Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive Factors of Complete Response to Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy in Patients with Rectal Cancer

Purpose: Pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is a favorable prognosticator in rectal cancer patients. We investigated whether the biological features of the primary tumor affect pCR. Materials and Methods:Forty-six patients treated with capecitabine-oxaliplatin and pelvic conformal radiotherapy were considered. Forty-three patients underwent surgery, and the pathologic response was scored according to the tumor regression grade (TRG) scale. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), vascular endothelial growth factor, poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase-1, X-ray cross-complimenting, thymidylate synthase (TS) and Ki67 expression were evaluated by immunohistochemistry on rectal biopsies obtained before chemoradiotherapy, and scored as the percentage of positive cells. Cutoffs were selected based on ROC analysis. The correlation between the biological factors and the TRG coded as TRG1 (pCR) versus TRG ≧2 (no pCR) was assessed by the χ2 test and logistic regression analysis. Results: Low EGFR (p = 0.007), high TS (p = 0.002), and high Ki67 (p = 0.05) were strongly associated with pCR. Upon univariate analysis, TRG significantly affected disease-free survival (p = 0.03). Conclusions: pCR was significantly associated with high TS, high Ki67 and low EGFR expression. Patients with pCR have a significantly lower incidence of relapse.
Android 7 File Based Encryption and the Attacks Against It

Android users have been provided with some level of disk encryption since Android 3.0 “Honeycomb”. This is marketed as ‘Full Disk’ encryption (FDE). FDE allows users to encrypt their /data partition. The major problem with FDE is that after rebooting, multiple critical functions of the device are unusable without user interaction. File Based encryption (FBE) was introduced to overcome this issue as part of the release of Android 7.0 “Nougat” in August 2016. FBE allows different files to be encrypted with different keys that can be unlocked independently. This fixes the shortcoming of FDE and also allows for more fine grained control of what’s encrypted. The security of FDE has been researched quite extensively. Due to its recent release FBE has not been studied. In this paper we elucidate the workings of FBE. We then catalogue some of the known attacks against Android FDE. For each attack we introduce how they function along with the Android specific mechanisms they use. Then we either reason about or practically apply these attacks to the most recent Android version. Over half of the attacks we test are still applicable for Android 7. Finally we provide some recommendations for how these attacks can be rendered obsolete.
Parents&Apos; Beliefs About Their Children&Apos;S Academic Ability: Implications for Educational Investments

Information about children’s school performance appears to be readily available. Do frictions prevent parents, particularly low-income parents, from acting on this information when making decisions? I conduct a field experiment in Malawi to test this. I find that parents’ baseline beliefs about their children’s academic performance are inaccurate. Providing parents with clear and digestible academic performance information causes them to update their beliefs and correspondingly adjust their investments: they increase the school enrollment of their higher-performing children, decrease the enrollment of their lower-performing children, and choose educational inputs that are more closely matched to their children’s academic level. These effects demonstrate the presence of important frictions preventing the use of available information, with heterogeneity analysis suggesting the frictions are worse among the poor.
Malignant Hypertension with Pulmonary Alveolar Hemorrhage Needing Dialysis

Although blood pressure rises with age, it has been recognized that some individuals develop rapidly progressive blood pressure elevations with target organ injury. If these blood pressure elevations are not treated, the mortality rate in patients with target organ injury, including papilledema and declining kidney function, can exceed 50% over 6–12 months, and this hypertension is considered ‘malignant’ [1]. Malignant hypertension is histologically characterized by fibrinoid necrosis of arterioles and progresses rapidly. It is observed in a variety of organs, including the kidneys, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, liver, retina, brain, myocardium, prostate, and skeletal muscles. However, pulmonary hemorrhage is rare. Here, we report a rare case of malignant hypertension with pulmonary alveolar hemorrhage. Case
Context-Dependent Regulation of Hematopoietic Lineage Choice by HEBAlt

Hematopoietic development is controlled by combinatorial interactions between E-protein transcription factors and other lineage regulators that operate in the context of gene-regulatory networks. The E-proteins HEB and E2A are critical for T cell and B cell development, but the mechanisms by which their activities are directed to different genes in each lineage are unclear. We found that a short form of HEB, HEBAlt, acts downstream of Delta-like (DL)-Notch signaling to promote T cell development. In this paper, we show that forced expression of HEBAlt in mouse hematopoietic progenitors inhibited B cell development, but it allowed them to adopt a myeloid fate. HEBAlt interfered with the activity of E2A homodimers and with the expression of the transcription factor Pax5, both of which are critical for B cell development. However, when combined with DL-Notch signaling, HEBAlt enhanced the generation of T cell progenitors at the expense of myeloid cells. The longer form of HEB, HEBCan, also inhibited E47 activity and Pax5 expression, but it did not collaborate with DL-Notch signaling to suppress myeloid potential. Therefore, HEBAlt can suppress B cell or myeloid potential in a context-specific manner, which suggests a role for this factor in maintaining T lineage priming prior to commitment.
Context-dependent catalepsy intensification is due to classical conditioning and sensitization

Haloperidol-induced catalepsy represents a model of neuroleptic-induced Parkinsonism. Daily administration of haloperidol, followed by testing for catalepsy on a bar and grid, results in a day-to-day increase in catalepsy that is completely context dependent, resulting in a strong placebo effect and in a failure of expression after a change in context. The aim of this study was to analyse the associative learning process that underlies context dependency. Catalepsy intensification was induced by a daily threshold dose of 0.25 mg/kg haloperidol. Extinction training and retesting under haloperidol revealed that sensitization was composed of two components: a context-conditioning component, which can be extinguished, and a context-dependent sensitization component, which cannot be extinguished. Context dependency of catalepsy thus follows precisely the same rules as context dependency of psychostimulant-induced sensitization. Catalepsy sensitization is therefore due to conditioning and sensitization.
1992 Volvo Award in Experimental Studies Vertebral Burst Fractures: An Experimental, Morphologic, and Radiographic Study

Spinal burst fractures are produced by rapid compressive loading, and may result in spinal cord injury from bone fragments forced from the vertebral body into the spinal canal. This fractura is one of the most difficult injuries of the spine to successfully treat, in part because the biomechanies of reduction and the exact mechanism by which the distraction forces are transmitted to the intracanal fragments of the burst fracture have not been adequately investigated. The authors developed a reproducible technique for creating these fractures in vitro. The fractures produced were identical to those observed in clinical practice, and were used for investigating the mechanics of this fracture and its reduction. This work describes the pathologic anatomy of the burst fracture both on the gross structure and also on microtome sections of the vertebrae, and examines the biomechanics of fracture reduction. The margins of the vertebral bone fragment, which was forced posteriorly into the spinal canal during fracture, were noted to extend far laterally beyond the pedicles. The authors also found extensive damage not only to the disc above the injured level, but also to that below, explaining the clinical observation that disc degeneration frequently occurs at both levels. Examination of anatomic data provided by microtome section supported the hypothosis that the fibers that actually reduce the intracanal fragment originate in the anulus of the superior vertebra in the midportion of the endplate and insert into the lateral margins of the intracanal fragment. Investigations using magnetic resonance imaging confirmed that these obliquely directed fibers account for the indirect reduction of the fragment. The authors' studies demonstrate that the posterior longitudinal ligament provides only a minor contribution in the reduction of the fracture in comparison to the attachments of the posterior portion of the anulus fibrosus. The forces required to reduce this fragment were studied. Distraction was found to be the predominant force required for indirect posterior reduction. This was confirmed by a series of tests using devices that provided segmental fixation. The application of uniform distraction forces was most effective in the posterior reduction of the intracanal fragment.
Wound healing and TIME; new concepts and scientific applications.

Wound bed preparation is a comprehensive approach to wound management that focuses on optimizing conditions at the wound bed to encourage normal endogenous processes of healing. It is based on an understanding of the underlying molecular processes of the wound and is in a continuous state of evolution as it incorporates and responds to new information about and understanding of cellular mechanisms. This article reviews recent thinking about the relevance of wound bed preparation to diabetic wounds and burns, presents adjustments to the tissue, infection/inflammation, moisture imbalance, epidermis/ edge (TIME) paradigm of wound management to reflect greater understanding concerning migration of the epidermal edge, and provides an extension of the concept to include wound assessment. Finally, it asks whether TIME should now be put to the test. The field of wound management is lacking in robust data, but now that a more systematic approach to wound care exists, perhaps a more systematic approach to gathering the evidence should also be attempted.
In Vitro and In Vivo Activities of Novel 2-(Thiazol-2-ylthio)-1β-Methylcarbapenems with Potent Activities against Multiresistant Gram-Positive Bacteria

ABSTRACT SM-197436, SM-232721, and SM-232724 are new 1β-methylcarbapenems with a unique 4-substituted thiazol-2-ylthio moiety at the C-2 side chain. In agar dilution susceptibility testing these novel carbapenems were active against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE) with a MIC90 of ≤4 μg/ml. Furthermore, SM-232724 showed strong bactericidal activity against MRSA, in contrast to linezolid, which was bacteriostatic up to four times the MIC. SM-232724 showed good therapeutic efficacy comparable to those of vancomycin and linezolid against systemic infections of MRSA in cyclophosphamide-treated mice. The MICs of SM-197436, SM-232721, and SM-232724 for streptococci, including penicillin-intermediate and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae strains, ranged from ≤0.063 to 0.5 μg/ml. These drugs were the most active β-lactams tested against Enterococcus faecium, and the MIC90 s for ampicillin-resistant E. faecium ranged between 8 and 16 μg/ml, which were slightly higher than the value for linezolid. However, time-kill assays revealed the superior bactericidal activity of SM-232724 compared to those of quinupristin-dalfopristin and linezolid against an E. faecium strain with a 4-log reduction in CFU at four times the MIC after 24 h of exposure to antibiotics. In addition, SM-232724 significantly reduced the numbers of bacteria in a murine abscess model with the E. faecium strain: its efficacy was superior to that of linezolid, although the MICs (2 μg/ml) of these two agents are the same. Among gram-negative bacteria, these three carbapenems were highly active against Haemophilus influenzae (including ampicillin-resistant strains), Moraxella catarrhalis, and Bacteroides fragilis, and showed antibacterial activity equivalent to that of imipenem for Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Proteus spp. Thus, these new carbapenems are promising candidates for agents to treat nosocomial bacterial infections by gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, especially multiresistant gram-positive cocci, including MRSA and vancomycin-resistant enterococci.
Novel ion channel targets in atrial fibrillation

ABSTRACT Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in humans. It is progressive and the development of electrical and structural remodeling makes early intervention desirable. Existing antiarrhythmic pharmacological approaches are not always effective and can produce unwanted side effects. Additional atrial-selective antiarrhythmic strategies are therefore desirable. Areas covered: Evidence for three novel ion channel atrial-selective therapeutic targets is evaluated: atrial-selective fast sodium channel current (INa) inhibition; small conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels; and two-pore (K2P) potassium channels. Expert Opinion: Data from animal models support atrial-ventricular differences in INa kinetics and also suggest atrial-ventricular differences in sodium channel β subunit expression. Further work is required to determine whether intrinsic atrial-ventricular differences in human INa exist or whether functional differences occur due to distinct atrial and ventricular action and resting potentials. SK and K2P channels (particularly K2P 3.1) offer potentially attractive atrial-selective targets. Work is needed to identify the underlying basis of SK current that contributes to (patho)physiological atrial repolarization and settings in which SK inhibition is anti- versus pro-arrhythmic. Although K2P3.1 appears to be a promising target with comparatively selective drugs for experimental use, a lack of selective pharmacology hinders evaluation of other K2P channels as potential atrial-selective targets.
French Wine and the U.S. Boycott of 2003: Does Politics Really Affect Commerce?

In early 2003, France actively tried to thwart the plans of the Bush administration to build international support for a war to depose Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein. In response, calls in the United States for a boycott of French products, wine in particular, rebounded through all forms of media. In the spring of 2003, French business people even reported that the boycott calls were hurting their U.S. sales. Using a dataset of sales of nearly 4,700 individual wine brands, we show that there actually was no boycott effect. Rather, sales of French wine dipped for two reasons. First, they experience a cyclical peak at holiday time, from November through early January, and the boycott was called during the February to May period. Second, sales of French wine have been in a secular decline in the United States. Sales in February through May 2003 merely stayed on trend. We contrast our results with other recent work that has found evidence of a boycott effect but that omits the holiday effect from several specifications. French wine producers may be having economic problems, but it is not because of their government's foreign policy.
Evaluationwith the Centrifugal Fast Analyzer of a Chemical Activation Procedure for Creatine Kinase MB lsoenzyme

The differentialctivationmethod forthe determination of the ‘myocardial” isoenzyme of creatine kinase (MB) is basedon the computed difference in activity of serum aliquots activated by the combination of dithiothreitol and glutathione (skeletal plus myocardial creatine kinase) and by glutathione alone (skeletal creatine kinase). The unique ability of the Centrifugal Fast Analyzer to perform analyses inparallelis used topreciselymeasure (CV = 0.1-1.5%) the activity of the two chemically activated aliquots. Statistical considerations concerning the reliability of this difference estimation are discussed with respect to both the precision of the rate measurements and to the relative amount of isoenzyme MB present. Another potential source of error in the analysis of the two differently activated aliquots, namely variation in lag phases, is circumvented by use of a linear-search FOCAL software package. This program searches the data for a linear segment of maximum slope, automatically rejecting those data that appear inlagordepletionregionsofthecurve representing the progress ofthereaction. Correspondence oftheresults obtained with those of comparison techniques (chromatography and electrophoresis) are discussed.
Surface T‐cell antigen receptor expression and availability for long‐term antigenic signaling

Summary: It is important to understand how T‐cell antigen receptor (TCR) engagement and signaling are regulated throughout an immune response. This review examines the dynamics of surface TCR expression and signaling capacity during thymic and effector T‐cell development. Although the TCR can undergo vast changes in surface expression, T cells remain capable of sustaining TCR engagement for long periods of time. This may be achieved by a combination of mechanisms that involve (a) controlling the quantity of surface TCR available for ligand interaction and (b) controlling the quality of surface TCR expression during T‐cell activation. TCR signaling itself appears to be one of the main quantitative modulators of surface TCR expression, and it can cause both downregulation and upregulation at different times of T‐cell activation. Recent studies indicate that the degree of upregulation is tunable by the strength of antigenic stimulation. There is evidence that qualitatively distinct forms of the TCR exist, and their potential role in sustained antigenic signaling is also discussed. A goal of future studies will be to better characterize these modulations in surface TCR expression and to clarify their impact on the regulation of immune responses.
Cross sectional survey of patients' satisfaction with information about cancer

Most patients with cancer want as much information as possible appropriate to their personal needs and circumstances. 1 2 We surveyed the views of cancer patients entering a randomised trial of computer based information.3 We examined their need for information and their satisfaction with information received and how these varied with their demographic, social, and psychological characteristics. Eligible patients were those planned to receive radical radiotherapy, who knew their diagnosis, were without visual or mental handicap, and were without severe pain or symptoms causing distress. Of 715 patients asked to take part, 190 refused, 25 stating they did not want more information. Of the 525 participants, 309 had breast cancer, 129 had prostate cancer, 22 had cervical cancer, and 65 had laryngeal cancer. Data were collected at the recruitment interview, from a questionnaire the patients completed at home shortly after, and from their case notes Data included the information patients would like,2 a hospital anxiety and depression scale,4 the newspaper patients read, and deprivation category (derived from postcode). 5 Using χ2 tests and multiple logistic regression analysis, we compared the patients' sources and perceived quantity of information received and their satisfaction with this information, as binary variables, with their age, sex, cancer site, newspaper …
Screening for diabetic retinopathy by one-field, non-mydriatic, 45 degrees digital photography is inadequate.

PURPOSE To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of one-field, non-mydriatic, 45 degrees digital photography for screening for diabetic retinopathy compared to indirect ophthalmoscopy using a slit-lamp, the reference standard. METHODS A total of 100 consecutive diabetic patients (200 eyes) who underwent digital fundus photography and ocular examinations from June 2002 to November 2002 were included in this retrospective study. The patients, recruited from a hospital-based, retina referral practice, underwent 45 degrees, non-mydriatic, digital fundus photography using a non-mydriatic fundus camera. One image was obtained focusing the mid fundus between the optic disc and the macula. The fundus images were printed and graded by endocrinologists and a retinal specialist separately. The patients also underwent complete standard ocular examinations as the reference method for determining diabetic retinopathy, including dilation of their pupils and slit-lamp biomicroscopy done by ophthalmologists. The sensitivity and specificity of the digital photographic method were calculated by comparison to the reference method. RESULTS The sensitivity and specificity of the retinal specialist's diabetic retinopathy grades were 53.8 and 89.0%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the endocrinologists' grades were 45 and 75.3%, respectively. The false negative rates were 22 and 21.5% for endocrinologists and the retinal specialist, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Screening for diabetic retinopathy using one-field, non-mydriatic, 45 degrees digital photography is inadequate.
Preferential encoding of movement amplitude and speed in the primary motor cortex and cerebellum

Voluntary movements require control of multiple kinematic parameters, a task carried out by a distributed brain architecture. However, it remains unclear whether regions along the motor system encode single, or rather a mixture of, kinematic parameters during action execution. Here, rapid event‐related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to differentiate brain activity along the motor system during the encoding of movement amplitude, duration, and speed. We present cumulative evidence supporting preferential encoding of kinematic parameters along the motor system, based on blood‐oxygenation‐level dependent signal recorded in a well‐controlled single‐joint wrist‐flexion task. Whereas activity in the left primary motor cortex (M1) showed preferential encoding of movement amplitude, the anterior lobe of the right cerebellum (primarily lobule V) showed preferential encoding of movement speed. Conversely, activity in the left supplementary motor area (SMA), basal ganglia (putamen), and anterior intraparietal sulcus was not preferentially modulated by any specific parameter. We found no preference in peak activation for duration encoding in any of the tested regions. Electromyographic data was mainly modulated by movement amplitude, restricting the distinction between amplitude and muscle force encoding. Together, these results suggest that during single‐joint movements, distinct kinematic parameters are controlled by largely distinct brain‐regions that work together to produce and control precise movements. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5970–5986, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.