Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Replication Study for the Association of rs11190870 With Curve Severity in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis in Japanese

Study Design. Case-only study. Objective. The aim of this study was to confirm the association of rs11190870 with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) severity in Japanese patients with AIS. Summary of Background Data. Although the association of rs11190870 with AIS susceptibility is replicated in multiple ethnics, the association of rs11190870 with curve severity is controversial. Since the previous studies are of small, we performed a replication study using far larger number of patients than previous studies. Methods. A total of 1860 Japanese patients with AIS who had reached skeletal maturity or undergone surgical fusion were included in the study. We evaluated the association between rs11190870 and AIS progression for the entire group, and then for patients grouped according to a severe curve (a Cobb angle of ≥40°) or mild curve (a Cobb angle <30°). Because braces could affect the results of the present study, patients in the mild-curve group were divided according to whether or not they had worn a brace. We then evaluated associations between rs11190870 genotype and curve severity in these groups. Results. The mean Cobb angles were 54.8° ± 12.1° in the severe-curve group and 24.4° ± 4.0° in the mild-curve group. The difference in rs11190870 risk-allele frequency between the severe- and mild-curve groups was evaluated. No significant differences were observed. We then examined the association of rs11190870 risk-allele frequency between patients in the mild- and severe-curve groups using the &khgr;2 test for three models, and found a marginal association between rs11190870 and curve severity in the dominant model (P = 0.035, odds ratio = 1.51). Conclusion. We found no association between rs11190870 and curve severity using the criteria of previous study. However, we found a marginal association between rs11190870 and curve severity. Large-scale replication studies that consider skeletal maturity and brace history, including replication studies in other ethnic groups, would be helpful for clarifying the association. Level of Evidence: 4
Long‐term ex vivo expansion of human fetal liver primitive haematopoietic progenitor cells in stroma‐free cultures

Summary. Successful expansion of haematopoietic cells in ex vivo cultures will have important applications in transplantation, gene therapy, immunotherapy and potentially also in the production of non‐haematopoietic cell types. Haematopoietic stem cells (HSC), with their capacity to both self‐renew and differentiate into all blood lineages, represent the ideal target for expansion protocols. However, human HSC are rare, poorly characterized phenotypically and genotypically, and difficult to test functionally. Defining optimal culture parameters for ex vivo expansion has been a major challenge. We devised a simple and reproducible stroma‐free liquid culture system enabling long‐term expansion of putative haematopoietic progenitors contained within frozen human fetal liver (FL) crude cell suspensions. Starting from a small number of total nucleated cells, a massive haematopoietic cell expansion, reaching > 1013‐fold the input cell number after ∼300 d of culture, was consistently achieved. Cells with a primitive phenotype were present throughout the culture and also underwent a continuous expansion. Moreover, the capacity for multilineage lymphomyeloid differentiation, as well as the recloning capacity of primitive myeloid progenitors, was maintained in culture. With its better proliferative potential as compared with adult sources, FL represents a promising alternative source of HSC and the culture system described here should be useful for clinical applications.
Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma with transcatheter arterial embolization. Analysis of prognostic factors

Background. Transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) is a useful treatment modality for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To study the prognostic factors, survival time of patients with HCC after TAE was analyzed retrospectively using clinical manifestations of coexisting liver cirrhosis and clinical features of HCC.
Measuring network performance of swarm power aware routing protocol for MANETs

The huge growth in wireless communication and increase in user mobility have introduced new challenges, such as the need to make efficient use of power resources besides preserving good network characteristics. Power resources as well as processing power are constrained in an ad hoc network. Overlooking the limitation of resources in an Ad hoc network might result in a sharp degradation in the network services. The objective of our work is to observe the effect of incorporating power awareness and load balancing techniques on network performance parameters: throughput, packet delivery ratio and routing overhead. The protocol developed is a swarm-based routing protocol that incorporated both power awareness and load balancing techniques. PowerAnt provided more throughput by 11% on average; besides, it provided better packet delivery ratio by 15% compared with AODV.
A Novel Encoding Scheme for Low Power in Network on Chip Links

Dynamic power dissipation in interconnects is a major contributor to power consumption in Network on Chips (NoCs). This is mainly due to two factors, self switching activity of the particular link and coupling switching activity among adjacent links. Two novel techniques are proposed to reduce power consumption due to switching transition and cross talk. First technique reorders the data in such a way that switching transition is brought down. In the second technique, it is ensured that power consumption due to cross coupling activity is reduced. An end to end encoding scheme facilitating two stage coding to reduce power consumption in wormhole routed network on chip is designed using the proposed power reduction techniques. Encoder and Decoder exhibiting the proposed scheme have been described in RTL level in Verilog HDL, synthesized and mapped into UMC180 nm technology library. It has been observed that the proposed technique (TSC) offers an average reduction in dynamic power consumption of 17.34%. Proposed scheme was compared with existing techniques and observations concluded that there was not much degradation in area, speed and static power dissipation. Power reduction when subjected to different kinds of data streams was analyzed and results indicate that proposed scheme offers uniform power reduction irrespective of the nature of data stream unlike the existing techniques.
Reduced skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and elevated ceramide but not diacylglycerol content in severe obesity

The link between a reduced capacity for skeletal muscle mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and lipotoxicity in human insulin resistance has been the subject of intense debate. The objective of this study was to investigate whether reduced FAO is associated with elevated acyl CoA, ceramide, and diacylglycerol (DAG) in severely obese insulin resistant subjects.
Weighted Spectral-Spatial Classification of Hyperspectral Images via Class-Specific Band Contribution

Hyperspectral images (HSIs) have evident advantages in image understanding due to enormous spectral bands, and rich spatial information. Hundreds of spectral bands, however, actually play different roles in contributing to the class-specific classification. Then, treating each band equally may lead to the underuse or overuse of them. To address this issue, this paper introduces class-specific band contributions (BCs) into the spectral space, and proposes a weighted spectral-spatial classification method for HSIs. In the method, by incorporating BC characterized by F-measure into the distance-based posterior probability, a weighted spectral posterior probability (WSP) model is established. Furthermore, to exploit the spatial information, WSP is then combined with the spatial consistency constraint via an adaptive tradeoff parameter. Additionally, aimed at obtaining the class-dependent F-measures of each band, a semisupervised F-measure prediction method is also developed. Experiments on four hyperspectral data sets are conducted. Experimental results show the superiority of our proposed method over several state-of-the-art methods in terms of three widely used indexes.
Regional labour force participation across the European Union: a time–space recursive modelling approach with endogenous regressors

ABSTRACT Regional labour force participation across the European Union: a time–space recursive modelling approach with endogenous regressors. Spatial Economic Analysis. Although there is an abundant regional labour market literature taking a spatial perspective, only a few studies have explored extending the analysis of labour force participation with spatial effects. This paper revisits this important issue, proposing a time–space recursive modelling approach that builds on and appraises Fogli and Veldkamp’s methodology from 2011 and finding for the United States that participation rates vary with past values in nearby regions. Major shortcomings in their study are corrected for, including stationarity and the control for endogenous regressors other than the time and space–time-lagged dependent variable using system generalized method of moments (GMM). The paper also highlights interaction effects among explanatory variables for the first time in this context. Using a panel of 108 regions across the European Union over 1986–2010, the results for total, male and female participation rates throw a new light on the socio-economic relevance of different determinants. Importantly, characteristics in neighbouring regions play a significant role, and neglecting endogeneity is found to have serious consequences, underlining increased attention on the specification and estimation of spatial econometric models with endogenous regressors.
Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells From Hypertensive Patient‐Derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Advance Hypertension Pharmacogenomics

Studies in hypertension (HTN) pharmacogenomics seek to identify genetic sources of variable antihypertensive drug response. Genetic association studies have detected single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that link to drug responses; however, to understand mechanisms underlying how genetic traits alter drug responses, a biological interface is needed. Patient‐derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide a potential source for studying otherwise inaccessible tissues that may be important to antihypertensive drug response. The present study established multiple iPSC lines from an HTN pharmacogenomics cohort. We demonstrated that established HTN iPSCs can robustly and reproducibly differentiate into functional vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), a cell type most relevant to vasculature tone control. Moreover, a sensitive traction force microscopy assay demonstrated that iPSC‐derived VSMCs show a quantitative contractile response on physiological stimulus of endothelin‐1. Furthermore, the inflammatory chemokine tumor necrosis factor α induced a typical VSMC response in iPSC‐derived VSMCs. These studies pave the way for a large research initiative to decode biological significance of identified SNPs in hypertension pharmacogenomics.
Non-endothelial cell endothelin-B receptors limit neointima formation following vascular injury.

AIMS The potent vasoconstrictor endothelin-1 (ET-1), acting on the endothelin-A (ETA) receptor, promotes intimal lesion formation following vascular injury. The endothelin-B (ETB) receptor, which mediates nitric oxide release and ET-1 clearance in endothelial cells, may moderate lesion formation, but this is less clear. We used selective ET receptor antagonists and cell-specific deletion to address the hypothesis that ETB receptors in the endothelium inhibit lesion formation following arterial injury. METHODS AND RESULTS Neointimal proliferation was induced by wire or ligation injury to the femoral artery in mice treated with selective ETA (ABT-627) and/or ETB antagonists (A192621). Measurement of lesion formation by optical projection tomography and histology indicated that ETA blockade reduced lesion burden in both models. Although ETB blockade had little effect on ligation injury-induced lesion formation, after wire injury, blockade of the ETB receptor increased lesion burden (184% of vehicle; P < 0.05) and reversed the protective effects of an ETA antagonist. Selective deletion of ETB receptors from the endothelium, however, had no effect on neointimal lesion size. CONCLUSION These results are consistent with ETB receptor activation playing an important role in limiting neointimal lesion formation following acute vascular injury, but indicate that this protective effect is not mediated by those ETB receptors expressed by endothelial cells. These data support the proposal that selective ETA antagonists may be preferable to mixed ETA/ETB antagonists for targeting the arterial response to injury.
Plugged in: Electronics use in youth and young adults with autism spectrum disorder

Although electronic technology currently plays an integral role for most youth, there are growing concerns of its excessive and compulsive use. This study documents patterns and impact of electronics use in individuals with autism spectrum disorder compared to typically developing peers. Participants included 172 parents of typically developing individuals and 139 parents of individuals with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, ranging in age from 6 to 21 years. Parents completed an online survey of demographics and the frequency, duration, and problematic patterns of electronics use in their youth and young adults. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder were reported to use certain electronics more often in the last month and on an average day, and had greater compulsive Internet and video game use than individuals without autism spectrum disorder. Across both samples, males used video games more often than females. Compared to parents of individuals without autism spectrum disorder, parents of individuals with autism spectrum disorder were significantly more likely to report that electronics use was currently having a negative impact. The implications of problematic electronics use for individuals with autism spectrum disorder are discussed.
The main paths of eTourism: trends of managing tourism through Internet

ABSTRACT Drawing from the tourism and hospitality literature, this paper highlights the main research trajectories and themes in the context of eTourism. We use main path analysis to investigate the development trend of the synergistic relationship between innovative tourism applications and the new technologies. Further, the literature is classified into six groups through discovering the coherence structure in a citation network. The analyses show that research on websites, blogs, and social media on tourism is experiencing accelerated growth, which hints that there is a pendulum shift whereby the information and negotiation power asymmetry between the supply and demand sides are moving from provider-centric to consumer-centric. This study also elucidates the associated market disintermediation phenomenon and long tail effects on the distribution of destinations.
Interference Analysis in Downlink OFDM Considering Imperfect Intercell Synchronization

This paper presents a theoretical performance analysis of downlink orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) cellular radio communication systems. An accurate interference model that takes into account the cochannel and interchannel interference caused by both frequency and timing synchronization errors in adjacent and cochannel cells is developed. The effect of frequency-selective fading on the interfering signals has also accurately been taken into consideration. Based on this model, accurate expressions are given for average bit error rates (BERs) of OFDM-based M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). These are extended to include multichannel reception with maximal ratio combining diversity.
Final results of a single institution experience with a pediatric‐based regimen, the augmented Berlin–Frankfurt–Münster, in adolescents and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and comparison to the hyper‐CVAD regimen

Several studies reported improved outcomes of adolescents and young adults (AYA) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with pediatric‐based ALL regimens. This prompted the prospective investigation of a pediatric Augmented Berlin–Frankfurt–Münster (ABFM) regimen, and its comparison with hyper‐fractionated cyclophosphamide, vincristine, Adriamycin, and dexamethasone (hyper‐CVAD) in AYA patients. One hundred and six AYA patients (median age 22 years) with Philadelphia chromosome‐ (Ph) negative ALL received ABFM from October 2006 through March 2014. Their outcome was compared to 102 AYA patients (median age 27 years), treated with hyper‐CVAD at our institution. The complete remission (CR) rate was 93% with ABFM and 98% with hyper‐CVAD. The 5‐year complete remission duration (CRD) were 53 and 55%, respectively (P = 0.98). The 5‐year overall survival (OS) rates were 60 and 60%, respectively. The MRD status on Day 29 and Day 84 of therapy was predictive of long‐term outcomes on both ABFM and hyper‐CVAD. Severe regimen toxicities with ABFM included hepatotoxicity in 41%, pancreatitis in 11%, osteonecrosis in 9%, and thrombosis in 19%. Myelosuppression‐associated complications were most significant with hyper‐CVAD. In summary, ABFM and hyper‐CVAD resulted in similar efficacy outcomes, but were associated with different toxicity profiles, asparaginase‐related with ABFM and myelosuppression‐related with hyper‐CVAD. Am. J. Hematol. 91:819–823, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Phase II Trial of Adjuvant Immunotherapy with Autologous Tumor-derived Gp96 Vaccination in Patients with Gastric Cancer

Background/Aims: Autologous, tumor-derived, heat shock protein gp96 peptide complexes have antitumor potential. We conducted the first Phase II trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of gp96 vaccination in adjuvant settings for patients with gastric cancer. Methods: We enrolled 73 consecutive patients from October 2012 to December 2015. Thirty-eight patients received gp96 vaccination plus chemotherapy and 35 received chemotherapy alone. The primary endpoints were disease-free survival (DFS) and toxicity. The secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and tumor-specific immune responses. Results: There were comparable baseline characteristics between the two groups. Tumor-specific immune responses increased significantly after gp96 vaccination. gp96 vaccination plus chemotherapy was well tolerated and there were no gp96-related serious adverse events. Patients who received gp96 vaccination had improved DFS compared with those who did not [p = 0.045; hazard ratio (HR): 0.47; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.23-0.96]. The 2-year OS rates were 81.9% and 67.9% for the gp96 vaccination and chemotherapy alone group, respectively (p = 0.123; HR: 0.42; 95% CI: 0.15-1.24). Conclusion: gp96 vaccination elicits tumor-specific immune responses and can be safely used in adjuvant settings combined with chemotherapy. Patients with less-aggressive diseases might benefit from gp96 therapy.
Effect of fluconazole on viability of Candida albicans over extended periods of time

The treatment of chronic mycoses may expose the infecting organisms to antimicrobial agents for extended periods of time. It is possible that an azole antifungal drug such as fluconazole, with primarily fungistatic activity in standard in vitro susceptibility tests, might be able to damage the fungal cells and reduce their viability over prolonged incubations under nonproliferating conditions. To test this possibility, Candida albicans yeast cells were exposed to various concentrations of fluconazole in RPMI 1640 tissue culture medium for 4 h at 37 degrees C, washed free of the drug, and then incubated at 37 degrees C for a 28-day period; enumeration of the remaining CFU at various times during this period revealed no increased loss of viability for the fluconazole-exposed organisms. However, when fluconazole was added to the organisms maintained in distilled water (with or without pretreatment with the drug), a marked reduction of viability was found. At 14 days of incubation with two strains of C. albicans, negative cultures were found for 7 of 10 and 10 of 11 samples, respectively, containing 1.0 microgram of fluconazole per ml versus 0 of 10 and 1 of 11 control samples (P of < 0.01 and 0.001, respectively). The effect of fluconazole on fungal viability under these conditions became noticeable at approximately 7 days and was greater when the samples were incubated at 37 degrees C rather than 25 degrees C. These findings suggest that fluconazole may have fungicidal effects on fungal cells during prolonged exposures under conditions in which the organisms are prevented from proliferating by lack of nutrients.
Identification of microtubule-associated proteins in the centrosome, spindle, and kinetochore of the early Drosophila embryo

We have developed affinity chromatography methods for the isolation of microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) from soluble cytoplasmic extracts and have used them to analyze the cytoskeleton of the early Drosophila embryo. More than 50 Drosophila embryo proteins bind to microtubule affinity columns. To begin to characterize these proteins, we have generated individual mouse polyclonal antibodies that specifically recognize 24 of them. As judged by immunofluorescence, some of the antigens localize to the mitotic spindle in the early Drosophila embryo, while others are present in centrosomes, kinetochores, subsets of microtubules, or a combination of these structures. Since 20 of the 24 antibodies stain microtubule structures, it is likely that most of the proteins that bind to our columns are associated with microtubules in vivo. Very few MAPS seem to be identically localized in the cell, indicating that the microtubule cytoskeleton is remarkably complex.
[The diagnosis of liver cirrhosis: a comparative evaluation of standard laparoscopy, mini-laparoscopy and histology].

BACKGROUND The superiority of laparoscopy with guided biopsy over biopsy alone is established. It is still uncertain if this is also true for midi-/ and mini-laparoscopy. AIM The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic gain of laparoscopic-guided biopsy for standard laparoscopy and the use of midi-/mini-laparoscopies. Characteristics of the liver biopsies were investigated with regard to a missed diagnosis of cirrhosis. METHODS In a consecutive series of 425 patients clinical, laparoscopic and histological findings were investigated. The length and fragmentation of the liver biopsies were investigated with regard to a missed diagnosis of cirrhosis. RESULTS The sensitivity of laparoscopy in the diagnosis of cirrhosis was 96 %, that of histology 68 %. The sensitivity of histology alone was especially low in macronodular cirrhosis. The sensitivity of both laparoscopy and histology improved from Child A to C. When cirrhosis was apparent, liver biopsies were shorter and more frequently fragmented. However, the diagnosis of cirrhosis was independent of these parameters. CONCLUSION Mini-laparoscopy may replace standard laparoscopy and appears to be superior compared with histology alone.
Zero-Voltage-Transition Control for a Class of Resonant Converters

The aim of this letter is to improve operation of a class of resonant converters and take quasi-resonant converters (QRCs) as a benchmark to realize this aim. In particular, a variable pulsewidth control scheme is proposed that ensures soft-switching conditions and reduces conduction losses. The control scheme has the feature of significant improvement of efficiency and wider voltage conversion ratio. The proposed controller modifies the pulsewidth of the square driving signal without modifying its frequency. This fact makes it able to be used as a complementary control action to voltage regulators. Results are illustrated via experimental work for the case of a boost-type zero-voltage-switching QRC