used to estimate the state of charge (SOC) of battery which is based on coulomb counting with coulomb efficiency ratios. The BMS cell monitoring function has successfully demonstrated the presence of unbalanced cell voltages during both processes of charging and discharging as well. From the analysis, the existence of capacity and energy fades was also investigated for every discharging and charging cycles. Based on the BMS cell protection experiment results, overcharged and over discharged protections have successfully been demonstrated for the battery cells. The charging process is disabled when the voltage of the corresponding battery cell exceeds its high limit (HLIM) at 3.65V, and the battery will be available for charging when all of the cell voltages are below their boundary limits (CAVL) at 3.3V. The discharging process will be disabled when the battery cell voltage is lower than the corresponding low limit (LLIM) at 2.5 V. The battery will be available again when all battery cell voltages are above their discharge available (DAVL) voltage at 2.8V. The proposed BMS cell monitoring and protection has shown its function as a data acquisition system, safety protection, ability to determine and predict the state of charge of the battery, and ability to control the battery charging and discharging.
On Performance Analysis of Protective Jamming Schemes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play an important role in Cyber Physical Social Sensing (CPSS) systems. An eavesdropping attack is one of the most serious threats to WSNs since it is a prerequisite for other malicious attacks. In this paper, we propose a novel anti-eavesdropping mechanism by introducing friendly jammers to wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In particular, we establish a theoretical framework to evaluate the eavesdropping risk of WSNs with friendly jammers and that of WSNs without jammers. Our theoretical model takes into account various channel conditions such as the path loss and Rayleigh fading, the placement schemes of jammers and the power controlling schemes of jammers. Extensive results show that using jammers in WSNs can effectively reduce the eavesdropping risk. Besides, our results also show that the appropriate placement of jammers and the proper assignment of emitting power of jammers can not only mitigate the eavesdropping risk but also may have no significant impairment to the legitimate communications.
Protection Against Mobile Tracing Through Motion-MIX for Mobile Wireless Nodes

Mobile wireless networks, such as mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), are vulnerable to passive attacks that threaten the privacy of communications. Moreover, threats can now be launched from mobile platforms and with new techniques for eavesdropping, locating, and fingerprinting wireless transmissions. Recently, many wireless anonymous schemes have been studied, and mobility often plays an important role with regard to the effectiveness of wireless anonymity. In this paper, we focus on the impact of node motion behaviors. We first illustrate the emerging anonymity threat of venue privacy attacks (VPAs) to trace mobile wireless nodes. We then propose ldquomotion-MIXrdquo as the countermeasure to defend against the threat. Motion-MIX calls for protection at all the layers of the protocol stack. We further use a new asymptotic security model to verify motion-MIX's effectiveness against VPAs. In a scalable ad hoc network, we prove that the probability of security breach is negligible with respect to the number of network nodes.
LAPAROSCOPY - PROMISING TOOL FOR IMPROVEMENT OF REPRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY OF SMALL RUMINANTS

Assisted reproductive technologies are used to accelerate genetic gain and improve reproductive performances in farm animals, including small ruminants. This technologies include estrous synchronization, artifi cial insemination (AI) using fresh, frozen or sexed semen, embryo transfer (ET) using in vivo or in vitro produced embryos, and more advanced - cloning and production of transgenic animals. Diagnostic procedures, such as ultrasonography and laparoscopy, have been used as additional tools for monitoring the ovarian response to superovulatory treatment in donor animals as well as for AI and collection and transfer of embryos. The use of laparoscopy for assisted reproduction techniques in Macedonia commenced in the early 90’s, with the acquisition of a set of ,,Karl Storz” equipment. After the adoption of the required routine, our group has completed several scientifi c projects where laparoscopy was used for intrauterine inseminations as well as for recovery and transfer of embryos in both sheep and goats. In the following period our group endeavored into introduction of laparoscopic insemination in the routine farm practice. Ovine intrauterine/intracornual insemination by frozen-thawed semen resulted with pregnancy rates of 45% and 60%, when AI was performed out of season and during the breeding season, respectively. In goats, this percentage occasionally peaked at 85%. The aim of this article is to review the status of implementation of laparoscopy in Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART) of small ruminants and to present our experience in this fi eld.
In-Utero Exposure to Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and Cognitive Development Among Infants and School-aged Children

Background: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) continues to be used for control of infectious diseases in several countries. In-utero exposure to DDT and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) has been associated with developmental and cognitive impairment among children. We examined this association in an historical cohort in which the level of exposure was greater than in previous studies. Methods: The association of in-utero DDT and DDE exposure with infant and child neurodevelopment was examined in 1100 subjects in the Collaborative Perinatal Project, a prospective birth cohort enrolling pregnant women from 12 study centers in the United States from 1959 to 1965. Maternal DDT and DDE concentrations were measured in archived serum specimens. Infant mental and motor development was assessed at age 8 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, and child cognitive development was assessed at age 7 years, using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Results: Although levels of DDT and DDE were relatively high in this population (median DDT concentration, 8.9 &mgr;g/L; DDE, 24.5 &mgr;g/L), neither were related to Mental or Psychomotor Development scores on the Bayley Scales nor to Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient at 7 years of age. Categorical analyses showed no evidence of dose- response for either maternal DDT or DDE, and estimates of the association between continuous measures of exposure and neurodevelopment were indistinguishable from 0. Conclusions: Adverse associations were not observed between maternal serum DDT and DDE concentrations and offspring neurodevelopment at 8 months or 7 years in this cohort.