Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alteration of etoposide pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics by cyclosporine in a phase I trial to modulate multidrug resistance.

PURPOSE To determine the effects of high-dose cyclosporine (CsA) infusion on the pharmacokinetics of etoposide in patients with cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Sixteen patients were administered 20 paired courses of etoposide and CsA/etoposide. Etoposide was administered daily for three days, alone or with CsA, which was delivered by a loading dose and 3-day infusion. Etoposide was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and serum CsA by nonspecific immunoassay. Etoposide pharmacokinetics included area under the concentration-time curve (AUC), total and renal clearance (CL), half-life (T1/2), and volume of distribution at steady state (Vss). RESULTS CsA concentrations more than 2,000 ng/mL produced an increase in etoposide AUC of 80% (P less than .001), a 38% decrease in total CL (P < .01), a > twofold increase in T1/2 (P < .01), and a 46% larger Vss (P = .01) compared with etoposide alone. CsA levels ranged from 297 to 5,073 ng/mL. Higher CsA levels (< 2,000 ng/mL v > 2,000 ng/mL) resulted in greater changes in etoposide kinetics: Vss (1.4% v 46%) and T1/2 (40% v 108%). CsA produced a 38% decrease in renal and a 52% decrease in nonrenal CL of etoposide. Etoposide with CsA levels > 2,000 ng/mL produced a lower WBC count nadir (900/mm3 v 1,600/mm3) compared with baseline etoposide cycles. CONCLUSIONS High-dose CsA produces significant increases in etoposide systemic exposure and leukopenia. These pharmacokinetic changes are consistent with inhibition by CsA of the multidrug transporter P-glycoprotein in normal tissues. Etoposide doses should be reduced by 50% when used with high-dose CsA in patients with normal renal and liver function. Alterations in the disposition of other multidrug resistance (MDR)-related drugs should be expected to occur with modulation of P-glycoprotein function in clinical trials.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Caused by Tumoral Calcinosis

We present a case of carpal tunnel syndrome caused by systemic tumoral calcinosis. A 54-year-old woman experienced hand numbness that persisted for nine months. She had no family history or medical problem. A plain radiograph of her right wrist showed a calcified mass on the volar side of the wrist joint. The patient also experienced pain in her contralateral wrist joint and both right and left shoulders, which had calcification on radiography around the joint. Her condition was diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome caused by systemic tumoral calcinosis and a resection biopsy was performed. Histopathological analysis of the biopsied specimen showed basophile deposition inside the fibrous connective tissue. At 14 months after the treatment, she no longer had pain or numbness in her fingers and there was no recurrence of the mass. This patient's condition is considered as a case of nonfamilial, systemic primary tumoral calcinosis. Since incomplete resection leads to a recurrence of the lesion, a follow-up radiography examination is needed to monitor symptom recurrence.
Efficacy of plaque removal by two types of toothpick

PURPOSE To compare the efficacy of two types of interdental device, namely triangular woodstick and round toothpick, in the removal of interproximal dental plaque. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study had a split-mouth design and was conducted on 15 individuals. After 72 h of dental plaque accumulation, the dental plaque was quantified by the Quigley-Hein Plaque Index (QHPI). Two quadrants were then randomly assigned for the use of triangular woodstick and the other two for the use of round toothpick. After the use of toothpicks, the QHPI was re-evaluated by a calibrated examiner, blinded to the types of toothpick used. The mean values of QHPI were calculated for both types of toothpick, before and after use. Comparison within and between groups was performed by the paired t test, at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS Both the toothpicks provided significant reduction of QHPI, without any statistically significant difference between the types of toothpick (from 3.31 +/- 0.61 to 2.42 +/- 0.60 using triangular woodsticks and from 3.19 +/- 0.71 to 2.24 +/- 0.54 using round toothpicks, in the initial and the final periods, respectively). Individual comparison of proximal aspects by observation from buccal proximal and palatal/lingual proximal aspects revealed that round toothpicks removed a greater amount of plaque than triangular woodsticks in areas that were analysed by observation from the palatal/lingual proximal aspect. CONCLUSIONS No statistically significant differences were found between round toothpicks and triangular woodsticks in the removal of supragingival plaque.
Time is more than a sensory feature : Attending to duration triggers specific anticipatory activity Duration and Anticipation

and needs some form of representation to be actively maintained during temporal processing. Second, time processing requires attentional resources. Indeed, estimation of stimulus duration varies depending on the degree of attention allocated to the time feature (Brown, 1997). In line with this idea, neuroimaging studies have provided substantial evidence suggesting the involvement of a right frontoparietal network in time perception. Although still controversial, it is usually held that this network could be related to the attentional and memory processes associated with duration estimation while the coding of duration per se would rely on the striatum, cerebellum, and supplementary motor area (SMA) (Coull, Nazarian, & Vidal, 2008; Harrington et al., 2004; Rao, Mayer, & Harrington, 2001). Our objective was twofold. First, we wanted to characterize the anticipatory attention to duration. We therefore sought to determine what happens when preparing to attend to duration and not during duration processing per se. Based on the work done on visuo-spatial attention, we reasoned that the more a network is involved in attentional control, the more it should be active during anticipatory phases. Previous studies suggest that attentional modulations in sensory areas are preceded by the activation of frontoparietal areas. This network is thought to be involved in the control of spatial attention, rather than in stimulus processing, because it is activated before stimulus Correspondence should be addressed to: Marco Sperduti, Centre Emotion, CNRS USR3246, Pavillon Clérambault, Hôpital Salpètriere, 47 Bd. De l’Hôpital, 75651, Paris cedex 13, France. E-mail: marcosperduti@yahoo.it We thank Antoine Ducorps and Denis Schwartz for their help during data acquisition and analysis and Matthias Pirollo for preliminary behavioural testing and data acquisition. D o w n l o a d e d A t : 1 3 : 5 3 9 F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
Design for a secure interoperable cloud-based Personal Health Record service

Adoption of Personal Health Record (PHR) applications has been slow due to consumers' concerns in security, privacy and trust, and the challenges in interoperability and integration with other Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. This paper proposes the design for a secure interoperable cloud-based PHR service. To enhance the portability and interoperability, we use the Continuity of Care Document (CCD) for both storing and exchanging the PHR information for an individual. To provide self-protecting security for each CCD instance, we apply a broad spectrum of security mechanisms - including access control, encryption, and digital signature - in an integrated, embedded, and fine-grained manner, based on open standards such as eXtensible Access Control Markup Language, XML Encryption, XML Signature, and XML Key Management Specification. To support patient-controlled encryption and privacy-preserving keyword search, we use ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption and public-key encryption with keyword search schemes, again in an integrated, embedded, and fine-grained manner.
A Micromechanical Failure Study of AS4/PEEK Composites

A new digital image correlation method is presented, which combines the theories of correlation and wavelet transforms. The digital image of the natural surface of sample or specimen is considered as a two-dimensional mathematical function. This paper proves that the correlation coefficients of two functions can be achieved and expressed by their wavelet transformations, and the corresponding algorithm is given in the paper. The experimental system consists of an objective of microscope, the light source, digital image processing and software systems. In the experiment, the images of the natural surface of specimen before and after the deformation are captured and processed by the new algorithm. The application is demonstrated for experiments on damage evaluation of laminated composites AS4/PEEK(0/ ± 45/90) 7S under bending. The precision of displacement measurement is 0.01-0.05 pixel. Finally, the finite element analysis and damage mechanics of above material under same load is investigated and discussed. The numerical simulation has been carried out using three-dimensional orthotropic elastic finite element model. Simulated stress and strain fields ( ij ij e σ , ) of the laminated composites AS4/PEEK(0/±45/90) 7S under different loadings are presented in this paper. This method has its potential application in micro electronics, electronic packaging and thermo-mechanical reliability studies on micro and nano scale by AFM and SEM
Using rate advancement periods for communicating the benefits of quitting smoking to older smokers

Background and aims Standard epidemiological measures of the risk of premature death from smoking might be unsuitable for risk communication in actual counselling situations. The rate advancement period (RAP) is an epidemiologic metric that could be useful for conveying information on the benefits of quitting. More effective risk communication could motivate older smokers to make an attempt at quitting. We provide empirical evidence on the impact of smoking, and the benefits of quitting on all-cause mortality and RAPs for people aged 60 years and older in a large cohort of older adults. Methods Smoking information was obtained from 6545 participants aged 60–74 years of ESTHER, a population-based German cohort. Cox proportional hazards regression was applied to estimate associations of smoking status, amount of smoking and time since smoking cessation with all-cause mortality. Premature mortality was quantified by RAPs. Results Current smokers had a 2.5-fold increased risk for all-cause mortality (adjusted HR: 2.53, 95% CI 2.10 to 3.03) and an RAP of 10.7 years when compared with never smokers. Strong dose-response relationships were seen with both current and life-time amount of smoking. Compared with current smokers, significant mortality reductions by 30%, 39% and 59%, and rate advancement reductions of 4.0, 5.6 and 10.0 years within <10 years, 10–19 years and ≥20 years after cessation were found for former smokers, respectively. Conclusions Smoking remains a strong risk factor for premature mortality, and smoking cessation remains highly beneficial also at older ages.
An improved track segment association algorithm using MM-GNN method

Track breakages are common due to target maneuver, Doppler radar blind spot, long sampling interval and low detection probabilities. Note that the existed classic association algorithms have low correlation accuracy and poor practicability in dense environment or in track crossing situation. In this paper, we aim to present a new track segment association (TSA) technique to improve track continuity. An improved Multiple Model (MM) method with Global Nearest Neighbor (GNN) algorithm for track segment association is put forward, that is MM-GNN method. Simulation experiments show that proposed algorithm enhances the track maintenance performance and the track life of tracking result while ensuring the accuracy of tracking. Verified by real measured data, it confirms that the algorithm is suitable for multiple target tracking in practical radar system with the improvement of track continuity.
MemSafe: Ensuring the Spatial and Temporal Memory Safety of C at Runtime

Memory access violations are a leading source of unreliability in C programs. As evidence of this problem, a variety of methods exist that retrofit C with software checks to detect memory errors at runtime. However, these methods generally suffer from one or more drawbacks including the inability to detect all errors, the use of incompatible metadata, the need for manual code modifications, and high runtime overheads. In this paper, we present a compiler analysis and transformation for ensuring the memory safety of C called MemSafe. MemSafe makes several novel contributions that improve upon previous work and lower the cost of safety. These include (1) a method for modeling temporal errors as spatial errors, (2) a metadata representation that combines features of both object - and pointer-based approaches, and (3) a dataflow representation that simplifies optimizations for removing unneeded checks. MemSafe is capable of detecting real errors with lower overheads than previous efforts. Experimental results show that MemSafe detects all memory errors in 6 programs with known violations and ensures complete safety with an average overhead of 87% on 30 large programs widely-used in evaluating error detection tools.
Clustalnet: the joining of Clustal and CORBA

MOTIVATION Performing sequence alignment operations from a different program than the original sequence alignment code, and/or through a network connection, is often required. Interactive alignment editors and large-scale biological data analysis are common examples where such a flexibility is important. Interoperability between the alignment engine and the client should be obtained regardless of the architectures and programming languages of the server and client. RESULTS Clustalnet, a Clustal alignment CORBA server is described, which was developed on the basis of Clustalw. This server brings the robustness of the algorithms and implementations of Clustal to a new level of reuse. A Clustalnet server object can be accessed from a program, transparently through the network. We present interfaces to perform the alignment operations and to control these operations via immutable contexts. The interfaces that select the contexts do not depend on the nature of the operation to be performed, making the design modular. The IDL interfaces presented here are not specific to Clustal and can be implemented on top of different sequence alignment algorithm implementations.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY 2 Camera identification based on sensor noise :

The various image-processing stages in a digital camera pipeline leave telltale footprints, which can be exploited as forensic signatures. These footprints consist of pixel defects, of unevenness of the responses in the CCD sensor, black current noise, and may originate from proprietary interpolation algorithms involved in color filter array [CFA]. Various imaging device (camera, scanner etc.) identification methods are based on the analysis of these artifacts. In this work, we set to explore three sets of forensic features, namely binary similarity measures, image quality measures and higher order wavelet statistics in conjunction with SVM classifier to identify the originating camera. We demonstrate that our camera model identification algorithm achieves more accurate identification, and that it can be made robust to a host of image manipulations. The algorithm has potential to discriminate camera units within the same model.
The effect of resveratrol on longevity across species: a meta-analysis

Resveratrol has shown evidence of decreasing cancer incidence, heart disease, metabolic syndrome and neural degeneration in animal studies. However, the effects on longevity are mixed. We aimed to quantify the current knowledge of life extension from resveratrol. We used meta-analytic techniques to assess the effect resveratrol has on survival, using data from 19 published papers, including six species: yeast, nematodes, mice, fruitflies, Mexican fruitflies and turquoise killifish. Overall, our results indicate that resveratrol acts as a life-extending agent. The effect is most potent in yeast and nematodes, with diminished reliability in most higher-order species. Turquoise killifish were especially sensitive to life-extending effects of resveratrol but showed much variation. Much of the considerable heterogeneity in our analysis was owing to unexplained variation between studies. In summary, we can report that few species conclusively show life extension in response to resveratrol. As such, we question the practice of the substance being marketed as a life-extending health supplement for humans.
Pattern-Based Verification for Multithreaded Programs

Pattern-based verification checks the correctness of program executions that follow a given <i>pattern</i>, a regular expression over the alphabet of program transitions of the form <i>w</i><sub>1</sub><sup>*</sup> … <i>w</i><sub><i>n</i></sub><sup>*</sup>. For multithreaded programs, the alphabet of the pattern is given by the reads and writes to the shared storage. We study the complexity of pattern-based verification for multithreaded programs with shared counters and finite variables. While unrestricted verification is undecidable for abstracted multithreaded programs with recursive procedures and PSPACE-complete for abstracted multithreaded while-programs (even without counters), we show that pattern-based verification is NP-complete for both classes, even in the presence of counters. We then conduct a multiparameter analysis to study the complexity of the problem on its three natural parameters (number of threads+counters+variables, maximal size of a thread, size of the pattern) and on two parameters related to thread structure (maximal number of procedures per thread and longest simple path of procedure calls). We present an algorithm that for a fixed number of threads, counters, variables, and pattern size solves the verification problem in <i>st</i><sup><i>O</i>(<i>lsp</i>+ ⌈ log (<i>pr</i>+1) ⌉)</sup> time, where <i>st</i> is the maximal size of a thread, <i>pr</i> is the maximal number of procedures per thread, and <i>lsp</i> is the longest simple path of procedure calls.
Study on Differences in the Pathology, T Cell Subsets and Gene Expression in Susceptible and Non-Susceptible Hosts Infected with Schistosoma japonicum

More than 40 kinds of mammals in China are known to be naturally infected with Schistosoma japonicum (S. japonicum); Microtus fortis (M. fortis), a species of vole, is the only mammal in which the schistosomes cannot mature or cause significant pathogenic changes. In the current study, we compared the differences in pathology by Hematoxylin-eosin staining and in changes in the T cell subsets with flow cytometry as well as gene expression using genome oligonucleotide microarrays in the lung and liver, before challenge and 10 days post-infection with schistosomes in a S. japonicum-susceptible mouse model of infection, a non-susceptible rat model and the non-permissive host, M. fortis. The results demonstrated that S. japonicum promoted a more intensive immune response and more pathological lesions in M. fortis and rats than in mice. Hematoxylin-eosin staining revealed that the immune effector cells involved were mainly eosinophilic granulocytes supplemented with heterophilic granulocytes and macrophages. The analysis of splenic T cell subsets showed that CD4+ T cell subsets and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio were increased, while the CD8+ T cell subsets decreased remarkably in rats; whereas the CD8+ T cell subsets were increased, but the CD4+/CD8+ ratio was decreased significantly in mice. The analysis of the pattern of gene expression suggested that some immune-associated genes and apoptosis-inducing genes up-regulated, while some development-associated genes were down-regulated in the infected M. fortis compared to the uninfected controls; the three different hosts have different response mechanisms to schistosome infection. The results of this study will be helpful for identifying the key molecules in the immune response to S. japonicum in M. fortis and for understanding more about the underlying mechanism of the response, as well as for elucidating the interaction between S. japonicum and its hosts.
Laplacian-Gaussian mixture based dual-gain wiener filter for speech enhancement

In conventional speech enhancement algorithms, the most used technique for noise suppression is the attenuating filter, mainly because that the sign or phase of the clean speech and noise coefficients are assumed to be coincident. However, the amplitude of the noisy speech coefficient may not always be bigger than that of the clean speech in fact. Considering the two stats of noise signals in DCT domain, the destructive or constructive interference, we present a series of dual-gain Wiener filters for speech enhancement problem based on Laplacian-Gaussian mixture distributions of the clean speech and noise coefficients. The corresponding estimators for the clean speech are derived under the identification assumption of these two states. The simulation results show that the presented Laplacian-Gaussian mixture based dual-gain Wiener filters lead to less speech distortion and better speech quality than the conventional Wiener filter, especially in a low SNR condition.
Environment adaptation for robust speaker verification

In speaker verification over public telephone networks, utterances can be obtained from different types of handsets. Different handsets may introduce different degrees of distortion to the speech signals. This paper attempts to combine a handset selector with (1) handset-specific transformations and (2) handset-dependent speaker models to reduce the effect caused by the acoustic distortion. Specifically, a number of Gaussian mixture models are independently trained to identify the most likely handset given a test utterance; then during recognition, the speaker model and background model are either transformed by MLLR-based handset-specific transformation or respectively replaced by a handset-dependent speaker model and a handset-dependent background model whose parameters were adapted by reinforced learning to fit the new environment. Experimental results based on 150 speakers of the HTIMIT corpus show that environment adaptation based on both MLLR and reinforced learning outperforms the classical CMS, Hnorm and Tnorm approaches, with MLLR adaptation achieves the best performance.
Using e-journaling to improve self-regulated learning in introductory computer programming course

Usually, students face different difficulties when learning computer programming, this leads many of them to drop out of computing major, or continue with fear of programming assignments in subsequent courses. The main reason of these difficulties is inappropriate method used by students to study this subject. In this paper, we describe our experience of using e-journal to train students on self-regulated learning skills when studying computer programming. Although using this tool has many challenges, it proves its effectiveness in improving students' self-regulated learning skills, and consequently enhances students' performance in introductory computer programing course.