Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endovascular Management of Central Venous Stenoses in the Hemodialysis Patient: Results of Percutaneous Therapy

The purpose of this study was to determine the functional results of transvenous angioplasty for the treatment of central venous stenoses in patients with failing upper extremity arteriovenous access. Two hundred consecutive patients presented with threatened arteriovenous access from January 1999 through July 2002. Angiographic evidence of central venous stenosis was present in 35 patients (18%) (superior vena cava 5, brachiocephalic veins 14, and subclavian veins 18). Follow-up averaged 873 days from the date of initial intervention. The initial technical success rate was 89%. Primary patency for each intervention was 85% at 30 days, 55% at 6 months, 43% at 1 year, and 0% at 2 years. Assisted primary patency rates were 88% at 30 days, 80% at 1 year, and 64% at 2 years. Freedom from central venous dialysis catheter placement was 82% at 30 days, 63% at 3 months, 51% at 1 year, 37% at 2 years, and 25% at 3 years. Freedom from a dialysis catheter was superior in those patients with autogenous arteriovenous fistulas. Transvenous angioplasty appears to be beneficial for hemodialysis patients with central venous stenoses, and it helps preserve functional access in the affected extremity, particularly in patients with autogenous fistulas.
Degraded Digit Restoration Based on Physical Forces

It is introduced in this paper an improved method for restoration of degraded digits. The proposed method uses a circular path detection algorithm to determine what type of stroke is being treated. The stroke type will determine which of two techniques will be used to exam the digit's stroke. The techniques used to analyze the stroke are based on inertial or centripetal forces. The method then artificially re-creates the stroke segments, according to the stroke type, in order to reconstruct the digit. The main objective is the creation of strokes in a way as natural as possible, maintaining the original digit integrity. An artificially created degraded digit dataset was used to conduct the experiments, created based on NIST SD19 digit database. It is shown that the proposed algorithm is successful in its task to reconstruct the digits by artificial stroke extrapolation using information from the digits themselves. The results were analyzed using automatic character recognition and the hit rate for the reconstructed digits presented improvement when compared against the hit rate for degraded digits recognition.
Toward a Semantic Concordancer

Concordancers are an accepted and valuable part of the tool set of linguists and lexicographers. They allow the user to see the context of use of a word or phrase in a corpus. A large enough corpus, such as the Corpus Of Contemporary American English, provides the data needed to enumerate all common uses or meanings. One challenge is that there may be too many results for short search phrases or common words when only a specific context is desired. However, finding meaningful groupings of usage may be impractical if it entails enumerating long lists of possible values, such as city names. If a tool existed that could create some semantic abstractions, it would free the lexicographer from the need to resort to customized development of analysis software. To address this need, we have developed a Semantic Concordancer that uses dependency parsing and the Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO) to support linguistic analysis at a level of semantic abstraction above the original textual elements. We show how this facility can be employed to analyze the use of English prepositions by non-native speakers. We briefly introduce condordancers and then describe the corpora on which we applied this work. Next we provide a detailed description of the NLP pipeline followed by how this captures detailed semantics. We show how the semantics can be used to analyze errors in the use of English prepositions by non-native speakers of English. Then we provide a description of a tool that allows users to build semantic search specifications from a set of English examples and how those results can be employed to build rules that translate sentences into logical forms. Finally, we summarize our conclusions and mention future work.
[Psychometric features of the body image after breast cancer questionnaire-Chinese version in women with breast cancer].

OBJECTIVE To examine the psychometric features of the body image after breast cancer questionnaire-Chinese version (BIBCQ-C) in Chinese women with breast cancer. METHODS A total of 545 women with breast cancer received a demographics investigation: BIBCQ-C and hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD). Four weeks later, 31 patients were selected randomly to finish BIBCQ-C again. RESULTS The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total scale was 0.90, and that for the 6 factors ranged from 0.62 to 0.87. The mean inter-item correlation coefficient of the total scale was 0.16, and the mean inter-item correlation coefficient of the subscales ranged from 0.21 to 0.57, and the test-retest reliability of the total scale and 6 factors was over 0.60. The confirmatory factor analyses supported the 6-factor model, and BIBCQ-C were significantly correlated with the symptom scales of anxiety and depression (r=0.20, 0.21, P<0.01). CONCLUSION BIBCQ-C is reliable and valid, which can effectively assess body image of Chinese women with breast cancer.
Requirement for Syngeneic Macrophages for Activation of T Lymphocyte ProIiferation

The activation of immunocompetent lymphocytes by antigen is dependent upon interaction between antigen and a specific lymphocyte recognition structure. For the bone marrow-derived or B 1)~nphocyte, a number of studies have demonstrated easily detectable membrane immunoglobulin receptors that are capable of binding the antigen for which the cell is specific (1, 2). Upon interaction with antigen, B lymphocytes proliferate and/or differentiate into plasma cells that synthesize and secrete immunoglobulin molecules with binding properties identical with that of the receptors of their precursor B lymphocyte. The mechanism by which thymus-derived or T lymphocytes recognize antigen is a matter of considerable controversy. Although some workers have observed immunoglobulin on the membrane of T lymphocytes (3, 4), others have failed to detect it in significant quantities (5, 6). Specific antigen binding to T lynaphocytes has also been quite dimcult to demonstrate (7, 8). Antigen binding to T cells has been measured indirectly by exposing cells in vitro to [12~I]antigen of high specific activity with subsequent killing or "suicide" of the specific antigen-binding T lymphocytes (9). More recently, theta-positive, surface immunoglobulin-negative antigen-binding cells have been visualized directly after incubation of primed mouse spleen cells with relatively high concentrations of 125I-labeled antigen (10) and by the cytoadherence techniques (11). Regardless of whether or not T cells efficiently bind soluble antigens, little or no data is available on the mechanism by which these cells are activated or triggered by antigen. Indeed, a number of studies suggest that T-cell activation, as measured by lymphocyte proliferation, involves the cooperation of macrophages and lymphocytes (12-15). In the guinea pig recent studies have shown that stimulation of T-lymphocyte proliferation in vitro involves an initial uptake of soluble protein antigens by macrophages (16). This uptake is maximally acquired after only brief exposure of the macrophages to antigen (30-60 min at 37°C) (15, 17) and requires the expenditure of metabolic energy. Thus, the uptake of antigen by macrophages appears to represent more than simple surface binding (13, 15, 17). Other studies on the genetic control of specific immune responses have raised the possibility that molecules other than immunoglobulin may play a role in antigen recognition by the T lymphocyte (18). Thus, alloantisera can specifically block the
Development and psychometric evaluation of a measure of intuitive eating.

Intuitive eating is characterized by eating based on physiological hunger and satiety cues rather than situational and emotional cues and is associated with psychological well-being. This study reports on the development and initial psychometric evaluation of the Intuitive Eating Scale (IES) with data collected in 4 studies from 1,260 college women. Exploratory factor analysis uncovered 3 factors: unconditional permission to eat, eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, and reliance on internal hunger/ satiety cues; confirmatory factor analysis suggested that this 3-factor model adequately fit the data after 4 items with factor loadings below . 45 were deleted. IES scores were internally consistent and stable over a 3-week period. Supporting its construct validity, IES scores were (a) negatively related to eating disorder symptomatology, body dissatisfaction, poor interoceptive awareness, pressure for thinness, internalization of the thin ideal, and body mass; (b) positively related to several indexes of well-being; and (c) unrelated to impression management.
Adaptive thresholding of non-homogeneity detection for STAP applications

An adaptive thresholding algorithm is presented that can be used in conjunction with the multi-pass generalized inner product (GIP)-based editing method to eliminate non-homogeneities from the training data used for STAP applications, such as adaptive radars. The algorithm exploits a property of the generic structure of the ordered GIP statistic, along with a single user-specified parameter related to the type I error of incorrectly excising target-free training data, to determine adaptively the thresholds for excising target-contaminated training data. The performance of the method is demonstrated using high-fidelity site-specific simulated data, with both ideal and realistic waveforms, as well as measured data from the multi-channel airborne radar measurement (MCARM) experiment.
Frequency of Cry1F Non-Recessive Resistance Alleles in North Carolina Field Populations of Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a target species of transgenic corn (Zea mays L.) that expresses single and pyramided Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin. In 2014, S. frugiperda were collected from a light trap in North Carolina, and a total of 212 F1/F2 isofemale lines of S. frugiperda were screened for resistance to Bt and non-Bt corn. All of the 212 isolines were susceptible to corn tissue expressing Cry1A.105 + Cry2Ab, Cry1F + Cry1A.105 + Cry2Ab, and Cry1F + Cry1Ab + Vip3Aa20. Growth rate bioassays were performed to isolate non-recessive Bt resistance alleles. Seven individuals out of the 212 isofemale lines carried major non-recessive alleles conferring resistance to Cry1F. A pooled colony was created from the seven individuals. This colony was 151.21 times more resistant to Cry1F than a known-susceptible population and was also resistant to Cry1A.105, but was not resistant to Cry2Ab and Vip3Aa20. The results demonstrate that field populations of S. frugiperda collected from North Carolina are generally susceptible to Cry1F, but that some individuals carry resistant alleles. The data generated in this study can be used as baseline data for resistance monitoring.
Letter by Rundek et al regarding article, "Prediction of clinical cardiovascular events with carotid intima-media thickness: a systematic review and meta-analysis".

To the Editor: We congratulate Lorenz et al1 on their review of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT). The authors acknowledged that the heterogeneity among IMT measurement methodologies and study populations are the most important limitation of their metaanalysis. It is surprising however that the paper lacks discussion regarding the prognostic importance of the presence of carotid plaque. Moreover, no information was provided on plaque prevalence or on the effect that incorporation of plaque into IMT measurements likely …
Case Report: Positive Bone Scan Findings in Grade I Posterior Tibial Tendon Dysfunction

We report on two patients with grade I posterior tibial tendon dysfunction following an inversion-type ankle injury with bone scan findings suggestive of a medial malleolus fracture. The patients had failed to improve despite nonoperative treatment. A bone scan and MRI had been obtained prior to presenting to our office, but failed to delineate the correct diagnosis. These patients presented to our clinic at five and seven months from their injury respectively, with complaints of persistent medial ankle pain. The diagnosis of a grade I posterior tibial tendon msufficiency was made in both patients, with findings subsequently confirmed at surgery. In a patient following an ankle sprain with persistent medial ankle pain and a bone scan suggestive of a fracture, the diagnosis of stage I posterior tibial tendon dysfunction should be considered.
[Annual epidemics of hepatitis A in four large cities related to holiday travel among immigrant children].

OBJECTIVE Analysis of the transmission pattern of hepatitis A in relation to ethnicity and travel behaviour in Amsterdam. Utrecht, Rotterdam and The Hague. DESIGN Descriptive study of notified cases. SETTING Municipal Health Services of the four major cities in the Netherlands. METHOD Notification data of hepatitis A in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and The Hague were analysed over the period 1992-1995. Cases were analysed according to age (0-19 years or > 19 years), whether or not they travelled abroad in the period of six weeks before the onset of the first symptoms of disease, and endemicity of hepatitis A in the country of ethnic origin. RESULTS The strong increase of hepatitis A after the summer holidays could be divided into several smaller epidemics starting with an epidemic among children of Moroccan and Turkish descent who had spent the summer holidays in these countries, among children of the same ethnic background who had not travelled abroad, followed by epidemics among non-travelling children and adults of mainly Dutch descent, respectively. A strong correlation was found in Amsterdam between the incidence in the former two groups and the latter two groups (Pearsons r = 0.68; p = 0.004). CONCLUSION Children who spent the summer holidays in a hepatitis A endemic country, particularly Morocco and Turkey, appeared to be the main importers of hepatitis A in the four major cities. Active immunization of all children born in the Netherlands of Moroccan and Turkish descent is the most preferable intervention.
Complete genome sequence of Liberibacter crescens BT-1

Liberibacter crescens BT-1, a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterial isolate, was previously recovered from mountain papaya to gain insight on Huanglongbing (HLB) and Zebra Chip (ZC) diseases. The genome of BT-1 was sequenced at the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR) at the University of Florida. A finished assembly and annotation yielded one chromosome with a length of 1,504,659 bp and a G+C content of 35.4%. Comparison to other species in the Liberibacter genus, L. crescens has many more genes in thiamine and essential amino acid biosynthesis. This likely explains why L. crescens BT-1 is culturable while the known Liberibacter strains have not yet been cultured. Similar to Candidatus L. asiaticus psy62, the L. crescens BT-1 genome contains two prophage regions.
Reduced Ostertagia circumcincta burdens in milk-fed lambs

Abstract Aims: To compare the susceptibility to parasitism by Ostertagia circumcincta of lambs fed entirely with bovine milk or weaned on to solid feed at 3 weeks of age. In addition, the effect of a single daily feed of milk on worm burdens was assessed. Methods: Eight lambs were assigned to each of the 3 diets: milk (M), milk plus solid feed (cereal-based pellets and lucerne chaff) (MS), or solid feed only (S). Those to be fed solid feed were converted from complete milk feeding to the designated diet during their third week of life. From 3 weeks of age, all lambs were infected with 1000 O. circumcincta larvae twice weekly for 6 weeks; 4 lambs from each diet group were given normal sheathed L3 and another 4 were infected with exsheathed larvae. Faecal egg counts (FEC) and serum gastrin and pepsinogen concentrations were monitored from Day 17 after first infection, and worm burdens and abomasal pH and morphology were determined at necropsy. Results: Total worm burdens and FEC were significantly lower in the M than MS and S groups, whereas there was no significant difference between those receiving sheathed and exsheathed larvae. The milk-fed lambs had a smaller reticulo-rumen and omasum and a more acidic abomasal pH. Serum gastrin and pepsinogen were increased in all groups, irrespective of diet or type of larvae used for infection. Conclusions: The cause of the lower worm establishment in lambs fed only milk was probably not failure to exsheath in the immature gastro-intestinal tract, as there were similar worm burdens in lambs whether sheathed or exsheathed larvae were administered. The lower pH of the abomasal contents of the preruminant lambs may have been a factor, as the parasites have previously been shown to die more rapidly in vitro at low pH. Alternatively, the milk itself had adverse effects on the parasites, but was ineffective when combined with solid feed. There was no benefit from feeding a milk plus solid diet over a solid diet.
Phase I Study of Aurora A Kinase Inhibitor MLN8237 in Advanced Solid Tumors: Safety, Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Bioavailability of Two Oral Formulations

Purpose: This phase I study evaluated the safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and efficacy of the investigational oral drug MLN8237 (alisertib), a small-molecule Aurora A kinase (AAK) inhibitor, in 87 adult patients with advanced solid tumors. Experimental Design: Sequential cohorts of patients received MLN8237 5 to 150 mg orally once daily or twice daily for 7, 14, or 21 days, followed by 14 days' rest per cycle. MLN8237 pharmacokinetics was characterized, and the relative bioavailability of an enteric-coated tablet (ECT) formulation was evaluated in reference to the original powder-in-capsule (PIC) formulation. Pharmacodynamic effects of MLN8237 on inhibition of AAK activity were evaluated in skin biopsies. Tolerability and response to treatment were assessed. Results: Common toxicities included fatigue, nausea, and neutropenia. Plasma exposures increased dose proportionally (5–150 mg/d), and were similar for PIC and ECT. The terminal half-life was 23 hours. At the maximum tolerated dose of 50 mg twice daily on the 7-day schedule, the mitotic index of the skin basal epithelium was increased within 24 hours after MLN8237 administration on days 1 and 7, a finding consistent with AAK inhibition. One (1%) patient achieved a partial response lasting for more than 1 year and received MLN8237 for 51 cycles; 20 (23%) patients achieved stable disease for ≥3 months. Conclusions: This first-in-human trial of MLN8237 showed tolerability and favorable pharmacokinetics in this patient population. The recommended phase II dose of MLN8237 is 50 mg twice daily orally for 7 days in 21-day cycles, which is being evaluated further in the treatment of various solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Clin Cancer Res; 18(17); 4775–84. ©2012 AACR.
Detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen by a rapid immunochromatographic assay in urine samples.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Evaluation of a newly available rapid (15 min) immunochromatographic membrane test (ICT) to detect Streptococcus pneumoniae in urine samples, in order to assess its utility in the diagnosis of bacteremic and nonbacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia. DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING We studied urine samples from 51 patients with bacteremic and nonbacteremic pneumonia due to S pneumoniae diagnosed by blood culture and pneumococcal polysaccharide capsular antigen detection by counterimmunoelectrophoresis in urine samples, 16 patients with probable pneumococcal pneumonia, 71 patients with nonpneumococcal pneumonia, and 16 patients with pneumonia but no pathogen identified. Urine samples were collected and frozen at - 20 degrees C until used. The ICT test was performed following the instructions of the manufacturer. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS S. pneumoniae antigen was detected in 41 of 51 patients with pneumococcal pneumonia (80.4%); results were positive in 23 of 28 bacteremic cases (82.1%) and in 18 of 23 nonbacteremic cases (78.3%). From patients with a diagnosis of presumptive pneumococcal pneumonia, antigen was detected in seven urine samples (43.7%) and also in one case of the 16 patients with pneumonia but no pathogen identified. The specificity of the ICT test was 97.2%. CONCLUSION The ICT assay is a valuable tool for the diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia, especially for the nonbacteremic cases.
The psychology of diversification: Novice investors' ability to spread risks

Hedesstrom, T. M. (2006). The psychology of diversification: Novice investors’ ability to spread risks. Department of Psychology, Goteborg University, Sweden In order to reduce risk, portfolio theory prescribes holding a stock portfolio that is diversified across industries and countries. This thesis investigates novice investors’ ability to compile well-diversified portfolios and to what extent psychological factors may affect diversification. In Study I a sample of 10,999 randomly selected citizens’ choices of mutual funds in the Swedish public premium pension scheme (PPS) was analysed. Among those who did not choose the default fund it was typical to include as many funds as were allowed (five) in a portfolio and to use a 1/n heuristic, allocating investments evenly across the selected funds. While thus superficially well-diversified, portfolios were often home biased (overrepresentation of Swedish funds) and possibly influenced by extremeness aversion (overrepresentation of medium-risk funds). Study II replicated these findings in an Internet-survey where 392 university employees made a fictitious choice of PPS funds. Highly involved individuals included a larger number of funds in their portfolio but were not less home biased. Suggesting that investment experience does not improve diversification, individuals who own stock (outside the PPS) were not less home biased. In Study III undergraduates made hypothetical investments, choosing between stock funds that were stripped of all characteristics except for their past (Experiment 1) or expected (Experiments 1 and 2) returns. In Experiment 1 (N = 40) participants paid more attention to the volatility of individual funds than to the volatility of aggregated portfolios. In Experiment 2 (N = 46) a majority diversified even when this increased risk due to covariation between individual funds’ returns. In Experiment 3 (N = 48) nearly half of those who seemingly attempted to minimize risk diversified even when this increased risk. These results suggest that novice investors neglect covariation when diversifying across investment alternatives. Study IV replicated and modified Experiment 2 in Study III. Undergraduates (N = 160) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions with varying instructions. Being instructed to minimize risk, many diversified even when this increased risk. Choices were not markedly improved by informing participants of how covariation affects portfolio risk. Only when being instructed to systematically calculate the returns of diversified portfolios, was covariation neglect reduced. In sum, the results of Studies I-IV suggest that novice investors have an insufficient understanding of what portfolio diversification is essentially about: combining assets which returns are not likely to covary. The results hint at a deep-rooted inability to grasp the concept of covariation, possibly hampering acquisition of adequate knowledge. It is hypothesized that naive heuristic diversification may be a residual of a default cognitive strategy to seek variety for the sake of learning about the environment.