Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recurrence of cranial base meningiomas.

OBJECTIVE Long-term data on the natural history of traditionally treated cranial base meningiomas are necessary to judge the benefit of modern cranial base techniques for individual patients and to understand when nonradical surgery of a meningioma is in the interest of the patient. The only available means of obtaining such data is investigation of patients treated before the present surgical era. METHODS The records of 315 patients who were operated on at Karolinska Hospital between January 1, 1947, and December 31, 1982, were reviewed. Of the patients, 10.8% died perioperatively and 9.7% died within 10 years. The remaining patients were followed for 10 to 36 years (mean, 18 yr). RESULTS The 5-year recurrence rate was 4% for patients undergoing radical surgery (Grades 1 and 2) and 25 to 45% for patients undergoing Grade 3 or 4 operations. Follow-up periods longer than 5 years revealed that 16% of Grade 1 and 20% of Grade 2 patients had symptomatic recurrences, whereas a majority of Grade 4 and 5 patients showed symptomatic progression. Forty-two of 69 patients who underwent Grade 4 or 5 operations died as a result of their tumors, usually within 10 years after the first operation. No patients who underwent Grade 4 or 5 operations were free from symptomatic progression after 20 years. The tumor progression or recurrence was usually detected within the 1st 10 years, but late recurrences were seen < or = 25 years after the operation. The worst outcome was found in medial sphenoid wing/clinoidal meningiomas and in tumors invading the cavernous sinus. Subfrontal tumors showed unexpectedly high recurrence rates, with a mortality rate < or = 14% in the late phase. CONCLUSION The findings emphasized the necessity to plan the management of patients with cranial base meningiomas according to a 10- to 20-year perspective. Patients must be followed to evaluate the treatment results and to detect recurrences. Nonradical surgery must be viewed as a temporizing or palliative measure; a continued search for means of radical tumor treatment is warranted in these often surgically difficult tumors.
Reconfiguring dispersion-induced microwave transmission windows on radio over fiber schemes by using optical delays

In the RF domain, the frequency response of a radio over fiber system using a wide spectrum multi-longitudinal optical source and dispersive optical fiber exhibits band-pass microwave transmission windows. Such a response has been proposed for implementing RF filters and also for multiplexing analog or digital information when microwave carriers can be allocated at successive transmission windows. The position of the microwave bands depends on the optical spectrum and also on the length of the optical channel. The frequency response of the studied system can be modified either by changing the length of the optical channel or by modifying the optical spectrum. The first approach is not practical as it is not cost-effective to install more optical fiber length than required on an optical link The second approach is more attractive and simple as the optical spectrum can be filtered by using optical delays. An optical delay or its equivalent optical path-difference (OPD) , acting as a photonic filter, can modify the optical spectrum by "channeling" it. Such a photonic filter is easily implemented by segments of polarization maintaining optical fibers (PMF). The tuning of position and number of the microwave transmission windows, when the optical spectrum of the multi-longitudinal source is filtered by optical delays, is reported in this paper.
Realization of Current-Mode KHN-Equivalent Biquad Using Current Follower Transconductance Amplifiers (CFTAs)

In this letter a new active element the Current Follower Transconductance Amplifier (CFTA) for the realization of the current-mode analog blocks is presented. The element is a combination of the Current Follower (CF) and the Balanced Output Transconductance Amplifier (BOTA). Possible internal structure of the CFTA is presented. The usage of the new active element is shown on the design of the Kerwin-Huelsman-Newcomb (KHN) structure working in the current mode. The frequency filter using the CFTA elements has been designed using the signal-flow graphs. The circuit structure employs three CFTA elements and two grounded passive elements. The filter enables realizing not only the basic functions as the low- (LP), band- (BP) and high-pass (HP) but also the notch and all-pass (AP) filter. The advantage of the structure presented is that the outputs of the filter are at high impedance and hence it is not necessary to use other auxiliary active elements. The properties of the filter proposed were verified by sensitivity and AC analyses in the PSPICE program.
Incorporation of selenomethionine into proteins through selenohomocysteine-mediated ligation.

The chemical synthesis of moderate-sized proteins has benefited enormously from the development of chemoselective methods for the ligation of peptide fragments. In this regard, the reaction of peptide thioesters with peptides containing an N-terminal cysteine has proved particularly powerful. The thiol side chain of cysteine attacks the thioester and subsequent acyl transfer from sulfur to the amine yields a native peptide bond. Homocysteine, sulfur-containing auxiliary groups, and selenocysteine have also been exploited to mediate ligations to thioesters, thus broadening the scope of the method. Herein we show that selenohomocysteine can also facilitate efficient peptide ligation. Subsequent methylation of the resulting selenol affords selenomethionine at the ligation site, which is a useful probe for NMR spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic investigations of biomolecules.
Decoupling Network of Field-Oriented Control in Variable-Frequency Drives

A synchronous current controller for field-oriented control is a popular control scheme that is used in industry to separately control the synchronous current of an induction motor in steady state. However, in some transient states such as during start-up and variation of the mechanical load, the synchronous current along the d -axis remains coupled to the q-axis current. Conventional decoupling current control considers only the model of an induction motor to compensate these coupling terms, but the motor is often powered by an inverter, which also influences the current, voltage, and torque behavior. Thus, a novel decoupling current control method is proposed to consider the coupling terms of both the motor and power converter in a synchronous current controller. Existing approaches assume that the motor is directly connected to the power supply, so a model is also suggested for a pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter. Analytical equations with simulation and experimental results prove that the coupling terms are still present when not considering the PWM inverter in the decoupling network. The proposed method shows good performance, and the d-axis current is always separated from the q-axis current during variation of the mechanical load.
A Major Cell Wall Lipopeptide of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis*

Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), the causative agent of Johne disease in cattle and other ruminants, is proposed to be at least one of the causes of Crohn disease in humans. MAP and Mycobacterium avium subspecies avium, a closely related opportunistic environmental bacterium, share 95% of their genes and exhibit homologies of more than 99% between these genes. The identification of molecules specific for MAP is essential for understanding its pathogenicity and for development of useful diagnostic tools. The application of gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance led to the structural identification of a major cell wall lipopeptide of MAP, termed Para-LP-01, defined as C20 fatty acyl-d-Phe-N-Me-l-Val-l-Ile-l-Phe-l-Ala methyl ester. Variations of this lipopeptide with different fatty acyl moieties (C16 fatty acyl through C17, C18, C19, C21 to C22) were also identified. Besides the specificity of this lipopeptide for MAP, the presence of an N-Me-l-valine represents the first reported N-methylated amino acid within an immunogenic lipopeptide of mycobacteria. Sera from animals with Johne disease, but not sera from uninfected cattle, reacted with this lipopeptide, indicating potential biological importance.
Shape Reconstruction of Mixed Boundary Objects by Linear Sampling Method

Geometric reconstruction of dielectric objects in the presence of a perfect electric conducting (PEC) object is investigated with the application of linear sampling method (LSM). The scattered fields from the cylindrical objects of circular cross sections are represented as a multipole expansion, and a numerical analysis is carried out to explore the behavior and limitations of LSM. By considering various numerical examples, the imaging capabilities of LSM for mixed cases (both dielectric and PEC objects) are studied in terms of frequency of operation and permittivity of dielectric objects. To overcome the drawbacks of standard LSM indicator, a modified LSM indicator based on a multifrequency approach is introduced. Apart from the synthetic data, the analysis is also validated by the experimental data provided by the Fresnel Institute.
2-D FDTD method for exact attenuation constant extraction of lossy transmission lines

The two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (2-D FDTD) method is undeniably efficient for full-wave analysis of uniform transmission lines. However, conventional 2-D FDTD method ignores the spatial attenuation along the propagation direction and yields approximate results. We propose a new 2-D FDTD method for extracting exact attenuation constants of lossy transmission lines. In the proposed method, we take the variation of field components with the propagation direction into consideration and describe an iterative process for finding exact attenuation constants. Numerical experiments show that, compared with the conventional 2-D FDTD method, results given by the iterative process agree much better with analytical solutions or measured data.
Cognitive behavioral therapy vs relaxation with educational support for medication-treated adults with ADHD and persistent symptoms: a randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adulthood is a prevalent, distressing, and impairing condition that is not fully treated by pharmacotherapy alone and lacks evidence-based psychosocial treatments. OBJECTIVE To test cognitive behavioral therapy for ADHD in adults treated with medication but who still have clinically significant symptoms. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy for 86 symptomatic adults with ADHD who were already being treated with medication. The study was conducted at a US hospital between November 2004 and June 2008 (follow-up was conducted through July 2009). Of the 86 patients randomized, 79 completed treatment and 70 completed the follow-up assessments. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to 12 individual sessions of either cognitive behavioral therapy or relaxation with educational support (which is an attention-matched comparison). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The primary measures were ADHD symptoms rated by an assessor (ADHD rating scale and Clinical Global Impression scale) at baseline, posttreatment, and at 6- and 12-month follow-up. The assessor was blinded to treatment condition assignment. The secondary outcome measure was self-report of ADHD symptoms. RESULTS Cognitive behavioral therapy achieved lower posttreatment scores on both the Clinical Global Impression scale (magnitude -0.0531; 95% confidence interval [CI], -1.01 to -0.05; P = .03) and the ADHD rating scale (magnitude -4.631; 95% CI, -8.30 to -0.963; P = .02) compared with relaxation with educational support. Throughout treatment, self-reported symptoms were also significantly more improved for cognitive behavioral therapy (beta = -0.41; 95% CI, -0.64 to -0.17; P <001), and there were more treatment responders in cognitive behavioral therapy for both the Clinical Global Impression scale (53% vs 23%; odds ratio [OR], 3.80; 95% CI, 1.50 to 9.59; P = .01) and the ADHD rating scale (67% vs 33%; OR, 4.29; 95% CI, 1.74 to 10.58; P = .002). Responders and partial responders in the cognitive behavioral therapy condition maintained their gains over 6 and 12 months. CONCLUSION Among adults with persistent ADHD symptoms treated with medication, the use of cognitive behavioral therapy compared with relaxation with educational support resulted in improved ADHD symptoms, which were maintained at 12 months. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00118911.
Hospital Information Systems and Clinical Cancer Research

Remember the old days when the biomedical literature was replete with numerous case series of the type, ‘‘A Report on 43 Cases of Cancer of the Left Earlobe Seen at our Hospital’’? To accomplish such studies, one often found medical students, residents, fellows, or attendings poring over charts in the medical record reading room or within physicians’ private offices. If the paper in this issue of Cancer Investigation by Kim and colleagues is any indication, those days may be slowly coming to an end. Access to data is power, and the hardest part of having data is collecting it. In the past dozen years, however, medical informatics have dramatically increased the types of data available to clinical investigators. Kim and his colleagues make extensive reference to one such resource, the SEER–Medicare database. This dataset represents a linkage between the widely known and used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results program (SEER), which contains information regarding individuals who are diagnosed with cancer within about 14% of the United States. This database has been linked to Medicare, providing extensive information for those over the age of 65 and is used to investigate patterns of care, outcomes, and other important questions, including issues in the care of colorectal cancer patients. – 5] However, as with any tool, there are limitations. Questions that address patients under the age of 65 cannot be answered with this database. Furthermore, as with many other such databases, one has only what has been recorded. Medicare is an administrative billing system and only has information of that type. If the physician or billing office did not record things in a certain fashion, misclassification will inevitably occur. Nonetheless, given the large scale and numbers that can be obtained in this simple way, the benefits of the data set for most questions far outweigh the negatives. In the current paper of Cancer Investigation, the investigators show us how to use one’s own hospital clinical information and billing systems to create a local form of SEER–Medicare. They accurately point out some of the strengths and limitations of this approach as well. It gives information regarding all age groups, it is obtainable with relatively little effort (as compared to reviewing all those charts). Its main limitation, as with most of those old-time case series, is that it only describes the experience at a single hospital, incorporating whatever referral biases or other idiosyncrasies a hospital may have. And, ultimately, it is limited by the number of cases the hospital sees.
Screening tool for late‐effect pediatric neuro‐oncological clinics: A treatment‐oriented questionnaire

Many survivors of pediatric brain tumors (SPBTs) suffer from long‐term late effects (LEs). Our aim was to create a practical screening tool for detecting LEs in this population. Such a screening tool will improve our ability to identify those patients who may benefit from treatment in LE clinics while focusing on individual relevant issues.
Systemic administration of interleukin‐1β activates select populations of central amygdala afferents

The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) is activated robustly by an immune challenge such as the systemic administration of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β). Because IL‐1β is not believed to cross the blood‐brain barrier in any significant amount, it is likely that IL‐1β elicits CeA cell recruitment by means of activation of afferents to the CeA. However, although many studies have investigated the origins of afferent inputs to the CeA, we do not know which of these also respond to IL‐1β. Therefore, to identify candidate neurons responsible for the recruitment of CeA cells by an immune challenge, we iontophoretically deposited a retrograde tracer, cholera toxin b‐subunit (CTb), into the CeA of rats 7 days before systemic delivery of IL‐1β (1 μg/kg, i.a.). By using combined immunohistochemistry, we then quantified the number of Fos‐positive CTb cells in six major regions known to innervate the CeA. These included the medial prefrontal cortex, paraventricular thalamus (PVT), ventral tegmental area, parabrachial nucleus (PB), nucleus tractus solitarius, and ventrolateral medulla. Our results show that after deposit of CTb into the CeA, the majority of double‐labeled cells were located in the PB and the PVT, suggesting that CeA cell activation by systemic IL‐1β is likely to arise predominantly from cell bodies located in these regions. These findings may have significant implications in determining the central pathways involved in generating acute central responses to a systemic immune challenge. J. Comp. Neurol. 452:288–296, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Stereospecific analysis of triglycerides : an alternative method

A new method for the stereospecific analysis of triglycerides is demonstrated on a corn oil which had been analyzed by an earlier method. The triglyceride (1,2,3-triacyl L-glycerol) was partially degraded by means of methyl magnesium bromide. The 1,3diglyceride was then isolated, and converted into L-2-phosphatidyl phenol, from which phospholipase A cleaved the fatty acids from position 1. The remaining lysophosphatide was analyzed to yield the fatty acids at position 3 of the original triglyceride. The fatty acid composition of position 2 was determined after hydrolysis of the corn oil with pancreatic lipase. This method has the advantage over the one reported previously of yielding direct analyses of the fatty acids in each of the three positions.
Yeast Sequencing Reports

FKB2 encodes a homolog of human FKBP-13, a membrane-associated binding protein for the immunosuppressants FK506 and rapamycin. FKB2 is located on the right arm of chromosome IV and contains an open reading frame of 135 amino acids, of which the first 17 residues comprise a putative hydrophobic leader peptide. Yeast FKBP-13 is homologous to human FKBP-13 (52% amino acid identity) and to FKBP-12, the major cytosolic receptor for FK506. In the alignment of FKBP-13 and FKBP-12 sequences, there are 28 invariant residues. Among these conserved residues are those that comprise the drug binding and peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase active site of FKBP-12. The phylogenetic conservation of the FKBP family suggests that the proteins are involved in a basic cellular function.
Signal Processing Method for Coriolis Mass Flowmeter Based on Lattice Notch Filter and DTFT

A novel signal processing method for Coriolis mass flowmeter is proposed based on time-varying signal model.First,an adaptive lattice notch filter is applied to filter the output signal,whose frequency,amplitude and phase are time-varying based on the random walk model,of Coriolis mass flowmeter to get its frequency and enhanced signal.Then,by short window intercepting,the DTFT algorithm with negative frequency contribution is introduced to calculate the real-time phase difference between two enhanced signals.With the frequency and the phase difference,the time interval between two signals is calculated.Simulation results show that the proposed method is efficient.Furthermore,the computation of algorithms is simple so that it can be applied to real-time signal processing for Coriolis mass flowmeter.
Assessment of tumor necrosis of hepatocellular carcinoma after chemoembolization: diffusion-weighted and contrast-enhanced MRI with histopathologic correlation of the explanted liver.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare, with histopathologic examination of the liver explant as the reference standard, diffusion-weighted MRI with contrast-enhanced subtraction MRI in the assessment of necrosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after trans arterial chemoembolization (TACE). MATERIALS AND METHODS The cases of 21 patients with HCC who underwent MRI after TACE were evaluated. Two independent observers calculated the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of HCC and measured percentage tumor necrosis on subtraction images. The ADCs of necrotic and viable tumor tissues were compared. ADC and percentage necrosis on subtraction images were correlated with percentage necrosis found at pathologic examination. Receiver operating characteristics analysis was performed on the diagnosis of complete tumor necrosis. RESULTS Twenty-eight HCCs (mean diameter, 2.3 cm) were evaluated. There were significant differences between the ADC of viable tissue and that of necrotic tumor tissue (1.33 +/- 0.41 vs 2.04 +/- 0.38 x 10(-3) mm(2)/s, p < 0.0001). There was significant moderate correlation between ADC and the pathologic finding of percentage necrosis (r = 0.64, p < 0.001) and significant strong correlation between subtraction image and pathologic percentage necrosis (r = 0.89-0.91, depending on the phase; p < 0.001). In the diagnosis of complete tumor necrosis, ADC had an area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity of 0.85, 75%, and 87.5% compared with 0.82-0.89, 100%, and 58.3-79.1% for subtraction imaging (p > 0.5 between ADC and subtraction imaging). CONCLUSION Compared with diffusion-weighted imaging, contrast-enhanced MRI with subtraction technique had more significant correlation with the histopathologic findings in the evaluation of necrosis of HCC after TACE. There was no difference, however, between the two methods in diagnosis of complete tumor necrosis.
Análise multinível aplicada aos dados do NELS:88

Na Psicologia e areas afins, esta aumentando a consciencia de que o pressuposto da independencia das observacoes da regressao tradicional nem sempre e refletido pela realidade. O objetivo deste artigo e ilustrar a analise multinivel, uma alternativa a regressao tradicional, usando um banco de dados de acesso publico: o NELS:88 ( National Educational Longitudinal Study ). NELS:88 e uma pesquisa conduzida pelo Ministerio da Educacao dos Estados Unidos com o proposito de identificar o efeito de variaveis socioeconomicas e escolares sobre o desempenho educacional. O banco contem dados de 21.580 alunos da oitava serie do ensino fundamental, provenientes de 1.003 escolas. Nessa pesquisa, foi aplicado um teste de Matematica, acompanhado por um questionario sobre caracteristicas socioeconomicas e culturais dos alunos. Pode-se concluir que o banco de dados NELS:88 e muito adequado para ilustrar, de forma pratica, como funciona uma analise multinivel.
Color‐Tunable Photoluminescent Fullerene Nanoparticles

Highly water-soluble and color-tunable photoluminescent fullerene nanoparticles are synthesized by using tetraethylene glycol (TEG) and lithium hydroxide as a catalyst. The maximum PL emission changes depend on the contents of the remaining π-conjugation in oxidized C(60), which is partially covalently conjugated with TEG. The PL behavior is attributed to an electronic transition change due to the distortion of symmetrical C(60).