Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global Burden of Multiple Myeloma

Introduction Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell neoplasm with substantial morbidity and mortality. A comprehensive description of the global burden of MM is needed to help direct health policy, resource allocation, research, and patient care. Objective To describe the burden of MM and the availability of effective therapies for 21 world regions and 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016. Design and Setting We report incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) estimates from the Global Burden of Disease 2016 study. Data sources include vital registration system, cancer registry, drug availability, and survey data for stem cell transplant rates. We analyzed the contribution of aging, population growth, and changes in incidence rates to the overall change in incident cases from 1990 to 2016 globally, by sociodemographic index (SDI) and by region. We collected data on approval of lenalidomide and bortezomib worldwide. Main Outcomes and Measures Multiple myeloma mortality; incidence; years lived with disabilities; years of life lost; and DALYs by age, sex, country, and year. Results Worldwide in 2016 there were 138 509 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 121 000-155 480) incident cases of MM with an age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) of 2.1 per 100 000 persons (95% UI, 1.8-2.3). Incident cases from 1990 to 2016 increased by 126% globally and by 106% to 192% for all SDI quintiles. The 3 world regions with the highest ASIR of MM were Australasia, North America, and Western Europe. Multiple myeloma caused 2.1 million (95% UI, 1.9-2.3 million) DALYs globally in 2016. Stem cell transplantation is routinely available in higher-income countries but is lacking in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Middle East. In 2016, lenalidomide and bortezomib had been approved in 73 and 103 countries, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance Incidence of MM is highly variable among countries but has increased uniformly since 1990, with the largest increase in middle and low-middle SDI countries. Access to effective care is very limited in many countries of low socioeconomic development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Global health policy priorities for MM are to improve diagnostic and treatment capacity in low and middle income countries and to ensure affordability of effective medications for every patient. Research priorities are to elucidate underlying etiological factors explaining the heterogeneity in myeloma incidence.
[Clinical research of arthroscopic separate double-layer suture bridge technique for delaminated rotator cuff tear].

Objective To explore the effectiveness of the arthroscopic separate double-layer suture bridge technique in treatment of the delaminated rotator cuff tear. Methods Between May 2013 and May 2015, 54 patients with the delaminated rotator cuff tears were recruited in the study. They were randomly allocated into 2 groups to receive repair either using arthroscopic separate double-layer suture bridge technique (trial group, n=28) or using arthroscopic whole-layer suture bridge technique (control group, n=26). There was no significant difference in gender, age, injured side, tear type, and preoperative visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Constants score, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) score, and the range of motion of shoulder joint between 2 groups ( P>0.05). Postoperative functional scores, range of motion, and recurrence rate of tear in 2 groups were observed and compared. Results The operation time was significant longer in trial group than in control group ( t=8.383, P=0.000). All incisions healed at stage Ⅰ without postoperative complication. All the patients were followed up 12 months. At 12 months postoperatively, the UCLA score, ASES score, VAS score, Constant score, and the range of motion were significantly improved when compared with the preoperative values in 2 groups ( P<0.05). However there was no significant difference in above indexes between 2 groups ( P>0.05). Four cases (14.3%) of rotator cuff tear recurred in trial group while 5 cases (19.2%) in control group, showing no significant difference ( χ2=0.237, P=0.626). Conclusion Compared with the arthroscopic whole-layer suture bridge technique, arthroscopic separate double-layer suture bridge technique presents no significant difference in the shoulder function score, the range of motion, and recurrence of rotator cuff tear, while having a longer operation time.
Channel Estimation and Hybrid Precoding for Frequency Selective Multiuser mmWave MIMO Systems

Configuring the hybrid precoders and combiners in a millimeter wave multiuser multiple-input multiple-output system is challenging in frequency selective channels. In this paper, we develop a system that uses compressive estimation on the uplink to configure precoders and combiners for the downlink. In the first step, the base station (BS) simultaneously estimates the channels from all the mobile stations on each subcarrier. To reduce the number of measurements required, compressed sensing techniques are developed that exploit common support on the different subcarriers. In the second step, exploiting reciprocity and the channel estimates the BS designs hybrid precoders and combiners. Two algorithms are developed for this purpose, with different performance and complexity tradeoffs: First, a factorization of the purely digital solution; and second, an iterative hybrid design. Extensive numerical experiments evaluate the proposed solutions comparing to the state-of-the-art strategies, and illustrating design tradeoffs in overhead, complexity, and performance.
Prognostic value of CD8CD45RO tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in patients with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma is a malignancy arising from the biliary tract epithelial cells with poor prognosis. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL)s and programmed cell death receptor ligand 1 (PD-L1) have a prognostic impact in various solid tumors. We aimed to investigate TILs and PD-L1 expression and their clinical relevance in cholangiocarcinoma. Tumor samples from 44 patients with resected and histologically verified extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma were evaluated for CD8, CD45RO and PD-L1 expression, and their correlations with clinicopathological data and survival data were analyzed. Total 44 extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma tissues were evaluated. CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL)s were observed in 30 (68%) tumors. Among them, 14 had CD8+CD45RO+ TILs. PD-L1 was expressed on cancer cells in 10 (22.7%) tumors in 34 evaluable extrahepatic cholangiocarciniomas. The presence of CD8+ TILs or CD8+CD45RO+ TILs was not associated with clinical staging or tumor differentiation. Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with CD8+CD45RO+ TILs had longer overall survival (OS) on univariate (P = 0.013) and multivariate (P = 0.012) analysis. Neither CD8+TIL nor PD-L1 expression on cancer cells correlated significantly with OS. These results add to the understanding of the clinical features associated with CD8 TILs and PD-L1 expression in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and they support the potential rationale of using PD-1 blockade immunotherapy in cholangiocarcinoma.
Learning From Less Data: Diversified Subset Selection and Active Learning in Image Classification Tasks

Supervised machine learning based state-of-the-art computer vision techniques are in general data hungry and pose the challenges of not having adequate computing resources and of high costs involved in human labeling efforts. Training data subset selection and active learning techniques have been proposed as possible solutions to these challenges respectively. A special class of subset selection functions naturally model notions of diversity, coverage and representation and they can be used to eliminate redundancy and thus lend themselves well for training data subset selection. They can also help improve the efficiency of active learning in further reducing human labeling efforts by selecting a subset of the examples obtained using the conventional uncertainty sampling based techniques. In this work we empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of two diversity models, namely the Facility-Location and Disparity-Min models for training-data subset selection and reducing labeling effort. We do this for a variety of computer vision tasks including Gender Recognition, Scene Recognition and Object Recognition. Our results show that subset selection done in the right way can add 2-3% in accuracy on existing baselines, particularly in the case of less training data. This allows the training of complex machine learning models (like Convolutional Neural Networks) with much less training data while incurring minimal performance loss.
End-to-end named entity extraction from speech

Named entity recognition (NER) is among SLU tasks that usually extract semantic information from textual documents. Until now, NER from speech is made through a pipeline process that consists in processing first an automatic speech recognition (ASR) on the audio and then processing a NER on the ASR outputs. Such approach has some disadvantages (error propagation, metric to tune ASR systems sub-optimal in regards to the final task, reduced space search at the ASR output level.) and it is known that more integrated approaches outperform sequential ones, when they can be applied. In this paper, we present a first study of end-to-end approach that directly extracts named entities from speech, though a unique neural architecture. On a such way, a joint optimization is able for both ASR and NER. Experiments are carried on French data easily accessible, composed of data distributed in several evaluation campaign. Experimental results show that this end-to-end approach provides better results (F-measure=0.69 on test data) than a classical pipeline approach to detect named entity categories (F-measure=0.65).
Automated Verification of Neural Networks: Advances, Challenges and Perspectives

Neural networks are one of the most investigated and widely used techniques in Machine Learning. In spite of their success, they still find limited application in safety- and security-related contexts, wherein assurance about networks' performances must be provided. In the recent past, automated reasoning techniques have been proposed by several researchers to close the gap between neural networks and applications requiring formal guarantees about their behavior. In this work, we propose a primer of such techniques and a comprehensive categorization of existing approaches for the automated verification of neural networks. A discussion about current limitations and directions for future investigation is provided to foster research on this topic at the crossroads of Machine Learning and Automated Reasoning.
El Programa nacional de bilingüismo: un estudio exploratorio en el departamento de Antioquia,Colombia

En este reporte de investigacion se presentan los resultados obtenidos en un estudio exploratorio sobre la vision de algunos actores educativos con respecto a la forma en que el Programa Nacional de Bilinguismo se venia implementando en el Departamento de Antioquia, Colombia. Los resultados del estudio sugieren que si bien los participantes de este estudio no tenian mucha informacion con relacion al programa, si tenian mucho que decir con respecto a las acciones que el Gobierno habia puesto en marcha para su implementacion en Antioquia y sobre como lograr que estas pudieran contribuir de manera mas efectiva y eficaz al desarrollo de los objetivos de la politica
Seasonal and Spatial Variation of Ambient Air Volatile Organic Compounds in Pathumwan District, Bangkok, Thailand

Ambient air pollution, mainly from motor vehicle emissions, is a serious problem in Bangkok, Thailand, and in many other cities. Ambient levels of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) and 12 carbonyl compounds (CCs) were evaluated at university and roadside areas in Pathumwan District, central Bangkok, Thailand, during wet and dry seasons in 2012 and 2013. Toluene was the most abundant BTEX while formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were the most abundant CCs. Benzene levels were highest in the university area in the wet season. Benzene, xylene, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde levels were significantly higher in the wet season than in the dry season (p<0.001). The ranges of toluene to benzene ratio (T/B) and formaldehyde to acetaldehyde ratio (F/A) in both seasons were 1.49-2.05 and 2.50-2.89, respectively. The urinary trans,trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA), hippuric acid, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and formic acid of 287 outdoor workers in the study area were measured in both seasons. Urinary t,t-MA and formaldehyde at roadside areas were significantly higher in the wet season than in the dry season ( p<0.001 and p<0.01 ). The same was true for urinary formic acid. While urinary formic acid of workers in both areas were significant higher in wet season than dry season. Overall, ambient VOC levels were higher in roadside areas than in the university area, and were higher in the wet season than in the dry season. There were associations of ambient levels of benzene, toluene, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde with urinary biomarkers of t,t-MA, hippuric acid, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde respectively.
A Common Language? The Use of Teaching Standards in the Assessment of Professional Experience: Teacher Education Students' Perceptions.

There is a strong critique of the reductionist, technical and instrumentalist impacts of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers from critical policy researchers in education. At the same time, advocates of the standards espouse their potential as providing a common language of teaching. We argue that both views are based on logical rather than empirical warrants. Therefore, this study sought to gather empirical data via a survey of 229 teacher education students followed by focus groups in an endeavour to record their perceptions on the use of the standards as assessment criteria for professional experience. The findings are that a majority of the students were advocates of the standards as a learning scaffold. This was especially true in contexts where their supervising teachers were not au fait with the standards. The implications of this study for teacher educators are that the formative assessment potential of the standards requires pedagogical consideration in professional experience alongside their more commonly understood role as summative assessment criteria.
Improved approaches for financial market forecasting based on stationary time series analysis

Forecasting the time series of financial markets has become an important topic in recent years. Data mining method provides higher accuracy. It can avoid the problem that the econometric model processing procedure is complicated with the non-steady state of the data. However, under the condition of stable experimental data, which method has higher applicability is unknown. Thus, this paper approaches several groups of solutions for financial data forecasting. On one hand, on the econometric analysis based methods, we propose an improved vector auto-regression model named A-VAR. On the other hand, on the data mining based methods, we propose two improved neural network models named Co-BPNN and RNN-based. As a result, the advantages and disadvantages of different methods are analyzed and compared. Finally, different forecasting suggestions will be given under the specific circumstances.
An empirical study of public data quality problems in cross project defect prediction

Background: Two public defect data, including Jureczko and NASA datasets, have been widely used in cross project defect prediction (CPDP). The quality of defect data have been reported as an important factor influencing the defect prediction performance and Shepperd et al. have researched the data quality problems in NASA datasets. However, up to now, there is no research focusing on the quality problems of Jureczko datasets which are most widely used in CPDP. Aims: In this paper, we intend to investigate the problems of identical and inconsistent cases in Jureczko datasets and validate whether removing these problematic cases will make a difference to defect prediction performance in CPDP. Method: The problems of identical and inconsistent cases are reported from two aspects, respectively in each individual dataset and in a pair of datasets from different releases of a software project. Then a cleaned version of Jureczko datasets is provided by removing duplicate and inconsistent cases. Finally three training data selection methods are employed to compare the defect prediction performance of cleaned datasets with that of original datasets. Results: The experimental results in terms of AUC and F-Measure show that most datasets obtain very different defect prediction performance. Conclusions: It is very necessary to study the data quality problems in CPDP and the cleaned Jureczko datasets may provide more reliable defect prediction performance in CPDP.
Regularized multi-label fast marching and application to whole-body image segmentation

In this paper, we propose a computationally efficient regularization strategy for the Fast Marching (FM) segmentation of multiple organs. Segmentation is based on interactive seeds placements, where the seeds define either organs of interest or the background. Regularization efficiently compensates for the sensitivity of the FM to narrow bridges between different organs with similar intensities. It also leads to segmentations that are far less sensitive to seeds location than by using the standard FM cost. The driving motivation of our work is the quantitative analysis of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), which is the most common B-cell malignancy and mostly affects elderly people. This requires the segmentation of more than ten organs in whole-body Magnetic Resonance images. The disease path and progression being highly heterogeneous with important inter-patient variability, the segmentation is highly based on clinician experience, which is difficult to automatically reproduce. In this context, the proposed segmentation algorithm compares very favorably to the tools usually available for clinicians.
A platform for chemical modification of mandelate racemase: characterization of the C92S/C264S and &ggr;-thialysine 166 variants

Mandelate racemase (MR) serves as a paradigm for our understanding of enzyme-catalyzed deprotonation of a carbon acid substrate. To facilitate structure-function studies on MR using non-natural amino acid substitutions, we engineered the Cys92Ser/Cys264Ser variant (dmMR) as a platform for introducing Cys residues at specific locations for subsequent covalent modification. While the highly reactive thiol of Cys furnishes a site for chemical modification, site-specificity requires that other Cys residues be non-reactive or replaced by a non-reactive amino acid, especially if chemical modification is conducted under denaturing conditions. The catalytic efficiency of dmMR is reduced only ~2-fold relative to wild-type MR, making dmMR a viable platform for the site-specific introduction of Cys. As an example, the inactive Lys166Cys variant of dmMR was treated with ethylenimine under denaturing conditions to replace the Brønsted acid-base catalyst Lys 166 with the non-natural amino acid γ-thialysine. Comparison of the pH-activity profiles of dmMR and the active γ-thialysine variant revealed a reduction in the pKa for the side chain amino group of ~0.4 units for the latter variant. Unlike wild-type MR for which diffusion is partially rate-limiting, dmMR and the γ-thialysine variant showed no dependence on the solvent viscosity suggesting that the chemical step is fully rate-limiting.
A REVISION OF THE ESTUARINE CRAB GENUS ILYOGRAPSUS BARNARD, 1955 (CRUSTACEA: DECAPODA: BRACHYURA: MACROPHTHALMIDAE), WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF A NEW GENUS AND ONE NEW SPECIES

The taxonomy of the poorly known estuarine crab genus Ilyograpsus Barnard, 1955, is revised. Five species are recognized in the genus: I. paludicola (Rathbun, 1909) from Southeast to South Asia, northeastern Australia and New Caledonia; I. rhizophorae Barnard, 1955 (type species) from the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean; I. nodulosus Sakai, 1983, from southern Japan; I. vannini Sawada, Hosogi & Sakai, 2005 from Somalia; and I. daviei, new species, from Queensland, Australia. The four previously described species are rediagnosed. A new genus, Apograpsus, is established for the recently described species Ilyograpsus paantu Naruse & Kishino, 2006. The two genera are referred to the family Macrophthalmidae. Affi nities of the two genera to Enigmaplax Davie, 1993 and a hypothetical ancestor of Macrophthalmus proposed by Barnes (1967) are discussed.
Phentolamine Reverses Epinephrine-Enhanced Skin Antinociception of Dibucaine in Rats.

BACKGROUND The objective of the experiment was to assess the antinociceptive effect of dibucaine, bupivacaine, and epinephrine. To assess the mechanism of action of the interaction between dibucaine and epinephrine, phentolamine, a nonselective α-adrenergic antagonist, was added to the mixture. METHODS We assessed sensory blockade with these drugs by injecting 0.6 mL of drug-in-saline in the dorsal thoracolumbar area of rats; pinprick of the "wheal" formed by the injectate was the area targeted for stimulation to elicit a cutaneous trunci muscle reflex. The sensory block of dibucaine was compared with that of bupivacaine or epinephrine. Drug-drug interactions were analyzed by isobologram. Phentolamine was added to investigate the antinociceptive effect of dibucaine coinjected with epinephrine. RESULTS We demonstrated that dibucaine, epinephrine, and bupivacaine produced dose-dependent skin antinociception. On the median effective dose (ED50) basis, the potency was higher for epinephrine (mean, 0.011 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.007-0.015] μmol) than for dibucaine (mean, 0.493 [95% CI, 0.435-0.560] μmol) (P < .01), while there were no significant differences between dibucaine and bupivacaine (mean, 0.450 [95% CI, 0.400-0.505] μmol). On the equipotent basis (75% effective dose, median effective dose, and 25% effective dose), sensory block duration provoked by epinephrine was greater (P < .01) than that provoked by dibucaine or bupivacaine. Coadministration of dibucaine with epinephrine produced a synergistic nociceptive block, whereas phentolamine blocked that synergistic block. CONCLUSIONS The preclinical data indicated that there is no statistically significant difference between the potency and duration of dibucaine and bupivacaine in this model. Epinephrine synergistically enhances the effects of dibucaine, while phentolamine partially blocked those effects. α-Adrenergic receptors play an important role in controlling synergistic analgesic effect of dibucaine combined with epinephrine.