Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Socioeconomic status does not affect prognosis in patients with glioblastoma multiforme

Background: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive malignancy, but there is marked heterogeneity in survival time. Health care disparities have demonstrated significance in oncologic outcomes but have not been clearly examined in this patient population. We investigated the role of sociodemographic variables in the prognosis of adult patients diagnosed with GBM. Methods: This retrospective analysis included patients with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of GBM, who underwent resection or biopsy at a single institution from 2000 to 2014. Socioeconomic status (SES) was determined by household income according to the US Census zip code tabulation areas and the US national poverty level. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis calculated effects on patient survival. Results: Thirty percent of 218 subjects were of low SES, 57% mid, and 13% high. Low SES patients tended to be male (62%), Caucasian (92%), unmarried (91%), have dependents (100%), and limited to high school education (55%). SES did not predict insurance or employment status. SES was associated with marital status and number of cohabitants (P < 0.0001) but not clinical trial enrollment. Multivariate analysis demonstrated no relationship between SES and survival. Shorter prognosis was associated with history of military service (hazard ratio [HR] 2.06, P = 0.0125), elderly patients (HR 1.70, P = 0.0158), and multifocal disease (HR 1.75, P = 0.0119). Longer prognosis was associated with gross total resection (HR 0.49, P = 0.0009), radiation therapy (HR 0.12, P < 0.0001), and temozolomide (HR 0.28, P < 0.0001). Conclusions: SES alone does not predict prognosis in patients with newly diagnosed GBM. Sociodemographic variables such as old age, military service record, and insurance type may have a prognostication role.
Protease inhibitor combination therapies and perceptions of gay men regarding AIDS severity and the need to maintain safer sex

Background:Advances in the treatment of HIV disease with protease inhibitor combination therapies have been widely documented in the media. Objectives:To investigate perceptions concerning the severity of HIV/AIDS and the need to maintain safer sex practices in the light of recent HIV treatment advances. Methods:A survey eliciting demographic characteristics, HIV serostatus and treatment information, and HIV/AIDS severity and safer sex perceptions was administered to a community sample of 379 homo-/bisexual men who reported awareness of combination therapy regimens. Results:Ten per cent of all respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that ‘AIDS is now very nearly cured’ and 13% felt that the threat of AIDS is less serious than in the past. HIV-positive men were more likely to perceive AIDS as a less serious threat or as very nearly cured. Overall, 8% of men in the sample indicated that they practice safer sex less often since new AIDS treatments came along; 18% of HIV-positive men on combination therapy regimens said they practice safer sex less frequently since treatments have advanced. Regardless of serostatus, nearly 20% of men indicated they would stop practicing safer sex if an AIDS cure was announced. Conclusion:It is essential to integrate behavior change counseling into HIV treatment programs and to temper optimism concerning treatment advances with recognition that the threat of HIV/AIDS remains great.
Joint Multi-Filter Design for Full-Duplex MU-MIMO Relaying

In full-duplex multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) relaying in which a base station (BS) communicates with mobile stations (MSs) via a relay station (RS) using multiple antennas, in addition to the inter-antenna/multi- stream interference issue, the loop interference caused by simultaneously transmitting and receiving signals at the RS is also a concern. This paper proposes joint multi-filter design schemes that design the inter-antenna/multi-stream interference suppression and loop interference cancellation filters to minimize the total mean squared error of the received signal at the MSs. Simulation results confirm that the proposed schemes outperform the conventional scheme in which the inter-antenna/multi-stream interference suppression and loop interference cancellation filters are designed independently.
Evaluation of Specific Infection Control Practices Used by Companion Animal Veterinarians in Community Veterinary Practices in Southern Ontario

This study evaluated specific infection control practices in community veterinary practices in southern Ontario. Environmental disinfection, management of infectious patients and antimicrobial use in clean surgical procedures were investigated. Community companion animal veterinary practices (n = 101) in Southern Ontario were recruited, and a questionnaire was administered to one veterinarian and one veterinary technician from each practice. The veterinarian questionnaire gathered data on clinic demographics, management of infectious patients, infectious diseases of concern, environmental disinfection and antimicrobial use in surgical procedures. The veterinary technician questionnaire gathered data on environmental disinfection. None of the veterinary practices had a formal infection control programme. Sixty‐five per cent (n = 66) of the veterinary practices did not have an isolation area and 61% (n = 40) of these practices did not employ any specific infection control measures for infectious cases. The products most frequently used for environmental disinfection were hydrogen peroxide based or quaternary ammonium compounds. Bleach was the agent most commonly used for environmental disinfection of infectious body fluids; however 60% of the veterinarians and 40% of the veterinary technicians did not identify a product for environmental disinfection of infectious body fluids. Twenty‐four per cent of the veterinarians reported using antimicrobials in animals undergoing elective sterilization surgeries and 60% reported using antimicrobials in other clean surgical procedures. There is a need for community veterinary practices to develop infection control programmes specific to their individual practice. In addition, veterinarians should discontinue the common use of antimicrobials for clean elective sterilization surgical procedures.
Episodic Future Thinking: Linking Neuropsychological Performance with Episodic Detail in Young and Old Adults

Episodic future thinking (EFT) has been linked with our ability to remember past events. However, its specific neurocognitive subprocesses have remained elusive. In Experiment 1, a study of healthy older adults was conducted to investigate the candidate subprocesses of EFT. Participants completed a standard EFT cue word task, two memory measures (Verbal Paired Associates I, Source Memory), and two measures of executive function (Trail Making Test, Tower Test). In Experiment 2, healthy young adults also completed an EFT task and neuropsychological measures. The link between neurocognitive measures and five characteristics of EFT was investigated. Specifically, it was found that Source Memory and Trail Making Test performance predicted the episodic specificity of future events in older but not younger adults. Replicating previous findings, older adults produced future events with greater semantic but fewer episodic details than did young adults. These results extend the data and emphasize the importance of the multiple subprocesses underlying EFT.
The cost-effectiveness of drug-eluting stents: a systematic review

Background: Drug-eluting stents have been seen as an attractive alternative to bare-metal stents for percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) because of the decreased need for revascularization. However, comparative clinical trials have shown no difference in patient outcomes, and drug-eluting stents are considerably more expensive than their bare-metal counterparts. We conducted a systematic review of all published comparative cost-effectiveness analyses to identify the factors contributing to the heterogeneity of their conclusions. Methods: We retrieved all articles published between Jan. 1, 2000, and July 31, 2006, in which the cost-effectiveness, from a third-party payer perspective, of drug-eluting stents was compared with that of bare-metal stents for PCI in unrestricted patient populations. Electronic databases, Web sites from health technology assessment groups and references of identified articles were searched. Our outcome variable was whether the study's conclusions favoured widespread use of drug-eluting stents, as assessed by 4 independent reviewers. Study characteristics such as quality, funding source, country and year of publication were extracted. Two-by-2 tables and Fisher's exact test were used to study the association between covariates and the outcome variable. A classification and regression tree (CART) model was used for multivariate analysis. Results: We identified 19 cost-effectiveness analyses. Ten were in favour of widespread use of drug-eluting stents, and 9 favoured more restrained use. Only 1 of 9 high-quality studies supported widespread use, as compared with 9 of 10 lower quality studies (p < 0.001). All of the 7 sponsored studies argued in favour of widespread use, as compared with 3 of the 12 studies without sponsorship (p = 0.003). Studies from the United States were more likely than those from other countries to endorse unlimited use (p = 0.032). A CART model with 2 covariates — study quality and sponsorship — provided the best fit (error rate 10.5%). Interpretation: Conclusions drawn by cost-effectiveness analyses of drug-eluting stents for PCI are associated with the study's quality, funding source and country of origin. Vigilance regarding these study characteristics is required when interpreting findings from cost-effectiveness analyses.
Cross-Border Leveraged Buyouts

We study the global competition among private equity (PE) buyout firms. Using a detailed database of PE firm characteristics, we investigate how PE firm heterogeneity across strategy and performance affects the volume of global acquisitions. A one-standard-deviation increase in a firm's average internal rate of return is associated with an approximate doubling of the number of deals in any given country. We also find that transaction costs associated with geographic, cultural, and administrative distance matter to different degrees across PE firms, and that these differences are related to the strategic profiles of the firms.
CD163 and inflammation: biological, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects.

SIGNIFICANCE The hemoglobin (Hb) scavenger receptor, CD163, is a macrophage-specific protein and the upregulated expression of this receptor is one of the major changes in the macrophage switch to alternative activated phenotypes in inflammation. Accordingly, a high CD163 expression in macrophages is a characteristic of tissues responding to inflammation. The scavenging of the oxidative and proinflammatory Hb leading to stimulation of the heme-oxygenase-1 and production of anti-inflammatory heme metabolites indicates that CD163 thereby indirectly contributes to the anti-inflammatory response. RECENT ADVANCES In addition to this biological role in inflammation, CD163 is a potential inflammation biomarker and a therapeutic target. The biomarker form of CD163 is the soluble plasma CD163 that arises from the increased shedding of CD163 mediated by the tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) cleaving enzyme. This explains that a steadily increasing literature documents that the plasma level of soluble CD163 is increased in a large spectrum of acute and chronic inflammatory disorders. The nonshed membrane form of CD163 in macrophages constitutes a target for drugs to be directed to macrophages in inflammation. This approach has been used in an animal inflammation model to highly increase the apparent therapeutic index of anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid drug that was coupled to an anti-CD163 antibody. Furthermore, other recent animal data, which indirectly involve CD163 in macrophages, demonstrate that injections of haptoglobin attenuate Hb-induced damages after blood transfusion. CRITICAL ISSUES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS The diagnostic and therapeutic properties of CD163 await further clinical studies and regulatory approval before implementation in the clinic.
Quantifying above‐ and belowground biomass carbon loss with forest conversion in tropical lowlands of Sumatra (Indonesia)

Natural forests in South‐East Asia have been extensively converted into other land‐use systems in the past decades and still show high deforestation rates. Historically, lowland forests have been converted into rubber forests, but more recently, the dominant conversion is into oil palm plantations. While it is expected that the large‐scale conversion has strong effects on the carbon cycle, detailed studies quantifying carbon pools and total net primary production (NPPtotal) in above‐ and belowground tree biomass in land‐use systems replacing rainforest (incl. oil palm plantations) are rare so far. We measured above‐ and belowground carbon pools in tree biomass together with NPPtotal in natural old‐growth forests, ‘jungle rubber’ agroforests under natural tree cover, and rubber and oil palm monocultures in Sumatra. In total, 32 stands (eight plot replicates per land‐use system) were studied in two different regions. Total tree biomass in the natural forest (mean: 384 Mg ha−1) was more than two times higher than in jungle rubber stands (147 Mg ha−1) and >four times higher than in monoculture rubber and oil palm plantations (78 and 50 Mg ha−1). NPPtotal was higher in the natural forest (24 Mg ha−1 yr−1) than in the rubber systems (20 and 15 Mg ha−1 yr−1), but was highest in the oil palm system (33 Mg ha−1 yr−1) due to very high fruit production (15–20 Mg ha−1 yr−1). NPPtotal was dominated in all systems by aboveground production, but belowground productivity was significantly higher in the natural forest and jungle rubber than in plantations. We conclude that conversion of natural lowland forest into different agricultural systems leads to a strong reduction not only in the biomass carbon pool (up to 166 Mg C ha−1) but also in carbon sequestration as carbon residence time (i.e. biomass‐C:NPP‐C) was 3–10 times higher in the natural forest than in rubber and oil palm plantations.
Nanoparticles from photocopiers induce oxidative stress and upper respiratory tract inflammation in healthy volunteers

Abstract Photocopiers emit large quantities of nanoparticles (NPs); however, their toxicological properties have not been studied. Here we investigate for the first time early human responses following a day's exposure to NPs from photocopiers. Nine healthy subjects spent 6 h at a busy photocopy centre on 2–3 randomly selected days. Matched nasal lavage and urine samples were collected before and at different time points post-exposure. Nasal lavage samples were analysed for 14 cytokines, inflammatory cells and total protein. Urine samples were analysed for 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG). Exposure assessment was conducted using a suite of instruments. The mean total particle number on exposure days was >5 times higher than background, with size distributions in nanoscale range (peak 30–40 nm). Following exposure, 8-OH-dG and several pro-inflammatory cytokines were elevated 2–10 folds compared with pre-exposure levels and remained elevated for up to 36 h. We conclude that NPs from photocopiers induce upper airway inflammation and oxidative stress.
Carbamazepine behaviour and effects in an urban wastewater MBR working with high sludge and hydraulic retention time

ABSTRACT The behaviour and fate of carbamazepine (CBZ) in urban wastewater treatment by a membrane bioreactor (MBR) and its possible effects on the system's efficiency, and on mixed microbial communities, has been studied. The experimental microfiltration MBR system, with capacity to treat 10.8 m3 d−1 of urban wastewater, operated with a pre-denitrification configuration with high sludge and hydraulic retention time. The CBZ concentration assayed was higher than in the usual urban wastewater, in order to provoke a strong biomass reaction. Influent, effluent, and all bioreactors of the MBR system were analysed in order to calculate a CBZ balance. Bench-scale experiments and respirometric analyses were performed, with and without the presence of CBZ, to evaluate its influence on the bacterial activity. The respirometric assays showed variations in the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) in the presence of CBZ. Negative effects were detected in the MBR bacterial community during the initial period of dosing. However, the effects were not permanent and the biomass spiked with CBZ had behaviour similar to that of the biomass without CBZ after a few hours. Biodegradation was not detected during the MBR treatment. The system showed an inefficient elimination of CBZ (less than 10%) with a high concentration in the effluent. The small percentage of CBZ removal was associated with the sludge retention and eliminated by the purge. All CBZ present in the influent was accounted for, and even an increase in the total amount of CBZ was registered in the permeate. During and after the experimental process, CBZ did not significantly affect the efficiency of the MBR system, and the quality of the effluent was not affected by the dosing of CBZ in terms of COD and nitrogen removal.
Megajoule pulsed power experiments for plasma blasting mining applications

Recent experiments with plasma blasting technology (PBT) at the megajoule level have paved the way for future development of PB’I’ machines for hard rock mining and commercial applications. An overview of the development of this technology is presented in a companion paper [l]. In ajoint project, Noranda Technology Center and Maxwell Laboratories used a 1 megajoule capacitor bank to blast represenative concrete blocks using an electrohydraulic method known as plasma blasting. The main purpose of the experiments was to determine a scaling relationship between the fragmentation yield and the delivered electrical energy. From the new surface area data, a near linear scaling relationship between the fragmentation yield and the delivered energy is indicated. A comparison of the experimental data from the behavior of the electrical circuit to a computer simulation is in excelleinit agreement. The test results and the results from the simulatiilon comparison are presented.
Can South–South Trade Agreements Reduce Development Deficits?

With the rise of India and other Southern engines of growth, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and similar vehicles for South–South regional cooperation have gained in importance. Developing a stochastic frontier gravity model, this article investigates the presence of significant ‘behind the border’ and ‘beyond the border’ constraints and analyzes the potential synergy between trade and development goals in the context of SAARC. In particular, the article demonstrates: (a) a considerable potential for improvement of trade complementarities among SAARC members; (b) a long-run scope for gains from trade; (c) country-specific ‘socio-political–economical–institutional’ rigidities form ‘behind the border’ constraints to trade; (d) that realization of trade potential would eliminate development deficits via growth dividends through trade and investment spillovers, exchange of skills and knowledge; and (e) since tariffs are not an important barrier in this region, emphasis should be placed on higher technology cooperation, and cooperation in areas of education, literacy, gender, institutions ensuring good governance, social capital and infrastructure, to help achieve the SAARC Development Goals (SDGs). The main policy insights are that the removal of ‘behind the border’ barriers and policy coordination would reduce ‘productivity lags’ and close the ‘gap’.
Generation of processed pseudogenes in murine cells.

Using as a reporter gene a non‐coding proviral structure marked with an intron‐containing indicator, we demonstrate the de novo formation, via a retrotransposition pathway, of canonical processed pseudogenes in cultured mammalian cells. Their structural features include endings corresponding to the start and termination of the RNA intermediate, intron loss, acquisition of a 3′ poly(A) tail, and target site duplications of variable length. The absence of extracellular intermediates for these processes, and the elimination during retrotransposition of sequences in the reporter gene essential in cis for a retroviral cycle, further suggest that endogenous retroviruses or related elements are not involved. Pseudogene formation frequency is markedly increased (up to 10‐fold) by several treatments including treatment with 5‐azacytidine or tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate, or serum starvation, which do not act at the reporter gene transcription level, but rather on endogenous genes‐‐including the LINE elements‐‐necessarily involved in trans‐complementation for retrotransposition.
Simple and Efficient Trap for Bark and Ambrosia Beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) to Facilitate Invasive Species Monitoring and Citizen Involvement

ABSTRACT Bark and ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae & Platypodinae) are among the most damaging forest pests worldwide, and monitoring is essential to damage prevention. Unfortunately, traps and attractants that are currently used are costly, and agencies rely on limited field personnel for deployment. The situation can be greatly aided by 1) the development of cost-effective trapping techniques, and 2) distribution of the effort through the Citizen Science approach. The goal of this study was to test a simple, effective trap that can be made and deployed by anyone interested in collecting bark and ambrosia beetles. Three trap types made from 2-liter soda bottles and, separately, four attractants were compared. Simple, one-window traps performed comparably at capturing species in traps painted or with multiple windows. A comparison of attractants in two-window traps found that 95% ethanol attracted the highest number of species but that Purell hand sanitizer (70% ethanol) and then Germ-X hand sanitizer (63% ethanol) were also effective. A perforated zip-top plastic bag containing Purell hanging over a trap filled with automobile antifreeze attracted the fewest species and individual specimens. Overall, >4,500 bark and ambrosia beetles, including 30 species were captured, representing a third of the regional species diversity. More than three quarters of the specimens were nonnative, representing nearly half of the known regional exotic species. These results suggest that simple one-window soda bottle traps baited with ethanol-based hand sanitizer will be effective and inexpensive tools for large-scale monitoring of bark and ambrosia beetles.