Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase II trial of alfimeprase, a novel-acting fibrin degradation agent, for occluded central venous access devices.

PURPOSE Alfimeprase is a recombinantly produced, genetically modified variant of the metalloproteinase, fibrolase. Alfimeprase proteolytically cleaves fibrin, independent of plasminogen activation to plasmin, and directly dissolves thrombi. Based on the direct fibrin degradation effect of alfimeprase, rapid activity in patients with occluded central venous access devices (CVADs) was hypothesized. PATIENTS AND METHODS We performed a phase II, randomized, double-blind, active-control, multicenter, dose-ranging study to compare the safety and efficacy of one or two instillations of three intraluminal doses of alfimeprase (0.3, 1.0, and 3.0 mg) and alteplase 2.0 mg in re-establishing patency to occluded CVADs in 55 adult patients. RESULTS All three alfimeprase doses were more successful than alteplase during the first 15 and 30 minutes of treatment. The alfimeprase 3.0-mg dose resulted in 40%, 50%, and 60% patency restoration rates at 5, 15, and 30 minutes, respectively, compared with 0%, 0%, and 23% for alteplase. The difference at 15 minutes was highly significant (P = .0075). Alfimeprase 3.0 mg produced the highest patency rate at 120 minutes after the first (60%) and second (80%) doses. No major hemorrhagic or embolic events were reported. CONCLUSION A single 1- or 3-mg dose of alfimeprase has the potential to restore function to occluded CVADs rapidly and safely, and to facilitate on-time infusion of vital therapies.
Survey of deoxynivalenol and its conjugates deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside and 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol in 374 beer samples

Beer is one of the most popular beverages worldwide. Malted cereal grains are among the basic ingredients and hence mycotoxin contamination might occur. Previous studies reported the presence of the Fusarium mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON) and 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (3ADON), as well as of the masked mycotoxin deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside (D3G) in beer. In the present survey, 374 beer samples from 38 countries with a focus on Austrian (156) and German (64) beers were analysed for the presence of D3G, DON and 3ADON. Beers were assigned to the following six categories: pale (217), wheat (46), dark (47), bock (20), nonalcoholic beers (19) and shandies (25). In total, 348 and 289 beers (93 and 77%, respectively) contained D3G and DON at the levels above the limit of detection, whereas 3ADON was not detected in any of the samples. Average concentrations of all beers were 6.9 µg L−1 for D3G and 8.4 µg L−1 in the case of DON. Nonalcoholic beers and shandies showed the lowest contaminations, 1.5 and 3.2 µg L−1 for D3G and 2.7 and 4.4 µg L−1 for DON, respectively. In bock beers characterised by a higher gravity, a significant trichothecene load of 14.8 µg L−1 D3G and 12.4 µg L−1 DON was found. The highest contamination (81 µg L−1 D3G, 89 µg L−1 DON) was detected in a pale beer from Austria, underlining the importance of this study for food safety. The molar D3G to DON ratio ranged between 0.11 and 1.25 and was 0.56 on average. Concluding, the average contamination of beer is not of toxicological concern for moderate beer drinkers. However, in the case of heavy beer drinkers, beer consumption may considerably contribute to the overall intake of DON, which might even lead to exceeding the maximum tolerable limits established for this Fusarium toxin.
Title Spatial Niche Facilitates Clonal Reproduction in Seed Plantsunder Temporal Disturbance

The evolutionary origins and advantages of clonal reproduction relative to sexual reproduction have been discussed for several taxonomic groups. In particular, organisms with a sessile lifestyle are often exposed to spatial and temporal environmental fluctuations. Thus, clonal propagation may be advantageous in such fluctuating environments, for sessile species that can reproduce both sexually and clonally. Here we introduce the concept of niche to a lattice space that changes spatially and temporally, by incorporating the compatibility between the characteristics of a sessile clonal plant with its habitat into a spatially explicit individual-based model. We evaluate the impact of spatially and temporally heterogeneous environments on the evolution of reproductive strategies: the optimal balance between seed and clonal reproduction of a clonal plant. The spatial niche case with local habitats led to avoidance of specialization in reproductive strategy, whereas stable environments or intensive environmental change tended to result in specialization in either clonal or seed reproduction under neutral conditions. Furthermore, an increase in spatial niches made clonal reproduction advantageous, as a consequence of competition among several genets under disturbed conditions, because a ramet reached a favorable habitat through a rare long-distance dispersal event via seed production. Thus, the existence of spatial niches could explain the advantages of clonal propagation. OPEN ACCESS Citation: Fukui S, Araki KS (2014) Spatial Niche Facilitates Clonal Reproduction in Seed Plants under Temporal Disturbance. PLoS ONE 9(12): e116111. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0116111 Editor: Sergio R. Roiloa, University of A Coruña, Spain Received: July 17, 2014 Accepted: December 4, 2014 Published: December 30, 2014 Copyright: 2014 Fukui, Araki. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All relevant data are within the paper. Funding: This study was funded by a research fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for Young Scientists (201100907 to KSA), JSPS through the ‘‘Funding Program for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers (NEXT Program, GS013)’’ initiated by the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP), Japan, Global COE program (A06) of Kyoto University, and the Grants for Excellent Graduate Schools program of MEXT, Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection or analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone. 0116111 December 30, 2014 1 / 17
Additional chemotherapy agents improve treatment outcome for children and adults with advanced B-cell lymphomas.

We report the updated results of an intensive treatment protocol for children (< 18 years) and adults (> or = 18 years) with advanced B-cell lymphomas. The protocol consists of two chemotherapy regimens: A, consisting of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and high-dose methotrexate (CODOX-M), and B, consisting of ifosfamide, etoposide, and high-dose cytarabine (IVAC). Both cycles included intrathecal chemotherapy (cytarabine or methotrexate). Patients received a total of four cycles in the following sequence: A, B, A, B. Sixty-six previously untreated patients, enrolled before October 1996, were included in the present analysis. Of these, 55 had Burkitt's or Burkitt's-like lymphoma and 11 had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. There were 53 males ad 13 females; 40 were children and 26 were adults (age range, 3 to 57 years). To date, 61 patients have achieved a complete response to therapy. Two patients subsequently relapsed, but one of these is a long-term survivor after further therapy and a bone marrow transplant. The event-free survival rate is 85% at I year and beyond. The median potential follow-up period is 48 months (range, 12 to 96 months) for patients remaining in complete remission. Neutropenia occurred in 98% of cycles and infection in 46% of A cycles and 50% of B cycles, but the duration was shortened in B cycles by the administration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. Positive blood cultures were observed in 21% of A cycles and 28% of B cycles, and there have been three toxic deaths. These results are better than those achieved with an earlier version of CODOX-M, suggesting that the addition of the IVAC regimen is responsible for the improved results. The similarity of the outcome in children and adults, however, confirms our previous observation that, at least in adults younger than 60 years with Burkitt's or Burkitt's-like lymphomas, treatment with regimens similar to those used in children is warranted.
Genetic Architecture of Domestication-Related Traits in Maize

Strong directional selection occurred during the domestication of maize from its wild ancestor teosinte, reducing its genetic diversity, particularly at genes controlling domestication-related traits. Nevertheless, variability for some domestication-related traits is maintained in maize. The genetic basis of this could be sequence variation at the same key genes controlling maize–teosinte differentiation (due to lack of fixation or arising as new mutations after domestication), distinct loci with large effects, or polygenic background variation. Previous studies permit annotation of maize genome regions associated with the major differences between maize and teosinte or that exhibit population genetic signals of selection during either domestication or postdomestication improvement. Genome-wide association studies and genetic variance partitioning analyses were performed in two diverse maize inbred line panels to compare the phenotypic effects and variances of sequence polymorphisms in regions involved in domestication and improvement to the rest of the genome. Additive polygenic models explained most of the genotypic variation for domestication-related traits; no large-effect loci were detected for any trait. Most trait variance was associated with background genomic regions lacking previous evidence for involvement in domestication. Improvement sweep regions were associated with more trait variation than expected based on the proportion of the genome they represent. Selection during domestication eliminated large-effect genetic variants that would revert maize toward a teosinte type. Small-effect polygenic variants (enriched in the improvement sweep regions of the genome) are responsible for most of the standing variation for domestication-related traits in maize.
Robust Tracking Using Region Proposal Networks

Recent advances in visual tracking showed that deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) trained for image classification can be strong feature extractors for discriminative trackers. However, due to the drastic difference between image classification and tracking, extra treatments such as model ensemble and feature engineering must be carried out to bridge the two domains. Such procedures are either time consuming or hard to generalize well across datasets. In this paper we discovered that the internal structure of Region Proposal Network (RPN)'s top layer feature can be utilized for robust visual tracking. We showed that such property has to be unleashed by a novel loss function which simultaneously considers classification accuracy and bounding box quality. Without ensemble and any extra treatment on feature maps, our proposed method achieved state-of-the-art results on several large scale benchmarks including OTB50, OTB100 and VOT2016. We will make our code publicly available.
Technical Note - A Note on Relaxations of the Choice Network Revenue Management Dynamic Program

In recent years, several approximation methods have been proposed for the choice network revenue management problem. These approximation methods are proposed because the dynamic programming formulation of the choice network revenue management problem is intractable even for moderately sized instances. In this paper, we consider three approximation methods that obtain upper bounds on the value function, namely, the choice deterministic linear program (CDLP), the affine approximation (AF), and the piecewise-linear approximation (PL). It is known that the piecewise-linear approximation bound is tighter than the affine bound, which in turn is tighter than CDLP. In this paper, we prove bounds on how much the affine and piecewise-linear approximations can tighten CDLP. We show (i) the gap between the AF and CDLP bounds is at most a factor of 1+1/(mini{ri1}), where ri1>0 are the resource capacities, and (ii) the gap between the piecewise-linear and CDLP bounds is within a factor of 2. Moreover, we show that thes.
Compiled Execution of the Reduce-OR Process Model on Multiprocessors

In this paper, the authors describe the abstract machine developed for the reduce - or process model (ROPM) and its implementation on a variety of multiprocessors. In keeping with the objective behind the ROPM, the abstract machine is suitable for execution on both shared and nonshared memory machines. It uses structure sharing unlike most of the abstract machines based on the WAM. This is due to significant benefits in a nonshared memory context. It has currently been implemented on the Encore Multimax, the Sequent Symmetry, the Alliant, and the InteliPSC/2. The authors provide preliminary performance data of our implementations on these machines in this paper. The benchmarks chosen illustrate the range of programs which ROPM can parallelize - and, or, as well as and/or parallel programs are effectively parallelized and speeded up.
Evidence for economic convergence in the EU: the analysis of past EU enlargements

AbstractThis paper discusses the evidence of economic convergence in the European Union during the past several decades and consecutive EU enlargements. We cluster different member states of the European Union by groups representing countries that joined the EU together and analyze whether these clusters converge against each other. In addition, we analyse whether there is a convergence within different groups of countries. We employ real GDP per capita in its seasonally adjusted version as the measure of convergence. Our results reveal that there is not much evidence about the existence of economic convergence within the European Union.
‘Even though a man takes the major role, he has no right to abuse’: future male leaders’ views on gender-based violence in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT Background: Distinct gender roles influence gender inequality and build the foundation for gender-based violence. Violence against women is a major public health problem in all societies, and a violation of human rights. Prevalence surveys on gender-based violence have been published from Sri Lanka, but qualitative studies on men’s perceptions are lacking. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore young educated Sri Lankan men’s perceptions of violence against women. Methods: Seven focus-group discussions were held. Men at the end of their university studies were purposefully selected. A topic guide was used, covering various scenarios of violence against women. Qualitative content analysis was carried out. Results: Four categories were developed through the analytic process: fixed gender roles – patriarchal values are accepted in society, female mobility control, and slowly changing attitudes; violence not accepted but still exists – sexual harassment exists everywhere, different laws for different people, female tolerance of violence, and men’s right to punish; multiple factors cause violence – alcohol, violent behavior is inherited, violence culturally accepted, low education, and lack of communication; and prevention of violence against women – both parents must engage and socialize girls and boys equally, life skills education, premarital counselling, working places value clarification, and more women in politics and boards are suggested. Conclusions: Medical and management students, possible future male leaders of the country, have suggestions of prevention strategies in life skills to reduce gender-based violence and to increase knowledge of health consequences with the aim of changing attitudes.
Online grocery retailing: what do consumers think?

Purpose – To use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework to explore in depth the range of beliefs held by consumers about internet shopping in general and internet grocery shopping in particular.Design/methodology/approach – Seven focus group interviews, four in the United Kingdom and three in Denmark, were conducted among consumers with different degrees of experience with internet grocery shopping. This diversification of respondents was chosen to capture a broad range of the consumer beliefs that predict intentions to buy groceries online or not. The TPB framework was used to construct the interview guide that was followed in all focus groups.Findings – An unexpected result of the explorative study was that the seven groups consisting of more or less experienced internet shoppers differed only little in their pool of beliefs (outcome and control beliefs). Beliefs about internet grocery shopping, positive as well as negative, were remarkably congruent across groups. In the minds .
Genetic Instability in Epithelial Tissues at Risk for Cancer

Epithelial tumors develop through a multistep process driven by genomic instability frequently associated with etiologic agents such as prolonged tobacco smoke exposure or human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. The purpose of the studies reported here was to examine the nature of genomic instability in epithelial tissues at cancer risk in order to identify tissue genetic biomarkers that might be used to assess an individual's cancer risk and response to chemopreventive intervention. As part of several chemoprevention trials, biopsies were obtained from risk tissues (i.e., bronchial biopsies from chronic smokers, oral or laryngeal biopsies from individuals with premalignancy) and examined for chromosome instability using in situ hybridization. Nearly all biopsy specimens show evidence for chromosome instability throughout the exposed tissue. Increased chromosome instability was observed with histologic progression in the normal to tumor transition of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Chromosome instability was also seen in premalignant head and neck lesions, and high levels were associated with subsequent tumor development. In bronchial biopsies of current smokers, the level of ongoing chromosome instability correlated with smoking intensity (e.g., packs/day), whereas the chromosome index (average number of chromosome copies per cell) correlated with cumulative tobacco exposure (i.e., pack‐years). Spatial chromosome analyses of the epithelium demonstrated multifocal clonal outgrowths. In former smokers, random chromosome instability was reduced; however, clonal populations appeared to persist for many years, perhaps accounting for continued lung cancer risk following smoking cessation.
Clinical Medicine Campylobacter Enteritis on Hopi and Navajo Indian Reservations Clinical and Epidemiologic Features

From June 22 through September 30, 1981, stool specimens from 522 Hopi and Navajo outpatients were cultured because of diarrheal illnesses at the Keams Canyon Indian Health Service Hospital, Arizona. Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from the specimens of 26 (5%) of the patients. This pathogen was found as frequently as Shigella in'patients younger than 2 years or older than 20 years, but was significantly less common in the 2-to 20-year age group (P<.000001). Campylobacter enteritis was indistinguishable clin-ically from shigellosis in adult patients, but in children younger than 5 years, a rectal temperature higher than 380C (100.50F) was significantly more common with Shigella than with Campylobacter infection (P = .003). In a field study of 20 families, we found that households with a case of Campylobacter enteritis were more likely than age- and com-munity-matched controls to own farm animals (P = .05), but were not more likely to own household pets. C jejuni is less common than Shigella as a cause of summer seasonal diarrhea and dysentery among the Hopi and Navajos; the striking differences in the age-specific rates of these two infections suggest different routes of transmission. (Engleberg NC, Correa-Villasenor A, North CQ, et al: Campylobacter enteritis on Hopi and Navajo Indian reservations-Clinical and epidemiologic features. West J Med 1984 Jul; 141:53-56)
Ecological Correlates Associated With The Academic Achievement Of African American Youth

s, paper and pencil interviews, on-site questionnaires, telephone interviews, aceto-face interviews and several types of computer assisted interviews. Add Health combines longitudinal survey data in order to analyze the respondents’ social, emotional, economic, psychological and physical well-being, romantic relationships, neighborhood, community, school, friendships, and peer groups in order to provide opportunities to analyze how social environments and behaviors during the adolescent time frame are associated with health and achievement outcomes in young adulthood (The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, 2008). 4.2. 1 The Original Study The longitudinal study is broken up into three waves. The first wave (Wave I) began in September of 1994 and lasted until April 1995. Wave I yielded a sample of 90,118 adolescents and used an In-School Questionnaire along with 164 School Administrator Questionnaires. Wave I also yielded 20,745 (78.9 % response rate) adolescent In-Home Interviews, an Add Health Picture Vocabulary Test and 17,700 Parent Questionnaires. Wave II began in May 1996 through June 1996, where 128 School Administrator Questionnaires (80.3% response rate) were given and 14,738 adolescent In-Home Interviews were completed (80.3% response rate). The response rate was considered rather than the attrition or retention rates as the most appropriate
Iliotibial band syndrome in cyclists

Iliotibial band syndrome is an overuse injury caused by repetitive friction of the iliotibial band across the lateral femoral epicondyle. Once considered an injury indige nous to runners, it is now frequently being seen in cyclists. The purpose of this paper is to identify iliotibial band syndrome as a significant problem in cyclists and to propose both operative and nonoperative measures for treating cyclists. Nonoperative measures specific to cyclists consist of bicycle adjustments and training modifications. These are adjunctive therapies to stretching, icing, rest, and oral nonsteroidal antiinflam matory drugs. For cyclists requiring operative interven tion, a new surgical technique for excising or releasing the distal iliotibial band is presented. This technique, used by the senior author (JCH) since 1984, involves excision of an elliptical piece of the distal posterior band off the lateral femoral epicondyle.
C‐reactive protein and interleukin‐6 responses for differentiating fungal and bacterial aetiology in late‐onset neonatal sepsis

Fungal infections are increasingly frequent causes of neonatal sepsis (NS). This study examined the predictive value of the combined evaluation of the C‐reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) responses for differentiating fungal and bacterial aetiologies in patients with NS. From January to September 2007, neonates who were diagnosed with NS and had their CRP and IL‐6 levels measured were selected. Based on their blood culture results, the neonates were divided into two groups: group of fungal sepsis (FS) and group of bacterial sepsis (BS). FS included 14 Candida albicans and one non‐albicans Candida isolates and BS included five Klebsiella pneumoniae, three Pseudomonas aeruginosa, three Enterococcus faecalis, two coagulase‐negative Staphylococcus species, one Enterococcus faecium and one Acinetobacter species. Significant differences were observed in the CRP (FS vs. BS: 28.10 ± 11.03 vs. 11.39 ± 2.94 mg l−1, P = 0.026) and IL‐6 (FS vs. BS: 38.60 ± 24.24 vs. 392.82 ± 102.46 ng l−1, P = 0.000) levels between groups. The combined evaluation of the CRP and IL‐6 responses better predicted the causative micro‐organism in NS.