Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Advanced Age is Not a Contraindication for Treatment With Curative Intent in Esophageal Cancer

Objectives: The objective of this study is to compare long-term outcomes between younger and older (70 y and above) esophageal cancer patients treated with curative intent. Materials and Methods: Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and locoregional recurrence-free interval were compared between older (70 y and above) and younger (below 70 y) esophageal cancer patients treated between 1998 and 2013. Treatment consisted of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with surgery or definitive chemoradiotherapy: 36 to 50.4 Gy in 18 to 28 fractions combined with 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin or carboplatin/paclitaxel. Results: The study comprised 253 patients, of whom 76 were 70 years and older. Median age was 64 years (range, 41 to 83). Most patients had stage II-IIIA disease (83%). Planned treatment was neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with surgery for 169 patients (41 patients aged 70 y and older) and definitive chemoradiotherapy for 84 patients (31 patients aged 70 y and older). The compliance to radiotherapy was 92%, with no difference between older and younger patients. In 33 patients (13 patients aged 70 y and older) planned surgery was not performed. Median follow-up was 4.9 years. Three-year OS was 42%. The multivariable analysis showed no statistical difference in OS or in DFS comparing older and younger patients: OS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61-1.28), DFS (HR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.60-1.25). Elderly showed a longer locoregional recurrence-free interval; HR, 0.53 (95% CI, 0.30-0.92; P=0.02) and a higher pathologic complete response rate (50% vs. 25%; P=0.02). Conclusions: Long-term outcomes of older esophageal cancer patients (70 y and above) selected for treatment with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery or definitive chemoradiotherapy were comparable with the outcomes of their younger counterparts. Advanced age alone should not be a contraindication for potentially curative chemoradiotherapy-based treatment in esophageal cancer patients.
From the Genome to the Phenome: Tools to Understand the Basic Biology of Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria plagues one out of every 30 humans and contributes to almost a million deaths, and the problem could worsen. Our current therapeutic options are compromised by emerging resistance by the parasite to our front line drugs. It is thus imperative to better understand the basic biology of the parasite and develop novel drugs to stem this disease. The most facile approach to analyse a gene's function is to remove it from the genome or inhibit its activity. Although genetic manipulation of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is a relatively standard procedure, there is no optimal method to perturb genes essential to the intraerythrocytic development cycle—the part of the life cycle that produces the clinical manifestation of malaria. This is a severe impediment to progress because the phenotype we wish to study is exactly the one that is so elusive. In the absence of any utilitarian way to conditionally delete essential genes, we are prevented from investigating the parasite's most vulnerable points. This review aims to focus on the development of tools identifying essential genes of P. falciparum and our ability to elicit phenotypic mutation.
MOC-Based Parallel Preprocessing of ZY-3 Satellite Images

The launch of the ZY-3 surveying and mapping satellite (ZSMS) by China has resulted in a significant increase in the volume of image data collected for subsequent processing. In this letter, we present our research on the message passing interface (MPI), open multiprocessing (OpenMP), and compute unified device architecture (CUDA)-based (MOC-based) preprocessing of ZSMS images in a system that consists of multiple central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). First, CPUs and GPUs in the system are organized into atomic computing resources (ACRs) by means of an MPI. Then, three cooperative methods are proposed for potential performance improvement of the processors with OpenMP and CUDA. The input/output (I/O) overhead is also addressed in this letter. The experimental results show that the total execution time of the 12 ZSMS nadir images with four ACRs is reduced to 86.10 s, which could provide near-real-time response for the time-critical applications that follow.
Dienstleistungsmanagement: Kundenintegration gestalten und steuern

Dienstleistungen sind dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass der Kunde an ihrer Erstellung mitwirkt. So ist z.B. der Unternehmensberater auf Informationen des zu beratenden Unternehmens angewiesen, der Haarschnitt erfordert die Anwesenheit des Kunden. Sabine Flies stellt systematisch und wissenschaftlich fundiert Strategien, Konzepte, Methoden und Instrumente fur kundenorientiert und effizient arbeitende Dienstleister vor. Dabei werden in integrativer Form marketing-, produktions- und personalpolitische sowie organisatorische Entscheidungen behandelt, z.B. Standardisierung versus Individualisierung von Dienstleistungen, Nutzenmerkmale und Preise von Dienstleistungen, kundenorientierte und effiziente Gestaltung von Dienstleistungsprozessen, Organisation von Ablaufen, Steuerung und Motivation von Mitarbeitern sowie das Management von (Personal-)Kapazitaten.
A task- and data-parallel programming language based on shared objects

Many programming languages support either task parallelism, but few languages provide a uniform framework for writing applications that need both types of parallelism or data parallelism. We present a programming language and system that integrates task and data parallelism using shared objects. Shared objects may be stored on one processor or may be replicated. Objects may also be partitioned and distributed on several processors.Task parallelism is achieved by forking processes remotely and have them communicate and synchronize through objects. Data parallelism is achieved by executing operations on partitioned objects in parallel. Writing task-and data-parallel applications with shared objects has several advantages. Programmers use the objects as if they were stored in a memory common to all processors. On distributed-memory machines, if objects are remote, replicated, or partitioned, the system takes care of many low-level details such as data transfers and consistency semantics. In this article, we show how to write task-and data-parallel programs with our shared object model. We also desribe a portable implementation of the model. To assess the performance of the system, we wrote several applications that use task and data parallelism and excuted them on a collection of Pentium Pros connected by Myrinet. The performance of these applications is also discussed in this article.
Dimension Reduction of Image Manifolds

Dimension reduction of datasets is very useful in different application including classification, compression, feature extraction etc.; Linear methods such as principal Component Analysis, have been used for a long time and seem to work very well in many applications. But, there are much more applications in which the dataset doesn’t have a linear structure and so the linear methods do not work very well for them. Fig. (1) and Fig. (2) illustrate what linear and nonlinear structures mean. When the points of the dataset lie close to a linear subspace of the ambient space, its structure is called linear and if they are close to a smooth manifold as in Fig. (2), then it is said to have nonlinear structure. Nonlinear dimension reduction methods try to recover the underlying parametrization of scattered data on a manifold embedded in high dimensional Euclidean space. In the next section some of the linear and nonlinear methods will be explained very briefly; But, the focus of this report will be on image processing applications of dimension reduction algorithms. Usually the image databases (each image is considered as a very large dimensional vector) do not have linear structures; Donoho and Grimes [1] have shown that in some image databases nonlinear methods will lead to very reasonable parameters and this proved the efficiency of these methods in processing image databases. In this report, nonlinear methods will be used in three different image processing applications: Image Synthesis,Image Classification and Video Synthesis. It will be shown that the methods which are proposed here can easily outperform the linear methods. The structure of this paper is as follows: In the next section, different algorithms of dimension reduction will be reviewed. In section III two ways are explained for synthesizing Images. In section IV an image classification is proposed and compared with the other methods and finally in section V, I will explain how to synthesize a video by using the manifolds. −0.5 0 0.5 1
Appendix 15 . 1 Tobacco Control Simulation Models

Examples of Aggregate (Compartmental) Simulation Models 19 SimSmoke 19 University of Michigan Tobacco Prevalence and Health Effects Model 23 Tobacco Policy Model 24 Benefits of Smoking Cessation Outcome 25 Smoking-Attributable Morbidity, Mortality, and Economic Costs 25 Cancer Strategy Analysis and Validation Effect 26 Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) 26 Examples of Agent-Based Simulation Models 32 Examples of Other Models 32
Memory before and after sleep in patients with moderate obstructive sleep apnea.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on procedural and declarative memory encoding in the evening prior to sleep, on memory consolidation during subsequent sleep, and on retrieval in the morning after sleep. METHODS Memory performance (procedural mirror-tracing task, declarative visual and verbal memory task) and general neuropsychological performance were assessed before and after one night of polysomnographic monitoring in 15 patients with moderate OSA and 20 age-, sex-, and IQ-matched healthy subjects. RESULTS Encoding levels prior to sleep were similar across groups for all tasks. Conventional analyses of averaged mirror tracing performance suggested a significantly reduced overnight improvement in OSA patients. Single trial analyses, however, revealed that this effect was due to significantly flattened learning curves in the evening and morning session in OSA patients. OSA patients showed a significantly lower verbal retention rate and a non-significantly reduced visual retention rate after sleep compared to healthy subjects. Polysomnography revealed a significantly reduced REM density, increased frequency of micro-arousals, elevated apnea-hypopnea index, and subjectively disturbed sleep quality in OSA patients compared to healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that moderate OSA is associated with a significant impairment of procedural and verbal declarative memory. Future work is needed to further determine the contribution of structural or functional alterations in brain circuits relevant for memory, and to test whether OSA treatment improves or normalizes the observed deficits in learning.
Adverse Drug Reactions Causing Hospital Admissions in Childhood: A Prospective, Observational, Single‐Centre Study

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are common problems in both paediatric and adult medicine. The aim of this study was to prospectively identify the ADRs causing hospital admission of children and identification of the risk factors and involved drugs. The study was performed at the University Hospital in Olomouc, Czech Republic. All patients aged 19 years or under admitted to hospital were included in the study, and all admissions for ADRs were prospectively screened for a period of 9 months. Suspected ADRs were subsequently evaluated in detail, and causality assessment was undertaken to determine whether each suspected reaction was possible, probable or definite. The assessment of ADR causality was performed using the Naranjo algorithm, the Liverpool ADR Causality Assessment Tool and the Edwards and Aronson causality assessment method. During the study period, 2903 admissions were identified; of these, there were 143 admissions of patients with an oncological disease. Sixty‐four admissions (2.2%) were caused by an ADR. Anticancer chemotherapy accounted for 35% of the cases, followed by antibiotics (18%), immunosuppressants and vaccines (9% each). The use of different scoring systems does not lead to the differences in the numbers of ADR‐diagnosed patient but may result in differences in the determination of the level of certainty. ADRs cause a substantial proportion of children's hospital admissions. The majority of the ADR‐diagnosed patient affected the hematopoietic and gastrointestinal systems; the drugs most frequently involved were cytotoxic agents and antibiotics. The most important risk factors identified were female sex and oncological disease.
Improving Coordinated Responses for Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

New York State law mandates specific intimate partner violence (IPV) documentation under all circumstances meeting the enumerated relationship and crime criteria at the scene of a domestic dispute. Law enforcement compliance with this mandate is unknown. We reviewed law enforcement completion rates of Domestic Violence Incident Reports (DVIRs) and assessed correlations with individual or legal factors. Law enforcement officers filed DVIRs in 54% of the cases (n = 191), more often when injury occurred (p < .01) and the defendant had prior court contact (p < .05). The discussion explores policy implications and potential means to rectify the gap between mandated processes and implementation.
Automatic 3D skull reconstruction using invariant features

In this work we propose a new method to segment range images. It automatically extracts invariant features directly from point clouds. Points belonging to such features are used as the input to improve an evolutionary approach to 3D range image registration in forensic anthropology. We use such features in the automatic reconstruction of an accurate 3D model of the skull. Our reconstruction method includes a pre-alignment stage, that uses a subset of feature points, and a refinement stage. Results are presented over a set of instances of real problems.
A-B diblock copolymer micelles: effects of soluble-block length and component compatibility.

Micellization of a diblock copolymer in dilute solution is studied by dissipative particle dynamics. The influence of the compatibility between blocks A and B and the interaction between the insoluble block and solvent on aggregation number P and micellar core radius Rc are examined. The micelle size distribution is obtained, and it is quite polydisperse. Different from the scaling theory for starlike micelles, the mean aggregation number based on weight average w decreases with increasing soluble-block length NA and the power law relation can be obtained, w approximately NA(-alpha). Similarly, the micellar core radius declines with NA, following Rc approximately NA(-beta) with beta=alpha/3. However, the exponent depends on the mutual compatibility between soluble and insoluble blocks. For the same composition, the incompatible diblocks form a smaller micelle and its aggregation number declines with a smaller exponent alpha. When NA approximately NB, the micelles deviate significantly from the spherical shape and solvophilic blocks are observed to be entrapped in the solvophobic core for compatible diblocks.
Improved hepatocyte in vitro maintenance in a culture model with woven multicompartment capillary systems: Electron microscopy studies

Primary pig hepatocytes form a tissuelike structure in an in vitro culture model that has provision for threedimensional cell orientation, cell aggregation, decentralized cell perfusion with low metabolite gradients, integral oxygenation, and nonparenchymal cell coculture. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has shown that hepatocytes spontaneously form aggregates in a three‐dimensional structure between and on the surface of artificial capillaries. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has shown that after 7 weeks of in vitro perfusion, the cell ultrastructure remains similar to that of the parenchyma in vivo. Golgi complexes, active membrane processes, reorganization of cell junctions, and bile canaliculi‐like intercellular spaces were demonstrated. (Hepatology 1995; 22:546–552.)
Calcium waves between astrocytes from Cx43 knockout mice

Gap junctions are regarded as the primary pathway underlying propagation of Ca2+ waves between astrocytes, although signaling through extracellular space may also contribute. Results obtained from astrocytes cultured from sibling Cx43 knockout (KO) and wild‐type (WT) mice in six litters showed that Ca2+ waves propagated more slowly in Cx43 KO than in WT astrocytes; however, because this difference in velocity was only seen in conditions where cell confluence was higher in WT than KO astrocytes, it is attributable to differences in plating density. By contrast, density‐independent differences were observed in the amplitudes of the Ca2+ responses (15% smaller in KO astrocytes) and efficacy of spread (to 14% fewer cells in KO astrocytes). Blockade of purinergic receptors with suramin reduced the velocities of the waves by 40% in WT and KO astrocytes and reduced the amplitudes by 20% and 6%, respectively. In the presence of heptanol, Ca2+ waves spread to only 30% of the cells, with a 70% reduced velocity and 30% reduced amplitude. It is concluded that the propagation of Ca2+ waves between astrocytes from Cx43 KO mice is not so greatly affected as expected by deletion of the major gap junction protein between these cells. The residual 5% coupling contributed by the additional connexins (Cx40, Cx45, and Cx46) expressed in KO astrocytes still suffices to provide a more substantial portion of Ca2+ wave propagation than does signaling through extracellular purinergic pathways. These studies demonstrate that, even with severely reduced junctional conductance, Cx43 KO astrocytes are capable of performing long‐range Ca2+ wave signaling, perhaps preserving one mechanism critical to neural function. GLIA 24:65–73, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Distributed Cross-Modal Search within the MPEG Query Format

One of the latest developments of the MPEG committee is the Query Format for search and retrieval of multimedia content. This language constitutes the interface between a client and a search engine for searching multimedia data. Another possible scenario is the use of a service provider, which accepts and understands a query from a client and forwards parts of the query to one or more specific databases. Furthermore the service provider is able to retrieve the reply from these databases and post processes this result in order to send it to this client. During the last years, the cross-modal search of video and audio signals became more and more important, since using both, the video and the audio signal together turned out to be much more robust for identification of video streams, than the image part of the video alone.This paper describes a cross-modal search based on the MPEG Query Format, using a service provider for splitting and aggregating the query and two different types of databases.
A Study on the Possibility of Automatically Estimating the Confidence Value of Students' Knowledge in Generated Conceptual Models

We propose a new metric to automatically evaluate the confidence that a student knows a certain concept included in his or her conceptual model. The conceptual model is defined as a simplified representation of the concepts and relationships among them that a student keeps in his or her mind about an area of knowledge. Each area of knowledge comprises several topics and each topic several concepts. Each concept can be identified by a term that the students should use. A concept can belong to one topic or to several topics. Terms are automatically extracted from the answers provided to an automatic and adaptive free-text scoring system using Machine Learning techniques. In fact, the conceptual model is fully generated from the answers provided by the students to this system. In the paper, the automatic procedure that makes it possible is reviewed in detail. Finally, concept maps are used to graphically display the conceptual model to teachers and students. In this way, they can instantly see which concepts have already been assimilated and which ones should still be reviewed.
CYLICOSPIRURA SPECIES (NEMATODA: SPIROCERCIDAE) AND STOMACH NODULES IN COUGARS (PUMA CONCOLOR) AND BOBCATS (LYNX RUFUS) IN OREGON

The stomachs and proximal duodena of 160 cougars (Puma concolor) and 17 bobcats (Lynx rufus), obtained throughout Oregon during 7 yr, were examined for Cylicospirura spp. and associated lesions. Prevalence in cougars was 73%, with a range in intensity of 1–562 worms. The mean diameter of nodules was 1.2 cm (SD=0.5), and many extended through the submucosa to the muscularis. About 83% of cougars had nodules; most nodules contained worms, but 14% of the smaller nodules (<0.2 cm) contained porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) quills. A mean of 12.4 worms/nodule (SD=34.1) was observed, with a maximum of 340 worms/nodule. Prevalence in bobcats was 53%, with an intensity of 1–25 worms. About 65% of bobcats had nodules, which were slightly smaller than those in cougars but appeared to involve similar layers of gastrointestinal tissue. One to 25 Cylicospirura sp. were found in all but two small nodules in bobcats. Cougars killed for livestock damage or safety concerns had a significantly higher median worm intensity than did those that died of other causes. Also, the median worm intensity of older cougars was higher than that of younger lions. There were more males than females killed for livestock damage or safety concerns. The cylicospirurid from cougars was Cylicospirura subaequalis, and that of bobcats was Cylicospirura felineus. These two similar species were separated morphologically by differences in tooth and sex organ morphology. They were also differentiated by DNA sequence analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1). Worm sequences from cougars differed from those from bobcats by 11%, whereas essentially no difference was found among worms from the same host. Phylogenetic analysis showed that within the order Spirurida, both cylicospirurids were most closely related to Spirocerca lupi, based on this gene sequence.
ROSeAnn: taming online semantic annotators

Named entity extractors are a popular means for enriching documents with semantic annotations. Both the overlap and the increasing diversity in the capabilities and in the vocabularies of the annotators motivate the need for managing and integrating semantic annotations in a coherent and uniform fashion. ROSeAnn is a framework for the management and the reconciliation of semantic annotations. It provides end-users and programmers with a unified view over the results of multiple online and standalone annotators, linking them to an integrated ontology of their vocabularies, and supporting a variety of document formats such as: plain text, live Web pages, and PDF documents. Although ROSeAnn provides two predefined algorithms for conflict resolution -- one supervised, appropriate when representative training data is available, and one unsupervised -- it also allows application developers to define their own integration techniques, as well as extending the pool of annotators as new ones become available.