Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anti-angiogenic agents in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm diagnosed worldwide. In Poland, in 2011, lung cancer was diagnosed in 14,522 men and 6,283 women. Morbidity and mortality are nearly equal, and lung cancer is still the most common cause of cancer-related death among men as well as among women. Approximately 80% of lung cancer cases are non-small-cell lung cancer. The most commonly applied chemotherapy regimens do not produce satisfactory effects. Oncological research is now focused on molecular targeted therapies; immunotherapy is also under evaluation. The formation of abnormal blood vessels has an enormous impact on the development and progression of a tumor. Bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody which binds VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor). A different group of drugs is constituted by small-molecule antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors. These agents represent a different profile of side effects in comparison to chemotherapy. The mode of action, differing from cytotoxic drugs, requires renewed analysis as well as standardization of radiological response assessment criteria.
Preventing smoking during pregnancy: the importance of maternal knowledge of the health hazards and of the treatment options available*

OBJECTIVE: To examine the pattern of tobacco use and knowledge about tobacco-related diseases, as well as to identify popular types of electronic media, in pregnant women, in order to improve strategies for the prevention or cessation of smoking among such women. METHODS: A cross-sectional study involving 61 pregnant women, seen at primary care clinics and at a university hospital, in the city of Botucatu, Brazil. For all subjects, we applied the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. For subjects with a history of smoking, we also applied the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, and we evaluated the level of motivation to quit smoking among the current smokers. RESULTS: Of the 61 pregnant women evaluated, 25 (40.9%) were smokers (mean age, 26.4 ± 7.4 years), 24 (39.3%) were former smokers (26.4 ± 8.3 years), and 12 (19.8%) were never-smokers (25.1 ± 7.2 years). Thirty-nine women (63.9%) reported exposure to passive smoking. Of the 49 smokers/former smokers, 13 (26.5%) were aware of the pulmonary consequences of smoking; only 2 (4.1%) were aware of the cardiovascular risks; 23 (46.9%) believed that smoking does not harm the fetus or newborn infant; 21 (42.9%) drank alcohol during pregnancy; 18 (36.7%) reported increased cigarette consumption when drinking; 25 (51.0%) had smoked flavored cigarettes; and 12 (24.5%) had smoked a narghile. Among the 61 pregnant women evaluated, television was the most widely available and favorite form of electronic media (in 85.2%), as well as being the form most preferred (by 49.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Among pregnant women, active smoking, passive smoking, and alternative forms of tobacco consumption appear to be highly prevalent, and such women seem to possess little knowledge about the consequences of tobacco use. Educational programs that include information about the consequences of all forms of tobacco use, employing new and effective formats tailored to this particular population, should be developed, in order to promote smoking prevention and cessation among pregnant women. Further samples to explore regional and cultural adaptations should be evaluated.
Temporal Logics for Learning and Detection of Anomalous Behavior

The increased complexity of modern systems necessitates automated anomaly detection methods to detect possible anomalous behavior determined by malfunctions or external attacks. We present formal methods for inferring (via supervised learning) and detecting (via unsupervised learning) anomalous behavior. Our procedures use data to construct a signal temporal logic (STL) formula that describes normal system behavior. This logic can be used to formulate properties such as “If the train brakes within 500 m of the platform at a speed of 50 km/hr, then it will stop in at least 30 s and at most 50 s. ” Our procedure infers not only the physical parameters involved in the formula (e.g., 500 m in the example above) but also its logical structure. STL gives a more human-readable representation of behavior than classifiers represented as surfaces in high-dimensional feature spaces. The learned formula enables us to perform early detection by using monitoring techniques and anomaly mitigation by using formal synthesis techniques. We demonstrate the power of our methods with examples of naval surveillance and a train braking system.
A Well-Conditioned Collocation Method Using a Pseudospectral Integration Matrix

In this paper, a well-conditioned collocation method is constructed for solving general $p$th order linear differential equations with various types of boundary conditions. Based on a suitable Birkhoff interpolation, we obtain a new set of polynomial basis functions that results in a collocation scheme with two important features: the condition number of the linear system is independent of the number of collocation points, and the underlying boundary conditions are imposed exactly. Moreover, the new basis leads to an exact inverse of the pseudospectral differentiation matrix of the highest derivative (at interior collocation points), which is therefore called the pseudospectral integration matrix (PSIM). We show that PSIM produces the optimal integration preconditioner and stable collocation solutions with even thousands of points.
Measurement analysis of mobile traffic in enterprise networks

The number of mobile devices and the amount of mobile traffic are increasing rapidly. The users of mobile device use various services such as web surfing, email, video and audio streaming, etc. Analyzing mobile traffic is necessary to provide high quality mobile network services such as QoS management, traffic engineering, etc. In fact, several multi-flow applications consume a lot of mobile network resources. In this paper, we performed measurement analysis to observe not only application-level traffic characteristics, but also device-level traffic characteristics in terms of traffic volume and flow characteristics. We present the relationship between application traffic and its origin device to understand the application traffic generation from the different types of devices.
Pediatric Intraocular Immature Teratoma Associated With Sacrococcygeal Teratoma

Intraocular teratomas are rare neoplasms with only three previously reported cases. We present the fourth case of intraocular teratoma and the second associated with sacrococcygeal teratoma. While the nature of the association between intraocular teratomas and sacrococcygeal teratomas is unclear, it suggests a need for careful ophthalmologic follow-up of infants with congenital sacrococcygeal teratomas.
Long-term safety and efficacy of insulin degludec in the management of type 2 diabetes

Insulin degludec (IDeg) is a novel antiglycemic agent belonging to the therapeutic class of ultra-long duration basal insulin analogs. Its half-life and duration of action are 25 hours and 42 hours, respectively. This pharmacodynamic profile leads to a strict dosing schedule, ie, IDeg is injected at the same time each day to ensure optimal biological action and consistent glycemic control. According to the literature, IDeg provides glycemic control and nocturnal hypoglycemia reduction comparable with other long-acting analogs in type 2 diabetes mellitus. The risk of severe hypoglycemic episodes seems also to be reduced when using IDeg therapy; however, long-term follow-up is warranted for monitoring of possible but relatively infrequent adverse events. IDeg is also available in combination with aspart insulin and with liraglutide. The above preparations have been approved by the European Medicines Agency and other national health authorities. In 2012, the US Food and Drug Administration asked for a complementary study on IDeg-associated cardiovascular risk. Future prospective evaluation of large cohorts of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with IDeg, with long-term follow-up, can provide further relevant information on the safety of IDeg therapy.
The Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study: A Nested Case–Control Study of Lung Cancer and Diesel Exhaust

Background Most studies of the association between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer suggest a modest, but consistent, increased risk. However, to our knowledge, no study to date has had quantitative data on historical diesel exposure coupled with adequate sample size to evaluate the exposure–response relationship between diesel exhaust and lung cancer. Our purpose was to evaluate the relationship between quantitative estimates of exposure to diesel exhaust and lung cancer mortality after adjustment for smoking and other potential confounders. Methods We conducted a nested case–control study in a cohort of 12 315 workers in eight non-metal mining facilities, which included 198 lung cancer deaths and 562 incidence density–sampled control subjects. For each case subject, we selected up to four control subjects, individually matched on mining facility, sex, race/ethnicity, and birth year (within 5 years), from all workers who were alive before the day the case subject died. We estimated diesel exhaust exposure, represented by respirable elemental carbon (REC), by job and year, for each subject, based on an extensive retrospective exposure assessment at each mining facility. We conducted both categorical and continuous regression analyses adjusted for cigarette smoking and other potential confounding variables (eg, history of employment in high-risk occupations for lung cancer and a history of respiratory disease) to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Analyses were both unlagged and lagged to exclude recent exposure such as that occurring in the 15 years directly before the date of death (case subjects)/reference date (control subjects). All statistical tests were two-sided. Results We observed statistically significant increasing trends in lung cancer risk with increasing cumulative REC and average REC intensity. Cumulative REC, lagged 15 years, yielded a statistically significant positive gradient in lung cancer risk overall (P trend = .001); among heavily exposed workers (ie, above the median of the top quartile [REC ≥ 1005 μg/m3-y]), risk was approximately three times greater (OR = 3.20, 95% CI = 1.33 to 7.69) than that among workers in the lowest quartile of exposure. Among never smokers, odd ratios were 1.0, 1.47 (95% CI = 0.29 to 7.50), and 7.30 (95% CI = 1.46 to 36.57) for workers with 15-year lagged cumulative REC tertiles of less than 8, 8 to less than 304, and 304 μg/m3-y or more, respectively. We also observed an interaction between smoking and 15-year lagged cumulative REC (P interaction = .086) such that the effect of each of these exposures was attenuated in the presence of high levels of the other. Conclusion Our findings provide further evidence that diesel exhaust exposure may cause lung cancer in humans and may represent a potential public health burden.
Compiler driven dynamic reconfiguration of architectural variants

Reconfigurable computing systems can change the functionality and structure of their components in order to improve the resource efficiency. Many existing architectures [73, 38] have to be programmed in assembly, or a related compiler does not provide full automation. Usually, a compiler is customized to a specific reconfigurable system developed for a certain application domain. This thesis presents a unified hardware/software approach called CoBRA1, where compilerdriven reconfiguration selects from a fixed set of modes known to the compiler. Such modes are denoted as reconfigurable architectural variants or briefly variants. Each variant relies on matching program analysis and represents optimal machine configurations for certain application domains. Typical optimization goals are a fast execution, small code size, or low power dissipation. The machine can be reconfigured by invoking special instructions between code using different configurations at run-time. A prominent example is to reconfigure between different parallelization paradigms like SIMD or MIMD. Given a program that exhibits both regular and non-regular structures, the compiler can determine the best execution mode by analyzing the parallelism. Reconfiguring the connections between ALUs and register banks at run-time allows to exploit more physical registers than architecturally available. In a multi-core, a processor can use registers of other processors temporarily to avoid spilling or communicate efficiently employing some registers in a shared manner. Using a manageable set of variants leads to an enormous reduction in the design space, compared to fine-grained reconfiguration. The compiler then addresses this finite design space efficiently by applying well-known program analysis techniques. Reconfiguration can be performed with very low effort at run-time by switching fixed, coarse-grained components like instruction decoders, ALUs and register banks. Much complexity like generating machine code and utilizing reconfiguration is hidden from the user in contrast to other reconfigurable approaches [73, 38]. Programming reconfigurable hardware in a sequential High-Level Language (HLL) such as C using a single tool avoids further manual effort and minimizes both time-to-market and error rates. This thesis concentrates on switching between SIMD and MIMD execution and reconfiguring register connections. In both cases, we present original methods to select variants and generate optimized machine code efficiently, or enhance existing approaches known from literature. Furthermore, we propose additional opportunities in reconfiguration, which may be part of future work. Our approach has been evaluated using a multi-core of four-tightly coupled processors, which can be simulated using a synthesized model or a cycle-accurate software simulator. Additionally, such model can be mapped to a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based Compiler-Driven Dynamic Reconfiguration of Architectural Variants (merge two Ds to a B)
PPARβ/δ and PPARγ maintain undifferentiated phenotypes of mouse adult neural precursor cells from the subventricular zone

The subventricular zone (SVZ) is one of the main niches of neural stem cells in the adult mammalian brain. Stem and precursor cells in this region are the source for neurogenesis and oligodendrogesis, mainly in the olfactory bulb and corpus callosum, respectively. The identification of the molecular components regulating the decision of these cells to differentiate or maintain an undifferentiated state is important in order to understand the modulation of neurogenic processes in physiological and pathological conditions. PPARs are a group of transcription factors, activated by lipid ligands, with important functions in cellular differentiation and proliferation in several tissues. In this work, we demonstrate that mouse adult neural precursor cells (NPCs), in situ and in vitro, express PPARβ/δ and PPARγ. Pharmacological activation of both PPARs isoforms induces proliferation and maintenance of the undifferentiated phenotype. Congruently, inhibition of PPARβ/δ and PPARγ results in a decrease of proliferation and loss of the undifferentiated phenotype. Interestingly, PPARγ regulates the level of EGFR in adult NPCs, concurrent with it is function described in embryonic NPCs. Furthermore, we describe for the first time that PPARβ/δ regulates SOX2 level in adult NPCs, probably through a direct transcriptional regulation, as we identified two putative PPAR response elements in the promoter region of Sox2. EGFR and SOX2 are key players in neural stem/precursor cells self-renewal. Finally, rosiglitazone, a PPARγ ligand, increases PPARβ/δ level, suggesting a possible cooperation between these two PPARs in the control of cell fate behavior. Our work contributes to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms associated to neural cell fate decision and places PPARβ/δ and PPARγ as interesting new targets of modulation of mammalian brain homeostasis.
Customer Satisfaction in Virtual Environments: A Study of Online Investing

Many firms are moving to make virtual interfaces their primary, or even sole, points of customer contact. In this environment, some traditional service quality dimensions that determine customer satisfaction, such as the physical appearance of facilities, employees, and equipment, and employees' responsiveness and empathy are unobservable. In contrast, trust may play a central role here in enhancing customer satisfaction. We model trust as an endogenously formed entity that ultimately impacts customer satisfaction, and we elucidate the linkages between trust and other factors related to the performance of the online service provider and to the service environment. The model is validated using two samples--one comprising 225 online investors of a large online broker, and the other comprising 203 members of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). The findings suggest that perceived trustworthiness of an online broker is a significant antecedent to investors' satisfaction, and that perceived environmental security and perceived operational competence impact the formation of trust. The results have important managerial implications.
The RRM domain in GW182 proteins contributes to miRNA-mediated gene silencing

Proteins of the GW182 family interact with Argonaute proteins and are required for miRNA-mediated gene silencing. These proteins contain two structural domains, an ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domain and an RNA recognition motif (RRM), embedded in regions predicted to be unstructured. The structure of the RRM of Drosophila melanogaster GW182 reveals that this domain adopts an RRM fold, with an additional C-terminal α-helix. The helix lies on the β-sheet surface, generally used by these domains to bind RNA. This, together with the absence of aromatic residues in the conserved RNP1 and RNP2 motifs, and the lack of general affinity for RNA, suggests that the GW182 RRM does not bind RNA. The domain may rather engage in protein interactions through an unusual hydrophobic cleft exposed on the opposite face of the β-sheet. We further show that the GW182 RRM is dispensable for P-body localization and for interaction of GW182 with Argonaute-1 and miRNAs. Nevertheless, its deletion impairs the silencing activity of GW182 in a miRNA target-specific manner, indicating that this domain contributes to silencing. The conservation of structural and surface residues suggests that the RRM domain adopts a similar fold with a related function in insect and vertebrate GW182 family members.
Respiratory symptoms and cross-shift lung function in relation to cotton dust and endotoxin exposure in textile workers in Nepal: a cross-sectional study

Objectives Inhalation of a cotton-based particulates has previously been associated with respiratory symptoms and impaired lung function. This study investigates the respiratory health of Nepalese textile workers in relation to dust and endotoxin exposure. Methods A total of 938 individuals from four sectors (garment, carpet, weaving and recycling) of the textile industry in Kathmandu, Nepal completed a health questionnaire and performed spirometry. A subset (n=384) performed cross-shift spirometry. Personal exposure to inhalable dust and airborne endotoxin was measured during a full shift for 114 workers. Results The overall prevalence of persistent cough, persistent phlegm, wheeze ever, breathlessness ever and chest tightness ever was 8.5%, 12.5%, 3.2%, 6.5% and 12.3%, respectively. Symptoms were most common among recyclers and least common among garment workers. Exposure to inhalable dust significantly predicted persistent cough and chest tightness. Exposure to endotoxin did not have any independent predictive effect. Significant cross-shift reduction in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were found (p<0.001 for both) being largest for FEV1 in the recyclers (−143 mL), and least in the garment workers (−38 mL; p=0.012). Exposure to inhalable dust predicted a cross-shift reduction in FEV1. Conclusions This study is the first to investigate the respiratory health of Nepalese cotton workers. The measured association between inhalable dust exposure and reporting of respiratory symptoms and across-shift decrement in FEV1 and FVC indicates that improved dust control measures should be instituted, particularly in the recycling and carpet sectors. The possible role of other biologically active agents of cotton dust beyond endotoxin should be further explored.
Fundamental groups of line arrangements: Enumerative aspects

This is a survey of some recent developments in the study of complements of line arrangements in the complex plane. We investigate the fundamental groups and finite covers of those complements, focusing on homological and enumerative aspects. The unifying framework for this study is the stratification of the character variety of the fundamental group, G, by the jumping loci for cohomology with coefficients in rank 1 local systems. Counting certain torsion points on these "characteristic" varieties yields information about the homology of branched and unbranched covers of the complement, as well as on the number of low-index subgroups of its fundamental group. We conclude with two conjectures, expressing the lower central series quotients of G/G'' (and, in some cases, G itself) in terms of the closely related "resonance" varieties. We illustrate the discussion with a number of detailed examples, some of which reveal new phenomena.
Prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium and other sexually transmitted infections causing urethritis among high-risk heterosexual male patients in Estonia

Abstract Background: We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STI, including Mycoplasma genitalium, Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vaginalis) among high-risk heterosexual male patients and to clarify their potency to cause complaints and inflammation. Methods: The study group included 825 men (18.0–49.5 y) consulting andrologist at Tartu University Hospital (Estonia) due to subjectively perceived risk of STI. Patients completed STI risk behaviour questionnaire. First voided urine was analysed for white blood cells and STIs. Results: In total 193 (23.4%) patients were positive for one or multiple STI. The prevalence of C. trachomatis, M. genitalium, N. gonorrhoeae, T. vaginalis and combined STI was 14.3%, 4.4%, 2.7%, 0.7% and 1.3%, respectively. N. gonorrhoeae had the highest potency to generate inflammatory reaction in first voided urine (100%) followed by C. trachomatis (72.0%), M. genitalium (63.9%) and T. vaginalis (33.3%). N. gonorrhoeae and T. vaginalis caused the highest mean number of complaints while half of T. vaginalis cases and nearly fifth of M. genitalium and C. trachomatis cases were asymptomatic. Conclusions: C. trachomatis has the highest prevalence among Estonian high-risk men but M. genitalium holds an important second place. Prevalence of combined STIs is low. N. gonorrhoeae has the highest potency to generate urethral inflammation followed by C. trachomatis and M. genitalium. The highest number of complaints is also associated with N. gonorrhoeae while half of T. vaginalis cases and nearly a fifth of M. genitalium and C. trachomatis cases are asymptomatic.