Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lack of Transparency of Clinical Trials on Endometriosis

OBJECTIVE: To estimate patterns of publication of clinical trials of endometriosis registered in ClinicalTrials.gov and their associated characteristics. METHODS: Information on interventional clinical trials on endometriosis that were registered at ClinicalTrials.gov and updated as having been completed by October 25, 2012, was retrieved and the publication status and time to publication in Medline-indexed journals were ascertained by searching PubMed and by sending e-mail inquiries to the principal investigators listed by the registry. RESULTS: Seventy-one interventional trials of endometriosis, testing various drugs and biologicals, were identified. Among them, 49.3% (35/71) were completed by October 25, 2012, 21.1% were either stopped or inactive in the past 2 years, and the remaining 29.6% were ongoing. Among the 35 completed trials, 25 (71.4%) were sponsored by industry and results were published for only 11 (31.4%; five industry-sponsored, and six nonindustry-sponsored). Trials sponsored by industry were nearly four times less likely to publish their results than nonindustry-sponsored trials, even though these trials typically had larger sample sizes and were completed faster. Compared with the publication rate of 20% found 4 years ago, the current rate has increased only marginally but still lies significantly below the reported 66.3% surveyed recently among 546 completed nonendometriosis trials registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (P<.001). CONCLUSION: Despite mounting pressure on more transparency of clinical trials, the current state of transparency or lack thereof of clinical trials on endometriosis is worrisome and does not benefit the trial sponsor or the public. Thus, we again call for more transparency for endometriosis trials. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
Offline Permutation on the CUDA-enabled GPU

The Hierarchical Memory Machine (HMM) is a theoretical parallel computing model that captures the essence of computation on CUDA-enabled GPUs. The offline permutation is a task to copy numbers stored in an array a of size n to an array b of the same size along a permutation P given in advance. A conventional algorithm can complete the offline permutation by executing b[p[i]]← a[i] for all i in parallel, where an array p stores the permutation P. We first present that the conventional algorithm runs Dw(P) + 2 n w + 3L − 3 time units using n threads on the HMM with width w and latency L, where Dw(P) is the distribution of P. We next show that important regular permutations including transpose, shuffle, and bitreversal permutations run 2 n w + 2 n kw + 2L − 2 time units on the HMM with k DMMs. We have implemented permutation algorithms for these regular permutations on GeForce GTX 680 GPU. The experimental results show that these algorithms run much faster than the conventional algorithm. We also present an offline permutation algorithm for any permutation running in 16 n w + 16 n kw + 16L − 16 time units on the HMM with k DMMs. Quite surprisingly, our offline permutation algorithm on the GPU achieves better performance than the conventional algorithm in random permutation, although the running time has a large constant factor. We can say that the experimental results provide a good example of GPU computation showing that a complicated but ingenious implementation with a larger constant factor in computing time can outperform a much simpler conventional algorithm. key words: memory machine models, offline permutation, GPU, CUDA
Survey of European pain medicine practice.

This survey was undertaken to explore the variation in the functional constitution of pain clinics in Europe. In addition, we also explored the amount of training which doctors practicing pain medicine typically receive. Approximate hospital charges for common pain interventions and the source of funding were also surveyed. Members of the British Pain Society (Interventional Pain Medicine-Special Interest Group) and other pain physicians in Europe responded through the online questionnaire tool "Survey Monkey. " About 215 requests were sent; 82 pain practitioners from 13 countries in Europe responded. This survey indicates that chronic pain interventions are primarily funded either through government or insurance companies. The primary chronic pain service members continue to be anesthesiologists, combined with specialist nurses and physiotherapists. There appears to be some consistency, both with regard to working in a multidisciplinary team, and the training required to become a pain specialist. More than half of the respondents reported the cost of common interventions like caudal epidural steroid injection (ESI), transforaminal ESI, 3 level medial branch blocks, and 6 level facet joint injections to fall under the €500 range ($645). Two thirds of the respondents reported the cost of 4-joint radiofrequency lumbar denervation to be less than €1,500 ($1,935). Good practice should ensure an adequate duration of training, and development of a pain faculty to ensure standards of assessments across the continent. A more detailed, large scale survey is perhaps required to map the availability of chronic pain services and understand the health economics in pain medicine across Europe.
Locomotor training using body weight support on a treadmill improves mobility in persons with multiple sclerosis: a pilot study

Rationale The purpose of this protocol was to investigate the potential benefits and tolerability of locomotor training using body weight support on a treadmill (LTBWST) in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods Four persons with primarily spinal cord MS and severely impaired ambulation (Expanded Disability Status Scale score 7.0–7.5) were enrolled in LTBWST. Subjects completed an average of 40 training sessions over several months. Results Subjects showed improvement in muscle strength, spasticity, endurance, balance, walking speed, and quality of life at the end of the training sessions, and could tolerate training without fatigue or other adverse effects. Conclusions LTBWST is well tolerated by persons with MS and may produce improvements in parameters related to functional mobility. Multiple Sclerosis 2007; 13: 224–231. http://msj.sagepub. com
Emergency Endovascular Aneurysm Repair for Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: The Way Forward?

We present the early results of a policy of treating all anatomically suitable ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (rAAAs) by emergency endovascular aneurysm repair (eEVAR), regardless of hemodynamic instability. Data were retrospectively collected from prospectively maintained databases identifying patients with rAAA from 2006 to 2007. Forty-seven patients with true rAAA were identified (87% men; median age 76 years [range 63–97 years]), of whom 18 (38%) were treated with eEVAR, 19 (40%) received open aneurysm repair (OAR), and 10 (21%) were managed nonoperatively. Fifteen of 18 (83%) eEVAR patients received an aortouni-iliac device + femorofemoral crossover, 2 patients (11%) had bifurcated devices, and 1 patient (6%) had a new iliac limb. Thirty-day mortality was 11% (2 of 18) for eEVAR and 32% (6 of 19) for OAR (p = not significant). At the 6-month follow-up, mortality was 22% (4 of 18) for eEVAR and 37% (7 of 19) for OAR (p = not significant). A clinically significant early survival advantage is suggested for eEVAR in patients presenting with rAAA.
Getting the Priorities Right: Literature vs Practice on IT Governance

The field of IT governance has emerged in order to address organizational issues for IT value delivery to the business. However, a shared view of the definition of IT governance is lacking between researchers and practitioners, and support for decision-making is neither present. A commonly agreed upon definition of IT governance would be useful but has until today not been available. This article presents an IT governance definition based on an extensive literature study. IT governance is the preparation for, making of and implementation of IT-related decisions regarding goals, processes, people and technology on a tactical or strategic level. The components of the definition are prioritized in two different ways. A theoretical prioritization was made to highlight the most important concerns according to 60 different publications. Another prioritization was carried out with a group of Swedish IT governance experts. The opinions of practitioners and literature did mostly align, but differences were identified in the importance of understanding the situation at hand prior to making decisions, and monitoring of the decisions' impacts
Targeting cholesterol transport in circulating melanoma cells to inhibit metastasis

Despite recent breakthroughs in targeted‐ and immune‐based therapies, rapid development of drug resistance remains a hurdle for the long‐term treatment of patients with melanoma. Targeting metastatically spreading circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may provide an additional approach to manage melanoma. This study investigates whether targeting cholesterol transport in melanoma CTCs can retard metastasis development. Nanolipolee‐007, the liposomal form of leelamine, reduced melanoma metastasis in both a novel in vitro flow system mimicking the circulating system and in experimental as well as spontaneous animal metastasis models, irrespective of the BRAF mutational status of the CTCs. Leelamine led to cholesterol trapping in lysosomes, which subsequently shut down receptor‐mediated endocytosis, endosome trafficking, and inhibited the major oncogenic signaling cascades important for survival such as the AKT pathway. As pAKT is important in CTC survival, inhibition by targeting cholesterol metabolism led to apoptosis, suggesting this approach might be particularly effective for those CTCs having high levels of pAKT to aid survival in the circulation system.
Lexico Semantic Patterns for Customer Intentions Analysis of Microblogging

Micro blogs, forums, such as Twitter constitute a powerful medium today that people use to express their thoughts and intentions. In order to take advantage of their phenomenon, user intentions analysis becomes a major contemporary challenge. Due to the nature of micro blogs posts, mining user intentions is still a challenging task. In this paper, we investigate semantic techniques which facilitate the user intentions analysis process at semantic level. We propose a generalized approach to address their issues. We conduct a case study of user intentions in the commercial field. Our experimental results show the importance and effectiveness of customer intentions detection using semantic patterns and ontologies.
Pathogenic Role of NF-κB Activation in Tubulointerstitial Inflammatory Lesions in Human Lupus Nephritis

In vitro and in vivo experimental studies suggest that the transcription factor NF-κB plays a role in tubulointerstitial injury. We investigated possible cellular and molecular mechanisms involving NF-κB activation in the progression of tubulointerstitial lesions in human lupus nephritis (LN). Paraffin-embedded renal biopsies from 50 patients with LN and six control patients with minimal change disease (MCD) were examined by Southwestern histochemistry for in situ detection of active NF-κB and AP-1. Immunohistochemistry was performed to examine the expression of NF-κB, AP-1, and NF-κB regulatory proteins (IκB-α, p-IκB-α, and IKK-α proteins), as well as NF-κB and AP-1 downstream target proinflammatory molecules (ICAM-1, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and GM-CSF) and NF-κB upstream signaling molecules (CD40 and CD40L). We observed extensive upregulation of activated NF-κB in renal tubular cells and interstitial cells, in parallel with overactivation of transcription factor AP-1 in LN, as compared with normal controls and MCD. Tubular expression of activated NF-κB correlated well with the degree of tubulointerstitial histopathological indices and/or renal function. Tubulointerstitial IKK-α expression was specifically upregulated in LN. IκB-α and p-IκB-α were detected only in interstitial cells in LN. Tubulointerstitial expression levels of NF-κB and AP-1 downstream inflammatory molecules and NF-κB upstream signaling molecules CD40 and CD40L were markedly enhanced in LN as compared with MCD or normal controls and were associated with tubulointerstitial histopathological indices and/or renal function. The results suggest that altered IKK-α expression and NF-κB activation along with AP-1 overexpression may play a pathogenic role in tubulointerstitial injury in human LN mediated through a network of downstream proinflammatory molecules.
Link-level performance of star 32/64QAM schemes using frequency domain equalizer for DFT-precoded OFDMA

This paper presents the average block error rate (BLER) performance of star 32/64QAM schemes employing a frequency domain equalizer (FDE) with the BLER performance of the cross 32QAM or square 64QAM scheme as a reference in discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-precoded orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). The star QAM scheme has an advantageous feature in that the fluctuation in the amplitude component is smaller than that for the cross or square QAM scheme. The feature of the paper is that we focus on the actual received signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) taking into account a realistic peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) measure called the cubic metric (CM) considering the non-linearity of the power amplifier. Link-level computer simulation results show that the star QAM constellation with independent bit mapping for the phase and amplitude modulations achieves a lower required average received SNR considering the CM compared to that with the minimum Euclidian distance but with composite mapping of the phase and amplitude modulations. Through extensive link-level simulations, we show the potential benefit of the star 32/64QAM schemes in terms of reducing the required average received SNR considering the CM that satisfies the target average BLER compared to the cross 32QAM or square 64QAM scheme.
Methods for estimating the volume of individual glomeruli.

UNLABELLED Methods for estimating the volume of individual glomeruli. BACKGROUND The Cavalieri and maximal planar area (MPA) methods are commonly used to measure the volume of individual glomeruli. Previous studies have suggested that the MPA method, which is less laborious, yields values that are much greater than those obtained by the Cavalieri method. The current study re-examined the relationship of MPA and Cavalieri values for glomerular volume in humans and rats. METHODS Both methods were used to measure the volume of 1201 glomeruli from 58 humans and 281 glomeruli from 15 rats. Tissue was embedded in Epon. Further mathematical analysis was performed to assess the extent to which deviation of glomeruli from spherical shape affects the relationship of values obtained by the MPA and Cavalieri methods. RESULTS MPA values exceeded Cavalieri values by an average of only 14 +/- 22% in humans and 6 +/- 16% in rats. The relationship of MPA to Cavalieri values was similar in individual humans and rats, with widely varying values for average glomerular volume. Neither the development of sclerosis nor the loss of any connection to a tubule affected the relationship of the MPA and Cavalieri values for the volume of individual glomeruli. Mathematical analysis showed that MPA values would not exceed Cavalieri values if glomeruli had ellipsoidal rather than spherical shape. CONCLUSION Similar values for glomerular volume are obtained using the Cavalieri and MPA methods in humans and rats.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration-Associated Silent Polymorphisms in HtrA1 Impair Its Ability To Antagonize Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1

ABSTRACT Synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within a transcript's coding region produce no change in the amino acid sequence of the protein product and are therefore intuitively assumed to have a neutral effect on protein function. We report that two common variants of high-temperature requirement A1 (HTRA1) that increase the inherited risk of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NvAMD) harbor synonymous SNPs within exon 1 of HTRA1 that convert common codons for Ala34 and Gly36 to less frequently used codons. The frequent-to-rare codon conversion reduced the mRNA translation rate and appeared to compromise HtrA1's conformation and function. The protein product generated from the SNP-containing cDNA displayed enhanced susceptibility to proteolysis and a reduced affinity for an anti-HtrA1 antibody. The NvAMD-associated synonymous polymorphisms lie within HtrA1's putative insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) binding domain. They reduced HtrA1's abilities to associate with IGF-1 and to ameliorate IGF-1-stimulated signaling events and cellular responses. These observations highlight the relevance of synonymous codon usage to protein function and implicate homeostatic protein quality control mechanisms that may go awry in NvAMD.
Palmitoylation and Polymerization of Hepatitis C Virus NS4B Protein

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) NS4B protein induces a specialized membrane structure which may serve as the replication platform for HCV RNA replication. In the present study, we demonstrated that NS4B has lipid modifications (palmitoylation) on two cysteine residues (cysteines 257 and 261) at the C-terminal end. Site-specific mutagenesis of these cysteine residues on individual NS4B proteins and on an HCV subgenomic replicon showed that the lipid modifications, particularly of Cys261, are important for protein-protein interaction in the formation of the HCV RNA replication complex. We further demonstrated that NS4B can undergo polymerization. The main polymerization determinants were mapped in the N-terminal cytosolic domain of NS4B protein; however, the lipid modifications on the C terminus also facilitate the polymerization process. The lipid modification and the polymerization activity could be two properties of NS4B important for its induction of the specialized membrane structure involved in viral RNA replication.
Enterprise-Level Packaged Software Acquisition: a Structured literature Review through the Lens of IT Governance

Enterprise-level packaged software is gaining in importance across organizations. Increasingly, organizations decide to purchase packaged software solutions. However, the acquisition of these software packages is carried out in risky and complex acquisition projects. Implementing the right governance structures and procedures can help to avoid errors and problems in this phase, which could severely impact implementation and usage of the procured systems in the future. The current body of knowledge on software acquisition governance is scarce, scattered, and in need of integration. Therefore, this study endeavors to perform a structured literature review which assesses the current state-of-the-art in software acquisition, focusing on IT governance-related aspects. Three main topics are identified and elaborated: the selection of software, the software acquisition process, and influencing factors. Based on these extant findings, this study integrates and synthesizes the separate research streams through the conceptual lens of IT governance. This literature review can help decision makers in organizations with optimizing their software procurement processes, governance, and behaviors and builds a foundation for further research on this increasingly relevant topic.
Comprehensive analysis of sphingosine‐1‐phosphate receptor mutants during zebrafish embryogenesis

The lipid mediator sphingosine‐1‐phosphate (S1P) regulates various physiological and pathological phenomena such as angiogenesis and oncogenesis. Secreted S1P associates with the G‐protein‐coupled S1P receptors (S1PRs), leading to the activation of downstream signaling molecules. In mammals, five S1prs have been identified and the genetic disruption of a single S1pr1 gene causes vascular defects. In zebrafish, seven s1prs have been isolated. We found that individual s1prs showed unique expression patterns with some overlapping expression domains during early embryogenesis. We generated all s1pr single‐mutant zebrafish by introducing premature stop codons in their coding regions using transcription activator‐like effector nucleases and analyzed their phenotypes during early embryogenesis. Zygotic s1pr1, s1pr3a, s1pr3b, s1pr4, s1pr5a and s1pr5b mutants showed no developmental defects and grew into adults, whereas zygotic s1pr2 mutant showed embryonic lethality with a cardiac defect, showing quite distinct embryonic phenotypes for individual S1pr mutants between zebrafish and mouse. We further generated maternal‐zygotic s1pr1, s1pr3a, s1pr3b, s1pr4, s1pr5a and s1pr5b mutants and found that these maternal‐zygotic mutants also showed no obvious developmental defects, presumably suggesting the redundant functions of the S1P receptor‐mediated signaling in zebrafish.
Temperature Dependence of the Production of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin A by Staphylococcus aureus

We incubated 11 strains of Staphylococcus aureus in a brain heart infusion broth at 10-37 °C with two inoculum sizes and examined their enterotoxin A (SEA) production by a Western blot analysis to clarify the effect of incubation temperature on SEA production. Although SEA was detected in the exponential phase at 15-37 °C, it was also detected in the stationary or death phase at 10 °C. The maximal SEA concentrations of most strains increased as the temperature was increased, although some strains produced as much at 15 °C and 20 °C as they did at 37 °C. The maximal SEA concentration was definitely lowest at 10 °C, and as the temperature was increased, the production rate increased. However, a relationship between the production rates at the two different temperatures was not apparent. Some strains produced more SEA at 10-20 °C with a smaller inoculum size than with a larger one. SEA production therefore did not necessarily depend on the incubation temperature, and it would be difficult to predict at 10 °C and 15 °C from the production at 37 °C.
Combining Neural Networks and Context-Driven Search for Online, Printed Handwriting Recognition in the NEWTON

While online handwriting recognition is an area of long-standing and ongoing research, the recent emergence of portable, pen-based computers has focused urgent attention on usable, practical solutions. We discuss a combination and improvement of classical methods to produce robust recognition of hand-printed English text for a recognizer shipping in new models of Apple Computer's NEWTON MESSAGEPAD and EMATE. Combining an artificial neural network (ANN) as a character classifier with a context-driven search over segmentation and word-recognition hypotheses provides an effective recognition system. Long-standing issues relative to training, generalization, segmentation, models of context, probabilistic formalisms, and so on, need to be resolved, however, to achieve excellent performance. We present a number of recent innovations in the application of ANNs as character classifiers for word recognition, including integrated multiple representations, normalized output error, negative training, stroke warping, frequency balancing, error emphasis, and quantized weights. User adaptation and extension to cursive recognition pose continuing challenges.