Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study of Cytotoxic Chemotherapy as an Adjuvant to Surgery in Carcinoma of the Bronchus

This report gives the findings after two years of a study of long-term oral cytotoxic chemotherapy with busulphan or cyclophoshamide in carcinoma of the bronchus compared with two placebos, identical in appearance to the drug-containing tablets. A total of 753 patients who had had a total resection of the tumour, who had no detectable extrathoracic metastasis, and who were able to attend chest clinics monthly were admitted to the study from January 1965 to January 1968. Twenty-seven patients were excluded from all the analyses. The 217 patients admitted up to December 1965 form the “early” intake, the remaining 509 the “late” intake. There were no significant differences between the series in either intake period in a number of pretreatment factors studied. At 24 months 46% of the busulphan, 44% of the cyclophosphamide, and 49% of the placebo series were alive in the early intake, as were 49%, 50%, and 50% respectively in the late intake. There were no important differences between the series in survival related to pretreatment condition, cause of death, time of detection of metastases, and condition of the survivors at 24 months. Maintenance chemotherapy was interrupted to a greater extent in the busulphan than in the cyclophosphamide series and least in the placebo series. In both intakes clinical toxicity was more frequent in the cyclophosphamide series and similar in frequency in the busulphan and placebo series. Haematological toxicity was particularly frequent and severe in the busulphan series, especially in the early intake, platelet depression being the predominant manifestation. It is concluded that there is no evidence that either of the two cytotoxic drugs in the dosage prescribed improved survival for the two-year period of observation, though a final evaluation of the adjuvant chemotherapy as studied in this investigation will have to await the results at five years.
Stable Materials and Bonding Techniques for Space-Based Optical Systems

Advances in material science have expanded the list of materials and bonding techniques available that can be used to design complex structures with exceptional quality and reliability for use in space-based missions such as LISA, TPF, SIM, BBO, or the GRACE follow-on mission. These missions require complex optical systems made from materials and bonding techniques that must meet unprecedented dimensional stability requirements. I n some cases, the intrinsic dimensional stability needs to be better than 100 fm/ √ Hz at Fourier frequencies as low as 0.1 mHz, or maintain a relative length stability less than one part per million over the lifetime of the mission. While there are materials that are thought to meet these requirements, few have been tested to these demanding levels. We present preliminary results on the dimensional stability of Zerodur, Silicon Carbide, and Super Invar at sub-pm levels, sufficient for most in-band applications. In addition, these missions rely on bonding techniques to assemble structures such as the telescope or optical bench. A new technique know as hydroxide bonding was originally developed for glass-glass bonds for the GPB mission, but has since been applied to other materials such as Zerodur, Silicon Carbide, and Super Invar. We will also report on first bonding strength measurements of hydroxide bonding between various materials and compare the dimensional stability of these bonds with the stability of optical contacts. This work is supported by NASA/OSS grant APRA04-00950007.
Additional value of EGFR downstream signaling phosphoprotein expression to KRAS status for response to anti‐EGFR antibodies in colorectal cancer

KRAS mutations are a strong predictive marker of resistance to anti‐epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibodies in advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) but only a subset of wild‐type (WT) KRAS patients are responders, suggesting the existence of additional markers of resistance to this treatment. The activation of EGFR downstream signaling pathways may be one of these ones. In a series of 42 patients with advanced CRC treated with cetuximab/panitumumab, for whom KRAS status was previously determined, we retrospectively analyzed the intratumor expression of EGFR downstream signaling phosphoproteins of the RAS/MAPK and PI3K/AKT pathways (pERK1/2, pMEK1, pAKT, pP70S6K and pGSK3β) using Bio‐Plex® phosphoprotein array. Association with tumor response, progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was assessed. The expression of all the phosphoproteins was higher in KRAS mutated tumors than in WT tumors. The expression of pP70S6K was lower in responders than in nonresponder patients. In univariate analysis, patients with high pMEK1 or pP70S6K expression had a shorter PFS than those with low expression. Patients with high pP70S6K expression also had a shorter OS. In multivariate analysis, PFS was shorter for patients with high pMEK1 or pP70S6K expression, independently of KRAS status, as OS for patients with high pP70S6K expression. Therefore, WT KRAS patients with high pP70S6K expression had a shorter survival than those with low expression. Our results suggest the importance of EGFR downstream signaling phosphoproteins expression in addition to KRAS status to define the subgroup of patients who will not benefit from anti‐EGFR therapy.
Audio segmentation using Flattened Local Trimmed Range for ecological acoustic space analysis

The acoustic space in a given environment is filled with footprints arising from three processes: biophony, geophony and anthrophony. Bioacoustic research using passive acoustic sensors can result in thousands of recordings. An important component of processing these recordings is to automate signal detection. In this paper, we describe a new spectrogram-based approach for extracting individual audio events. Spectrogram-based audio event detection (AED) relies on separating the spectrogram into background (i.e., noise) and foreground (i.e., signal) classes using a threshold such as a global threshold, a per-band threshold, or one given by a classifier. These methods are either too sensitive to noise, designed for an individual species, or require prior training data. Our goal is to develop an algorithm that is not sensitive to noise, does not need any prior training data and works with any type of audio event. To do this, we propose: (1) a spectrogram filtering method, the Flattened Local Trimmed Range (FLTR) method, which models the spectrogram as a mixture of stationary and non-stationary energy processes and mitigates the effect of the stationary processes, and (2) an unsupervised algorithm that uses the filter to detect audio events. We measured the performance of the algorithm using a set of six thoroughly validated audio recordings and obtained a sensitivity of 94% and a positive predictive value of 89%. These sensitivity and positive predictive values are very high, given that the validated recordings are diverse and obtained from field conditions. The algorithm was then used to extract audio events in three datasets. Features of these audio events were plotted and showed the unique aspects of the three acoustic communities. Subjects Bioinformatics, Computational Biology
A sparse Laguerre-Volterra autoregressive model for seizure prediction in temporal lobe epilepsy

A sparse Laguerre-Volterra autoregressive model has been developed as feature extraction from subdural human EEG data for seizure prediction in temporal lobe epilepsy. The use of Laguerre-Volterra kernel can compactly yield an autoregressive model of longer system memory without increasing the number of the coefficients. In 6 sets of seizure, we used a sparse Laguerre-Volterra autoregressive model with 6 coefficients and the decay parameter of 0.2 and obtained the 10-fold cross-validation prediction results of high Matthews correlation coefficients (0.7-1) and low prediction errors (<;15%). These results demonstrate that the sparse Laguerre-Volterra autoregressive model is effective in the feature extraction for seizure prediction. Finally, this sparse Laguerre-Volterra method can be easily adapted to a potentially more powerful nonlinear autoregressive model as the feature extraction rather than linear autoregressive model that we are currently using.
Importance Of The Arteriographic Anatomy Of The Descending Genicular Artery And Sural Arteries In Patients With Atherosclerotic Occlusion Of The Popliteal Artery

Bypasses to the descending genicular artery (DGA) or the medial sural artery (MSA) have been performed with acceptable rates of midterm success. The arteriographic appearance of the DGA, the MSA, and the lateral sural artery (LSA) was described and the applicability of bypass to these vessels was investigated. The arteriograms of 45 patients who had occlusion of the below-knee popliteal artery were analyzed to determine the presence, dominance, and extension of collaterals for each perigeniculate branch, which were used to assess the applicability of a perigeniculate bypass. A dominant perigeniculate artery was found in 26 arteriograms and corresponded to 13 DGAs, 9 MSAs, and 4 LSAs. Of 14 applicable perigeniculate bypasses, 2 would be an obligatory bypass and 12 would be an alternative to a conventional infrapopliteal bypass. Although rarely an obligatory solution, a bypass to a perigeniculate branch artery represents a valuable alternative.
Lymphocyte subset reconstitution after unrelated cord blood or bone marrow transplantation in children

We report the post‐transplant lymphocyte subset recovery of 226 children treated with Unrelated Cord Blood transplant (UCBT) (n = 112) or Unrelated Bone Marrow Transplant (UBMT) (n = 114) for malignant or non‐malignant diseases. Absolute numbers of natural killer (NK), B and T cells were monitored by flow cytometry up to 5 years post‐transplant. Immunological endpoints were: time to achieve a CD3+ cell count >0·5 and 1·5 × 109/l, CD4+ > 0·2 and 0·5 × 109/l, CD8+ > 0·25 × 109/l, CD19+ > 0·2 × 109/l, NK > 0·1 × 109/l. These endpoints were analysed through the use of cumulative incidence curves in the context of competing risks. CD8+ T cell recovery was delayed after UCBT with a median time to reach CD8+ T cells > 0·25 × 109/l of 7·7 months whereas it was 2·8 months in UBMT (P < 0·001). B cell recovery was better in UCBT, with a median time to reach CD19+ cells > 0·2 × 109/l of 3·2 months in UCBT and 6·4 months in UBMT (P = 0·03). Median time for CD4+ T cell and NK cell recovery was similar in UCBT and UBMT. CD4+ T cells recovery was negatively correlated to age (better reconstitution in younger patients, P = 0·002). CD8+ T cells recovery was shorter in recipients with a positive cytomegalovirus serology (P = 0·001).
Psychometric comparisons of three measures for assessing motor functions in preschoolers with intellectual disabilities.

BACKGROUND Deficit in motor performance is common in children with intellectual disabilities (ID). A motor function measure with sound psychometric properties is indispensable for clinical and research use. The purpose of this study was to compare the psychometric properties of three commonly used clinical measures for assessing motor function in preschoolers with ID: the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-Second Edition, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition and the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale-Second Edition (PDMS-2). METHOD One hundred and ninety-one children aged 3-6 years with ID were evaluated with the three measures at three time points: two baseline measurements with a 1-week interval before the intervention, and a follow-up measurement after 6 months of paediatric rehabilitation programme. One hundred and forty-one participants completed all of the assessments. The distribution (ceiling and floor effects) and reliability (internal consistency and test-retest reliability) of each measure were examined. Concurrent validity, predictive validity, and responsiveness were examined as well. RESULTS All measures, except for the PDMS-2, had significant floor effects or ceiling effects at one or more time points. The three measures had good internal consistency (Cronbach α ≥ 0.86) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient ≥ 0.96). The Spearman ρ correlation coefficient for each pair of the three measures was ≥ 0.80, indicating high concurrent validity. The predictive validity of the three measures was satisfactory (Spearman ρ ≥ 0.52). The responsiveness of the three measures was moderate (0.47 ≤ effect size ≤ 0.74). The minimal detectable changes of the three measures were satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS All three measures showed sufficient reliability, validity and responsiveness in preschoolers with ID, but the PDMS-2 is recommended for its superior psychometric properties.
Esophageal dysfunction in dogs with idiopathic laryngeal paralysis: a controlled cohort study.

OBJECTIVES To compare esophageal function in dogs with idiopathic laryngeal paralysis (ILP) to age and breed matched controls; to determine if dysfunction is associated with aspiration pneumonia over 1 year; and to compare clinical neurologic examination of dogs with ILP at enrollment and at 1 year. STUDY DESIGN Prospective controlled cohort study. ANIMALS Dogs with ILP (n=32) and 34 age and breed matched healthy dogs. METHODS Mean esophageal score was determined for each phase of 3 phase esophagrams, analyzed blindly. After unilateral cricoarytenoid laryngoplasty, dogs with ILP were reexamined (including thoracic radiography) at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. Neurologic status was recorded at enrollment, 6 and 12 months. RESULTS Esophagram scores in dogs with ILP were significantly higher in each phase compared with controls, most notably with liquid (P<.0001). Dysfunction was more pronounced in the cervical and cranial thoracic esophagus. Five dogs that had aspiration pneumonia during the study had significantly higher esophagram scores than dogs that did not develop aspiration pneumonia (P<.02). Ten (31%) ILP dogs had generalized neurologic signs on enrollment and all ILP dogs developed neurologic signs by 1 year (P<.0001). Conclusions- Dogs with ILP also have esophageal dysfunction. Postoperative aspiration pneumonia is more likely in dogs with higher esophagram scores. Dogs with ILP will most likely develop generalized neuropathy over the course of 1 year. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Esophagrams and neurologic examinations should be performed on all dogs with ILP.
Volatility derivatives in the Heston framework

A volatility derivative is a financial contract where the payoff depends on the realized variance of a specified asset’s returns. As volatility is in reality a stochastic variable, not deterministic as assumed in the Black-Scholes model, market participants may surely find volatility derivatives to be useful for hedging and speculation purposes. This study explores the construction and calibration of the Heston stochastic volatility model and the pricing of some volatility derivatives within this framework. September 2013 HILTJE KRIEL A minor dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment for the M.Phil. Mathematics of Finance, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Un ive rsi ty of Ca pe To wn The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or noncommercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. U ni ve rs ity f C ap e To w n
Evaluation of cell viability, DNA single-strand breaks, and nitric oxide production in LPS-stimulated macrophage RAW264 exposed to a 50-Hz magnetic field

Abstract Purpose: Synergistic effects between cellular oxidative stress and magnetic fields may explain the adverse biological effects of 50/60 Hz magnetic fields. To determine whether this hypothesis holds in macrophage RAW264 cells, we measured DNA single-strand breaks (SSB), cell viability, and nitric oxide (NO) production in cells with or without exposure to 0.5-mT, 50-Hz magnetic fields for 24 h and with or without simultaneous stimulation via the bacterial endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Materials and methods: Macrophages stimulated with 10 ng/ml LPS for 1 h were exposed to or not exposed to a magnetic field and were then subjected to (1) the alkaline comet assay to measure SSBs, (2) trypan-blue exclusion assay for cell viability, and (3) measurements of NO for evaluation of oxidative stress. Results: The 50-Hz magnetic field enhanced DNA SSB and decreased cell viability only in the LPS-stimulated macrophages in which NO production was greatly enhanced. The magnetic field alone did not alter NO production. Conclusion: Co-stimulation of the cell with LPS and a 50-Hz magnetic field promoted SSB and lowered cell viability, but these were not mediated by LPS-induced NO production.
A Gravity-Based Revealed Comparative Advantage Estimator

I propose a method of moments estimator of revealed comparative advantage based on a flexible specification of trade flows that is consistent with a large class of gravity models of international trade. I show that this estimator has many desirable properties. It is theoretically consistent with the classical notion of Ricardian comparative advantage and is easily computed, even for very large samples. Statistical inference is straightforward, and it is closely related to a commonly-used estimator in the gravity literature that is known to be robust to various forms of heteroskedasticity and measurement error common to trade data.
A method for contact-free heart rate measurement on a video sequence using Simulink

This paper presents a method for a contact-free heart rate measurement on a video sequence using Simulink. The heart rate is measured by detecting the prominent frequency of the skin-color change in a human face. As color features in a video sequence, we utilize both green and hue signals. The frequencies of the two color signals are analyzed using multiple observing times. The prominences of the Fourier spectrums of the two color signals at multiple observing times are then evaluated statistically. Finally, the heart rate measurement is conducted based on the most distinct spectrum. Experimental results show that the proposed method can perform heart rate measurement accurately in real time.
Impaired Kidney Graft Survival is Associated with the TNF-&agr; Genotype

Background. The TNF2 allele at position −308 of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-&agr; gene is associated with high TNF production. The purpose was to study the association of this gene polymorphism with rejection episodes and graft survival after kidney transplantation. Methods. A retrospective analysis of transplant outcomes of patients who only had been treated with one single form of immunosuppression consisting of cyclosporine, azathioprine, and prednisolon was performed. Results. We found that 115 (73%) patients had the TNF1/TNF1 genotype, whereas 42 (27%) were TNF2 positive. There was no difference in the overall acute rejection frequency between these two groups (50% in each), but our data showed a non-significant tendency towards a higher frequency of steroid resistant rejections in the TNF2 positive group (57% vs. 40%). There was no significant difference in graft survival between the two genotype groups, although an early tendency towards worse survival was seen in TNF2 recipients. However, the TNF2 positive recipients with rejection episodes had far worse graft survival compared with the TNF1/TNF1 recipients with rejection episodes (P<0.02). No difference was seen between the two genotype groups in patients without rejection episodes. Conclusion. Our data propose that potentially high TNF producers with the TNF2 allele do not have an increased risk for rejection episodes, but if rejection episodes occur, they have a significantly increased risk for early graft loss. TNF production may intensify rejection, but is not a primary factor for the induction of such acute immune activation.
Signaling time analysis for optimal fast handovers for Mobile IPv6

Fast handovers for IPv6 (FMIPv6) is proposed to reduce the handover latency in standard Mobile IPv6. To do this, FMIPv6 introduces fast movement detection and fast binding update procedures. Additionally, to reduce the lost packets caused by a handover, FMIPv6 may introduce a buffer in access routers. However, the handover latency or the number of lost packets in FMIPv6 is affected by the time to send signals such as the fast binding update message. We inspect the impact of the signaling time on packet loss and handover latency in FMIPv6 through numerical analysis, and we calculate the optimal signaling time to improve the performance of FMIPv6 in terms of handover latency and lost packets.
Filtering and condensing in text-based decision support systems

Three categories of text-based information systems are discussed: computer-mediated communication systems, document-based systems, and text-based decision support systems. A model for a text-based decision-support system that actively supports environmental scanning and organizational communication by filtering and condensing text is presented. A brief discussion of future research directions is provided. <<ETX>>
A 3.0 Gb/s Throughput Hardware-Efficient Decoder for Cyclically-Coupled QC-LDPC Codes

In this paper, we propose a new class of quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QC-LDPC) codes, namely cyclically-coupled QC-LDPC (CC-QC-LDPC) codes, and their RAM-based decoder architecture. CC-QC-LDPC codes have a simple structure and are constructed by cyclically-coupling a number of QC-LDPC subcodes. They can achieve throughput and error performance as excellent as LDPC convolutional codes, but with much lower hardware requirements. They are therefore promising candidates for future generations of communication systems such as long-haul optical communication systems. In particular, a rate-5/6 CC-QC-LDPC decoder has been implemented onto a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and it achieves a throughput of 3.0 Gb/s at 100 MHz clock rate with 10-iteration decoding. No error floor is observed up to an Eb/N0 of 3.50 dB, where all 1.14×1016 transmitted bits have been decoded correctly.
Affinity Purification of Ribosomes with a Lethal G2655C Mutation in 23 S rRNA That Affects the Translocation*

A method for preparation of Escherichia coli ribosomes carrying lethal mutations in 23 S rRNA was developed. The method is based on the site-directed incorporation of a streptavidin binding tag into functionally neutral sites of the 23 S rRNA and subsequent affinity chromatography. It was tested with ribosomes mutated at the 23 S rRNA position 2655 (the elongation factor (EF)-G binding site). Ribosomes carrying the lethal G2655C mutation were purified and studied in vitro. It was found in particular that this mutation confers strong inhibition of the translocation process but only moderately affects GTPase activity and binding of EF-G.