Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Bayesian dose‐finding design for drug combination clinical trials based on the logistic model

In early phase dose‐finding cancer studies, the objective is to determine the maximum tolerated dose, defined as the highest dose with an acceptable dose‐limiting toxicity rate. Finding this dose for drug‐combination trials is complicated because of drug–drug interactions, and many trial designs have been proposed to address this issue. These designs rely on complicated statistical models that typically are not familiar to clinicians, and are rarely used in practice. The aim of this paper is to propose a Bayesian dose‐finding design for drug combination trials based on standard logistic regression. Under the proposed design, we continuously update the posterior estimates of the model parameters to make the decisions of dose assignment and early stopping. Simulation studies show that the proposed design is competitive and outperforms some existing designs. We also extend our design to handle delayed toxicities. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Consensus in Scale-free Networks

This paper investigate consensus problems in an extended scale-free network model. It is found that as the network becomes more homogeneous, the convergence speed decreased; however, the maximal tolerate delay time of the network achieving consensus is increased. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the speed of achieving consensus and the robust to the delay time.
Comparison of assessments of children's eating-disordered behaviors by interview and questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE In adults, interview methods may detect eating-disordered behaviors more accurately than self-report methods. However, no studies have investigated the relationships between interview and self-report assessments in children. We compared results from the Eating Disorder Examination adapted for Children (ChEDE) with the Adolescent version of the Questionnaire on Eating and Weight Patterns (QEWP-A) and with the Children's Eating Attitude Test (ChEAT) in a nontreatment sample of overweight and normal weight children. METHOD The ChEDE, QEWP-A, and ChEAT were administered to 46 overweight (body mass index [BMI] at or above the 85th percentile) and 42 normal weight (BMI at the 15th-85th percentile) children, 10 +/- 1.8 years, recruited from the community. RESULTS The ChEDE and QEWP-A were not concordant for the number or type of eating episodes that occurred in the past month. Compared with the ChEDE, the QEWP-A was reasonably specific, but it was not sensitive for the presence of objective (17 % sensitivity, 91% specificity) or subjective bulimic episodes (0 % sensitivity, 89 % specificity) during the past month. ChEDE and ChEAT global scores were significantly related (Kendall's tau = 0.286, p <.001), but specific items assessing guilt in relation to eating and preoccupation with food were not. DISCUSSION Although self-report methods of eating disorder assessment in children may provide some general information regarding eating psychopathology in non-treatment-seeking children, they do not accurately reflect the results of a structured interview.
Diagonalization of telerobotic hand controller impedance for accurate force and velocity transmission

Efficient telerobotic operation requires an intuitive transmission of forces and velocities between the master and slave manipulators. However, due to friction in the joints of each kinematic chain, the associated Cartesian space impedance matrices are not diagonal. The result is a misalignment between the applied force and resulting velocity vectors. While a force sensor on the slave is often used to provide an internal feedback to eliminate the problem for this manipulator, the same is not usually true for the master. A local feedback of available velocity and force sensory information to the master is proposed which would diagonalize its effective mechanical damping to allow a correct display of force direction information from the slave.
Versatile characterization of a DFG comb showing quadratic frequency scaling of the phase noise

We characterize a passively carrier envelope phase-stabilized Er:fiber laser frequency comb at 1550 nm. Phase noise of single comb lines over nearly an optical octave is measured via a delayed self-heterodyne beat of a cw clean-up laser. Repetition-rate stabilization achieves a RF-reference limited line-width. A lock to a low-noise optical reference shows Hz level out-of-loop line-widths. The measured phase noise is in excellent agreement with the elastic tape model with a fix point at zero frequency.
Labor Dystocia: Uses of Related Nomenclature.

INTRODUCTION Labor dystocia (slow or difficult labor or birth) is the most commonly diagnosed aberration of labor and the most frequently documented indication for primary cesarean birth. Yet, dystocia remains a poorly specified diagnostic category, with determinations often varying widely among clinicians. The primary aims of this review are to 1) summarize definitions of active labor and dystocia, as put forth by leading professional obstetric and midwifery organizations in world regions wherein English is the majority language and 2) describe the use of dystocia and related terms in contemporary research studies. METHODS Major national midwifery and obstetric organizations from qualifying United Nations-member sovereign nations and international organizations were searched to identify guidelines providing definitions of active labor and dystocia or related terms. Research studies (2000-2013) were systematically identified via PubMed, MEDLINE, and CINAHL searches to describe the use of dystocia and related terms in contemporary scientific publications. RESULTS Only 6 organizational guidelines defined dystocia or related terms. Few research teams (n = 25 publications) defined dystocia-related terms with nonambiguous clinical parameters that can be applied prospectively. There is heterogeneity in the nomenclature used to describe dystocia, and when a similar term is shared between guidelines or research publications, the underlying definition of that term is sometimes inconsistent between documents. DISCUSSION Failure to define dystocia in evidence-based, well-described, clinically meaningful terms that are widely acceptable to and reproducible among clinicians and researchers is concerning at both national and global levels. This failure is particularly problematic in light of the major contribution of this diagnosis to primary cesarean birth rates.
Congenital atresia of the ear

THE term 'Congenital Atresia' is generally used to describe a series of malformations which occur around and involving the external and middle ears. It is an unfortunate term as the condition is not so much an atresia as an aplasia and the use of the words 'maldevelopment of the external and middle ears' by Fraser (1931) is a much more accurate description of the condition. It is not an extremely uncommon condition occurring, according to Holmes (1949), in 1 in 20,000 live births. Sullivan (1959), quoting the Toronto figures states that 8 were born in 30,000 live births, an even higher proportion. Rosenberger (1949) states that in cases affected by this aplasia males outnumber females and that the right ear is the ear more commonly involved.
Cooperation of Src Homology Domains in the Regulated Binding of Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase

Fibroblasts transformed by the v-Src oncoprotein exhibit elevated activity of the enzyme phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase (PI 3-kinase), which binds to, and is activated by, a wide range of receptor tyrosine kinases as well as v-Src and transforming polyoma middle T/c-Src complexes. Here we consider the role of the v-Src homology (SH) domains, SH3 and SH2, and the tyrosine kinase catalytic domain, in the stimulation of v-Src-associated PI 3-kinase activity in response to rapid activation of the oncoprotein. As shown by others, we find that the v-Src SH3 domain tightly binds the PI 3-kinase p85 regulatory subunit in normal growing chicken embryo fibroblasts. However, we also find that in transformed cells there is additional efficient binding of PI 3-kinase to the v-Src SH2 domain in a catalytically active form. Furthermore, the binding of p85 to the SH2 domain, which is almost undetectable in quiescent cells, is rapidly stimulated upon activation of temperature-sensitive v-Src and consequent cell cycle entry, demonstrating that binding is a target for regulation. We also show that v-Src-associated PI 3-kinase differs considerably from PDGF receptor-associated enzyme by a different mode of binding, a lack of substantial allosteric activation, and a dependence on the tyrosine kinase activity of v-Src. The rapidly induced binding and activation of PI 3-kinase thus provides sensitive regulation of recruitment of PI 3-kinase to its substrates and into other signaling complexes at the cell membrane, which involves all the Src homology domains.
Evolution of the IBM Cloud: Enabling an enterprise cloud services ecosystem

Cloud computing is a new paradigm that is transforming the information technology (IT) industry and reshaping the way enterprise services are developed, deployed, sold, delivered, and consumed. Instead of managing complex IT systems, customers can focus on the core competence of their enterprise while obtaining all required IT functions as a service. From the perspective of a cloud provider, remaining competitive and realizing full potential of economies of scale that the cloud paradigm promises require extreme levels of standardization, automation, and optimization. This paper describes the evolution of the Common Cloud Management Platform (CCMP), a management system providing business and operations support for cloud services. We cover its initial implementation and applications, discuss the latest challenges faced when adapting enterprise solutions to the cloud, and introduce the exploratory research topics to which this work led. We address the business services aspects, including framework-based integration of the catalog, and customer and revenue management, as well as the operational aspects, including novel approaches for scalable virtual machine provisioning and adaptive workload placement optimization. We discuss architecture, design, and implementation details of key CCMP components and highlight the challenging aspects of providing such architecture while promoting scalability, modularity, and reuse.
Self‐reported symptoms associated with West Nile virus infection in RNA‐positive blood donors

BACKGROUND: In 2003, West Nile virus (WNV) nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) was implemented to detect potentially infected donors. Of more than 5.3 million donations screened prospectively by the American Red Cross during the epidemic periods of 2003 and 2004, 974 were NAT‐reactive and 519 confirmed‐positive. A subset of both the confirmed‐positive and the false‐positive groups was assessed for demographic characteristics, symptoms, and symptom reporting relative to date of donation.
Interplay of hippocampal volume and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis function as markers of stress vulnerability in men at ultra-high risk for psychosis

Background Altered hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and reduced hippocampal volume (HV) are established correlates of stress vulnerability. We have previously shown an attenuated cortisol awakening response (CAR) and associations with HV specifically in male first-episode psychosis patients. Findings in individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis regarding these neurobiological markers are inconsistent, and assessment of their interplay, accounting for sex differences, could explain incongruent results. Method Study participants were 42 antipsychotic-naive UHR subjects (24 men) and 46 healthy community controls (23 men). Saliva samples for the assessment of CAR were collected at 0, 30 and 60 min after awakening. HV was determined from high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging scans using a semi-automatic segmentation protocol. Results Cortisol measures and HV were not significantly different between UHR subjects and controls in total, but repeated-measures multivariate regression analyses revealed reduced cortisol levels 60 min after awakening and smaller left HV in male UHR individuals. In UHR participants only, smaller left and right HV was significantly correlated with a smaller total CAR (ρ = 0.42, p = 0.036 and ρ = 0.44, p = 0.029, respectively), corresponding to 18% and 19% of shared variance (medium effect size). Conclusions Our findings suggest that HV reduction in individuals at UHR for psychosis is specific to men and linked to reduced post-awakening cortisol concentrations. Abnormalities in the neuroendocrine circuitry modulating stress vulnerability specifically in male UHR subjects might explain increased psychosis risk and disadvantageous illness outcomes in men compared to women.
Astrocyte-Mediated Ischemic Tolerance

Preconditioning (PC) using a preceding sublethal ischemic insult is an attractive strategy for protecting neurons by inducing ischemic tolerance in the brain. Although the underlying molecular mechanisms have been extensively studied, almost all studies have focused on neurons. Here, using a middle cerebral artery occlusion model in mice, we show that astrocytes play an essential role in the induction of brain ischemic tolerance. PC caused activation of glial cells without producing any noticeable brain damage. The spatiotemporal pattern of astrocytic, but not microglial, activation correlated well with that of ischemic tolerance. Interestingly, such activation in astrocytes lasted at least 8 weeks. Importantly, inhibiting astrocytes with fluorocitrate abolished the induction of ischemic tolerance. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, we focused on the P2X7 receptor as a key molecule in astrocyte-mediated ischemic tolerance. P2X7 receptors were dramatically upregulated in activated astrocytes. PC-induced ischemic tolerance was abolished in P2X7 receptor knock-out mice. Moreover, our results suggest that hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, a well known mediator of ischemic tolerance, is involved in P2X7 receptor-mediated ischemic tolerance. Unlike previous reports focusing on neuron-based mechanisms, our results show that astrocytes play indispensable roles in inducing ischemic tolerance, and that upregulation of P2X7 receptors in astrocytes is essential.
Percutaneous balloon coarctation angioplasty: long-term results.

One hundred and ten patients, age 2 days to 35 years (mean 7.0 +/- 7.0 years), have undergone 118 percutaneous balloon angioplasty procedures for discrete coarctation of the aorta since April 1982. The mean systolic gradient was significantly decreased from 48 +/- 22 to 8 +/- 7 mmHg after angioplasty (P less than 0.0001). Long-term results were evaluated in 95 patients, by follow-up catheterization in 30 and Doppler echocardiography in 65 patients. The follow-up period was 1-9 years (4.2 +/- 2.1). At follow-up the mean residual gradient was 9 +/- 8 mmHg. On the basis of follow-up data, four groups of patients were identified: group I consisted of 53 patients over 3 months of age with native coarctation of the aorta; group II consisted of 13 patients with postoperative coarctation restenosis; group III consisted of 21 infants 3 months of age or younger with native coarctation of the aorta; and group IV consisted of eight infants who developed postdilatation restenosis. Patients in groups I and II had good results and required no redilatation or surgical repair. In group III successful redilatation in eight and surgical repair in seven infants were performed 1 month to 5 years after the initial dilatation. There were no mortalities related to the 118 dilatation procedures. Of the seven patients who had surgical repair of the coarctation and the associated cardiac anomalies, four expired in the immediate postoperative period. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Memory and place

The landscape of the environment we live in is an image of our common humanity. The sense of place individuals and people as a whole have is both a biological response to the surrounding physical environment and a cultural creation. People get attached to places that are critical to their well-being or cause them distress. This paper sketches the story of ‘ Sahet Alqaryoun’ , a public open space in a residential neighborhood in the historic city of Nablus, West Bank. The question of how ‘Sahet Alqaryoun’ as an open public space is appropriated by the various segments of the population, and how this has been changing overtime is addressed here through investigating various stakeholders and users of this place, starting from individuals to the families living in this neighborhood or even the municipality and professionals who are responsible for any future intervention proposed for Sahet Alqaryoun. This paper will attempt to explore the structure of such a shared place, how it is related to the social meaning and also its cultural connotation as a place of collective use that is perceived through representation and images produced by its residents. It will also study the physical evolution and different factors that shaped ‘Sahet Alqaryoun’ and demonstrate the sustainability of this historic place through time, re-identifying it and re-establishing it as an essential part of the social, socio-economic and political fabric of the city. This paper argues that urban spaces do present a public history. Our responsibility as professionals in preserving our historic spaces is to try to understand all factors that have played a role in shaping this space and to try to recognize and respect the long social and cultural history as successive stages of the city’s evolution.
Learning Rewrite Rules for Search Database Systems Using Query Logs

Recent literature on “search database systems” has introduced the notion of using query rewrite rules to influence the behavior of a search engine. Rewrite rules enable domain experts and search administrators to customize the search engine by providing a powerful rule-driven framework to transform user search queries. In this paper, we address the important problem of automatically learning such query rewrite rules from query logs using a novel Hidden Markov Model (HMM) formulation. Our formulation captures both the latent information present in the sequence of queries issued within a session as well as the explicit information in the form of user clicks on individual results. We have developed the notion of support and confidence for query rewrite rules and leveraged these concepts to harvest high quality rewrite rules from the trained HMM. We propose rigorous evaluation schemes to quantify the efficacy of a set of rewrite rules and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through extensive experiments using the publicly available AOL query log data set and the YAGO concept ontology.
Morphine upregulates mu opioid receptors of human and monkey lymphocytes.

Opioid receptors of subtypes delta, kappa, and mu similar to those found in brain cells have been identified in immune cells. The current study demonstrates by competitive polymerase chain reaction the treatment of human lymphocytic cells with morphine resulting in an increased amount of gene expression of mu opioid receptors. Antibodies against the MOR-1, the neuronal mu opioid receptor, were used in Western blot analysis of mu proteins and the results revealed a single band of approximately 50 kDa, the intensity of which was increased by morphine treatment. Similar results of mu opioid receptor activation were observed when monkey lymphocytes were treated with morphine. These studies suggest that in addition to causing an immune effect through communication with the neuroendocrine system, the psychoactive drug morphine may modulate immune functions by acting directly on the mu opioid receptors expressed on lymphocytes.
Genetic and Phenotypic Identification of Fusidic Acid-Resistant Mutants with the Small-Colony-Variant Phenotype in Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT Small-colony variants (SCVs) of Staphylococcus aureus are a slow-growing subpopulation whose phenotypes can include resistance to aminoglycosides, defects in electron transport, and enhanced persistence in mammalian cells. Here we show that a subset of mutants selected as SCVs by reduced susceptibility to aminoglycosides are resistant to the antibiotic fusidic acid (FA) and conversely that a subset of mutants selected for resistance to FA are SCVs. Mutation analysis reveals different genetic classes of FA-resistant SCVs. One class, FusA-SCVs, have amino acid substitution mutations in the ribosomal translocase EF-G different from those found in classic FusA mutants. Most of these mutations are located in structural domain V of EF-G, but some are in domain I or III. FusA-SCVs are auxotrophic for hemin. A second class of FA-resistant SCVs carry mutations in rplF, coding for ribosomal protein L6, and are designated as FusE mutants. FusE mutants fall into two phenotypic groups: one auxotrophic for hemin and the other auxotrophic for menadione. Accordingly, we have identified new genetic and phenotypic classes of FA-resistant mutants and clarified the genetic basis of a subset of S. aureus SCV mutants. A clinical implication of these data is that FA resistance could be selected by antimicrobial agents other than FA.
A SIMPLE TRANSDUCER FOR MECHANICAL PLETHYSMOGRAPHY OF THE MALE GENITAL.

method to diagnosis of pedophilia. currently employed projective tests de-velopment of an objective method for the de-tection of the objects of sexual arousal. The method is based on the measurement of volume changes of the male genital while the patient is viewing pictures of possible erotic objects on a screen, in this case photos of nude men, women, and children of either sex. The usefulness of the method in diagnosing pre-dominance
LUMOS - Luftgestütztes Verkehrsmonitoring-System

Im Rahmen des Vorhabens wurde ein System zur zeitnahen luftgestutzten flachigen Verkehrslageerfassung konzipiert, realisiert und in Berlin demonstriert. Das System umfasst dabei die Bild- und Lageaufzeichnung im Flugzeug, die Bildvorverarbeitung und -ubertragung zum Boden, die weitere Bildverarbeitung bis zur Extraktion der verkehrsrelevanten Daten, die Aggregierung der Verkehrsdaten und deren Einspeisung in neu entwickelte Simulations- und Prognosetools, um zwangslaufig auftretende zeitliche Lucken in der Befliegung schliesen zu konnen. Den Abschluss bildet die offene Schnittstelle zu Dienstleistungsunternehmen, die Endkunden mit Verkehrsinformationen und -empfehlungen versorgen. Die zentralen technologischen Herausforderungen lagen auf der Softwareseite in der Entwicklung geeigneter schneller Bildverarbeitungsverfahren und neuer Verkehrssimulations- und Prognosetools; hardwareseitig in der Integration aller Komponenten und Subsysteme zum funktionierenden Gesamtsystem. Ziel des Projektes war ebenfalls die vergleichende Betrachtung dieses neuartigen Verfahrens mit bewahrten Methoden der Verkehrsdatenerhebung hinsichtlich Genauigkeit und Effektivitat. Im Rahmen der Validierung des gesamten Konzeptes LUMOS und dessen technischer Realisierung wurde im Mai 2003 vom DLR-Institut fur Verkehrsforschung zusammen mit den Projektpartnern eine Befliegungskampagne im Grosraum Berlin durchgefuhrt. Die ersten Ergebnisse der Vergleichsanalyse von luft- und bodengestutzten Verkehrsmessungen werden in dieser Arbeit im Rahmen der Verkehrswissenschaftlichen Tage prasentiert. An dem Projekt LUMOS sind neben dem DLR folgende Partner aus Berlin und Brandenburg beteiligt: IQ-Wireless, ScanDat, Teltec Telematik, BLIC sowie Fraunhofer Gesellschaft FIRST. Mit dem Aufbau des Anwendungszentrums Intermodale Verkehrstelematik als Wachstumskern im Sinne des entsprechenden BMBF Programms ist der Netzwerkmanager "Forschungs- und Anwendungsverbund Verkehrssystemtechnik Berlin FAV" beauftragt.