Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Convection-enhanced delivery of etoposide is effective against murine proneural glioblastoma.

BACKGROUND Glioblastoma subtypes have been defined based on transcriptional profiling, yet personalized care based on molecular classification remains unexploited. Topoisomerase II (TOP2) contributes to the transcriptional signature of the proneural glioma subtype. Thus, we targeted TOP2 pharmacologically with etoposide in proneural glioma models. METHODS TOP2 gene expression was evaluated in mouse platelet derived growth factor (PDGF)(+)phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN)(-/-)p53(-/-) and PDGF(+)PTEN(-/-) proneural gliomas and cell lines, as well as human glioblastoma from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Correlation between TOP2 transcript levels and etoposide susceptibility was investigated in 139 human cancer cell lines from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia public dataset and in mouse proneural glioma cell lines. Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) of etoposide was tested on cell-based PDGF(+)PTEN(-/-)p53(-/-) and retroviral-based PDGF(+)PTEN(-/-) mouse proneural glioma models. RESULTS TOP2 expression was significantly higher in human proneural glioblastoma and in mouse proneural tumors at early as well as late stages of development compared with normal brain. TOP2B transcript correlated with susceptibility to etoposide in mouse proneural cell lines and in 139 human cancer cell lines from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia. Intracranial etoposide CED treatment (680 μM) was well tolerated by mice and led to a significant survival benefit in the PDGF(+)PTEN(-/-)p53(-/-) glioma model. Moreover, etoposide CED treatment at 80 μM but not 4 μM led to a significant survival advantage in the PDGF(+)PTEN(-/-) glioma model. CONCLUSIONS TOP2 is highly expressed in proneural gliomas, rendering its pharmacological targeting by intratumoral administration of etoposide by CED effective on murine proneural gliomas. We provide evidence supporting clinical testing of CED of etoposide with a molecular-based patient selection approach.
Normal granulocyte transfusion therapy: treatment of septicemia due to gram-negative bacteria.

Abstract Ninety-six granulocyte transfusions were given from compatible normal donors to 39 neutropenic patients receiving appropriate antibiotics for documented septicemia due to gram-negative bacteria. A matched group of 37 patients treated concurrently with appropriate antibiotics alone served as a control. Eleven of 37 patients (29.7 per cent) in the control group survived the episode of sepsis. Eighteen of the 39 patients (46.1 per cent) receiving transfusions survived; however, 12 patients receiving four or more consecutive daily granulocyte transfusions from compatible donors had complete recovery (100 per cent). In contrast only five of 19 control patients (26 per cent) surviving long enough to receive four transfusions (more than five days) recovered. These studies indicate that compatible granulocyte transfusions (as defined by absence of recipient leukoagglutinins and lymphocytotoxic antibodies against donor leukocytes) can be effective in the clinical management of septicemia due to gram-negat.
Atopic dermatitis and transient hypogammaglobulinemia of infancy improved simultaneously

The serum level of IgG in an infant reduces with the decline of the maternally derived IgG antibody, reaching a nadir at 3 – 4 months of age, and then rises as the infant’s own IgG production gradually increases. 1 Transient hypogammaglobulinemia of infancy (THI) is an extension of this physiological hypogammaglobulinemia. 2,3 Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic eczematous dermatitis that typically begins during the fi rst 6 months of life. 4 In both THI and infantile AD, many affected patients experience resolution before early childhood. Atopic disease has been suggested to be one of the features of THI in a few reports. Recently, it has been reported that i.v. gammaglobulin treatment for resistant AD was clinically effective and that AD worsened on bacterial infection due to hypogammaglobulinemia. 5 – 8 Although infections are not lifethreatening, in some infants THI may be associated with recurrent infections. 1 – 3 Various studies indicate that bacterial infection, such as Staphylococcus aureus , is one exacerbating factor of AD. 4,9 Therefore an etiological relationship between AD and THI is predictable but no evidence has been produced. In this paper we present fi ve case studies of 4-month-old infants with AD who subsequently improved simultaneously with resolution of concomitant THI.
Rapid acceptance testing of modern linac using on‐board MV and kV imaging systems

Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop a novel process for using on‐board MV and kV Electronic Portal Imaging Devices (EPIDs) to perform linac acceptance testing (AT) for two reasons: (a) to standardize the assessment of new equipment performance, and (b) to reduce the time to clinical use while reducing physicist workload. Methods and materials In this study, Varian TrueBeam linacs equipped with amorphous silicon‐based EPID (aS1000) were used. The conventional set of AT tests and tolerances were used as a baseline guide. A novel methodology was developed or adopted from published literature to perform as many tests as possible using the MV and kV EPIDs. The developer mode on Varian TrueBeam linacs was used to automate the process. In the EPID‐based approach, most of mechanical tests were conducted by acquiring images through a custom phantom and software tools were developed for quantitative analysis to extract different performance parameters. The embedded steel‐spheres in a custom phantom provided both visual and radiographic guidance for beam geometry testing. For photon beams, open field EPID images were used to extract inline/crossline profiles to verify the beam energy, flatness and symmetry. EPID images through a double wedge phantom were used for evaluating electron beam properties via diagonal profile. Testing was augmented with a commercial automated application (Machine Performance Check) which was used to perform several geometric accuracy tests such as gantry, collimator rotations, and couch rotations/translations. Results The developed process demonstrated that the tests, which required customer demonstration, were efficiently performed using EPIDs. The AT tests that were performed using EPIDs were fully automated using the developer mode on the Varian TrueBeam system, while some tests, such as the light field versus radiation field congruence, and collision interlock checks required user interaction. Conclusions On‐board imagers are quite suitable for both geometric and dosimetric testing of linac system involved in AT. Electronic format of the acquired data lends itself to benchmarking, transparency, as well as longitudinal use of AT data. While the tests were performed on a specific model of a linear accelerator, the proposed approach can be extended to other linacs.
Ancient Peruvian Potters' Marks and Their Interpretation through Ethnographic Analogy

Abstract Pre-fire incised marks can be observed on many of the plain cooking and storage ceramic vessels of the Moche style, which flourished on the north coast of Peru from approximately 100 B.C. to A.D. 800. A possible explanation of these marks is suggested on the basis of an ethnographic analogy to the present-day practices of potters in the central sierra of Peru. It is suggested that the marks were made to facilitate the identification of the pots of each potter during production and prior to the actual marketing of the pots.
ARPP-21, a cyclic AMP-regulated phosphoprotein enriched in dopamine- innervated brain regions. I. Amino acid sequence of ARPP-21B from bovine caudate nucleus

ARPP-21 (cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein, Mr = 21,000 as determined by SDS-PAGE) is a major cytosolic substrate for cAMP-stimulated protein phosphorylation in dopamine-innervated regions of the rat CNS. It has recently been purified to homogeneity from bovine caudate nucleus and characterized (Hemmings and Greengard, 1989). ARPP-21 is isolated as 2 isoforms, ARPP-21A and ARPP-21B. The amino acid sequence of purified bovine ARPP-21B has now been determined by gas-phase sequencing. The S- 14C-carboxymethylated protein was subjected to enzymatic cleavage with trypsin, chymotrypsin, subtilisin, and endoproteinase Lys-C. The resulting peptides were purified by high-performance liquid chromatography, and selected peptides were subjected to amino acid analysis and/or amino acid sequencing by automated Edman degradation. ARPP-21B consists of a single NH2-terminal blocked polypeptide chain of 88 residues, with a calculated molecular mass of 9561 Da, including an NH2-terminal acetyl group inferred by deblocking with an acylaminopeptidase. This molecular mass is significantly lower than earlier estimates based on SDS-PAGE or hydrodynamic measurements. The seryl residue phosphorylated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (Hemmings et al., 1989) is located at position 55. The molecule contains 1 cysteinyl residue, at position 71, and contains no methionyl, tyrosyl, phenylalanyl, tryptophanyl, or histidinyl residues. Determination of the primary structure of ARPP-21, one of several phosphoproteins localized to dopaminoceptive neurons in the basal ganglia, provides a framework for further investigations into the molecular mechanisms involved in dopaminergic neurotransmission.
Speech detection and localization results and clinical outcomes for children receiving sequential bilateral cochlear implants before four years of age

The aim of this study was to describe the adaptation to bilateral cochlear implant use and the perceptual benefits demonstrated by 10 children who were successful users of a first implant when a second was received before four years of age. Although one subject rejected the second implant at switch-on, the nine subjects who accepted the device adapted easily to bilateral implant use and developed useful listening skills with the second implant. Tests of localization (left versus right) and speech detection in noise were administered in the unilateral and bilateral conditions, usually after six months experience. All subjects demonstrated some bilateral benefit on speech detection testing (mostly due to a headshadow effect), and the majority localized left versus right. Results suggested that outcomes may be negatively impacted by increased age at the time of second implant switch-on. The majority of the subjects adapted well to bilateral implant use within six months and demonstrated some perceptual benefit and, according to subjective parent reports, improved daily functioning; however, device rejection must be discussed pre-operatively as a possibility.
A technological and anthropological study of iron production in Venda, Limpopo Province, South Africa

ABSTRACT This study investigates the technology and sociology of indigenous iron production in Venda, northern South Africa, within a framework of ethnographies, historical documents and archaeometallurgical analyses. Investigations revealed that indigenous iron production in the study area, like elsewhere in southern Africa, was based on the direct process in which high-grade iron ores were reduced to metallic iron in charcoal fuelled low-shaft furnaces. The technology exploited at the sites under study used high-grade haematite and magnetite ores, which were extracted from open shaft mines within the vicinity of the smelting precincts. Although new furnace types appeared in the mid-second millennium AD, evidence suggests that the technology of iron smelting was relatively stable during the Early (AD 200-900) and Late (AD 1000 to 1900) Iron Ages. Iron smelting in this area was accompanied by rituals and taboos that connected the smelters to the living and the dead. A comparative study of such rituals and taboos with those invested in other categories of practice, such as male initiation, identified notable similarities and differences. This indicates that material culture production and use broadcast ideas and beliefs applicable to both technical and quotidian practices.
Pensions, Household Saving, and Welfare: A Dynamic Analysis

Empirical analyses of the effects of public and private pensions on household saving impose strong assumptions in order to obtain a tractable empirical model: fixed retirement and pension claiming ages, no borrowing constraint, little or no uncertainty, and no institutional restrictions on pension claiming. I specify a richer version of the life cycle model that relaxes these assumptions. I calibrate, solve, and simulate the model and use the results to study three issues: (1) How much household wealth is crowded out by pensions? (2) Can linear regression analysis accurately estimate the magnitude of crowdout when the assumptions used in the empirical analysis are invalid? (3) How valuable are pensions to households? Simulation results indicate that private pensions in the US crowd out less than $0.15 of household saving per dollar of pension wealth. Crowdout by Social Security is larger at $0.33, but far smaller than the one-for-one offset predicted by a stylized version of the life cycle model. Regression estimates of crowdout using the simulated data are systematically larger than simulated crowdout, indicating that empirical estimates of crowdout are quite sensitive to the assumptions required in order to use the regression approach. The welfare analysis implies that, conditional on Social Security, DB pensions are worth less than their expected present discounted value to households, while DC pensions are worth more than their dollar value. In the absence of a private pension, Social Security is worth 50% more to households than its expected dollar value.
Détection et suivi d'événements de surveillance

Dans les systemes de videosurveillance, les algorithmes de vision assistee par ordinateur ont joue un role crucial pour la detection d’evenements lies a la surete et la securite publique. Par ailleurs, l’incapacite de ces systemes a gerer plusieurs scenes de foule est une lacune bien connue. Dans cette these, nous avons developpe des algorithmes adaptes a certaines difficultes rencontrees dans des sequences video liees a des environnements de foule d’une ampleur significative comme les aeroports, les centres commerciaux, les rencontres sportives etc. Nous avons adopte differentes approches en effectuant d’abord une analyse globale du mouvement dans les regions d’interet de chaque image afin d’obtenir des informations sur les comportements multimodaux de la foule sous forme de structures spatio-temporelles complexes. Ces structures ont ensuite ete utilisees pour detecter des evenements de surveillance inhabituels au sein-meme de la foule. Pour realiser nos experiences, nous nous sommes principalement appuyes sur trois ensembles de donnees qui ont suscite notre reflexion. Les resultats refletent a la fois la qualite et les defauts de ces approches. Nous avons egalement developpe une distance pseudo-euclidienne.Pour demontrer son utilite, une methodologie qui lui est propre a ete utilisee pour la detection de plusieurs evenements de surveillance standards issus de la base TRECVID2008. Certains resultats montrent la robustesse de cette methodologie tandis que d’autres soulignent la difficulte du probleme. Les principaux defis portent, entre autres, sur le flux massif de personnes, l’importance de l’occlusion, la reflexion, les ombres, les fluctuations, les variations de la taille de la cible, etc. Cependant, nos idees et nos experiences de ces problemes d’ordre pratique ont ete particulierement utiles. De plus, cette these developpe un algorithme permettant de suivre une cible individuelle dans le cadre de plusieurs scenes de foule. Les sequences video de la base de PETS2009 Benchmark ont ete prises en compte pour evaluer les performances de cet algorithme. Si on analyse ses avantages et ses inconvenients, celui-ci fait toujours preuve d’une grande exactitude et sensibilite vis-a-vis des effets de variationde la lumiere, ce qui atteste de sa grande efficacite meme lorsque la luminosite baisse, que la cible entre ou sort d’une zone d’ombre ou en cas de lueur soudaine.
Water quality and bacterial populations in a tropical marine cage culture farm

A study was conducted to investigate fluctuations in different physical and chemical parameters, and bacterial populations in a tropical marine cage culture farm for one annual cycle. Samples were collected from the centre of the farm (station 1) and away from the cages (station 2). There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in water quality parameters, such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity and pH between the two stations during the neap and spring tides. Nutrient concentrations and bacterial counts were slightly higher at station 1 than station 2, but the differences were not significant (P > 0.05). In general, nutrients and chlorophyll a concentrations in the study area were higher than those reported in the pristine marine environment. There were significant correlations (P 0.05) in nutrient levels and bacterial populations between the neap and spring tides, probably because of the large number of farms operating in the shallow channel. The present study indicates that high organic loading from the fish farming activities could cause deterioration of the water quality in the cage-culture system as well as in the surrounding environment.
Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in the Treatment of Hypertension

The renin-angiotensin system has a wide range of physiological actions, and thus interference with the system has attractive therapeutic potential. The orally active angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have so far been the most successful drugs in this area. They lower arterial pressure both in renovascular and essential hypertension, and their effects are enhanced by concomitant diuretic therapy or dietary salt restriction. Since, in renovascular hypertension, the affected kidney depends on enhanced local generation of angiotensin II to help preserve its function, the circulation and excretory capacity of this kidney may be compromised with ACE inhibition. ACE inhibitors can improve exercise tolerance and diminish cardiac ventricular arrhythmias in patients with heart failure. Because these drugs lower plasma aldosterone, they tend to correct potassium deficiency and hypokalemia, which may have been induced by diuretic treatment. Hypotension can occur with the first dose of ACE inhibitor, especially in sodium-depleted subjects; in patients on prior antihypertensive therapy, particularly if this includes a diuretic; and in the elderly. Not all of the actions of ACE inhibitors are necessarily due to lowering of plasma angiotensin II; accumulation of kinins may he responsible for some of the effects and side effects. Common to all ACE inhibitors are occasional rashes. cough, and, more rarely. angioedema. Apparently peculiar to captopril, and less often seen with the lower doses now employed, are taste disturbance, proteinuria, and marrow depression. ACE inhibitors should not be used in pregnant women.
Single-Drug Therapy for Hypertension in Men -- A Comparison of Six Antihypertensive Agents with Placebo

Background Characteristics such as age and race are often cited as determinants of the response of blood pressure to specific antihypertensive agents, but this clinically important issue has not been examined in sufficiently large trials, involving all standard treatments, to determine the effect of such factors. Methods In a randomized, double-blind study at 15 clinics, we assigned 1292 men with diastolic blood pressures of 95 to 109 mm Hg, after a placebo washout period, to receive placebo or one of six drugs: hydrochlorothiazide (12.5 to 50 mg per day), atenolol (25 to 100 mg per day), captopril (25 to 100 mg per day), clonidine (0.2 to 0.6 mg per day), a sustained-release preparation of diltiazem (120 to 360 mg per day), or prazosin (4 to 20 mg per day). The drug doses were titrated to a goal of less than 90 mm Hg for maximal diastolic pressure, and the patients continued to receive therapy for at least one year. Results The mean (±SD) age of the randomized patients was 59 ±10 years, and 48 percent we.
A polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) test to detect the common mutation (35delG) in the connexin-26 gene.

OBJECTIVE To develop a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based test for the detection of a common frame-shift mutation (35delG) in the connexin-26 (GJB2) gene, and to investigate the status of this mutation in Oman. METHOD A PCR test, based on site-directed mutagenesis, was developed for the 35delG mutation. A mutagenesis primer generated an EcoN I site in a short (87 bp) DNA fragment amplified from the connexin-26 gene. The EcoN I site is generated only if the 35delG mutation is present. Thus, a restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the amplified DNA fragment with EcoN I allowed us to detect the 35delG mutation in the connexin 26 gene. RESULT After validating the test using quality control DNA samples, which contained the 35delG mutation in either homozygous or heterozygous form, 120 healthy subjects and 35 unrelated Omani patients with nosyndromic autosomal recessive deafness (NARD), were screened for 35delG mutation. The mutation was not present in any individual tested. CONCLUSION We have been able to develop a new PCR-RFLP test for detecting the 35delG common mutation in the connexin 26 gene. Our preliminary results from application of this test on a limited number of Omani patients indicate that the 35delG mutation may not be associated with NARD in Oman.
University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics

Previous work shows that children use syntactic information to guide their hypotheses about verb meaning. Bunger & Lidz 2004 demonstrated that 2-year-olds map novel unaccusative verbs onto just the result subevent of a complex causative event and novel transitive verbs onto the entire causative event. We present data from a new preferential looking study demonstrating that 2-year-olds map novel unergative verbs onto the means subevent of a causative. We conclude that the interpretation of novel verbs is driven not only by the number of arguments in a given syntactic frame, but also by the semantic roles played by those arguments.
Similarity of binaries through re-optimization

We present a scalable approach for establishing similarity between stripped binaries (with no debug information). The main challenge in binary similarity, is to establish similarity even when the code has been compiled using different compilers, with different optimization levels, or targeting different architectures. Overcoming this challenge, while avoiding false positives, is invaluable to the process of reverse engineering and the process of locating vulnerable code. We present a technique that is scalable and precise, as it alleviates the need for heavyweight semantic comparison by performing out-of-context re-optimization of procedure fragments. It works by decomposing binary procedures to comparable fragments and transforming them to a canonical, normalized form using the compiler optimizer, which enables finding equivalent fragments through simple syntactic comparison. We use a statistical framework built by analyzing samples collected "in the wild" to generate a global context that quantifies the significance of each pair of fragments, and uses it to lift pairwise fragment equivalence to whole procedure similarity. We have implemented our technique in a tool called GitZ and performed an extensive evaluation. We show that GitZ is able to perform millions of comparisons efficiently, and find similarity with high accuracy.