Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Repeatability of metabolically active tumor volume measurements with FDG PET/CT in advanced gastrointestinal malignancies: a multicenter study.

PURPOSE To evaluate the feasibility and repeatability of various metabolically active tumor volume ( MATV metabolically active tumor volume ) quantification methods in fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose ( FDG fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose ) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in a multicenter setting and propose the optimal MATV metabolically active tumor volume method together with the minimal threshold for future response evaluation studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was approved by the institutional review board of all four participating centers, and patients provided written informed consent. Thirty-four patients with advanced gastrointestinal malignancies underwent two FDG fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT examinations within 1 week. MATV metabolically active tumor volume s were defined semiautomatically with 27 variations of tumor delineation methods with different reference values. Feasibility was determined as the percentage of successful tumor segmentations per MATV metabolically active tumor volume method. Repeatability was determined with intraclass correlation coefficients, Bland-Altman plots, and limits of agreement ( LOA limit of agreement s) of the percentage difference between the test and repeat test measurements. In addition, LOA limit of agreement variability per center was investigated. RESULTS In total, 136 lesions were identified. Feasibility of tumor segmentation ranged from 54% to 100% (74-136 of 136 lesions); repeatability was evaluated for 19 MATV metabolically active tumor volume methods with feasibility of greater than 95%. The median MATV metabolically active tumor volume derived with 50% threshold of mean standardized uptake value ( SUV standardized uptake value ) of a sphere of 12-mm diameter with highest local intensity ( SUVhp mean SUV of a sphere of 12-mm diameter with highest local intensity ), which may not include the voxel with highest SUV standardized uptake value corrected for local background, was 5.7 and 6.1 mL for test and retest scans, respectively, with a relative LOA limit of agreement of 36.1%. Comparable repeatability was found between centers. A difference in uptake time between scan 1 and 2 of 15 minutes or longer had a minor negative influence on repeatability. CONCLUSION MATV metabolically active tumor volume measured with 50% of SUVhp mean SUV of a sphere of 12-mm diameter with highest local intensity corrected for local background is recommended in multicenter FDG fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT studies on the basis of a high feasibility (96%) and repeatability ( LOA limit of agreement of 36.1%).
Approximating Private Set Union/Intersection Cardinality With Logarithmic Complexity

The computation of private set union/intersection cardinality (PSU-CA/PSI-CA) is one of the most intensively studied problems in privacy preserving data mining (PPDM). However, the existing protocols are computationally too expensive to be employed in real-world PPDM applications. In response, we propose efficient approximate protocols, whose accuracy can be tuned according to application requirements. We first propose a two-party PSU-CA protocol based on Flajolet-Martin sketches. The protocol has logarithmic computational/communication complexity and relies mostly on symmetric key operations. Thus, it is much more efficient and scalable than existing protocols. In addition, our protocol can hide its output. This feature is necessary in PPDM applications, since the union cardinality is often an intermediate result that must not be disclosed. We then propose a two-party PSI-CA protocol, which is derived from the PSU-CA protocol with virtually no cost. Both our two-party protocols can be easily extended to the multiparty setting. We also design an efficient masking scheme for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(^{1}_{n}){-}OT$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The scheme is used in optimizing the two-party protocols and is of independent interest, since it can speed up <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(^{1}_{n}){-}OT$ </tex-math></inline-formula> significantly when <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is large. Finally, we show through experiments the effectiveness and efficiency of our protocols.
Oxygen plasma‐treated thermoresponsive polymer surfaces for cell sheet engineering

Although cell sheet tissue engineering is a potent and promising method for tissue engineering, an increase of mechanical strength of a cell sheet is needed for easy manipulation of it during transplantation or 3D tissue fabrication. Previously, we developed a cell sheet–polymer film complex that had enough mechanical strength that can be manipulated even by tweezers (Fujita et al., 2009. Biotechnol Bioeng 103(2): 370–377). We confirmed the polymer film involving a temperature sensitive polymer and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins could be removed by lowering temperature after transplantation, and its potential use in regenerative medicine was demonstrated. However, the use of ECM proteins conflicted with high stability in long‐term storage and low cost. In the present study, to overcome these drawbacks, we employed the oxygen plasma treatment instead of using the ECM proteins. A cast and dried film of thermoresponsive poly‐N‐isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAAm) was fabricated and treated with high‐intensity oxygen plasma. The cells became possible to adhere to the oxygen plasma‐treated PNIPAAm surface, whereas could not to the inherent surface of bulk PNIPAAm without treatment. Characterizations of the treated surface revealed the surface had high stability. The surface roughness, wettability, and composition were changed, depending on the plasma intensity. Interestingly, although bulk PNIPAAm layer had thermoresponsiveness and dissolved below lower critical solution temperature (LCST), it was found that the oxygen plasma‐treated PNIPAAm surface lost its thermoresponsiveness and remained insoluble in water below LCST as a thin layer. Skeletal muscle C2C12 cells could be cultured on the oxygen plasma‐treated PNIPAAm surface, a skeletal muscle cell sheet with the insoluble thin layer could be released in the medium, and thus the possibility of use of the cell sheet for transplantation was demonstrated. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;106: 303–310. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Colocalization of Gadolinium-Diethylene Triamine Pentaacetic Acid With High-Molecular-Weight Molecules After Intracerebral Convection-Enhanced Delivery in Humans

BACKGROUND:Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) permits site-specific therapeutic drug delivery within interstitial spaces at increased dosages through circumvention of the blood-brain barrier. CED is currently limited by suboptimal methodologies for monitoring the delivery of therapeutic agents that would permit technical optimization and enhanced therapeutic efficacy. OBJECTIVE:To determine whether a readily available small-molecule MRI contrast agent, gadolinium-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA), could effectively track the distribution of larger therapeutic agents. METHODS:Gd-DTPA was coinfused with the larger molecular tracer, 124I-labeled human serum albumin (124I-HSA), during CED of an EGFRvIII-specific immunotoxin as part of treatment for a patient with glioblastoma. RESULTS:Infusion of both tracers was safe in this patient. Analysis of both Gd-DTPA and 124I-HSA during and after infusion revealed a high degree of anatomical and volumetric overlap. CONCLUSION:Gd-DTPA may be able to accurately demonstrate the anatomic and volumetric distribution of large molecules used for antitumor therapy with high resolution and in combination with fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) imaging, and provide additional information about leaks into cerebrospinal fluid spaces and resection cavities. Similar studies should be performed in additional patients to validate our findings and help refine the methodologies we used.
Interactive high-dimensional visualization of social graphs

The paper tackles the problems of the “giant hairballs”, the dense and tangled structures often resulting from visualization of large social graphs. Proposed is a high-dimensional rotation technique called AGI3D, combined with an ability to filter elements based on social centrality values. AGI3D is targeted for a high-dimensional embedding of a social graph and its projection onto 3D space. It allows the user to rotate the social graph layout in the high-dimensional space by mouse dragging of a vertex. Its high-dimensional rotation effects give the user an illusion that he/she is destructively reshaping the social graph layout but in reality, it assists the user to find a preferred positioning and direction in the high-dimensional space to look at the internal structure of the social graph layout, keeping it unmodified. A prototype implementation of the proposal called Social Viewpoint Finder is tested with about 70 social graphs and this paper reports four of the analysis results.
Clinical Implications of Various Follow Up Strategies After Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation

Clinical Implications of Various Follow Up Strategies After Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation ARASH ARYA, M.D.,* CHRISTOPHER PIORKOWSKI, M.D.,* PHILIPP SOMMER, M.D.,* HANS KOTTKAMP, M.D., PH.D.† and GERHARD HINDRICKS, M.D., PH.D.* From the *Department of Electrophysiology, University of Leipzig, Heart Center, Leipzig, Germany, and †Department of Electrophysiology, Hirslanden Heart Center, Zürich, Switzerland
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Risk of intravascular injection in transforaminal epidural injections

Transforaminal epidural injection is an effective method for treating spinal pain but can cause devastating complications that result from accidental vascular uptake of the injectate or a direct vascular injury. We prospectively evaluated the patient factors that might be associated with intravascular uptake during transforaminal epidural injections. A total of 2145 injections were performed on 1088 patients under contrast‐enhanced real‐time fluoroscopic guidance. The collected data included the patient’s age, sex, body mass index, diagnosis, injection level, side of injection, history of spinal surgery at the targeted level, and the number of injections at the targeted site. The overall incidence of intravascular injection was 10.5% (224/2145). The highest incidence was at the cervical level (28/136; 20.6%), followed by the sacral level (111/673; 16.5%), the thoracic level (23/280; 8.2%) and the lumbar level (64/1056; 6.1%). The difference was significant for the cervical and sacral level compared with the lumbar and thoracic levels (p < 0.001). Intravascular injection was not associated with the other patient characteristics studied.
Suppression of interferon synthesis by the pesticide carbaryl as a mechanism for enhancement of goldfish virus-2 replication

Interferon production was demonstrated by the goldfish-derived CAR cell line in response to infection by goldfish virus-2. Supernatants of infected cultures provided antiviral protection to CAR cells and another cell line derived from goldfish, ABIII. The protective factor retained activity after ultracentrifugation, dialysis, freezing and thawing, acid treatment (pH 2), or heating to 56 degrees C but was sensitive to trypsin. Supernatants of infected cultures did not affect adsorption of virus. Previous studies have shown that replication of goldfish virus type 2 is enhanced by pretreatment of cultures with subcytotoxic concentrations of carbaryl. In the present study, pesticide-treated cultures were found to synthesize reduced levels of interferon.
The Association Between Weight Status and Pediatric Forearm Fractures Resulting From Ground-Level Falls

Objective The purpose of our study was to evaluate the hypothesis that pediatric forearm fractures resulting from ground-level falls are associated with increased weight status (weight for age/sex percentile ≥ 95th) in comparison with those resulting from major trauma. Methods This is a retrospective case-control study nested within a case series of 929 children, ages 0 to 17 years, with self-identified residence in Washington, DC, who were treated for isolated forearm fractures in an urban, academic pediatric emergency department between 2003 and 2006. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to test for the association of weight status with mechanism of injury while controlling for sex, age, race/ethnicity, bone fractured, and season. Results Of 929 forearm fractures, there were 226 (24.3%) with ground-level falls and 54 (5.8%) with major trauma. Compared with children with forearm fractures resulting from major trauma, ground-level fall cases were significantly older (10.4 [3.4] vs 7.4 [4.2] years, P < 0.05), had greater adjusted odds of having a weight for age/sex of 95th percentile or higher (odds ratio, 2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.2–6.5), and had significantly more radius-only fractures (odds ratio, 2.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.2–4.7). These groups did not differ in sex, race/ethnicity, or injury season. Conclusions Ground-level falls are a common mechanism of pediatric forearm fracture and are significantly associated with increased weight status and radius-only fractures. These results suggest the need for further investigation into obesity and bone health in pediatric patients with forearm fractures caused by ground-level falls.
Use of Serological Assays for Diagnosis of Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 1 and 3 Infections in a Setting of Low Endemicity

ABSTRACT Because of the occurrence of genotype 3 hepatitis E virus (HEV) in regions of low endemicity, it is important to validate the currently used serological assays for diagnosing infections with viruses belonging to this lineage, since these assays only use antigens derived from genotype 1 and 2 viruses. We evaluated the Genelabs enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the RecomBlot from Mikrogen for the detection of HEV-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG under conditions of low endemicity. We compared test results of 16 patients with locally acquired genotype 3 HEV, 8 genotype 1 patients, 167 healthy controls from the general population, and 101 cases with hepatitis due to other viral causes. The measured specificities of the ELISA (98%) and the RecomBlot (97%) were comparable to those given by the manufacturer for IgM but were significantly lower for IgG (93% by ELISA and 66% by immunoblotting, versus reported values of 98% for ELISA and 95% for blotting). Antibody levels detected following infections with genotype 3 were lower than those following genotype 1 infections except for those measured in the IgM ELISA. Reactivity to the four antigens used in the immunoblot assay were analyzed and showed differences in the IgM immunoblot reactions between genotype 1 patients and genotype 3 patients. The ORF3 antigen was the most specific antigen. The specificity could be improved by a combined testing regimen with confirmation by immunoblotting of all positive ELISA results and by raising the cutoff of the IgG immunoblot assay without loss of sensitivity. We conclude that a combination of ELISA and immunoblotting is needed for acceptable specificity and sensitivity of HEV assays under conditions of low endemicity.
Double-blind placebo-controlled trial of adjuvant pamidronate with palliative radiotherapy and intravenous doxorubicin for canine appendicular osteosarcoma bone pain.

BACKGROUND Canine osteosarcoma (OSA) causes focal malignant osteolysis leading to severe pain. Despite the documented efficacy of radiotherapy or IV aminobisphosphonates for managing cancer bone pain, their potential combined therapeutic value has not been reported in OSA-bearing dogs. HYPOTHESIS Pamidronate combined with standardized palliative therapy will improve pain control and bone biologic effects in OSA-bearing dogs. ANIMALS Fifty dogs with appendicular OSA treated with standardized palliative therapy and either pamidronate or sterile saline. METHODS Randomized, prospective, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. Treatment responses for dogs receiving standardized palliative therapy with (n = 26) or without (n = 24) adjuvant pamidronate were serially evaluated for changes in subjective pain scores, urine N-telopeptide (NTx) excretion, primary tumor relative bone mineral density (rBMD), and computerized pressure platform gait analysis. RESULTS Median duration of subjective pain relief for dogs treated with adjuvant pamidronate or placebo was 76 and 75 days, respectively (P= .39). Forty percent (20/50; pamidronate [11/26] and placebo [9/24]) of dogs experienced durable analgesia, defined by pain alleviation > or =112 days. For patients achieving durable pain control, dogs treated with pamidronate achieved greater reductions in NTx excretion and larger increases in rBMD compared with placebo controls. Changes in peak vertical force assessed by computerized pressure platform gait analysis correlated with pain alleviation in OSA-bearing dogs. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Combining pamidronate with standardized palliative therapy is safe, but does not clearly improve pain alleviation. However, in dogs achieving durable pain control, adjuvant pamidronate appears to decrease focal bone resorption in the local tumor microenvironment.
The Influence of Social Presence on Customer Intention to Reuse Online Recommender Systems: The Roles of Personalization and Product Type

Providing recommendations is acknowledged to be an important feature of a business-to-consumer online storefront. Although many studies have examined the algorithms and operational procedures relevant to personalized recommender systems, empirical evidence demonstrating relationships between social presence and two important outcomes of evaluating recommender systems—reuse intention and trust—remains lacking. To test the existence of a causal link between social presence and reuse intention, and the mediating role of trust between these two variables, this study conducted experiments varying the level of social presence while providing personalized recommendations to users based on their explicit preferences. This study also compared these effects in two different product contexts: hedonic and utilitarian. The results show that greater social presence increases both reuse intention and trust in the recommender systems. Moreover, the influence of social presence on reuse intention with respect to utilitarian products is less than that with respect to hedonic products.
Breakthrough Board Performance: How to Harness Your Board’s Intellectual Capital

To date, corporate governance research agendas have tended to concentrate on one particular role that a board performs. For instance, agency theory concentrates on the monitoring role, resource dependence theory concentrates on the board providing access to resources and stewardship theory concentrates on the board’s advice‐giving or strategic role. While these approaches provide practitioners with useful guidelines regarding issues such as board independence, we contend that practitioners need to take care not to act on the recommendations from a single theory in isolation from the others. To address this concern, we provide a model of board effectiveness that uses the construct of board intellectual capital to integrate the predominant theories of corporate governance and illustrate how the board can drive corporate performance. We further contend that boards that wish to improve their performance need to review their intellectual capital. We conclude by linking the model to a practitioner‐focused framework that identifies four key areas on which a board must concentrate to develop its intellectual capital.
Energy regulation in newly diagnosed TB with chronic energy deficiency: free fatty acids and RBP4.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Energy metabolism may be dysfunctionally integral between host and infective agent in active tuberculosis, mediated by adipocytokines and free fatty acids (FFA) as the products of triglyceride lipolysis in fat, blood or other tissues. Retinol Binding Protein 4 (RBP4) and asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) are candidate adipocytokines. The possibility of a deleterious metabolic nexus in chronic energy deficiency (CED) (BMI <18.5 kg/m2) is explored. METHODS AND DESIGN Newly diagnosed patients with tuberculosis (n=63) were selected using consecutive random sampling at a Centre for the Care and Treatment of Lung Diseases in Makassar, Indonesia. Diagnosis of pulmonary TB required microscopy with Ziehl-Neelsen stain. Anthropometric measurements were taken. Venesection allowed glomerular filtration rate, FFA, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase and glutamate-pyruvate transaminase to be assessed. RESULTS CED was evident in 60.3%. For the well and lesser nourished, medians were, respectively, FFA 0.30 and 0.37 mmol/mL (p=0.960); RBP4 199730 ng/mL and 11721 ng/mL (p=0.009); GFR 106 ml/min and 113 ml/min (p=0.673); and ADMA 0.52 ng/mL and 0.51 ng/mL (p=0.172). BMI and serum RBP4 were correlated (ρ=0.52, p<0.001), with odds ratios (OR) 5.8 (CI 1.68-20.3). RBP4 in CED was lower than in better nourished patients. Serum FFA is not evidently associated with BMI in patients with active TB. CONCLUSIONS RBP4 is some 6-fold lower when active TB patients have CED than when BMI >25 kg/m2. However, FFA was not associated with CED in these active TB patients which may be a type 2 error or represent an energy impasse where infection and the host's metabolic needs are in competition.
HIF-1-alpha links mitochondrial perturbation to the dynamic acquisition of breast cancer tumorigenicity

Up-regulation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), even in normoxia, is a common feature of solid malignancies. However, the mechanisms of increased HIF-1α abundance, and its role in regulating breast cancer plasticity are not fully understood. We have previously demonstrated that dimethyl-2-ketoglutarate (DKG), a widely used cell membrane-permeable α-ketoglutarate (α-KG) analogue, transiently stabilizes HIF-1α by inhibiting prolyl hydroxylase 2. Here, we report that breast cancer tumorigenicity can be acquired through prolonged treatment with DKG. Our results indicate that, in response to prolonged DKG treatment, mitochondrial respiration becomes uncoupled, leading to the accumulation of succinate and fumarate in breast cancer cells. Further, we found that an early increase in the oxygen flux rate was accompanied by a delayed enhancement of glycolysis. Together, our results indicate that these events trigger a dynamic enrichment for cells with pluripotent/stem-like cell markers and tumorsphere-forming capacity. Moreover, DKG-mediated metabolic reprogramming results in HIF-1α induction and reductive carboxylation pathway activation. Both HIF-1α accumulation and the tumor-promoting metabolic state are required for DKG-promoted tumor repopulation capacity in vivo. Our data suggest that mitochondrial adaptation to DKG elevates the ratio of succinate or fumarate to α-KG, which in turn stabilizes HIF-1α and reprograms breast cancer cells into a stem-like state. Therefore, our results demonstrate that metabolic regulation, with succinate and/or fumarate accumulation, governs the dynamic transition of breast cancer tumorigenic states and we suggest that HIF-1α is indispensable for breast cancer tumorigenicity.