Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical barriers in adhesion prevention.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate physical barriers in adhesion prevention. STUDY DESIGN Literature search. RESULTS Although numerous adjuvants have been used to prevent or reduce postoperative adhesions, they are by no means a panacea, and research on new synthetic adhesion barriers continues. CONCLUSION Preliminary data from animal studies indicate that biocompatible, absorbable gel barriers are safe and effective. These agents are easy to apply and readily conform to irregular tissue shapes without fixation. We await the results of future clinical studies.
A theory of predation based on agency problems in financial contracting

By committing to terminate funding if a firm's performance is poor, investors can mitigate managerial incentive problems. These optimal financial constraints, however, encourage rivals to ensure that a firm's performance is poor; this raises the chance that the financial constraints become binding and induce exit. The authors analyze the optimal financial contract in light of this predatory threat. The optimal contract balances the benefits of deterring predation by relaxing financial constraints against the cost of exacerbating incentive problems. Copyright 1990 by American Economic Association.
Patient Satisfaction: How Patient Health Conditions Influence Their Satisfaction

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY With increasing emphasis in healthcare on patient satisfaction, many patient satisfaction studies have been administered. Most assume that all patients combine their healthcare experiences (such as nursing care, physician care, etc.) in the same way to arrive at their satisfaction; however, no research has been conducted prior to the present study to investigate how patients' health conditions influence the way they combine their healthcare experiences. This study aims to determine how seriously ill patients differ from less seriously ill patients during their combining process. Data were collected from five large hospitals in the St. Louis area by administering a patient satisfaction questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analyses with a scatter term, a severity measure, and interaction effects of the severity measure were conducted while controlling for age, gender, and race. Two models (overall quality of care and willingness to recommend to others) were analyzed, and the severity of illness variable revealed interaction effects with physician care, staff care, food, and scatter term variables in the willingness to recommend model (six attributes were analyzed: admission process, nursing care, physician care, staff care, food, and room). With more seriously ill patients, physician care becomes more important and staff care becomes less important, and seriously ill patients are proportionately more likely to combine their attribute reactions only in the willingness to recommend model. All six attributes are not equally influential. Nursing care and staff care show consistent influence in both models. These findings show that if healthcare managers want to increase their patient satisfaction, they should enhance nursing care and staff care first to experience the most improvement.
Malignant mesothelioma growth inhibition by agents that target the VEGF and VEGF‐C autocrine loops

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a locally aggressive tumor that originates from the mesothelial cells of the pleural and sometimes peritoneal surface. Conventional treatments for MM, consisting of chemotherapy or surgery give little survival benefit to patients, who generally die within 1 year of diagnosis. Hence, there is an urgent need for the development of alternative therapies. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an autocrine growth factor for MM. The closely related molecule, VEGF‐C, is also implicated in malignant mesothelioma growth. VEGF‐C and its cognate receptor VEGFR‐3 are co‐expressed in mesothelioma cell lines. A functional VEGF‐C autocrine growth loop was demonstrated in mesothelioma cells by targeting VEGF‐C expression and binding to VEGFR‐3. The ability of novel agents that reduce the levels of VEGF and VEGF‐C to inhibit mesothelioma cell growth in vitro was assessed. Antisense oligonucleotide (ODN) complementary to VEGF that inhibited VEGF and VEGF‐C expression simultaneously specifically inhibited mesothelioma cell growth. Similarly, antibodies to VEGF receptor (VEGFR‐2) and VEGF‐C receptor (VEGFR‐3) were synergistic in inhibiting mesothelioma cell growth. In addition, a diphtheria toxin‐VEGF fusion protein (DT‐VEGF), which is toxic to cells that express VEGF receptors was very effective in inhibiting mesothelioma cell growth in vitro. These results indicate that targeting VEGF and VEGF‐C simultaneously may be an effective therapeutic approach for malignant mesothelioma. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Anti‐retroviral therapy reverses HIV‐associated abnormalities in lymphocyte apoptosis

The objective of this study was to assess the role of anti‐retroviral therapy (ART) on the susceptibility of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from HIV‐1‐infected individuals to activation‐induced apoptosis and in comparison with changes in CD4 lymphocyte counts. Eleven symptomatic HIV+ patients were studied. Ex vivo apoptosis was measured in phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)‐stimulated PBL and CD4 subsets by flow cytometry, at baseline and after 1 month (4–6 weeks) and 2/3 months of ART. Six patients had extended studies of the effects of therapy to a maximum of 21 months. Lymphocyte apoptosis was significantly elevated in HIV+ patients at baseline (median 22% compared with 7.5% in HIV− risk‐matched controls; P < 0.05). This decreased to control levels on ART (7.4% at 4–6 weeks, P < 0.01, and 6.2% at 8–12 weeks, P < 0.05, compared with baseline). Similar changes occurred in the CD4+ subpopulation. The decrease in apoptosis was maintained for several months, but the effect was rapidly lost if ART was discontinued. CD4 counts showed a reciprocal relationship to changes in apoptosis. The association of changes in apoptosis with those in CD4 counts suggests a link between programmed cell death and lymphocyte depletion. Apoptosis reduced in some individuals without any reduction in viral load, suggesting apoptosis may be influenced by factors in addition to the overall extent of HIV replication.
What Factors Drive Trading around the World?

This paper examines the implications of Lo and Wang’s (2000, 2006) mutual fund separation model in the cross-sectional behavior of global trading activity. It demonstrates that return-based factors work poorly around the world. On average across countries, market-wide turnover accounts for 37% of all systematic turnover components in individual stock trading, and two additional Fama and French (1993) factor turnovers increase the explanatory power by 23%. Similarly Lo and Wang’s (2000) turnovers account for on average only 64% of all systematic turnover components. Using this multifactor asset pricing-trading framework, a horse race is further performed to explore other factors in return which are important for explaining the common variation in turnover. All the return-based factors account for at most 67% of the common variation in trading, suggesting that stock pricing and trading volume may not be compatible around the world. In a cross-country analysis, the explanatory power of the return-based factor model varies substantially across countries and markets, with better performance for developed European markets and China. Surprisingly, in North America, Japan, and most emerging markets there are larger amounts of commonality in trading, usually higher than 47%, for reasons other than return motive.
Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma With High-grade Transformation: A Report of 11 Cases and a Review of the Literature

High-grade transformation of adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) (previously referred to as dedifferentiation) is a rare phenomenon that does not fit into the traditional ACC grading schemes. The importance and minimal criteria for distinction from solid (grade III) ACC are not well established. We report 11 new cases and review the literature to further define the profile of this tumor. The median age was 61 years (range: 32 to 72 y) with a male predominance (male to female ratio of 1.75:1). The most commonly involved sites were sinonasal (4/11) and submandibular (4/11). Lymph nodes were pathologically positive in 4/7 (57.1%) cases. Distant metastases to the lung (n=2) and soft tissue of the shoulder (n=1) were observed. Five of 9 patients (55.6%) died, all within 5 years with a median overall survival of 12 months. Histologically, ACC with high-grade transformation was distinguished from conventional ACC by nuclear enlargement and irregularity, higher mitotic counts, and the loss of the biphasic ductal-myoepithelial differentiation. Useful supportive criteria were prominent comedonecrosis and fibrocellular desmoplasia. The most common morphologies for the high-grade component were poorly differentiated cribriform adenocarcinoma and solid undifferentiated carcinoma. Micropapillary and squamoid patterns were occasionally present. Ki-67 and p53 labeling indices were elevated in the high-grade components, though c-kit and cyclin-D1 were not. ACC–high-grade transformation is a highly aggressive salivary gland tumor with a variety of histologic patterns. The high propensity for lymph node metastases suggests a role for neck dissection in patients with this rare tumor.
An Investigation into the Influence of Various Gases and Concentrations of Sclerosants on Foam Stability

BACKGROUND Foam sclerotherapy is an increasingly popular modality in varicose vein treatment. Our previous work showed that the half‐life of room air foam varied according to the percentage and type of sclerosant solution. MATERIALS AND METHODS A plastic connector was used to create foam made from a combination of 0.25%, 0.50%, and 1% sodium tetradecyl sulfate (STS) and room air, carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O2), or a mixture of CO2 and O2. To measure foam stability, the foam half‐life was defined as the time it took for half the original volume of sclerosing solution to settle. RESULTS Half‐life varied according to sclerosant concentration when room air, O2, or a mixture of CO2 and O2 was used for foam creation but not when CO2 was used. Room air foam is more than 3 times as stable as CO2 foam and 1.5 times as stable as a mixture of CO2 and O2. CONCLUSIONS CO2 foam half‐life did not vary according to sclerosant solution concentration, though room air, O2, and CO2/O2 did. The half‐life of room air foam is more than 3 times as long as that of CO2 and 1.5 times as long as that of a mixture of CO2 and O2. Foam half‐life for room air and O2 are similar at low concentrations of STS but differ at higher concentrations. Portable Medical Devices, Inc., North Fort Myers, Florida, provided CO2mmander for testing.
Childhood cancer registries in Ontario, Canada: Lessons learned from a comparison of two registries

Two childhood cancer registries exist in Ontario. One (POGO) accrues by active registration by pediatric cancer centers, utilizing a histologically based classification system. The other accrues by passive linkage within a larger adult oriented cancer registry (OCR) using a topographically based classification. A reportedly high incidence of childhood cancer based on the latter registry prompted a comparison of the content of the two registries over a 2‐year period with the hypothesis that there would be systematic accrual errors. All registrations in both registries for the specified period were reviewed systematically and validated by pathology reports. A small number (2.6%) of registrations in the passive registry were not incident cases, while 2 particular pathologic diagnoses were included in the histologically based registry and not the topographically based registry. These were low grade gliomas and Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH). The validated annual incident rate (15.6 per 100,000 children 0–14 years of age, excluding LCH) is slightly higher than that reported in other industrialized countries. Ninety‐six percent of children aged 0–14 were treated in pediatric oncology centers, while only 46% of adolescents aged 15–17 were treated in such centers. Of the remaining adolescents, more than one‐third had lymphomas. This maldistribution of care provided for the young adolescent population may compromise their survival prospects. The results of this study should prompt revision of health care policy and patterns of service delivery. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Prostate cancer: local staging at 3-T endorectal MR imaging--early experience.

PURPOSE To prospectively investigate the local staging accuracy of 3-T endorectal magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for prostate cancer by using whole-mount-section histopathologic analysis as the standard of reference. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was approved by the institutional review board, and informed consent was obtained from all patients. In 35 consecutive patients (median age, 62.3 years) with biopsy-proved prostate cancer, 3-T endorectal MR imaging was performed. High-spatial-resolution endorectal T2-weighted fast spin-echo images of the prostate were obtained in three planes. MR images were prospectively evaluated by two experienced radiologists and a third radiologist who was less experienced with regard to local disease extent by using five established extracapsular criteria. Whole-mount-section histopathologic analysis was the standard of reference. Evaluation was performed according to octant and patient. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, overall accuracy, and interobserver agreement were calculated. RESULTS Thirty-two patients who underwent radical prostatectomy were enrolled in this study. Accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of local staging were 94% (30 of 32), 88% (seven of eight), and 96% (23 of 24), respectively, for both experienced radiologists, and these values were 81% (26 of 32), 50% (four of eight), and 92% (22 of 24), respectively, for the less experienced radiologist. There was substantial agreement between both experienced readers (kappa = 0.42-0.79) and moderate agreement between the less experienced reader and the experienced readers with respect to all extracapsular criteria. In regard to the three cases of minimal capsular invasion, two were detected by both experienced radiologists. CONCLUSION In this study, high accuracy for staging of prostate cancer at 3-T endorectal MR imaging, with moderate to substantial observer agreement, was demonstrated. In addition, minimal capsular invasion could be detected.
Cysteine proteinase inhibitors decrease articular cartilage and bone destruction in chronic inflammatory arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effects of peptidyl fluoromethyl ketones on the in vitro activity of purified cathepsins B and L, on tissue cysteine proteinase activity, and on cartilage and bone destruction in experimental arthritis. METHODS The effects of the fluoroketones on cathepsins B and L in vitro and the effects of oral administration of fluoroketones on ex vivo cysteine proteinase activity in tissue homogenates were determined by measuring the inhibition of fluorogenic substrate cleavage. To determine the effects on arthritis, animals were injected with adjuvant or type II collagen, treated orally with the fluoroketones, and the severity of arthritis was assessed by clinical, histologic, and radiologic methods. RESULTS All of the fluoroketones tested were potent inhibitors of purified cathepsins B and L activity. Oral administration of the fluoroketones reduced tissue cysteine proteinase activity by up to 77%. In addition, fluoroketone treatment significantly reduced the severity of clinical joint disease and decreased the destruction of articular cartilage and bone. Quantitative analysis of radiographic images indicated that treatment significantly reduced soft tissue changes, periosteal proliferation, and bone erosion, but only partially reduced juxtaarticular osteoporosis. CONCLUSION These studies suggest that cysteine proteinase inhibitors may limit tissue destruction in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Comparison of corona models for computing the surge propagation in multiconductor power lines

Different corona models are investigated with reference to the propagation along lossy overhead multiconductor transmission lines of overvoltages due to direct lightning strokes. A nonlinear dynamic capacitance is introduced to simulate the nonlinear behavior of the q-v hysteretic loop and account for the losses associated with its area. For comparison, an equivalent circuit has been introduced to simulate the corona phenomenon through a voltage-dependent current-generator and a nonlinear conductance in parallel. In this paper we compare the predictions of different models in comparison with measured data available in literature. Then, a model based on a nonlinear dynamic capacitance is implemented in an efficient Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method where also the losses in the ground return path are simulated by means of the expression ensuring from Carson theory transferred in the time-domain.
Implications from Biased Probability Judgments for International Disparities in Momentum Returns

ABSTRACT Momentum is a consistent phenomenon in financial data from the majority of markets around the globe. One prominent exception is the Japanese market, where returns from a momentum-investment strategy are nonexistent. The authors investigated international differences in the representativeness heuristic, which is one potential driver of momentum. After observing sequences of a random walk, subjects give probability estimates for the direction of the respective next change. The experiment was conducted in Japan and in Germany. For a subgroup of participants with lower cognitive abilities our results are perfectly in line with international momentum evidence.
Territory acquisition in loons: the importance of take-over

We examined patterns of territory acquisition and reconnaissance in common loons, Gavia immer, from northern Wisconsin. Among all territory acquisitions, 41.5% occurred through passive occupation of territories left vacant after the death or desertion of a previous resident, 17% constituted founding of new territories and the remaining 41.5% came about through take-over: either usurpation of defended territories or appropriation of territories before the seasonal return of previous owners. Take-overs occurred in both sexes, but individuals acted alone, never in pairs. Displaced breeders usually took refuge on undefended lakes near their former territories; about half of these loons later regained former territories through passive occupation or took possession of new territories elsewhere. As predicted by the reconnaissance hypothesis, usurpations occurred most often in territories that had produced chicks during the previous 12 months, suggesting that loons use the presence or absence of chicks as a cue for territorial usurpation. Large individuals of both sexes held onto territories longer than small individuals, an indication that body size might be correlated with fighting ability. In terms of life history, loons appear to locate good territories through reconnaissance, usurp them in a subsequent year and recover from displacements by reclaiming their original territories or new ones. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Travel behaviour of Mainland Chinese international students in Norway

Abstract Mainland Chinese International Students (MCIS) were chosen for this study due to the growing and increasing market of both MCIS and Chinese tourists in Norway. A qualitative methodology approach was employed and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Contradictions with previous findings, the choice to travel alone or in small groups is due to more freedom and reducing hassle of conflicting ideas, travelling by plane is due to convenience and price as well as choosing cheap and budget accommodation such as Airbnb because of price but also because the respondents value other additional services. It can be argued that travel behaviour and choices are depended on the study destination, its infrastructure and facilities rather than the respondents’ status as international students.
YAN LI SEX STEROID METABOLISM IN THE PLACENTA AND THE BREAST

The biosynthesis and metabolism of sex steroids are controlled by a series of steroidogenic enzymes. In the placenta and the breast, 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (3β-HSD1) is essential for the synthesis of all steroid hormones by catalyzing pregnenolone to progesterone (P) or dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) to androstenedione (A-dione). P450 aromatase (P450arom) converts androgens to estrogens and is therefore critical for estrogen production. 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (17HSDs) are a group of enzymes responsible for the interconversion between lowactivity 17-ketosteroids and high-activity 17β-hydroxysteroids, thus acting as key enzymes modulating the biosynthesis and metabolism of both estrogens and androgens. In situ hybridization assays showed that 3β-HSD1, P450arom and 17HSD1, 2, 5 and 7 are expressed in early and mid-gestation placentas. Abundant expressions of 3β-HSD1, P450arom and 17HSD1 were seen in syncytiotrophoblast (ST) cells. Signals of these three enzymes were also detected in some column cytotrophoblast (CCT) cells. 17HSD2 and 5 were located in intravillous stromal (IS) cells, whereas 17HSD7 mRNA was present in all types of placental cells. This suggests that the human placenta produces not only P and estrogens, but also androgens. Moreover, the placenta possesses a function, by the action of 17HSD2, to protect the fetus and the maternal body from excessive sex steroid influence. In tubal pregnancy, P450arom and 17HSD1 were found in ST cells, implying an estrogen biosynthesis mechanism similar to that in normal intrauterine pregnancy. In both JEG-3 choriocarcinoma cell line and cultured normal human cytotrophoblast (CTB) cells, retinoic acids were shown to promote the enzyme activity as well as mRNA expression of P450arom and 17HSD1, and hence their action on the biosynthesis of E2. The mRNA expressions of 17HSD1, 2 and 5 in 794 breast carcinoma specimens were analyzed and correlated with ERα, ERβ, PR, Ki67, c-erbB2 and clinical parameters. 17HSD1, 2 and 5 were detected in epithelial cells in normal and malignant breast tissues. In breast cancer specimens, the positive cases for 17HSD1, 2 and 5 were 16%, 25% and 65%, respectively. 17HSD1 was found to be an independent prognostic marker of the progression of breast cancer.
FFTLasso: Large-Scale LASSO in the Fourier Domain

In this paper, we revisit the LASSO sparse representation problem, which has been studied and used in a variety of different areas, ranging from signal processing and information theory to computer vision and machine learning. In the vision community, it found its way into many important applications, including face recognition, tracking, super resolution, image denoising, to name a few. Despite advances in efficient sparse algorithms, solving large-scale LASSO problems remains a challenge. To circumvent this difficulty, people tend to downsample and subsample the problem (e.g. via dimensionality reduction) to maintain a manageable sized LASSO, which usually comes at the cost of losing solution accuracy. This paper proposes a novel circulant reformulation of the LASSO that lifts the problem to a higher dimension, where ADMM can be efficiently applied to its dual form. Because of this lifting, all optimization variables are updated using only basic element-wise operations, the most computationally expensive of which is a 1D FFT. In this way, there is no need for a linear system solver nor matrix-vector multiplication. Since all operations in our FFTLasso method are element-wise, the subproblems are completely independent and can be trivially parallelized (e.g. on a GPU). The attractive computational properties of FFTLasso are verified by extensive experiments on synthetic and real data and on the face recognition task. They demonstrate that FFTLasso scales much more effectively than a state-of-the-art solver.