Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Long-term Physical Health and Healthcare Utilization of Women Who Were Sexually Abused as Children

This article addresses the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and the long-term physical health and healthcare utilization of 148 female participants in an eight-year prospective study. Five factors of physical health emerged: General Health; Vegetative Health Symptoms; Colds and Flu; Gastrointestinal/Gynecological; and Healthcare Utilization. Abused females scored higher on the healthcare utilization and gastrointestinal/gynecological factors than comparison females. Abused females experiencing multiple perpetrators, violence, longer duration and older age at onset endorsed significantly more gastrointestinal/gynecological problems than did the other abused females and the comparison group. Findings suggest that: (1) sexual abuse affects long-term health outcomes and healthcare utilization; and (2) physical health sequelae of abuse may differentially affect females, depending upon the pattern of abuse characteristics.
Comments on Cutaneous Lymphomas: Since the WHO-2008 Classification to Present

Abstract: The last classification of lymphomas of the World Health Organization in 2008 made a few changes from the preceding classification. Although useful, at the same time, it has posed new questions, concerns, and dilemmas which have been raised in the literature. The current report highlights some of these controversies, of each of these primary cutaneous entities, going through cutaneous mature T-cell and NK-cell neoplasms, mature B-cell neoplasms, precursor neoplasms, and other entities, which for several reasons do not fit in the previous categories. It also reviews some advances on many of these lymphomas published in the last 2 years.
Reproducibility and prognostic variability of grade and lamina propria invasion in stages Ta, T1 urothelial carcinoma of the bladder.

PURPOSE We assessed the reproducibility and prognostic variability of grade and lamina propria invasion in stages Ta, T1 urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 130 consecutive stages Ta, T1 urothelial carcinomas routinely diagnosed by 15 pathologists (original diagnosis) were reviewed by 3 independent experienced pathologists using 1999 WHO criteria (diagnoses 1 to 3 and reviewer consensus diagnosis). Interreviewer disagreement cases were blindly reviewed again. Each remaining disagreement case was discussed in a multihead microscope session to attempt to solve remaining disagreements. In cases of continuing disagreement the majority diagnosis on stage and grade was considered the consensus diagnosis. Stage progression at followup was the dependent variable. Stage progression-free Kaplan-Meier survival curves and hazard ratios of each stage and grade diagnosis were calculated and prognostic variability was determined. RESULTS There was complete interobserver agreement on stage and grade among reviewers in 80% and 59% of cases, while it was 87.7% and 75.4%, respectively, after the second review. More than 1 grade difference occurred in 1.5% of cases (0% after the second review). The consensus and original diagnoses agreed on stage and grade in 68.5% and 62.3% of cases, respectively. Assignment of individual cases to 1 category of the 1999 WHO classification per reviewer varied considerably. The incidence of cases classified as stage T1 grade 3 by the reviewers was between 12.3% and 18.9% (average 14.1%). Consensus diagnosis grade had the strongest prognostic value (HR 68.8, range 8.9 to 528.0). Of the 63 original diagnoses of stage T1 tumors the consensus diagnosis down staged 35 (55.6%) to Ta and up staged 8 (12.7%) to T2-3. Progression was more common in the 20 consensus diagnosis stage T1 cases (5 or 25%) than in the 55 original diagnosis stage T1 cases (11 or 20%). Original diagnosis stage T1 tumors that were down staged by the consensus diagnosis showed less progression than consensus diagnosis confirmed stage T1 tumors (17% versus 25%). The prognostically worst subgroup (T1 grade 3) also showed considerable prognostic variation among reviewers (28% to 76% at 5 years of followup), in that the consensus diagnosis again had the highest prognostic significance (HR 3.5, range 1.2 to 10.2). At the end of the study all pathologists expressed that they were regularly uncertain about stage and grade assessment in an individual case in a considerable percent of all cases. CONCLUSIONS Observer prognostic variability in staging and grading is considerable with potentially strong implications for patients. Interobserver variation did not decrease using the new 1999 WHO grading classification.
Service Expansion of Product Firms in the Information Technology Industry: An Empirical Study

The provision of services has become an increasingly important component of the economy of industrialized countries and the revenue stream for many traditional product companies. This is especially true for companies that offer information technology (IT) products. This paper examines factors that are associated with the extent to which IT product companies are able to develop service revenue, which we refer to as service expansion of IT product companies. We identify the characteristics of the product portfolio—specifically, the composition and scope of firm offerings among hardware, application software, and infrastructure software—as key to successful service expansion. We also propose that this relationship is moderated by prior performance of the product business and industry characteristics such as concentration and maturity. Data from IT product vendors spanning five years are used to test the proposed relationships. Overall, this research provides a theoretical foundation for understanding service expansion and diversification in the IT industry as well as practical guidance for IT product companies considering expansion to services.
Automated prescription of oblique brain 3D magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging

Two major difficulties encountered in implementing Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) in a clinical setting are limited coverage and difficulty in prescription. The goal of this project was to automate completely the process of 3D PRESS MRSI prescription, including placement of the selection box, saturation bands and shim volume, while maximizing the coverage of the brain. The automated prescription technique included acquisition of an anatomical MRI image, optimization of the oblique selection box parameters, optimization of the placement of outer‐volume suppression saturation bands, and loading of the calculated parameters into a customized 3D MRSI pulse sequence. To validate the technique and compare its performance with existing protocols, 3D MRSI data were acquired from six exams from three healthy volunteers. To assess the performance of the automated 3D MRSI prescription for patients with brain tumors, the data were collected from 16 exams from 8 subjects with gliomas. This technique demonstrated robust coverage of the tumor, high consistency of prescription and very good data quality within the T2 lesion. Magn Reson Med 69:920–930, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
AACAP 2002 research forum: placebo and alternatives to placebo in randomized controlled trials in pediatric psychopharmacology.

OBJECTIVE The use of placebo in the pediatric age group has come under increasing scrutiny. At the 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Academy's Workgroup on Research conducted a research forum. The purpose was to identify challenges and their solutions regarding the use of placebo in randomized controlled trials in pediatric psychopharmacology. METHOD Workgroups focused on problems and solutions in five areas: ethics and human subjects, research design and statistics, partnering with consumers, U.S. Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical industry perspectives, and psychosocial treatments. RESULTS In many but not all circumstances, inclusion of a placebo control is essential to meet the scientific goals of treatment outcome research. Innovative research designs; involvement of consumers in planning and implementing research; flexibility by industry, academia, the National Institutes of Health, and regulatory agencies acting in partnership; and concomitant use of evidence-based psychosocial services can and should assist in making placebo-controlled trials acceptable. CONCLUSIONS Properly designed placebo-controlled trials remain necessary, ethical, and feasible.
Path Planning for Planetary Surface Exploration Using Incremental A-r-Star Pathfinder

This paper addresses rover path planning for wide-area exploration on remote planetary surfaces using the Incremental A-r-Star pathfinder algorithm. Given an initial terrain map derived from satellite imagery or images captured by a lander during descent as well as onboard 3D range sensors, a rover plans a safe and suboptimal path from location to location and through boulder fields while avoiding mobility hazards. Initial paths are based on the knowledge base obtained from the initial map but as the rover navigates and discovers new obstacles that were not initially represented in the map, it re-plans a new path from its current location. This results in reduced computation as compared to re-planning an entirely new path and hence increases rover navigation rate and reduces power consumption.
The validity of a survey question to study diabetic retinopathy.

This report presents the results of a comparison between information obtained from response to the question "Have you been told that the diabetes has affected the back of your eyes, that is, the retina? " and the determination of the severity of retinopathy by grading of stereoscopic fundus photographs. Both "younger onset" (n = 996) and "older onset" (n = 1,370) persons who participated in a large population-based study of diabetic persons in southern Wisconsin from 1980-1982 were included. For the younger onset persons, 31.1% responded positively, while 70.7% were found to have retinopathy. The sensitivity of the questionnaire response varied from 17.8% for persons with mild nonproliferative retinopathy to 81.9% for persons with proliferative retinopathy. The specificity was 97.3%. For the older onset persons, 14.9% responded positively, while 54.2% were found to have retinopathy. The sensitivity of the question varied from 9.9% for persons with mild nonproliferative retinopathy to 68.7% for persons with proliferative retinopathy. The specificity was 93.3%. The question used in this survey provides a highly specific measure of prevalence; it is most sensitive for proliferative retinopathy.
Numerical Computation of Doubly-Periodic Stokes Flow Bounded by a Plane with Applications to Nodal Cilia

A numerical method is presented for the computation of externally forced Stokes flows bounded by the plane z=0 and satisfying periodic boundary conditions in the x and y directions. The motivation for this work is the simulation of flows generated by cilia, which are hair-like structures attached to the surface of cells that generate flows through coordinated beating. Large collections of cilia on a surface can be modeled using a doubly-periodic domain. The approach presented here is to derive a regularized version of the fundamental solution of the incompressible Stokes equations in Fourier space for the periodic directions and physical space for the z direction. This analytical expression for û(k,m;z) can then be used to compute the fluid velocity u(x,y,z) via a two-dimensional inverse fast Fourier transform for any fixed value of z. Repeating the computation for multiple values of z leads to the fluid velocity on a uniform grid in physical space. The zero-flow condition at the plane z= 0 is enforced through the use of images. The performance of the method is illustrated by numerical examples of particle transport by nodal cilia, which verify optimal particle transport for parameters consistent with previous studies. The results also show that for two cilia in the periodic box, out-of-phase beating produces considerable more particle transport than in-phase beating. AMS subject classifications: 76D07, 76Z99, 92-08
View from the Bench: Patents and Material Transfers

In light of concerns that the growing number of patents on research inputs may impose significant costs on upstream, noncommercial research, Walsh et al. examine the effects of patents on access to both intellectual property and materials required by academic biomedical researchers. They found that patents generally are not used to deny access to knowledge inputs, but that access to others9 research materials is more difficult. This restricted access to materials appears to be the result of academics9 commercial activities, scientific competition, the time and effort required to satisfy requests, and whether the material in question is a drug. Policy debates about scientific progress in biomedicine may benefit from shifting the focus away from patents and toward the welfare effects of restricted access to research materials.
Evaluating four mathematical models for nitrous oxide production by autotrophic ammonia‐oxidizing bacteria

There is increasing evidence showing that ammonia‐oxidizing bacteria (AOB) are major contributors to N2O emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Although the fundamental metabolic pathways for N2O production by AOB are now coming to light, the mechanisms responsible for N2O production by AOB in WWTP are not fully understood. Mathematical modeling provides a means for testing hypotheses related to mechanisms and triggers for N2O emissions in WWTP, and can then also become a tool to support the development of mitigation strategies. This study examined the ability of four mathematical model structures to describe two distinct mechanisms of N2O production by AOB. The production mechanisms evaluated are (1) N2O as the final product of nitrifier denitrification with NO 2− as the terminal electron acceptor and (2) N2O as a byproduct of incomplete oxidation of hydroxylamine (NH2OH) to NO 2− . The four models were compared based on their ability to predict N2O dynamics observed in three mixed culture studies. Short‐term batch experimental data were employed to examine model assumptions related to the effects of (1) NH 4+ concentration variations, (2) dissolved oxygen (DO) variations, (3) NO 2− accumulations and (4) NH2OH as an externally provided substrate. The modeling results demonstrate that all these models can generally describe the NH 4+ , NO 2− , and NO 3− data. However, none of these models were able to reproduce all measured N2O data. The results suggest that both the denitrification and NH2OH pathways may be involved in N2O production and could be kinetically linked by a competition for intracellular reducing equivalents. A unified model capturing both mechanisms and their potential interactions needs to be developed with consideration of physiological complexity. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2013; 110: 153–163. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Study of damage in ion-irradiated α-SiC by optical spectroscopy

UV–visible absorption and Raman scattering spectroscopy were used to investigate the effects of 4 MeV Xe-ion and 4 MeV Au-ion irradiations on α-SiC single crystals. The evolution of transmission spectra upon irradiation evidences an increase of the optical absorption. The optical band-gap energy decreases versus fluence, which is linked to band-gap closure attributed to the creation of localized states into the forbidden energy band. A strong effect of the irradiation temperature is observed as a result of dynamic annealing enhanced by the temperature increase. The Urbach energy increases versus fluence due to disorder accumulation in the damaged layer. Comparison of Urbach energy and disorder parameters extracted from Raman spectra shows that the Urbach energy is sensitive to the disorder induced by the accumulation of point defects.
A Mutation Deleting Sequences Encoding the Amino Terminus of Human Cytomegalovirus UL84 Impairs Interaction with UL44 and Capsid Localization

ABSTRACT Protein-protein interactions are required for many biological functions. Previous work has demonstrated an interaction between the human cytomegalovirus DNA polymerase subunit UL44 and the viral replication factor UL84. In this study, glutathione S-transferase pulldown assays indicated that residues 1 to 68 of UL84 are both necessary and sufficient for efficient interaction of UL84 with UL44 in vitro. We created a mutant virus in which sequences encoding these residues were deleted. This mutant displayed decreased virus replication compared to wild-type virus. Immunoprecipitation assays showed that the mutation decreased but did not abrogate association of UL84 with UL44 in infected cell lysate, suggesting that the association in the infected cell can involve other protein-protein interactions. Further immunoprecipitation assays indicated that IRS1, TRS1, and nucleolin are candidates for such interactions in infected cells. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis of viral DNA indicated that the absence of the UL84 amino terminus does not notably affect viral DNA synthesis. Western blotting experiments and pulse labeling of infected cells with [35S]methionine demonstrated a rather modest downregulation of levels of multiple proteins and particularly decreased levels of the minor capsid protein UL85. Electron microscopy demonstrated that viral capsids assemble but are mislocalized in nuclei of cells infected with the mutant virus, with fewer cytoplasmic capsids detected. In sum, deletion of the sequences encoding the amino terminus of UL84 affects interaction with UL44 and virus replication unexpectedly, not viral DNA synthesis. Mislocalization of viral capsids in infected cell nuclei likely contributes to the observed decrease in virus replication.
Utilization of interventional techniques in managing chronic pain in the Medicare population: analysis of growth patterns from 2000 to 2011.

BACKGROUND Reports from the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) continue to express significant concern with the overall fiscal sustainability of Medicare and the exponential increase in costs for chronic pain management. STUDY DESIGN The study is an analysis of the growth of interventional techniques in managing chronic pain in Medicare beneficiaries from 2000 to 2011. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the use of all interventional techniques in chronic pain management. METHODS The study was performed utilizing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Supplier Procedure Summary Master Data from 2000 to 2011. RESULTS Interventional techniques for chronic pain have increased dramatically from 2000 to 2011. Overall, the increase of interventional pain management (IPM) procedures from 2000 to 2011 went up 228%, with 177% per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries. The increases were highest for facet joint interventions and sacroiliac joint blocks with a total increase of 386% and 310% per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries, followed by 168% and 127% for epidural and adhesiolysis procedures, 150% and 111% for other types of nerve blocks and finally, 28% and 8% increases for percutaneous disc procedures. The geometric average of annual increases was 9.7% overall with 13.7% for facet joint interventions and sacroiliac joint blocks and 7.7% for epidural and adhesiolysis procedures. LIMITATIONS The limitations of this study included a lack of inclusion of Medicare participants in Medicare Advantage plans, as well as potential documentation, coding, and billing errors. CONCLUSION Interventional techniques increased significantly in Medicare beneficiaries from 2000 to 2011. Overall, there was an increase of 177% in the utilization of IPM services per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries, with an annual geometric average increase of 9.7%. The study also showed an exponential increase in facet joint interventions and sacroiliac joint blocks.
Modeling the Power Variability of Core Speed Scaling on Homogeneous Multicore Systems

We describe a family of power models that can capture the nonuniform power effects of speed scaling among homogeneous cores on multicore processors. These models depart from traditional ones, which assume that individual cores contribute to power consumption as independent entities. In our approach, we remove this independence assumption and employ statistical variables of core speed (average speed and the dispersion of the core speeds) to capture the comprehensive heterogeneous impact of subtle interactions among the underlying hardware. We systematically explore the model family, deriving basic and refined models that give progressively better fits, and analyze them in detail. The proposed methodology provides an easy way to build power models to reflect the realistic workings of current multicore processors more accurately. Moreover, unlike the existing lower-level power models that require knowledge of microarchitectural details of the CPU cores and the last level cache to capture core interdependency, ours are easier to use and scalable to emerging and future multicore architectures with more cores. These attributes make the models particularly useful to system users or algorithm designers who need a quick way to estimate power consumption. We evaluate the family of models on contemporary x86 multicore processors using the SPEC2006 benchmarks. Our best model yields an average predicted error as low as 5%.