Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Body Mass Index at Diagnosis and Breast Cancer Survival Prognosis in Clinical Trial Populations from NRG Oncology/NSABP B-30, B-31, B-34, and B-38

Background: Body mass index (BMI) has been associated with breast cancer outcomes. However, few studies used clinical trial settings where treatments and outcomes are consistently evaluated and documented. There are also limited data assessing how patient/disease characteristics and treatment may alter the BMI–breast cancer association. Methods: We evaluated 15,538 breast cancer participants from four NSABP protocols. B-34 studied early-stage breast cancer patients (N = 3,311); B-30 and B-38 included node-positive breast cancer patients (N = 5,265 and 4,860); and B-31 studied node-positive and HER2-positive breast cancer patients (N = 2,102). We used Cox proportional hazards regression to calculate adjusted hazards ratios (HR) for risk of death and recurrence, and conducted separate analyses by estrogen receptor (ER) status and treatment group. Results: In B-30, increased BMI was significantly related to survival. Compared with BMI < 25, HRs were 1.04 for BMI 25 to 29.9 and 1.18 for BMI ≥ 30 (P = 0.02). Separate analyses indicated the significant relationship was only in ER-positive disease (P = 0.002) and the subgroup treated with doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide (P = 0.005). There were no significant trends across BMI for the other three trials. Similar results were found for recurrence. Increased BMI was significantly related to recurrence in B-30 (P = 0.03); and the significant relationship was only in ER-positive breast cancers (P = 0.001). Recurrence was also significant among ER-positive disease in B-38 (P = 0.03). Conclusions: In our investigation, we did not find a consistent relationship between BMI at diagnosis and breast cancer recurrence or death. Impact: This work demonstrates that the heterogeneity of breast cancer between different breast cancer populations and the different therapies used to treat them may modify any association that exists between BMI and breast cancer outcome. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 25(1); 51–59. ©2015 AACR.
Medical adverse events in elderly hospitalized patients: A prospective study

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of medical adverse events in elderly patients admitted to an acute care geriatric unit, the predictive factors of occurrence, and the correlation between adverse events and hospital mortality rates. METHODS: This prospective study included 171 admissions of patients aged 60 years and older in the acute care geriatric unit in a teaching hospital in Brazil between 2007 and 2008. The following variables were assessed at admission: the patient age, gender, number of prescription drugs, geriatric syndromes (e.g., immobility, postural instability, dementia, depression, delirium, and incontinence), comorbidities, functional status (evaluated with the Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living), and severity of illness (evaluated with the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II). The incidence of delirium, infection, mortality, and the prescription of potentially inappropriate medications (based on the Beers criteria) were assessed during hospitalization. An observer who was uninvolved in patient care reported the adverse events. RESULTS: The mean age of the sample was 78.12 years. A total of 187 medical adverse events occurred in 94 admissions (55%). The predictors of medical adverse events were undetermined. Compared with the patients with no adverse events, the patients with medical adverse events had a significantly longer hospital stay (21.41±15.08 days versus 10.91±7.21 days) and a higher mortality rate (39 deaths [41.5%] versus 17 deaths [22.1%]). Mortality was significantly predicted by the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II score (odds ratio [OR] = 1.13, confidence interval [CI] 95%, 1.07 to 1.20), the Katz score (OR = 1.47, CI 95%, 1.18 to 1.83), and medical adverse events (OR = 3.59, CI 95%, 1.55 to 8.30). CONCLUSION: Medical adverse events should be monitored in every elderly hospitalized patient because there is no risk profile for susceptible patients, and the consequences of adverse events are serious, sometimes leading to longer hospital stays or even death.
The evidence for the use of growth factors and active skin substitutes for the treatment of non-infected diabetic foot ulcers (DFU): a health technology assessment (HTA).

AIMS Assessment of the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of growth factors alone or in combination with other technologies in the treatment of DFU including medical, economical, social, ethical and juridical aspects. METHODS We systematically searched relevant data bases limited to English and German language and publications since 1990. Review and assessment of the quality of publications followed methods conforming to widely accepted standards for evidence-based medicine and health economics. RESULTS We identified 25 studies comparing becaplermin, rhEGF, bFGF and the metabolically active skin grafts Dermagraft and Apligraf with standard wound care (SWC) alone or extracellular wound matrix. Study duration ranged from 12 to 20 weeks and the study population comprised between 17 and 382 patients. Treatment with becaplermin, rhEGF, Dermagraft and Apligraf resulted in a higher incidence of complete wound closure and shorter time to complete wound healing with statistically significant differences. Regarding the proportion of adverse events there was no difference between treatment groups. The methodological quality of the studies was affected by significant deficiencies. Economic evaluations showed becaplermin being cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS Add-on therapy with growth factors and active skin substitutes for treating uncomplicated DFU could be an alternative to SWC alone. For explicit recommendations further studies with stronger evidence are necessary.
Efficient verification of shortest path search via authenticated hints

Shortest path search in transportation networks is unarguably one of the most important online search services nowadays (e.g., Google Maps, MapQuest, etc), with applications spanning logistics, spatial optimization, or everyday driving decisions. Often times, the owner of the road network data (e.g., a transport authority) provides its database to third-party query services, which are responsible for answering shortest path queries posed by their clients. The issue arising here is that a query service might be returning sub-optimal paths either purposely (in order to serve its own purposes like computational savings or commercial reasons) or because it has been compromised by Internet attackers who falsify the results. Therefore, for the above applications to succeed, it is essential that each reported path is accompanied by a proof, which allows clients to verify the path's correctness. This is the first study on shortest path verification in outsourced network databases. We propose the concept of authenticated hints, which is used to reduce the size of the proofs. We develop several authentication techniques and quantify their tradeoffs with respect to offline construction cost and proof size. Experiments on real road networks demonstrate that our solutions are indeed efficient and lead to compact query proofs.
On the Spectral Correlation of UWB Impulse Radio Signals

Cyclostationarity is an inherent characteristic of many communication signals, which can be exploited for performing various signal processing tasks. Determining the cyclic statistics of a signal of interest is often necessary in the design of signal processing systems exploiting this cyclostationary behaviour. This work investigates the second order cyclic statistics of various signalling schemes employed in ultra wideband impulse radio systems. Analytical expressions are derived for the cyclic autocorrelation and spectral correlation density functions.
Breakdown of Will and the Value of Information

It is commonly observed that people refuse to obtain more detailed information about their health status, e.g. by not taking genetic tests, even if this information is costless and only disclosed to the individual. This observation is in contrast to the predictions of expected utility theory. We present a model that accounts for this phenomenon by using time-inconsistent preferences. It is shown that if people devise strategies against their inconsistency, which in line with the literature will be called will, then information about a serious illness might lead to a breakdown of will. In those cases information might have a negative value. We derive some comparative statistics results and provide empirical evidence.
Cellulitis: Analysis of 101 Cases and Review of the Literature

A retrospective study of 101 patients with cellulitis of the head and neck and extremities showed that cellulitis, predominantly a disease of males, occurred at all ages; the lower extremities were affected more frequently in the elderly, whereas upper extremity involvement prevailed in young adults. A clinical prodrome, most often including chills, was less common than is widely believed. Redness, heat, swelling, and tenderness were consistently present, and lymphangitis and lymphadenitis were less frequent. Fever was generally mild, and WBC counts were modestly elevated, if at all. Because needle aspirates and blood cultures were rarely helpful, delineation of specific cause was difficult. Therapy included rest, elevation, moist heat, analgesia, antibiotics (usually penicillinase-resistant penicillin or penicillin itself), and incision and drainage when indicated. Most patients improved rapidly. Prolonged course and complications were unusual and there were no deaths.
Accumulation of Astaxanthin by a New Haematococcus pluvialis Strain BM1 from the White Sea Coastal Rocks (Russia)

We report on a novel arctic strain BM1 of a carotenogenic chlorophyte from a coastal habitat with harsh environmental conditions (wide variations in solar irradiance, temperature, salinity and nutrient availability) identified as Haematococcus pluvialis Flotow. Increased (25‰) salinity exerted no adverse effect on the growth of the green BM1 cells. Under stressful conditions (high light, nitrogen and phosphorus deprivation), green vegetative cells of H. pluvialis BM1 grown in BG11 medium formed non-motile palmelloid cells and, eventually, hematocysts capable of a massive accumulation of the keto-carotenoid astaxanthin with a high nutraceutical and therapeutic potential. Routinely, astaxanthin was accumulated at the level of 4% of the cell dry weight (DW), reaching, under prolonged stress, 5.5% DW. Astaxanthin was predominantly accumulated in the form of mono- and diesters of fatty acids from C16 and C18 families. The palmelloids and hematocysts were characterized by the formation of red-colored cytoplasmic lipid droplets, increasingly large in size and number. The lipid droplets tended to merge and occupied almost the entire volume of the cell at the advanced stages of stress-induced carotenogenesis. The potential application of the new strain for the production of astaxanthin is discussed in comparison with the H. pluvialis strains currently employed in microalgal biotechnology.
The role of LPA1 in formation of synapses among cultured hippocampal neurons

We studied the lysophosphatidic acid receptor‐1 (LPA1) gene, which we found to be expressed endogenously in cultured hippocampal neurons, and in vivo in young (1‐week‐old) rat brain slices. Overexpressed green fluorescent protein (GFP)‐tagged, membrane‐associated LPA1 accumulated in a punctate manner over the entire dendritic tree and caused an increase in dendritic spine density. About half of the dendritic spines in the LPA1‐transfected neurons displayed distinct fluorescent puncta, and this subset of spines was also substantially larger than puncta‐free, LPA1‐transfected or control GFP spines. This phenotype could also be seen in cells transfected with a ligand‐binding, defective mutant and is therefore not dependent on interaction with an ambient ligand. While spontaneous miniature excitatory synaptic currents were of the same amplitudes, they decayed slower in LPA1‐transfected neurons compared with GFP controls. We propose that LPA1 may play a role in the formation and modulation of the dendritic spine synapse.
Emotional Labor: Putting the Service in Public Service

List of Tables and Figures Foreword, Steven Maynard-Moody Acknowledgments 1. Emotional Labor and Public Service 2. The Disconnect Between Public Administration Theory and Practice 3. Governance, Demanding Publics, and Citizen Satisfaction 4. I'll Know It When I See It: Emotional Labor, Verbal Judo, and Artful Affect 5. Burnout versus Making a Difference: The Costs and Benefits of Emotion Work 6. Do Human Resource Practices Recognize Emotional Labor? 7. Pay Inequity as the Penalty of Emotion Work 8. Emotion Work Present and Future: Trends in Relational Occupations 9. Implications for Theory, Research, and Practice Appendix A. GNM Emotional Labor Questionnaire Appendix B. Research Design Appendix C. Variables for Regression Analysis Appendix D. Emotional Labor Scales Appendix E. Description of Job Occupants Appendix F. Factors Used in Analysis Bibliography About the Authors Index.
Perceived Causality as a Cue to Temporal Distance

The three experiments reported show that judgments of elapsed time between events depend on perceived causal relations between the events. Participants judged pairs of causally related events to occur closer together in time than pairs of causally unrelated events that were separated by the same actual time interval. The causality-time relationship was first demonstrated for time judgments about historical events. Causally related events were judged to be significantly closer together in time than causally unrelated events. In two subsequent experiments, perceived causality was manipulated by providing expert information and by asking the participants themselves to imagine causal relationships between the to-be-judged events. Again, substantial and reliable effects of perceived causality were obtained. Our results suggest that people use strength of perceived causality as a cue to infer temporal distance.
Preventive Treatment of Migraine

Migraine is a prevalent and disabling episodic brain state with protean symptoms dominated by headache. When migraine attacks are frequent or severe over a sustained period, use of daily preventive medications are indicated to significantly reduce disability and improve quality of life. Recently issued evidence‐based guidelines outline an array of pharmaceutical and complementary treatment choices with data establishing them as effective or probably effective for prevention of episodic or menstrually associated migraine. OnabotulinutoxinA is the only Food and Drug Administration‐approved medication for the prevention of chronic migraine.
Nrf 2 is essential for timely M phase entry of replicating hepatocytes during liver regeneration

Yuhong Zou,* Min Hu,* Joonyong Lee, Shashank Manohar Nambiar, Veronica Garcia, Qi Bao, Jefferson Y. Chan, and Guoli Dai Department of Biology, School of Science, Center for Regenerative Biology and Medicine, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana; Department of Pathology, Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China; and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, California
Accurate Registration Using Adaptive Block Processing for Multispectral Images

Image registration is a challenging task, with applications in surveillance, motion estimation, and fusion systems. Due to the diversity of sensors, local distortions and large image size, satellite images are often difficult to accurately register. In the literature, local descriptor-based processing techniques, such as scale-invariant feature transforms (SIAdaptive Block ProcessingFTs), have been applied to register satellite images, which provide robust features. However, these techniques suffer from a high-computational cost, lack of features, and low-distribution quality, which affect the registration accuracy. In this paper, we develop an algorithm to register satellite images based on adaptive block processing to increase the number of features and to improve the distribution quality. In addition, outlier removal using statistical masks are associated with classical random sample consensus (RANSAC); a subsequent comparative analysis demonstrates the accuracy of the proposed method. Typically, a classical SIFT prevents its wide application in recent remote sensing, although this is no longer the case with the proposed adaptive block processing method.
A c-Src Inhibitor Peptide Based on Connexin43 Exerts Neuroprotective Effects through the Inhibition of Glial Hemichannel Activity

The non-receptor tyrosine kinase c-Src is an important mediator in several signaling pathways related to neuroinflammation. Our previous study showed that cortical injection of kainic acid (KA) promoted a transient increase in c-Src activity in reactive astrocytes surrounding the neuronal lesion. As a cell-penetrating peptide based on connexin43 (Cx43), specifically TAT-Cx43266–283, inhibits Src activity, we investigated the effect of TAT-Cx43266–283 on neuronal death promoted by cortical KA injections in adult mice. As expected, KA promoted neuronal death, estimated by the reduction in NeuN-positive cells and reactive gliosis, characterized by the increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression. Interestingly, TAT-Cx43266–283 injected with KA diminished neuronal death and reactive gliosis compared to KA or KA+TAT injections. In order to gain insight into the neuroprotective mechanism, we used in vitro models. In primary cultured neurons, TAT-Cx43266–283 did not prevent neuronal death promoted by KA, but when neurons were grown on top of astrocytes, TAT-Cx43266–283 prevented neuronal death promoted by KA. These observations demonstrate the participation of astrocytes in the neuroprotective effect of TAT-Cx43266–283. Furthermore, the neuroprotective effect was also present in non-contact co-cultures, suggesting the contribution of soluble factors released by astrocytes. As glial hemichannel activity is associated with the release of several factors, such as ATP and glutamate, that cause neuronal death, we explored the participation of these channels on the neuroprotective effect of TAT-Cx43266–283. Our results confirmed that inhibitors of ATP and NMDA receptors prevented neuronal death in co-cultures treated with KA, suggesting the participation of astrocyte hemichannels in neurotoxicity. Furthermore, TAT-Cx43266–283 reduced hemichannel activity promoted by KA in neuron-astrocyte co-cultures as assessed by ethidium bromide (EtBr) uptake assay. In fact, TAT-Cx43266–283 and dasatinib, a potent c-Src inhibitor, strongly reduced the activation of astrocyte hemichannels. In conclusion, our results suggest that TAT-Cx43266–283 exerts a neuroprotective effect through the reduction of hemichannel activity likely mediated by c-Src in astrocytes. These data unveil a new role of c-Src in the regulation of Cx43-hemichannel activity that could be part of the mechanism by which astroglial c-Src participates in neuroinflammation.
Two Novel Equations to Estimate Kidney Function in Persons Aged 70 Years or Older

BACKGROUND In older adults, current equations to estimate glomerular filtration rate (GFR) are not validated and may misclassify elderly persons in terms of their stage of chronic kidney disease. OBJECTIVE To derive the Berlin Initiative Study (BIS) equation, a novel estimator of GFR in elderly participants. DESIGN Cross-sectional. Data were split for analysis into 2 sets for equation development and internal validation. SETTING Random community-based population of a large insurance company. PARTICIPANTS 610 participants aged 70 years or older (mean age, 78.5 years). INTERVENTION Iohexol plasma clearance measurement as gold standard. MEASUREMENTS GFR, measured as the plasma clearance of the endogenous marker iohexol, to compare performance of existing equations of estimated GFR with measured GFR of the gold standard; estimation of measured GFR from standardized creatinine and cystatin C levels, sex, and age in the learning sample; and comparison of the BIS equations (BIS1: creatinine-based; BIS2: creatinine- and cystatin C-based) with other estimating equations and determination of bias, precision, and accuracy in the validation sample. RESULTS The new BIS2 equation yielded the smallest bias followed by the creatinine-based BIS1 and Cockcroft-Gault equations. All other equations considerably overestimated GFR. The BIS equations confirmed a high prevalence of persons older than 70 years with a GFR less than 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2 (BIS1, 50.4%; BIS2, 47.4%; measured GFR, 47.9%). The total misclassification rate for this criterion was smallest for the BIS2 equation (11.6%), followed by the cystatin C equation 2 (15.1%) proposed by the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration. Among the creatinine-based equations, BIS1 had the smallest misclassification rate (17.2%), followed by the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation (20.4%). LIMITATION There was no validation by an external data set. CONCLUSION The BIS2 equation should be used to estimate GFR in persons aged 70 years or older with normal or mild to moderately reduced kidney function. If cystatin C is not available, the BIS1 equation is an acceptable alternative. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE Kuratorium für Dialyse und Nierentransplatation (KfH) Foundation of Preventive Medicine.
The Interaction of Smoking and Stress on Cardiovascular Reactivity as Influenced by Hostility, Anger, and Anxiety

This study examined how smoking and stress interact to affect the reactivity of the cardiovascular system. Findings revealed that subjects who smoked first and who were then exposed to stress showed less cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress compared to non-smoking subjects exposed only to stress. However, the combination of smoking and stress led to higher absolute levels and greater reactivity for all cardiovascular measures compared to stress alone. The ability for trait hostility, state angry affect and state anxious-affect to predict CVR to smoking and stress was also examined. State anxious-affect was the only affectrelated variable that predicted CVR across experimental phases for both smokers and non-smokers. None of the affect-related variables were able to predict CVR during smoking. Trait hostility and state anxious-affect predicted CVR to stress for smokers and non-smokers. Trait hostility was negatively associated with CVR to stress, while state anxious-affect was positively associated with CVR to stress. State angry affect did not predict CVR to stress after accounting for the effects due to trait hostility.
What Do Healthcare Providers Advise Women with Multiple Sclerosis Regarding Pregnancy?

Pregnancy in multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered safe for both the woman and the child. Nevertheless, pregnancy issues in MS are complex both from a patient's and a provider's perspective. In an anonymous survey, 28 healthcare providers in the United States reported on the management of multiple sclerosis (MS) during pregnancy. Participants were asked about their recommendations to patients about the use of disease modifying therapies during pregnancy and breastfeeding and general recommendations about MS and pregnancy. Healthcare providers were also asked about sources from which they receive information about the management of patients with MS. Results suggested that healthcare providers do not discourage pregnancy for women with MS, recommend that women not use disease modifying therapies while pregnant, and have a positive view of breastfeeding for women with MS. Results also indicated the need for guidelines on patient management for pregnant women with MS.