Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Irradiation in the Treatment of Chordoma of the Base of Skull and Spine

Chordoma is an uncommon neoplasm of the bone arising from embryonic remnants of the notochord. The overall age-adjusted incidence is about 8 per 10 million, but this figure is dependent on age, sex, and race (Jemal et al., 2007). This tumor typically occurs in the axial skeleton mainly involving the sacrococcygeal region and the base of the skull (Mirra et al., 2002). The natural history of such malignancy is of a slow but progressive growth ultimately translating into a local aggressive behaviour. Overall, five-year survival rates are near 60% to 70%, although 10-year survival drops to 35% to 40% (Dorfman, 1998). The rate of distant metastases (to lung, bone, soft tissue, lymph nodes, liver, and skin) varies in a range between 0% and 40% (Chambers et al., 1979) even though usually late detected with most patients succumbing to their local disease. Based on these considerations the control of primary disease remains the major therapeutic challenge. Given the rarity of this tumor, data on efficacy and safety of the treatments are limited and mainly based on few, small sized, retrospective series. The standard of care is considered surgery, when feasible, with the aim of establishing a definitive diagnosis and obtaining the maximal debulking of the lesion. Surgical outcomes depend on tumor location and size at diagnosis. Considering the large size of most sacral lesions and the proximity to critical healthy structures of skull base and vertebral chordomas, maximal resection usually entails a relevant morbidity with poor functional outcome in a significant proportion of patients. Therefore, even if local control and survival rates strictly depend on the achievement of negative margins, radical surgery can be rarely obtained (Cotler et al., 1983). In such scenario recurrence rates can approach 70%. This situation clearly supports the interest for radiation therapy as an adjuvant modality after residual disease even though the irregular and infiltrative nature of this tumor makes it difficult to be targeted. The role of irradiation either as a postoperative treatment or as a curative measure in inoperable lesions is widely debated. Chordomas have been historically considered radio resistant tumors requiring high doses of radiation (> 60 Gy) to respond best. However, a dose–response relationship has not been clearly reported across all series (Tai et al., 1995) and the doses needed to control the tumor in general exceed the tolerance dose levels of nearby normal structures (Pai, 2001; Slater, 1988). Several irradiation modalities have been proposed (particle therapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, stereotactic irradiation) without a clearly established superiority of one
D-[U-11C]glucose uptake and metabolism in the brain of insulin-dependent diabetic subjects.

We used D-[U-11C]glucose to evaluate transport and metabolism of glucose in the brain in eight nondiabetic and six insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) subjects. IDDM subjects were treated by continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. Blood glucose was regulated by a Biostator-controlled glucose infusion during a constant insulin infusion. D-[U-11C]-glucose was injected for positron emission tomography studies during normoglycemia as well as during moderate hypoglycemia [arterial plasma glucose 2.74 +/- 0.14 in nondiabetic and 2.80 +/- 0.26 mmol/l (means +/- SE) in IDDM subjects]. Levels of free insulin were constant and similar in both groups. The tracer data were analyzed using a three-compartment model with a fixed correction for 11CO2 egression. During normoglycemia the influx rate constant (k1) and blood-brain glucose flux did not differ between the two groups. During hypoglycemia k1 increased significantly and similarly in both groups (from 0.061 +/- 0.007 to 0.090 +/- 0.006 in nondiabetic and from 0.061 +/- 0.006 to 0.093 +/- 0.013 ml.g-1.min-1 in IDDM subjects). During normoglycemia the tracer-calculated metabolism of glucose was higher in the whole brain in the nondiabetic than in the diabetic subjects (22.0 +/- 1.9 vs. 15.6 +/- 1.1 mumol.100 g-1.min-1, P less than 0.01). During hypoglycemia tracer-calculated metabolism was decreased by 40% in nondiabetic subjects and by 28% in diabetic subjects. The results indicate that uptake of glucose is normal, but some aspect of glucose metabolism is abnormal in a group of well-controlled IDDM subjects.
A compound speckle model for vascular complexity quantification in nonlinear contrast-enhanced ultrasonography

A statistical method of contrast-enhanced ultrasound image analysis is introduced that models contrast speckle as a compound distribution of exponential probability density functions. The model, when applied to nonlinear destruction-reperfusion images acquired from a murine breast cancer xenograft model, generates a weighting function that is shown to distinguish between different vascular environments. Plotting the change in this weighting function over the course of microbubble reperfusion yields wash-in curves consistent with the expected mono-exponential kinematics. The proposed statistical method quantifies heterogeneities in contrast speckle from the tumor model and may provide useful new metrics for vascular characterization of tumors.
From Egocentric to Exocentric Spatial Orientation: Development of Posture Control in Bimanual and Trunk Inclination Tasks

The authors investigated the emergence of independent control of body segments in bimanual tasks involving either voluntary or involuntary trunk motion by tracking the transition from an ego- to an exocentric mode of postural control during childhood (i.e., from body-referenced orientation to externally referenced action). A paradigm combining a seated manual task and various trunk manipulations described the coordination strategies used by 24 children at different ages (2 to 9 years) and by adults. The following questions were asked: (a) When do children begin to dissociate upper limb movements from those of the trunk? (b) What segmental strategies are exhibited by each age group (2-3, 4-6, and 7-9 years, and adults)? Kinematic analyses revealed that younger children (2-6 years) used either the trunk or the support surface as reference to orient the limbs. Older children (7-9 years) began to use a gravitational reference frame similar to that of adults; they uncoupled upper limb motion from the trunk in either voluntary or imposed conditions. Young children patterned the forearm trajectory after the initiating segment (support surface or the trunk), thus reducing the degrees of freedom during the dual task. Echoing previous reports, 7-9 years of age appears to be a critical period in which children master postural control and develop an internal representation of body scheme.
The half-life of follicle-stimulating hormone in ovary-intact and ovariectomized booroola and control merino ewes.

To determine whether the high ovulation rate of the Booroola Merino ewe could be explained by FSH metabolism we have tested the proposition that FSH may have a longer half-life in the plasma of Booroola Merino ewes than in control ewes. The half-life of plasma FSH was determined by removal of the pituitary gland, to abolish FSH secretion into the peripheral circulation, and monitoring by repeated blood sampling the subsequent decline in plasma FSH concentrations. The half-life of FSH was similar in Booroola (103 +/- 14 (s.e.m.) min, N = 8) and control (116 +/- 8 min, N = 9) ewes. However, when ewes that had been ovariectomized at least 6 months earlier were hypophysectomized, the half-life of FSH was increased from 110 + 8 min in ovary-intact ewes (N = 11) to 1101 +/- 49 min (N = 6) (P less than 0.001) with no difference between the two Merino strains. We conclude that changes in the circulating half-life of FSH do not account for the high fecundity of the Booroola but that ovariectomy can alter the half-life of FSH secreted by the pituitary gland.
Desempenho de novilhos Purunã x Canchim terminados com diferentes níveis de concentrado

Avaliou-se o desempenho de novilhos terminados em confinamento por 168 dias, alimentados com niveiscrescentes de concentrado na dieta (0,8; 1,1 e 1,4% do PV). Foram utilizados 18 animais meio sanguePuruna x Canchim, com media de idade inicial de 12 meses e media de peso inicial de 278 ± 18 kg. Foi feitaa avaliacao do consumo de materia seca total de silagem e concentrado, consumo de proteina, o ganho depeso medio diario e a conversao alimentar. O delineamento utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado comas medias testadas pelo teste de Tukey a 5% de probabilidade. O consumo de materia seca total aumentoulinearmente (P 0,05) pelo nivel de concentradona dieta. Houve efeito dos tratamentos sobre o ganho de peso medio diario, ganho de peso total e consumode proteina (P<0,01). A suplementacao com concentrado pode aumentar o desempenho em crescimento,porem, nao melhora a eficiencia alimentar.
Development of a New Nordic Diet score and its association with gestational weight gain and fetal growth – a study performed in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa)

Abstract Objective To construct a diet score for assessing degree of adherence to a healthy and environmentally friendly New Nordic Diet (NND) and to investigate its association with adequacy of gestational weight gain and fetal growth in a large prospective birth cohort. Design Main exposure was NND adherence, categorized as low, medium or high adherence. Main outcomes were adequacy of gestational weight gain, described as inadequate, optimal or excessive according to the 2009 Institute of Medicine guidelines, and fetal growth, categorized as being small, appropriate or large for gestational age. Associations of NND adherence with gestational weight gain and fetal growth were estimated with multinomial logistic regression in crude and adjusted models. Setting Norway. Subjects Women (n 66 597) from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Results Higher NND adherence implied higher energy and nutrient intakes, higher nutrient density and a healthier macronutrient distribution. Normal-weight women with high as compared with low NND adherence had lower adjusted odds of excessive gestational weight gain (OR=0·93; 95 % CI 0·87, 0·99; P=0·024). High as compared with low NND adherence was associated with reduced odds of the infant being born small for gestational age (OR=0·92; 95 % CI 0·86, 0·99; P=0·025) and with higher odds of the baby being born large for gestational age (OR=1·07; 95 % CI 1·00, 1·15; P=0·048). Conclusions The NND score captures diet quality. Adherence to a regional diet including a large representation of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, potatoes, fish, game, milk and drinking water during pregnancy may facilitate optimal gestational weight gain in normal-weight women and improve fetal growth in general.
Differential Interaction of the Cyclin-dependent Kinase (Cdk) Inhibitor p27Kip1 with Cyclin A-Cdk2 and Cyclin D2-Cdk4*

Although p27Kip1 has been considered a general inhibitor of G1 and S phase cyclin-dependent kinases, we report that the interaction of p27 with two such kinases, cyclin A-Cdk2 and cyclin D-Cdk4, is different. In Mv1Lu cells containing a p27 inducible system, a 6-fold increase over the basal p27 level completely inhibited Cdk2 and cell cycle progression. In contrast, the same or a larger increase in p27 levels did not inhibit Cdk4 or its homologue Cdk6, despite extensive binding to these kinases. A p27-cyclin A-Cdk2 complex formed in vitro was essentially inactive, whereas a p27-cyclin D2-Cdk4 complex was active as a retinoblastoma kinase and served as a substrate for the Cdk-activating kinase Cak. High concentrations of p27 inhibited cyclin D2-Cdk4, apparently by conversion of active complexes into inactive ones by the binding of additional p27 molecules. In contrast to their differential interaction, cyclin A-Cdk2 and cyclin D2-Cdk4 were similarly inhibited by bound p21Cip1/Waf1. Roles of cyclin A-Cdk2 as a p27 target and cyclin D2-Cdk4 as a p27 reservoir may result from the differential ability of bound p27 to inhibit the kinase subunit in these complexes.
Confrontation vs. belief modification in persistently deluded patients.

Psychiatric patients with persistent systematized delusions in the absence of major behavioural abnormalities have been traditionally regarded as largely inaccessible to verbal modes of treatment. This viewpoint is summarized in a standard textbook of psychiatry (Slater & Roth, 1969): ‘… it is a waste of time to argue with a paranoid patient about his delusions…’. Because of such views, and the related emphasis on a pharmacological approach, there is little to guide the clinician in his verbal dealings with patients in whom systematized delusions are the main feature. In contrast to the traditional view, Watts, Powell & Austin (1973) obtained significant changes in the delusional beliefs of three chronic paranoid schizophrenics after less than six hours of verbal intervention. Their procedure was designed to avoid direction confrontation, since they believed that this would induce ‘psychological reactance’ (Brehm, 1966) and might increase, rather than decrease, the strength of the delusions. They were unable to test this hypothesis. The present study aims to examine the effects of two contrasting types of verbal intervention in a larger sample of persistently deluded patients. It was predicted that (i) both interventions will reduce the strength of delusions and (ii) confrontation will produce less change in delusions and any associated behavioural abnormalities than belief modification.
Haplotypic variation in MRE11, RAD50 and NBS1 and risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

The MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 tri-complex is involved in the cellular response to DNA double strand breaks, detecting DNA damage, activating cell cycle checkpoints and apoptosis. Defects in members of the tri-complex are linked to increased chromosomal instability and in lymphoma predisposition. Using genotyping data from six intronic or gene flanking variants in MRE11, five in NBS1 and six in RAD50 in 461 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cases and 461 age, sex matched controls, Phase 2.1 was used to impute haplotypes for each of these genes. It was observed that the average variant density (12 kb) was dense enough to capture the majority of genetic variation for each locus examined, encoded by four or five common haplotypes. There were no significant differences in allele or genotype frequency, global haplotype distribution between the cases and control, nor effect for individual haplotypes when analysed by unconditional logistic regression for either RAD50 or NBS1. A protective effect against follicular lymphoma was seen for the MRE11 rs601341 variant, the homozygous T allele being associated with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.50, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.26 – 0.97, while a protective effect was seen for the MRE11 haplotype GCTCA (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.53 – 0.97) for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. While reproduction of this data in other datasets is indicated, the results are indicative for a role for MRE11 in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Contextually Evoked Object-Specific Responses in Human Visual Cortex

Human visual recognition processes are remarkably robust and can function effectively even under highly degraded viewing conditions. Contextual information may play a critical role in such circumstances. Here, we provide neurophysiological evidence that contextual cues can elicit object-specific neural responses, which have hitherto been believed to be based on intrinsic cues alone. Specifically, we find that the “fusiform face area” (FFA) maintains its selectivity for faces without regard to whether the faces are defined intrinsically or contextually. This finding further elucidates the role of the FFA and reveals neural correlates of contextual processing in the service of robust object recognition.
Evaluation of Analysis Conditions for Laser-Pulsed Atom Probe Tomography: Example of Cemented Tungsten Carbide

Abstract Cemented tungsten carbide has been analyzed using laser-pulsed atom probe tomography (APT). The influence of experimental parameters, including laser pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, and specimen base temperature, on the acquired data were evaluated from different aspects, such as mass spectrum, chemical composition, noise-to-signal ratio, and multiple events. Within all the applied analysis conditions, only 1 MHz pulse repetition rate led to a strong detector saturation effect, resulting in a largely biased chemical composition. A comparative study of the laser energy settings showed that an ~12 times higher energy was required for the less focused green laser of the LEAPTM 3000X HR system to achieve a similar evaporation field as the finer spot ultraviolet laser of the LEAPTM 5000 XS system.
Inducing Adaptive Coping Self-Statements in Children with Learning Disabilities Through Self-Instruction Training

This study investigated the efficacy of a coping strategy in reducing math anxiety in children with learning disabilities (LD). The coping strategy was based on cognitive behavior modification (CBM). Twenty children from Grades 4 to 7 participated in the study. Half of them were children with LD and the remaining were normally achieving children. The dependent measures were self-talk data and performance data on math (fraction) problems. Pretest data indicated that normally achieving childen produced substantially more positive self-talk than children with learning disabilities. Subsequent to training in the use of the CBM-based coping strategy, children with LD produced a comparable amount of positive self-talk at posttest as found in normally achieving children. Moreover, there was a moderate, positive correlation between increased positive self-talk and math performance among the children with LD. The results clearly indicated that the children with LD had learned to cope with their math anxiety via a CBM-based strategy. More generally, the results of the study suggest that CBM strategies can be effectively applied to the affective domain. This broader implication and the limitations of the study are discussed.
The Role of Subtropical Irreversible PV Mixing in the Zonal Mean Circulation Response to Global Warming–Like Thermal Forcing

AbstractThe atmospheric circulation response to the global warming–like tropical upper tropospheric heating is revisited using a dry atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) in light of new diagnostics based on the concept of finite-amplitude wave activity (FAWA) on equivalent latitude. For a given tropical heating profile, the linear Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) wave refraction analysis sometimes gives a very different and even opposite prediction of the eddy momentum flux response to that of the actual full model simulation, exposing the limitation of the traditional linear approach in understanding the full dynamics of the atmospheric response under global warming. The implementation of the FAWA diagnostics reveals that in response to the upper tropospheric heating, effective diffusivity—a measure of the mixing efficiency—increases and advances upward and poleward in the subtropics and the resultant enhancement and the poleward encroachment of eddy potential vorticity mixing leads to a poleward .
Genome Imprinting and Dominance Modification

Genome imprinting has been the subject of several recent and extensive reviews. ’-’ Because I have only a little to add in the way of new observations, I refer the reader to these reviews for in-depth discussion of the experiments which have come to define the phenomenon. I shall concentrate on those aspects which I believe reveal a necessary association between genome imprinting and dominance modification, as described by R. A. Fisher in 1928. ’ The discussion which follows is designed to support the argument that genome imprinting is responsible, in whole or in part, for the phenomena of incomplete dominance, incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity of a large number of genetic traits.
Ganoderma species associated with basal stem rot disease of oil palm

Problem statement: Basal Stem Rot disease (BSR) is one of the most serious diseases that have been causing major losses in the oil palm industry in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. Several species of Ganoderma have been reported pathogenic to oil palm, however, the diversity and differentiation of the Ganoderma species were not widely studied and the identity of these species are still unclear which may lead to inaccurate and inefficient decision-making in disease management. Approach: In this study, several isolates of Ganoderma were collected in Sarawak, Malaysia and the Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction was carried out to differentiate the isolates into species level. This was followed by morphological studies of basidiocarp of the Ganoderma isolates cultivated via artificial cultivation whereby parameters, such as basidiocarp and spore size, color and physical morphology were recorded. Results: Multiplex PCR could be used to differentiate the Ganoderma isolates, however, optimization had to be done to obtain convincing results. Morphology studies of the Ganoderma isolates showed that spore length could be used to distinguish among the Ganoderma species. Conclusion: Three Ganoderma species viz., G. boninense, G. zonatum and G. miniatocinctum are associated with the basal stem rot disease in Sarawak. Further studies on Ganoderma morphological traits is suggested so that immediate identification method can be developed to give guidance in deciding the most suitable way for control measures without any delay, leading to reduced palm deaths and disease control cost, thus, reducing losses in the oil palm industry.
Research experience and research interests of allied health professionals.

Allied heath professionals are expected to utilize evidence-based practices in their workplaces, and there is an increasing expectation that clinicians will become involved in clinical research. With the aim of establishing the level of interest and experience in clinical research among allied health professionals in Australia, 132 allied health professional in Australia were surveyed to determine their level of interest and their level of experience in clinical research. The Research Spider survey tool was used to examine clinicians' level of research experience and level of research interest across ten core areas. These areas included writing a research proposal, using quantitative methods, publishing research, writing and presenting a research report, analysing and interpreting results, using qualitative research methods, critically reviewing literature, finding relevant literature, generating research ideas and applying for research funding. Overall, allied health professionals rated themselves as having "little research experience. " While clinicians' level of interest in research was significantly greater than their level of research experience, clinicians as a whole only had "some interest" in research. Fifteen percent of the sample were very interested in research. The results of this study have implications for the implementation of education and support programs aimed at providing clinical research opportunities for allied health professionals.