Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic factors and scoring systems in myelodysplastic syndromes.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Great prognostic heterogeneity complicates therapy-planning and a correct evaluation of clinical trials in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Thus, the development of a prognostic classification of MDS is of major clinical relevance, especially when the advanced age of most patients and the aggressiveness of the curative treatment modalities currently available are considered. This review summarizes the results of different studies focusing on prognostic factors in MDS and deals with the pros and cons of prognostic scoring systems that have been recently developed. It also discusses the prognostic factors of particular subtypes of patients and those isolated with certain treatment options. EVIDENCE AND INFORMATION SOURCES The authors of the present review have been working in different areas of the field of MDS for several years, have contributed original papers on the prognostic factors and therapy of these disorders, and have taken part in the recent International MDS Risk Analysis Workshop that has resulted in the development of the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) for MDS. STATE OF THE ART AND PERSPECTIVES The percentage of marrow blasts, cytogenetic pattern and number and degree of cytopenias are the most powerful prognostic indicators in MDS. Although some limitations are evident, the recently developed scoring systems, and particularly the IPSS, are extremely useful for predicting survival and acute leukemic risk in individuals with MDS and should be incorporated to the design and analysis of therapeutic trials in these disorders. A risk-adapted treatment strategy is now possible and highly recommended for MDS patients.
Long noncoding RNAs involve in resistance to Verticillium dahliae, a fungal disease in cotton

Summary Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have several known functions in plant development, but their possible roles in responding to plant disease remain largely unresolved. In this study, we described a comprehensive disease‐responding lncRNA profiles in defence against a cotton fungal disease Verticillium dahliae. We further revealed the conserved and specific characters of disease‐responding process between two cotton species. Conservatively for two cotton species, we found the expression dominance of induced lncRNAs in the Dt subgenome, indicating a biased induction pattern in the co‐existing subgenomes of allotetraploid cotton. Comparative analysis of lncRNA expression and their proposed functions in resistant Gossypium barbadense cv. ‘7124’ versus susceptible Gossypium hirsutum cv. ‘YZ1’ revealed their distinct disease response mechanisms. Species‐specific (LS) lncRNAs containing more SNPs displayed a fiercer inducing level postinfection than the species‐conserved (core) lncRNAs. Gene Ontology enrichment of LS lncRNAs and core lncRNAs indicates distinct roles in the process of biotic stimulus. Further functional analysis showed that two core lncRNAs, GhlncNAT‐ANX2‐ and GhlncNAT‐RLP7‐silenced seedlings, displayed an enhanced resistance towards V. dahliae and Botrytis cinerea, possibly associated with the increased expression of LOX1 and LOX2. This study represents the first characterization of lncRNAs involved in resistance to fungal disease and provides new clues to elucidate cotton disease response mechanism.
Location of contact areas on rotary Profile instruments in relationship to the forces developed during mechanical preparation on extracted teeth.

AIM The aim of this study was to locate the areas of direct instrument contact with dentine in the root canal system during rotary preparation and to analyse the relationship between these areas and the vertical forces and torque developed during the preparation. METHODOLOGY Canal preparations were performed by endodontists either with the step-back (SB) or the crown-down (CD) technique. In order to locate the areas of contact, the instruments were coated with two layers of gold by electro-deposition. They were photographed before and after use, and a coding system, based on mm from the instrument tip, was devised to designate areas of gold removal or instrument wear due to friction. To standarise the conditions of instrument manipulation, the teeth were fixed in the Endographe holder, and this device was used to measure vertical forces and torque. RESULTS The results showed that the first series of instruments used for the CD technique (taper 0.06) left 2 +/- 1 mm of the tip with the gold intact, indicating that these instruments and this step of the CD technique are the safest part of the preparation. For all other instruments (taper 0.04 series), the areas of gold removal involved the 3 mm around the tip and this finding was independent of the order of instrument use and preparation technique (SB or CD). The differences between the two techniques were significant in terms of the mean area of decolouration and the mean force and torque values. For the SB and CD techniques, the contact areas were, respectively, 10 +/- 3 and 7 +/- 2 mm. The forces and torque values were correspondingly higher for SB vs. CD; the mean values were, respectively, 19 and 21 N for vertical forces and 16 10(5) and 13 10(5) Nm for torque. CONCLUSIONS The recorded torque values and the location on the instruments of the areas of contact with dentine during this development of torque i.e. at or near the tip, indicate that great caution should be used with the rotary technique, particularly with the taper 0.04 instruments, regardless of preparation technique.
The role of accounting fundamentals and other information in analyst forecast errors

In this paper, we study analyst forecast errors in the United States, and decompose these errors into two different sources: accounting fundamentals and other information. Using data from 1983 to 2012, our results lead to two conclusions. First, using the decomposition approach, we show that on average, the component of analyst forecast errors based on ‘accounting information’ is optimistic; however, the component of analyst forecast errors based on ‘other information’ is pessimistic. Second, although occasionally analysts make forecasts with small errors, the decomposition of such errors provide, on average, larger (positive) accounting errors, and larger (negative) other information errors. In this case, our results suggest that analysts' luck occasionally surpasses their skills.
Policy-Relevant Systematic Reviews to Strengthen Health Systems: Models and Mechanisms to Support Their Production.

Support for producing systematic reviews about health systems is less well developed than for those about clinical practice. From interviewing policy makers and systematic reviewers we identified institutional mechanisms which bring systematic reviews and policy priorities closer by harnessing organisational and individual motivations, emphasising engagement between policy and research, embedding efforts in conducive structures and supporting them with formalised procedures. Four models combine mechanisms appropriately to suit the initial degree of clarity and consensus of key issues underpinning the policy problem or research question, and whether the review is for a specific decision or widespread use.
The Alternative Binding Site for Protein A in the Fab Fragment of Immunoglobulins

Twenty‐six new human or murine monoclonal immunoglobulins (IgM, IgA, murine IgGl or human IgG3) with a known V‐region sequence were tested for alternative (non‐Fc) binding to Staphylococcal protein A. Seven of them did not bind at all. Four immunoglobulins (all mouse IgGl) were bound but easily eluted (at pH 6). They were probably bound via the Fc part. All eleven were classified as negative for alternative binding. Fifteen immunoglobulins were found to bind more firmly; they came off the protein A column at pH 4–3 (alternative binders).
Effects of Offering Advance Directives on Medical Treatments and Costs

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of advance directives on medical treatments and on patient satisfaction and well-being and to determine whether the enhancement of patient autonomy through advance directives provides a more ethically feasible approach to cost control than does the imposition of limits through rationing. DESIGN Randomized, controlled trial. SETTING University and Veterans Affairs medical center. PATIENTS Two hundred and four patients with life-threatening illnesses, 100 of whom died after enrollment in the study. INTERVENTION Patients randomly assigned to the experimental group were offered the California Durable Power of Attorney (a typical proxy-instruction directive), and patients assigned to the control group were not offered the advance directive. Hospital admissions were monitored to assure that a summary of the document was present in the active medical record at each hospitalization. MEASUREMENTS Cognitive function, patient satisfaction, psychological well-being, health locus of control, sense of coherence, health-related quality of life, receipt of medical treatments, and medical treatment charges. RESULTS No significant differences were found between advance-directive and control groups regarding psychosocial variables, health outcome variables, and medical treatments or charges. Patients offered an advance directive had an average hospital stay of 40.8 days (95% CI, 32.2 to 49.4 days), compared with an average of 33.1 days (95% CI, 26.0 to 40.2 days) for controls. Patients offered an advance directive were charged an average of $19,502 (95% CI, $13,030 to $25,974) for medical treatments in the last month of life compared with $19,700 (95% CI, $13,704 to $25,696) for controls. CONCLUSIONS Despite claims that public demand for longer life accounts for rising medical costs, most surveys suggest that patients are calling for less, not more, of the expensive, high-technology treatment often used in terminal phases of illness. Executing the California Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and having a summary copy placed in the patient's medical record had no significant positive or negative effect on a patient's well-being, health status, medical treatments, or medical treatment charges.
An improved smoothed l0-norm algorithm based on multiparameter approximation function

In this paper, by representing the sources with subspace method, it is proved that the iteration and projection process of SL0 (Smoothed L0-norm Algorithm) is equivalent to search the sparsest solution in solution space of the system equation. Then, an improvement for over-complete sparse decomposition is introduced, which replaces the Gaussian function used in SL0 algorithm with Sigmoid one to improved its noise tolerance. And, the algorithm could convergence in less iteration. It is experimentally shown that the improved algorithm is superior to the original one on the performance of noise tolerance and speed while keeping its performance related to the probability of activity of the sources.
Incidence and characteristics of mandibular accessory canals: A radiographic investigation

AIM The aim of the present study was to explore, through tridimensional reconstructions of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans, the presence and the characteristics of mandibular accessory canals. METHODS For each included participant, the presence of accessory canals was recorded. The diameter of the canal, as well as the distance between the canal walls and the walls of the mandibular bone (lingual, buccal, cranial and caudal), were measured and recorded. RESULTS Mandibular accessory canals could be found in 8.8% of participants. Retromolar canals were the most frequently found accessory mandibular canals. CONCLUSIONS Accessory mandibular canals were found in a relatively high number of participants through the examination of CBCT scans and tridimensional reconstruction. The presence of such structures should be considered cautiously when planning and performing surgical interventions in mandibular area.
Enhanced LBP texture features from time frequency representations for acoustic scene classification

This paper introduces the use of local binary patterns (LBP) extracted from a time-frequency representation (TFR) for acoustic scene classification. As LBP provides a description of the global TFR texture we propose a novel zoning mechanism that provides a simple solution to extract spectrally relevant local features which better characterize the audio TFRs. To further improve the classification performance, we perform feature and score level fusion of the proposed LBP (with zoning) with histogram of gradients (HOG) of the TFR images. Our technique demonstrates an improved performance by achieving a classification accuracy of 95.2% using a fusion of time-frequency derived features.
Diagnosis of Active Systems by Semantic Patterns

A gap still exists between complex discrete-event systems (DESs) and the effectiveness of the state-of-the-art diagnosis techniques, where faults are defined at component levels and diagnoses incorporate the occurrences of component faults. All these approaches to diagnosis are context-free, in as much diagnosis is anchored to components, irrespective of the context in which they are embedded. By contrast, since complex DESs are naturally organized in hierarchies of contexts, different diagnosis rules are to be defined for different contexts. Diagnosis rules are specified based on associations between context-sensitive faults and regular expressions, called semantic patterns. Since the alphabets of such regular expressions are stratified, so that the semantic patterns of a context are defined based on the interface symbols of its subcontexts only, separation of concerns is achieved, and the expressive power of diagnosis is enhanced. This new approach to diagnosis is bound to seemingly contradictory but nonetheless possible scenarios: a DES can be normal despite the faulty behavior of a number of its components; also, it can be faulty despite the normal behavior of all its components.
New Ceftriaxone- and Multidrug-Resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae Strain with a Novel Mosaic penA Gene Isolated in Japan

ABSTRACT We have characterized in detail a new ceftriaxone- and multidrug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain (FC428) isolated in Japan in 2015. FC428 differed from previous ceftriaxone-resistant strains and contained a novel mosaic penA allele encoding a new mosaic penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP 2). However, the resistance-determining 3′-terminal region of penA was almost identical to the regions of two previously reported ceftriaxone-resistant strains from Australia and Japan, indicating that both ceftriaxone-resistant strains and conserved ceftriaxone resistance-determining PBP 2 regions might spread.
Sporadic inclusion body myositis: clinical, pathological, and genetic analysis of eight Polish patients.

INTRODUCTION Sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) is one of the most common myopathies in patients above 50 years of age. Its progressive course finally leads to immobilisation, and no effective therapy exists. Its pathogenesis includes both degenerative and inflammatory processes, however, its direct causes remain unknown. Therefore, a possible genetic background of the disease must also be considered. MATERIAL AND METHODS Here we report on twelve patients: eight with sporadic inclusion body myositis and four with other myopathies with rimmed vacuoles in muscle biopsy. All patients were evaluated clinically, morphologically, radiologically, and genetically. RESULTS All patients with sIBM presented both shoulder and pelvic girdle muscle involvement. In addition, distal upper and lower limb muscle weakness was noted. Patients with other muscle disorders showed effects mainly in proximal muscles and marked calf muscle hypertrophy. In sIBM cases computed tomography of lower limb muscles revealed atrophy that was most pronounced within the quadriceps femoris and gracilis muscles in the thighs and within the medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle and the tibialis anterior muscle in the lower legs. On light microscopy mononuclear cell invasion of muscle fibres was present in six patients with sIBM. On electron microscopy myofibrillar disorganisation and mitochondrial abnormalities were noted in all sIBM patients, whereas cytoplasmic tubulofilamentous inclusions were seen in three patients and both cytoplasmic and nuclear inclusions in one of them. According to the criteria by Rose et al. (2011) six patients were classified as "clinico-pathologically defined IBM", one as "clinically defined IBM", and one as "probable IBM". Pathological deposits of TDP-43 were found in muscles in all sIBM as well as in control cases. Additionally, accumulation of other proteins thought to be associated with sIBM, like β-amyloid, -synuclein, and tau protein, was present in the most of examined biopsies. All twelve patients were screened for the presence of causative mutations in TARDBP, VCP, HNRNPA1, and HNRNPA2B1 genes. Additionally, analysis of C9ORF72 hexanucleotide repeat expansion was performed. No causative mutations were found in any of the patients. CONCLUSIONS Our study provides the first - to our knowledge - comprehensive clinical, pathological, and genetic workup of a group of Polish patients.
Oral health status in relation to stimulated saliva buffering capacity among Japanese adults above or below 35 years of age.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate dental caries and periodontal pocketing in relation to saliva buffering capacity among two groups of Japanese adults aged above 35 years old (A35) or 35 years old and below (B35). METHODS After measuring the initial pH of saliva, samples were titrated with 0.1N HCl to evaluate the buffer capacity. Levels of mutans streptococci and Lactobacilli in saliva, DMF and periodontal pocket were also measured. RESULTS Among B35 group, DMF of adults with High buffering capacity was significantly lower than those of adults with Medium and Low buffering capacity (p < 0.05). Chi-square test showed the distribution of subjects with high counts of mutans Streptococci or Lactobacilli into the three buffer capacities, which was not statistically different between two age groups (p > 0.05). There were statistical differences for the mean periodontal pocket depth on the upper right incisor of adults in A35 with High buffer capacity and those of adults with any buffer capacity in B35 group. Statistical differences were also found for the pocket depth on lower left incisor and upper right molars of adults in A35 with High buffer capacity and those of adults with low buffer capacity in B35 group (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION High buffering capacity of saliva might be associated with better status of oral health among Japanese adults in both age groups.
Vertical and Horizontal Mismatches and Career Mobility: Evidence from Female College Graduates

Using panel data from the 2010 Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey, this paper estimates the incidence and impact of horizontal and vertical mismatches on labour mobility among Korean female college graduates at the early stages of their careers. Unlike most previous studies, this study proposes three types of educational mismatch status: (1) vertically mismatched only; (2) horizontally mismatched only; and (3) both vertically and horizontally mismatched. The findings show that the share of educationally mismatched workers is non‐negligible in the Korean labour market (approximately 30 per cent). However, the data also points to an improvement in job matching over time. Regardless of the type of educational mismatch, the results provide evidence consistent with many previous studies: educational mismatch is significantly and positively associated with job turnover. In particular, vertically and horizontally mismatched workers are more likely to switch jobs than their vertically or horizontally mismatched counterparts. These findings indicate that educationally mismatched graduates are more likely to change jobs—suggesting that educational mismatch can be viewed as an investment in human capital at the beginning of a career.
The COSMO-SkyMed Dual Use Earth Observation Program: Development, Qualification, and Results of the Commissioning of the Overall Constellation

COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) is the largest Italian investment in Space Systems for Earth Observation, commissioned and funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian Ministry of Defense (It-MoD). The CSK constellation has been completely qualified in orbit since 2010 and it is still operating at full performance with a constellation of four mid-sized satellites placed in Low Earth Orbit, each carrying a high-resolution X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and a full-featured Ground Segment to exploit observation capabilities and providing SAR imaging servicing worldwide. The primary mission objective of CSK is the provision of services able to quickly answer to the user needs in the domains of Monitoring of land and environmental resources, Strategic Surveillance for Defense and Intelligence, Maritime Control, Topography, and Commercial applications as well. CSK fulfills civilian and defense needs, enhancing international partnerships through its interoperability, expandability, and multisensor (IEM) features and practices. Thanks to these features, CSK is an asset for international partnership such as the Italian-Argentinean Satellite System for Emergency Management (SIASGE). This paper intends to delineate how those fundamental characteristics of CSK have been qualified and commissioned from the launch of the first CSK satellite in 2007 through its progressive deployment until the system in-flight final acceptance (S-IFAR) event in 2010 that has completed the orbiting four-satellite qualified configuration. Nowadays, CSK is operating at full performance, constituting an asset for its firstclass radar observation capabilities, state-of-the-art technology aimed at improving security of countries, safety, and life quality of their citizens.
Enhancement of oral bioavailability of fenofibrate by solid self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems

A solid form of self-microemulsifying drug delivery system (Solid SMEDDS) was developed by spray-drying with dextran as the inert solid carrier, to improve the oral bioavailability of a poorly water-soluble drug, fenofibrate. The optimized liquid SMEDDS, composed of Labrafil M 1944 CS/Labrasol/Capryol PGMC (15/75/10%v/v) with 10% w/v fenofibrate gave a z-average diameter of around 240 nm. There was no significant difference in the mean droplet size and size distribution of the emulsions obtained from the liquid and solid forms of SMEDDS. Solid state characterizations of solid SMEDDS showed that the crystal state of fenofibrate in solid SMEDDS was converted from crystalline to amorphous form. Solid SMEDDS had significantly higher dissolution rates than the drug powder, due to its fast self-emulsification in the dissolution media. Furthermore, the AUC value of solid SMEDDS was twofold greater than that of the powder, indicating this formulation greatly improved the oral bioavailability of drug in rats. Thus, these results suggest that solid SMEDDS could be used as an effective oral solid dosage form to improve dissolution and oral bioavailability of fenofibrate.