Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survey of experts on therapeutic policies and proposals for the optimal timing for allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in transfusion-dependent patients with myelodysplastic syndrome-refractory anemia

Background Most hypomethylating agent (HMA) responders with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) eventually need allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) because they often acquire resistance to HMAs within two years of treatment. Considering the nature of MDS and the poor outcomes of SCT when performed after confirming the progression of MDS to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), allogeneic SCT should be performed with caution in patients with low-risk MDS. Methods To address low-risk MDS, the Korean AML/MDS working party group designed a survey for 34 MDS experts in Korea on therapeutic HMA and allogeneic SCT policies for low-risk MDS. The level of consensus was defined as the percentage of agreement among the experts. Results With regard to the optimal time for allogeneic SCT for HMA responders with MDS-RA, 76% experts agreed that allogeneic SCT should be performed when a patient has a low platelet count. With regard to the relapse pattern that was most commonly found during HMA treatment in responding patients with MDS-RA, 54% experts agreed that the most common pattern that indicated HMA failure was the gradual worsening of cytopenia. Conclusion The optimal time to perform allogeneic SCT in RA patients who achieved hematologic complete remission during HMA treatment is when the platelet count decreases. However, these suggestions need to be evaluated in larger future studies. Therefore, careful decisions should be taken at each step of allogeneic SCT to maximize the outcomes for patients with MDS-RA and iron overload.
Weldability of Superalloys Hastelloy X by Yb: YAG Laser

Hastelloy X is a commercially available nickel-chromium-molybdenum superalloy with a good oxidation resistance, a good mechanical properties at high temperature and a significant formability; sine qua criteria for the choice of materials for the production of chambers turbojet combustion which is part of this study [1]. Arc welding technique is commonly used for the manufacturing of parts but the aeronautical requirements becoming increasingly severe especially in terms of reproducibility of geometry and metallurgical grade fillet weld. Laser welding is a viable method of assembly to meet these new demands by its automation to replace longer term the manual TIG welding. The high power CO2 laser is extensively used for practical applications such as cutting and welding laser welding. The CO2 laser is very used in the industry with regard to Yb:YAG laser which until now was not rather powerful but this changes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Yb:YAG laser beam parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the laser beam welded superalloys Hastelloy X to define a field of weldability. The implementation of an experimental design approach is required due to the multitude of input parameters and the complexity of the phenomena involved [2-3].
A Change-Point Regression Approach for Efficacy Evaluation of Dietary Supplements

In clinical trials for dietary supplements and functional foods, the study population tends to be a mixture of healthy subjects and those who are not so healthy but are not definitely diseased (called “borderline subjects”). For such heterogeneous populations, the t-test and ANCOVA method often fail to provide the desired treatment efficacy. We propose an alternative approach for the efficacy evaluation of dietary supplements and functional foods based on a change-point linear regression model. The model does not require the assumption of a constant treatment effect and provides clinically interpretable results. By employing the AIC-based profile likelihood method, inferences can be made easily using standard statistical software. The proposed method was applied to the Garcinia study data, and the merit of the method was demonstrated by comparing it with traditional methods.
Social Contacts and Occupational Choice

Social contacts help to find jobs, but not necessarily in the occupations where workers are most productive. Hence social contacts can generate mismatch between workers' occupational choices and their productive advantage. Accordingly, social networks can lead to low labour force quality, low returns to firms' investment and depressed aggregate productivity. We analyse surveys from both the US and Europe including information on job finding through contacts. Consistent with our predictions, contacts reduce unemployment duration by 1–3 months on average, but they are associated with wage discounts of at least 2.5%. We also find some evidence of negative externalities on aggregate productivity.
Effect of Wet and Dry Distillers Grains Plus Solubles and Supplemental Fat Level on Performance of Yearling Finishing Cattle

Two finishing trials were conducted to compare the addition of fat from either wet or dry distillers byproducts (WDGS; DDGS) to that provided from one of two commercially available fat sources (corn oil, Trial 1; tallow, Trial 2). In Trial 1, feed conversion and ADG decreased linearly as level of corn oil increased, while feed conversion and ADG were improved numerically as the level of WDGS increased in the diet. In Trial 2, no differences in performance were observed comparing cattle fed dry distillers grains plus solubles to cattle fed diets containing tallow. WDGS provided 12 and 17% more net energy for gain when fed at 20 and 40% of the diet compared to a dry rolled/high moisture corn mix.
Lymphatic Filariasis: A Method to Identify Subclinical Lower Limb Change in PNG Adolescents

Lymphedema related to lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a disabling condition that commonly manifests in adolescence. Fifty-three adolescents, 25 LF infected and 28 LF non-infected, in age and sex-matched groups, using the Binax ICT rapid card test for filarial antigen were recruited to the study. None of the participants had overt signs of lymphedema. Lymphedema assessment measures were used to assess lower limb tissue compressibility (tonometry), limb circumference (tape measure), intra- and extra-cellular fluid distribution (bioimpedance) and joint range of motion (goniometry). The mean tonometric measurements from the left, right, and dominant posterior thighs were significantly larger in participants with LF compared to participants who had tested negative for LF (p = 0.005, p = 0.004, and p = 0.003, respectively) indicating increased tissue compressibility in those adolescents with LF. ROC curve analysis to define optimal cut-off of the tonometry measurements indicated that at 3.5, sensitivity of this potential screening test is 100% (95%-CI = 86.3%, 100%) and specificity is 21.4% (95%-CI = 8.3%, 41.0%). It is proposed that this cut-off can be used to indicate tissue change characteristic of LF in an at-risk population of PNG adolescents. Further longitudinal research is required to establish if all those with tissue change subsequently develop lymphedema. However, thigh tonometry to identify early tissue change in LF positive adolescents may enable early intervention to minimize progression of lymphedema and prioritization of limited resources to those at greatest risk of developing lifetime morbidity.
Leveraging automatic speech recognition in cochlear implants for improved speech intelligibility under reverberation

Despite recent advancements in digital signal processing technology for cochlear implant (CI) devices, there still remains a significant gap between speech identification performance of CI users in reverberation compared to that in anechoic quiet conditions. Alternatively, automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems have seen significant improvements in recent years resulting in robust speech recognition in a variety of adverse environments, including reverberation. In this study, we exploit advancements seen in ASR technology for alternative formulated solutions to benefit CI users. Specifically, an ASR system is developed using multicondition training on speech data with different reverberation characteristics (e.g., T60 values), resulting in low word error rates (WER) in reverberant conditions. A speech synthesizer is then utilized to generate speech waveforms from the output of the ASR system, from which the synthesized speech is presented to CI listeners. The effectiveness of this hybrid recognition-synthesis CI strategy is evaluated under moderate to highly reverberant conditions (i.e., T60 = 0.3, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0s) using speech material extracted from the TIMIT corpus. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of multi-condition training on performance of the ASR system in reverberation, which consequently results in substantial speech intelligibility gains for CI users in reverberant environments.
MEMORANDUM No 15 / 2002 Do individual programme effects exceed the costs ? Norwegian evidence on long run effects of labour market training

Individual long run effects of a labour market training programme targeted at unemployed adults are evaluated by comparing mean post-training earnings for matched samples of participants and non-participants. Average training effects on the trained are positive and persistent over the posttraining period of 5 years. Participants without recent work experience, prior to the training, gain less. For participants with recent work experience the present value of the 5 years accumulated earnings effect exceeds the direct costs of the training.
The Health Literacy of Parents in the United States: A Nationally Representative Study

OBJECTIVE: To assess the health literacy of US parents and explore the role of health literacy in mediating child health disparities. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed for a nationally representative sample of US parents from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Parent performance on 13 child health-related tasks was assessed by simple weighted analyses. Logistic regression analyses were performed to describe factors associated with low parent health literacy and to explore the relationship between health literacy and self-reported child health insurance status, difficulty understanding over-the-counter medication labeling, and use of food labels. RESULTS: More than 6100 parents made up the sample (representing 72600098 US parents); 28.7% of the parents had below-basic/basic health literacy, 68.4% were unable to enter names and birth dates correctly on a health insurance form, 65.9% were unable to calculate the annual cost of a health insurance policy on the basis of family size, and 46.4% were unable to perform at least 1 of 2 medication-related tasks. Parents with below-basic health literacy were more likely to have a child without health insurance in their household (adjusted odds ratio: 2.4 [95% confidence interval: 1.1–4.9]) compared with parents with proficient health literacy. Parents with below-basic health literacy had 3.4 times the odds (95% confidence interval: 1.6–7.4) of reporting difficulty understanding over-the-counter medication labels. Parent health literacy was associated with nutrition label use in unadjusted analyses but did not retain significance in multivariate analyses. Health literacy accounted for some of the effect of education, racial/ethnic, immigrant-status, linguistic, and income-related disparities. CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of US parents have limited health-literacy skills. Decreasing literacy demands on parents, including simplification of health insurance and other medical forms, as well as medication and food labels, is needed to decrease health care access barriers for children and allow for informed parent decision-making. Addressing low parent health literacy may ameliorate existing child health disparities.
Effect of age, birth cohort and period of death on skin melanoma mortality in Spain, 1975 through 2004

Recent statistics cohort analysis of mortality reveals that skin melanoma rates are dropping in the younger cohorts. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide up‐to‐date information and to analyze recent changes in skin melanoma mortality trends in Spain during the period of 1975–2004 using joinpoint regression and age–period–cohort models. Between 1975 and 2004, the age‐standardized (overall) mortality rates for skin melanoma increased from 0.3 to 1.3 per 100,000 person‐years for males and from 0.2 to 0.8 per 100,000 person‐years for females, with an estimated annual percentage of change of 4.8 and 4.3%, respectively. In men and women, the best fit was found for the full model, which simultaneously considered the effects of age, period and cohort. The risks among both males and females increased in each successive birth cohort born between 1895 and 1950. Thereafter, the risks declined through the most recent birth cohort born in 1970. Examination of the mortality trends by age group and birth cohort revealed that the recent less rapidly rising (men) or stabilizing (women) age‐adjusted skin melanoma mortality rates in Spain were a result of declining mortality in the younger age groups and more recent birth cohorts. The particularly favorable trends in young people suggest that a further decline in mortality from skin melanoma in Spain is likely to occur within the next few years. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Prominent Low-pH Methotrexate Transport Activity in Human Solid Tumors

Whereas the major folate transporter, the reduced folate carrier (RFC), has a physiological pH optimum, transport activities for folates and antifolates have been detected with low pH optima. Because the interstitial pH in solid tumors is generally acidic, the mechanisms by which antifolates are transported at low pH could be an important determinant of drug activity under these conditions. The current study quantitated the low pH methotrexate (MTX) transport activity in human solid tumor cell lines from the National Cancer Institute tumor panel and other sources. MTX influx at pH 5.5 was equal to, or greater than, influx at pH 7.4 in 29 of 32 cell lines. To assess the role of RFC in transport at low pH in one of these cell lines, a HeLa clonal line (R5) was selected for MTX resistance due to a genomic deletion of the carrier gene. MTX influx was depressed by 70% in R5 versus wild-type HeLa cells at pH 7.4. At pH 6.5, influx in these two lines was similar; as the pH was decreased to 5.5 influx increased in both cell lines. Similarly, whereas net MTX uptake over 1 h was markedly decreased in R5 cells at pH 7.4, net uptake in HeLa and R5 cells was comparable at pH 6.5. Also, as compared with MCF7 breast cancer cells, MTX uptake was markedly decreased at pH 7.4, but only minimally at pH 6.5, in the MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell line that lacks RFC expression. When grown with folic acid (2 μm) at pH 7.4, the IC50 for MTX was 14-fold higher in R5 as compared with wild-type HeLa cells; the difference was only 4-fold when cells when grown at pH 6.9; the IC50s were identical at this pH when the medium folate was 25 nm 5-formyltetrahydrofolate. These data demonstrate that transport activity at low pH is prevalent in human solid tumors, is RFC-independent in R5 cells and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, and can preserve MTX activity in the absence of RFC at an acidic pH relevant to solid tumors in vivo.
Real-time optical imaging of experimental brain ischemia and hemorrhage in neonatal piglets

Abstract Our objective was to study the development of experimental brain ischemia and hemorrhage by real-time optical imaging. Optical imaging is based on the ability of near infrared light to non-invasively penetrate through the intact scalp and skull and measure brain concentrations of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin, dominant brain absorbers. Optical imaging was performed in 7 anesthetized, instrumented, and ventilated newborn piglets subjected to the injection of 0.3 cc of saline followed by 2 cc of blood into the left frontal subcortical brain region via a needle inserted through the skull with stereotactic guidance. The image-acquisition rate of 5.26 images per sec allowed for real-time imaging. The detection threshold of the imager at the estimated depth of 1–1.5 cm was ∼, 70 μL for saline and ∼,40 μL for blood. The imager readily detected five subcortical hematomas and two large bilateral subarachnoid hemorrhages. The imager detected a global decrease in brain absorption associated with the volume-injection-related increase in intracranial pressure in the surrounding ipsi- lateral and contralateral brain. Any decrease in brain absorption is an equivalent to brain ischemia. This study demonstrates the capability of optical imaging in detecting brain ischemia and hemorrhage in real-time with high temporal and spatial resolution.
Saliency detection framework via linear neighbourhood propagation

In this study, a novel saliency detection algorithm based on linear neighbourhood propagation is proposed. The proposed algorithm is divided into three steps. First, the authors segment an input image into superpixels which are represented as the nodes in a graph. The weight matrix of the graph, which indicates the similarities between the nodes, is calculated by linear neighbourhood reconstruction. Second, the nodes, which are located at top, bottom, left and right of image boundary, are labelled as boundary priors. Then, based on weight matrix, label propagation is used to propagate the labels to unlabelled nodes. They rank the nodes according to the label information and select the nodes with minor information as saliency priors. Last, based on saliency priors, saliency detection is carried out by label propagation again. The nodes with more information are considered as saliency regions. Experimental results on three benchmark databases demonstrate the proposed method performs well when it is against the state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy and robustness.
lil' UCB : An Optimal Exploration Algorithm for Multi-Armed Bandits

The paper proposes a novel upper confidence bound (UCB) procedure for identifying the arm with the largest mean in a multi-armed bandit game in the fixed confidence setting using a small number of total samples. The procedure cannot be improved in the sense that the number of samples required to identify the best arm is within a constant factor of a lower bound based on the law of the iterated logarithm (LIL). Inspired by the LIL, we construct our confidence bounds to explicitly account for the infinite time horizon of the algorithm. In addition, by using a novel stopping time for the algorithm we avoid a union bound over the arms that has been observed in other UCB-type algorithms. We prove that the algorithm is optimal up to constants and also show through simulations that it provides superior performance with respect to the state-of-the-art.
Diagnostic efficacy of coronary calcium score in the assessment of significant coronary artery stenosis.

BACKGROUND Coronary artery calcium score (CCS) is a quantitative assessment of calcifications detectable by multidetector computed tomography (MDCT). AIM To evaluate diagnostic accuracy of CCS to detect significant stenosis in coronary arteries in symptomatic patients. METHODS The study population included consecutive symptomatic patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) who were referred for coronary angiography. The group included 158 patients (64.6% males) who were all evaluated by unenhanced 64-slice computed tomography where calcium was quantified according to the Agatston method. The ROC curves were constructed to evaluate the discriminating power of the total CCS and CCS for each individual coronary artery in predicting the presence of significant stenosis. RESULTS The prevalence of significant CAD strongly increased with higher CCS. The area under the curve (AUC) for total CCS for diagnosing significant stenosis (> or = 50%) in at least one coronary artery was 0.83 (95% CI 0.74-0.92). Using the cut-off value of CCS > or = 7.7 at least one significant coronary stenosis was detected with the sensitivity and specificity of 86% and 71%, respectively. Significant coronary artery stenosis was better predicted by measuring CCS for individual coronary arteries than total CCS. The AUC of CCS for significant stenosis of each coronary artery was 0.80 for the right coronary artery (RCA), 0.72 for the left main (LM), 0.73 for the left anterior descending (LAD) and 0.76 for the left circumflex arteries (LCX). The optimal cut-off point was estimated for CCS of each coronary artery. It was set at > or = 3.1 for RCA, > or = 7.7 for LM, > or = 9.5 for LAD and > or = 4.5 for LCX. Positive and negative predictive values for an intact artery using a CCS of zero were 92.8% and 83.8%, respectively. Diagnostic performance of CCS for predicting stenosis of LM and LCX arteries was better in patients over age 65 than in younger patients. CONCLUSIONS Coronary artery calcium score is useful in predicting coronary artery stenosis, especially in subjects in whom invasive diagnostic or therapeutic utilities seem to be used untimely. The current study suggests an optimal cut-off value of total CCS > or = 7.7 for detecting significant stenosis, and underlines the better predictive value for CCS of individual arteries.
Aiding Modular Design and Verification of Safety-Critical Time-Triggered Systems by Use of Executable Formal Specifications

Designing safety-critical systems is a complex process, and especially when the design is carried out at different levels of abstraction where the correctness of the design at one level is not automatically sustained over the next level. In this work we focus on time-triggered (TT) systems where the resources of communication and computation are shared among different applications to reduce the overall cost of the system. This entails serializing both communication and computation which does not necessarily meet the assumptions made by the application. Hence, we present the concept of executable formal specification of general TT systems to establish a faithful model of the TT characteristics. Our focus is on general applications running in a synchronous environment. The proposed model can be easily customized by the user and it is able to support simulation and verification of the system. It also aids the effective deployment of applications, and the validation of the real system with model-based test generation. Our case study shows how the general model can be implemented in the SAL language and how SAL's tool suite can be used to guidethe design of general TT systems.
The birefringence of nitrocellulose fibers and pastes

The optical path difference of nitrocellulose fibers and pastes were measured on the polarizing microscope using three different compensation techniques, and a method is suggested for converting these path differences into birefringencies. By taking measurements on a sufficiently large number of fibers it is possible to estimate the average nitrogen content with an accuracy approaching that achieved by other methods on much larger samples. The distribution of nitrogen between individual fibers shows that material prepared by the displacement process differs from that made by the mechanical process and indicates that denitration occurs during displacement process manufacture. Solvents and plasticizers either increase or decrease the birefringence, and the structure of nitrocellulose pastes is discussed.