Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[18F]FDG and [18F]FLT PET for the evaluation of response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in a model of triple negative breast cancer

Rationale Pathological response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) represents a commonly used predictor of survival in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and the need to identify markers that predict response to NAC is constantly increasing. Aim of this study was to evaluate the potential usefulness of PET imaging with [18F]FDG and [18F]FLT for the discrimination of TNBC responders to Paclitaxel (PTX) therapy compared to the response assessed by an adapted Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) criteria based on tumor volume (Tumor Volume Response). Methods Nu/nu mice bearing TNBC lesions of different size were evaluated with [18F]FDG and [18F]FLT PET before and after PTX treatment. SUVmax, Metabolic Tumor Volume (MTV) and Total Lesion Glycolysis (TLG) and Proliferation (TLP) were assessed using a graph-based random walk algorithm. Results We found that in our TNBC model the variation of [18F]FDG and [18F]FLT SUVmax similarly defined tumor response to therapy and that SUVmax variation represented the most accurate parameter. Response evaluation using Tumor Volume Response (TVR) showed that the effectiveness of NAC with PTX was completely independent from lesions size at baseline. Conclusions Our study provided interesting results in terms of sensitivity and specificity of PET in TNBC, revealing the similar performances of [18F]FDG and [18F]FLT in the identification of responders to Paclitaxel.
Association of Low-Fat Dietary Pattern With Breast Cancer Overall Survival: A Secondary Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Clinical Trial

Importance In a randomized clinical trial, a low-fat eating pattern was associated with lower risk of death after breast cancer. However, the extent to which results were driven by dietary influence on survival after breast cancer diagnosis was unknown. Objective To determine the association of a low-fat dietary pattern with breast cancer overall survival (breast cancer followed by death from any cause measured from cancer diagnosis). Design, Setting, and Participants This is a secondary analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative randomized clinical trial that was conducted at 40 US clinical centers enrolling participants from 1993 through 1998. Participants were 48 835 postmenopausal women with no previous breast cancer and dietary fat intake of greater than 32% by food frequency questionnaire. Interventions Participants were randomized to a dietary intervention group (40%; n = 19 541) with goals to reduce fat intake to 20% of energy and increase fruit, vegetable, and grain intake or a usual-diet comparison group (60%; n = 29 294). Dietary group participants with incident breast cancers continued to participate in subsequent dietary intervention activities. Main Outcomes and Measures Breast cancer overall survival for incident breast cancers diagnosed during the 8.5-year (median) dietary intervention, examined in post hoc analyses after 11.5 years (median) postdiagnosis follow-up. Results Of 1764 women diagnosed with breast cancer during the dietary intervention period, mean (SD) age at screening was 62.7 (6.7) years and age at diagnosis was 67.6 (6.9) years. With 516 total deaths, breast cancer overall survival was significantly greater for women in the dietary intervention group than in the usual-diet comparison group (10-year survival of 82% and 78%, respectively; hazard ratio [HR], 0.78; 95% CI, 0.65-0.94; P = .01). In the dietary group there were fewer deaths from breast cancer (68 vs 120; HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.64-1.17), other cancers (36 vs 65; HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.50-1.17), and cardiovascular disease (27 vs 64; HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.39-0.99). Conclusions and Relevance In women who received a diagnosis of breast cancer during the dietary intervention period, those in the dietary group had increased overall survival. The increase is due, in part, to better survival from several causes of death. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00000611
Implicit Reparameterization Gradients

By providing a simple and efficient way of computing low-variance gradients of continuous random variables, the reparameterization trick has become the technique of choice for training a variety of latent variable models. However, it is not applicable to a number of important continuous distributions. We introduce an alternative approach to computing reparameterization gradients based on implicit differentiation and demonstrate its broader applicability by applying it to Gamma, Beta, Dirichlet, and von Mises distributions, which cannot be used with the classic reparameterization trick. Our experiments show that the proposed approach is faster and more accurate than the existing gradient estimators for these distributions.
Types of non-psychotic mental disorders in adult women who suffered intimate partner violence

www.ee. usp.br/reeusp Rev Esc Enferm USP · 2018;52:e03328 1 Universidade Federal do Piauí, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Enfermagem, Teresina, PI, Brazil. ABSTRACT Objective: Identifying the types of non-psychotic mental disorders in adult women who suffered intimate partner violence in the literature. Method: An integrative review carried out in the MEDLINE, CINAHL, LILACS, Web of Science and SCOPUS databases. Results: We selected 19 articles published in international journals in English, with a predominance of cross-sectional study studies (78.9%). The most common types of non-psychotic mental disorders were: depression (73.7%) and post-traumatic stress disorder (52.6%). It was observed that 78.9% of the articles presented a 2C level of evidence. Conclusion: Studies have shown that adult women who are victims of intimate partner violence mostly suffer from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as other morbidities; a fact that highlights how devastating violence by an intimate partner can impact on the mental health of those who experience it.
Öğretmenlik Mesleğinin Öğretmenlerin Gereksinimlerini Karşılama Düzeyi

Bu calismanin amaci, ogretmenlik mesleginin, ogretmenlerin gereksinimlerinin ne kadarini karsiladigini arastirmaktir. Arastirmanin evrenini. Ankara Iline bagli Altindag Ilcesinde gorev yapan ogretmenler olusturmaktadir. Bu arastirmada, ogretmenlik mesleginin ogretmenlerin: (a) ucret ve calisma kosullari (b) sayginlik ve bagimsizlik (c) toplumsal iliskiler ve ait olma (d) guvenlik (e) kendini gerceklestirme alanlarindaki gereksinimlerini ne olcude karsiladigi belirlenmistir.
Effect of Fremanezumab Compared With Placebo for Prevention of Episodic Migraine: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Importance Fremanezumab, a fully humanized monoclonal antibody that targets calcitonin gene-related peptide, may be effective for treating episodic migraine. Objective To assess the efficacy of fremanezumab compared with placebo for prevention of episodic migraine with a monthly dosing regimen or a single higher dose. Design and Setting Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial conducted at 123 sites in 9 countries from March 23, 2016 (first patient randomized), to April 10, 2017, consisting of a screening visit, 28-day pretreatment period, 12-week treatment period, and final evaluation at week 12. Participants Study participants were aged 18 to 70 years with episodic migraine (6-14 headache days, with at least 4 migraine days, during 28-day pretreatment period). Patients who had previous treatment failure with 2 classes of migraine-preventive medication were excluded. Interventions Patients were randomized 1:1:1 to receive subcutaneous monthly dosing of fremanezumab (n = 290; 225 mg at baseline, week 4, and week 8); a single higher dose of fremanezumab, as intended to support a quarterly dose regimen (n = 291; 675 mg of fremanezumab at baseline; placebo at weeks 4 and 8); or placebo (n = 294; at baseline, week 4, and week 8). Main Outcomes and Measures The primary end point was mean change in mean number of monthly migraine days during the 12-week period after the first dose. Results Among 875 patients who were randomized (mean age, 41.8 [SD, 12.1] years; 742 women [85%]), 791 (90.4%) completed the trial. From baseline to 12 weeks, mean migraine days per month decreased from 8.9 days to 4.9 days in the fremanezumab monthly dosing group, from 9.2 days to 5.3 days in the fremanezumab single-higher-dose group, and from 9.1 days to 6.5 days in the placebo group. This resulted in a difference with monthly dosing vs placebo of –1.5 days (95% CI, –2.01 to –0.93 days; P < .001) and with single higher dosing vs placebo of –1.3 days (95% CI, –1.79 to –0.72 days; P < .001). The most common adverse events that led to discontinuation were injection site erythema (n = 3), injection site induration (n = 2), diarrhea (n = 2), anxiety (n = 2), and depression (n = 2). Conclusions and Relevance Among patients with episodic migraine in whom multiple medication classes had not previously failed, subcutaneous fremanezumab, compared with placebo, resulted in a statistically significant 1.3- to 1.5-day reduction in the mean number of monthly migraine days over a 12-week period. Further research is needed to assess effectiveness against other preventive medications and in patients in whom multiple preventive drug classes have failed and to determine long-term safety and efficacy. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02629861
Integron and genotype patterns of quinolones-resistant uropathogenic Escherichia coli

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli are the most common cause of urinary tract infections,and quinolones-resistant strains cause growing concern in developing countries. This study provides relevant data in relation to the molecular epidemiology of these isolateswith respect to the distribution of integron among them and in doing so, to control the infections and adopt efficient strategies. This study was performed on 96 strains of E. coliisolated from patients with community acquired urinary tract infections in Jahrom, Iran. Having determined the antibiotic susceptibility patterns, isolates were resistant to quinolones (Ciprofloxacin, Norfloxacin and Nalidixic acid) screened for integron classes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Then the genetic patterns of the strains were compared by pulsed field gel electrophoresis. Of the 96 samples, 30 were resistant to at least one of the above mentioned antibiotics. Integrons were detected in 20.8, 25 and 25% of the Nalidixic acid, Ciprofloxacin and Norfloxacin resistant isolates, respectively. By using pulsed field gel electrophoresis among the 30 samples, we obtained 30 genetic patterns. The patterns revealed no clonal relationships between the strains. The gene cassettes observed in class 1 and 2 integrons did not correlate completely with the quinolone resistance observed in these isolates. Key words: Quinolones-resistant uropathogenic Escherichia coli, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, integrons.
Vice and the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Disorders: A Philosophical Case Conference

Abstract: This main article for a Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology philosophical case conference is intended to raise philosophical, psychiatric, and public policy issues concerning the relationship between concepts of criminality, mental disorder, and the classification of mental disorders. After introducing the basic problem of the confounding of “vice” and mental disorder concepts in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition—Text Revision, the author summarizes three different cases from the literature that illustrate the problem of the vice–mental disorder relationship. Four general aspects of the conceptual issues are presented to frame the discussion, and general questions in a range of domains are posed for commentators.
Trigger Tool–Based Automated Adverse Event Detection in Electronic Health Records: Systematic Review

Background Adverse events in health care entail substantial burdens to health care systems, institutions, and patients. Retrospective trigger tools are often manually applied to detect AEs, although automated approaches using electronic health records may offer real-time adverse event detection, allowing timely corrective interventions. Objective The aim of this systematic review was to describe current study methods and challenges regarding the use of automatic trigger tool-based adverse event detection methods in electronic health records. In addition, we aimed to appraise the applied studies’ designs and to synthesize estimates of adverse event prevalence and diagnostic test accuracy of automatic detection methods using manual trigger tool as a reference standard. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library were queried. We included observational studies, applying trigger tools in acute care settings, and excluded studies using nonhospital and outpatient settings. Eligible articles were divided into diagnostic test accuracy studies and prevalence studies. We derived the study prevalence and estimates for the positive predictive value. We assessed bias risks and applicability concerns using Quality Assessment tool for Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) for diagnostic test accuracy studies and an in-house developed tool for prevalence studies. Results A total of 11 studies met all criteria: 2 concerned diagnostic test accuracy and 9 prevalence. We judged several studies to be at high bias risks for their automated detection method, definition of outcomes, and type of statistical analyses. Across all the 11 studies, adverse event prevalence ranged from 0% to 17.9%, with a median of 0.8%. The positive predictive value of all triggers to detect adverse events ranged from 0% to 100% across studies, with a median of 40%. Some triggers had wide ranging positive predictive value values: (1) in 6 studies, hypoglycemia had a positive predictive value ranging from 15.8% to 60%; (2) in 5 studies, naloxone had a positive predictive value ranging from 20% to 91%; (3) in 4 studies, flumazenil had a positive predictive value ranging from 38.9% to 83.3%; and (4) in 4 studies, protamine had a positive predictive value ranging from 0% to 60%. We were unable to determine the adverse event prevalence, positive predictive value, preventability, and severity in 40.4%, 10.5%, 71.1%, and 68.4% of the studies, respectively. These studies did not report the overall number of records analyzed, triggers, or adverse events; or the studies did not conduct the analysis. Conclusions We observed broad interstudy variation in reported adverse event prevalence and positive predictive value. The lack of sufficiently described methods led to difficulties regarding interpretation. To improve quality, we see the need for a set of recommendations to endorse optimal use of research designs and adequate reporting of future adverse event detection studies.
Response of coleoptiles to water deficit: growth, turgor maintenance and osmotic adjustment in barley plants (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Cereal crop improvement programmes involve the analysis of a great number of lines every year; the availability of a simple, rapid method that would allow the identification of a trait in the early stages of plant development would facilitate the selection process. This work reports two experiments involving the germination of seeds in Petri dishes, performed to study the effect of water deficit on the growth of barley coleoptiles. In one experiment water stress was induced by allowing evaporation from the Petri dishes; in the other water stress was achieved by adding polyethylene glycol 6000. The growth of the control coleoptiles was greater than that of the treatment coleoptiles in all cases, but with differences between the different genotypes. A significant correlation (P < 0.01) was found between the relative growth of the coleoptiles and turgor maintenance in the seedlings. Significant correlations were also seen between the relative growth of the coleop-tiles and the osmotic adjustment of the flag leaf (P < 0.05) and the grain weight (P < 0.01) in adult plants. The genotypes that showed the greatest relative growth also showed the greatest capacity for osmotic adjustment in the flag leaf and produced the greatest yields in experiments with adult plants. The results indicate that the growth of coleoptiles subjected to water deficit could be used as a selection criterion in breeding programmes designed to improve the tolerance of barley to drought.
Lagrangian Detection of Wind Shear for Landing Aircraft

AbstractRecent studies have shown that aerial disturbances affecting landing aircraft have a coherent signature in the Lagrangian aerial particle dynamics inferred from ground-based lidar scans. Specifically, attracting Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs) mark the intersection of localized material upwelling within the cone of the lidar scan. This study tests the detection power of LCSs on historical landing data and corresponding pilot reports of disturbances from Hong Kong International Airport. The results show that a specific LCS indicator, the gradient of the finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) field along the landing path, is a highly efficient marker of turbulent upwellings. In particular, in the spring season, projected FTLE gradients closely approach the efficiency of the wind shear alert system currently in operation at the airport, even though the latter system relies on multiple sources of data beyond those used in this study. This shows significant potential for the operational use of FTLE.
Collaborative use of virtual patients after a lecture enhances learning with minimal investment of cognitive load

Abstract Background: The use of virtual patients (VPs), due to their high complexity and/or inappropriate sequencing with other instructional methods, might cause a high cognitive load, which hampers learning. Aim: To investigate the efficiency of instructional methods that involved three different applications of VPs combined with lectures. Method: From two consecutive batches, 171 out of 183 students have participated in lecture and VPs sessions. One group received a lecture session followed by a collaborative VPs learning activity (collaborative deductive). The other two groups received a lecture session and an independent VP learning activity, which either followed the lecture session (independent deductive) or preceded it (independent inductive). All groups were administrated written knowledge acquisition and retention tests as well as transfer tests using two new VPs. All participants completed a cognitive load questionnaire, which measured intrinsic, extraneous and germane load. Mixed effect analysis of cognitive load and efficiency using the R statistical program was performed. Results: The highest intrinsic and extraneous load was found in the independent inductive group, while the lowest intrinsic and extraneous load was seen in the collaborative deductive group. Furthermore, comparisons showed a significantly higher efficiency, that is, higher performance in combination with lower cognitive load, for the collaborative deductive group than for the other two groups. Conclusion: Collaborative use of VPs after a lecture is the most efficient instructional method, of those tested, as it leads to better learning and transfer combined with lower cognitive load, when compared with independent use of VPs, either before or after the lecture.
Underwater image restoration using color correction and non-local prior

Underwater images often suffer from color and contrast degradation, because the light is absorbed and scattered while traveling in water. Although the physical process of the underwater images seems similar to the outdoor haze images, conventional dehazing methods fail to generate accurate results since colors associated to different wavelengths have different attenuation rates in underwater conditions. To overcome this, we propose a novel underwater image restoration method based on color correction and image dehazing. First, we estimate the global background light using a hierarchical search based on quad-tree subdivision combined with the ocean optical properties. According to the properties of underwater optical imaging, we then introduce an underwater color correction method using depth compensation, in which a multi-channel guided image filter is proposed to refine the depth image. Finally, we adopt the non-local image dehazing algorithm to restore the underwater images. Experimental results demonstrate that the restored images can achieve better visual quality of underwater images when compared with several state-of-the-art methods.
Activation of the mismatch-specific endonuclease EndoMS/NucS by the replication clamp is required for high fidelity DNA replication

Abstract The mismatch repair (MMR) system, exemplified by the MutS/MutL proteins, is widespread in Bacteria and Eukarya. However, molecular mechanisms how numerous archaea and bacteria lacking the mutS/mutL genes maintain high replication fidelity and genome stability have remained elusive. EndoMS is a recently discovered hyperthermophilic mismatch-specific endonuclease encoded by nucS in Thermococcales. We deleted the nucS from the actinobacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum and demonstrated a drastic increase of spontaneous transition mutations in the nucS deletion strain. The observed spectra of these mutations were consistent with the enzymatic properties of EndoMS in vitro. The robust mismatch-specific endonuclease activity was detected with the purified C. glutamicum EndoMS protein but only in the presence of the β-clamp (DnaN). Our biochemical and genetic data suggest that the frequently occurring G/T mismatch is efficiently repaired by the bacterial EndoMS-β−clamp complex formed via a carboxy-terminal sequence motif of EndoMS proteins. Our study thus has great implications for understanding how the activity of the novel MMR system is coordinated with the replisome and provides new mechanistic insight into genetic diversity and mutational patterns in industrially and clinically (e.g. Mycobacteria) important archaeal and bacterial phyla previously thought to be devoid of the MMR system.
Segmentation of Calcification and Brain Hemorrhage with Midline Detection

A considerable amount of deformities are prone to be neglected by the radiotherapists besides acquisition of excessive and false positive rates. In this article, a process has been developed representing the selective parameters with Fuzzy C-Means and ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy inference). As it is a grave concern to differentiate the hemorrhage and calcification on the basis of selective factors. The desirable outcome and useful information are most likely to be delivered by the fuzzy clustering segmentation methods. The abnormal tissues in the brain are accurately identified by our proposed method. ANFIS can be referred to as the extension of the ANN family and it displays excellent learning skills and estimating competences, so it is believed to be a highly productive tool through which ambiguities in any system can be efficiently managed. The medical discipline is realizing the benefits of this system, such as the identification of hemorrhage and calcification. Our method is beneficial to image fusion techniques whose applications rely on the source information of local images. Results show that our method is superior then the other traditional methods in terms of quantitative image segmentation performance parameters.