Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost-effectiveness of screening for colorectal cancer in the general population.

CONTEXT A recent expert panel recommended that persons at average risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) begin screening for CRC at age 50 years using 1 of several strategies. However, many aspects of different CRC screening strategies remain uncertain. OBJECTIVE To assess the consequences, costs, and cost-effectiveness of CRC screening in average-risk individuals. DESIGN Cost-effectiveness analysis from a societal perspective using a Markov model. SUBJECTS Hypothetical subjects representative of the 50-year-old US population at average risk for CRC. SETTING Simulated clinical practice in the United States. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Discounted lifetime costs, life expectancy, and incremental cost-effectiveness (CE) ratio, compared used 22 different CRC screening strategies, including those recommended by the expert panel. RESULTS In 1 base-case analysis, compliance was assumed to be 60% with the initial screen and 80% with follow-up or surveillance colonoscopy. The most effective strategy for white men was annual rehydrated fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) plus sigmoidoscopy (followed by colonoscopy if either a low- or high-risk polyp was found) every 5 years from age 50 to 85 years, which resulted in a 60% reduction in cancer incidence and an 80% reduction in CRC mortality compared with no screening, and an incremental CE ratio of $92,900 per year of life gained compared with annual unrehydrated FOBT plus sigmoidoscopy every 5 years. In a base-case analysis in which compliance with screening and follow-up is assumed to be 100%, screening more often than every 10 years was prohibitively expensive; annual rehydrated FOBT plus sigmoidoscopy every 5 years had an incremental CE ratio of $489,900 per life-year gained compared with the same strategy every 10 years. Other strategies recommended by the expert panel were either less effective or cost more per year of life gained than the alternatives. Colonoscopy every 10 years was less effective than the combination of annual FOBT plus sigmoidoscopy every 5 years. However, a single colonoscopy at age 55 years achieves nearly half of the reduction in CRC mortality obtainable with colonoscopy every 10 years. Because of increased life expectancy among white women and increased cancer mortality among blacks, CRC screening was even more cost-effective in these groups than in white men. CONCLUSIONS Screening for CRC, even in the setting of imperfect compliance, significantly reduces CRC mortality at costs comparable to other cancer screening procedures. However, compliance rates significantly affect the incremental CE ratios. In this model of CRC, 60% compliance with an every 5-year schedule of screening was roughly equivalent to 100% compliance with an every 10-year schedule. Mathematical modeling used to inform clinical guidelines needs to take into account expected compliance rates. JAMA. 2000;284:1954-1961.
Insight into the Effect of Inhibitor Resistant S130G Mutant on Physico-Chemical Properties of SHV Type Beta-Lactamase: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Bacterial resistance is a serious threat to human health. The production of β-lactamase, which inactivates β-lactams is most common cause of resistance to the β-lactam antibiotics. The Class A enzymes are most frequently encountered among the four β-lactamases in the clinic isolates. Mutations in class A β-lactamases play a crucial role in substrate and inhibitor specificity. SHV and TEM type are known to be most common class A β-lactamases. In the present study, we have analyzed the effect of inhibitor resistant S130G point mutation of SHV type Class-A β-lactamase using molecular dynamics and other in silico approaches. Our study involved the use of different in silico methods to investigate the affect of S130G point mutation on the major physico-chemical properties of SHV type class A β-lactamase. We have used molecular dynamics approach to compare the dynamic behaviour of native and S130G mutant form of SHV β-lactamase by analyzing different properties like root mean square deviation (RMSD), H-bond, Radius of gyration (Rg) and RMS fluctuation of mutation. The results clearly suggest notable loss in the stability of S130G mutant that may further lead to decrease in substrate specificity of SHV. Molecular docking further indicates that S130G mutation decreases the binding affinity of all the three inhibitors in clinical practice.
Multimeric, Multifunctional Derivatives of Poly(ethylene glycol)

This article reviews the use of multifunctional polymers founded on high-molecular weight poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). The design of new PEG derivatives assembled in a dendrimer-like multimeric fashion or bearing different functionalities on the same molecule is described. Their use as new drug delivery systems based on the conjugation of multiple copies or diversely active drugs on the same biocompatible support is illustrated.
A Study of the Impact of Discrimination Experience on Life Satisfaction in Korean Women with Severe Disabilities

The present study analyzed the effect of discrimination experience on the life satisfaction in women with severe disabilities and the mediating effect of disability acceptance. In verifying this mediating effect of disability acceptance between discrimination experience and life satisfaction, both discrimination experience and disability acceptance were found to be statistically significant in the first and second phases. Disability acceptance was found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between discrimination experience and life satisfaction. Based on this finding, measures for enhancing the quality of life in individuals with disabilities that experience low levels of life satisfaction were proposed. Keywords—Disability Discrimination, Disability Acceptance, Life Satisfaction, Mediating Effect.
Combinatorial design and development of biomaterials for use as drug delivery devices and immune adjuvants

There are several challenges associated with current strategies for drug and vaccine delivery. These include the need for multiple-dose administrations, which can hinder patience compliance, the requirements for specific storage conditions due to the fragile structure of protein-based molecules, and the need for additional excipients to enhance protein stability or adjuvant the immune response. This work has focused on the development of a high throughput, combinatorial approach to optimize degradable polymeric biomaterials, specifically polyanhydrides, to overcome these challenges associated with drug and vaccine delivery. We have developed high throughput techniques to rapidly fabricate polymer film and nanoparticle libraries to carry out detailed investigations of protein/biomaterial, cell/biomaterial, and host/biomaterial interactions. By developing and employing a highly sensitive fluorescence-based assay we rapidly identified that protein release kinetics are dictated by polymer chemistry, pH, and hydrophobicity, and thus can be tailored for the specific application to potentially eliminate the need for multiple-dose treatments. Further investigation of protein/biomaterial interactions identified polymer chemistry, pH, hydrophobicity, and temperature to be integral factors controlling protein stability during fabrication of the delivery device, storage, and delivery. Amphiphilic polymer chemistries were specifically identified to preserve the structure of both robust and fragile proteins from device fabrication to release. Our investigations of cell/biomaterial interactions revealed that all nanoparticle and polymer film chemistries studied were non-toxic at concentrations expected for human use. Furthermore, cellular activation studies were carried out with antigen presenting cells co-incubated with the polymer libraries which indicated that polymer
The KeyKOS Nanokernel Architecture

The KeyKOS nanokernel is a capability-based object-oriented operating system that has been in production use since 1983. Its original implementation was motivated by the need to provide security, reliability, and 24-hour availability for applications on the Tymnet® hosts. Requirements included the ability to run multiple instantiations of several operating systems on a single hardware system. KeyKOS was implemented on the System/370, and has since been ported to the 680x0 and 88x00 processor families. Implementations of EDX, RPS, VM, MVS, and UNIX have been constructed. The nanokernel is approximately 20,000 lines of C code, including capability, checkpoint, and virtual memory support. The nanokernel itself can run in less than 100 Kilobytes of memory. KeyKOS is characterized by a small set of powerful and highly optimized primitives that allow it to achieve performance competitive with the macrokernel operating systems that it replaces. Objects are exclusively invoked through protected capabilities, supporting high levels of security and intervals between failures in excess of one year. Messages between agents may contain both capabilities and data. Checkpoints at tunable intervals provide system-wide backup, fail-over support, and system restart times typically less than 30 seconds. In addition, a journaling mechanism provides support for high-performance transaction processing. On restart, all processes are restored to their exact state at the time of checkpoint, including registers and virtual memory. This paper describes the KeyKOS architecture, and the binary compatible UNIX implementation that it supports.
A model-free approach to probe motion artifacts suppression for in vivo imaging with probe oscillation shear wave elastography (PROSE)

Probe oscillation shear wave elastography (PROSE) can achieve high frame-rate two-dimensional (2D) shear wave elastography by utilizing a continuously vibrating ultrasound probe to simultaneously generate and detect shear waves (Mellema, IEEE TMI 0278-0062). Strategically detecting when the probe returns to the same physical location allowed the shear waves to be decoupled from probe motion artifacts; however, complicated wave patterns observed when imaging in vivo liver prevented full suppression of these artifacts. This work proposes Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) as a model-free approach to decouple probe motion artifacts from the shear wave signal.
New Insights on Cheetah Conservation through Demographic Modeling

Researchers have recently argued that ecological factors, especially high levels of cub predation, are more important than genetic impoverishment in limiting wild populations of the endangered cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). Despite considerable controversy, however, the forces actually driving cheetah population dynamics remain unclear. We used a combination of demographic techniques to investigate how variation in survival and reproduction might influence the population persistence of wild cheetahs. We parameterized our models using detailed demographic data from recently published, long‐term ecological projects on cheetahs of the Serengeti. Results suggest that the influence of juvenile survivorship on population growth rate is relatively small compared to the large effects of adult survivorship. This result is consistent across a range of vital rates and is robust to deviations due to sampling error and environmental variability. These conclusions cast a new light on the current cheetah controversy and, more generally, counsel caution in the interpretation of ecological data for conservation and management.
Brief Definitive Report Evidence for Hiv-associated B Cell Exhaustion in a Dysfunctional Memory B Cell Compartment in Hiv-infected Viremic Individuals

The typical course of HIV infection for a majority of untreated individuals is persistent viral replication and a gradual loss of CD4 + T cells. One of the consequences of ongoing HIV rep-lication is increased immune activation, aff ecting all major cell populations of the immune system (1 – 3). Within the B cell population, HIV infection has been associated with numerous perturbations (4), many of which have been attributed to changes in the distribution of B cell subpopulations found in the peripheral blood. These changes include increased frequencies of activated and terminally diff erentiated B cells expressing low levels of CD21 that have been associated with ongoing viral replication (5, 6), a decreased frequency of memory B cells that is not reversed by antiretroviral therapy (7), and an increased frequency of immature/transi-tional B cells that has been associated with CD4 + T cell lymphopenia (8, 9). The eff ects of immune activation in persistent viral infections have recently been shown to include virus-specifi c T cell exhaustion. After the original description in chronic lymphocyte choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection in mice (10), observations of virus-specifi c CD4 + and CD8 + T cell exhaustion have recently been extended to HIV-viremic individuals (11, 12). Although PD-1 was the fi rst inhibitory receptor associated with virus-specifi c T cell exhaustion, recent fi ndings suggest that exhaustion may result Human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV) disease leads to impaired B cell and antibody responses through mechanisms that remain poorly defi ned. A unique memory B cell subpopu-lation (CD20 hi /CD27 lo /CD21 lo) in human tonsillar tissues was recently defi ned by the expression of the inhibitory receptor Fc-receptor-like-4 (FCRL4). In this study, we describe a similar B cell subpopulation in the blood of HIV-viremic individuals. FCRL4 expression was increased on B cells of HIV-viremic compared with HIV-aviremic and HIV-negative individuals. It was enriched on B cells with a tissuelike memory phenotype (CD20 hi /CD27 ؊ /CD21 lo) when compared with B cells with a classical memory (CD27 +) or naive (CD27 ؊ /CD21 hi) B cell phenotype. Tissuelike memory B cells expressed patterns of homing and inhibitory receptors similar to those described for antigen-specifi c T cell exhaustion. The tissuelike memory B cells proliferated poorly in response to B cell stimuli, which is consistent with high-level expression of multiple inhibitory receptors. Immunoglobulin diversities and replication histories were lower in tissuelike, compared with classical, …
Taking stock of the African Wordnet project: 5 years of development

This paper reports on the development of the prototype African Wordnet (AWN) which currently includes four languages. The resource has been developed by translating Common Base Concepts from English, and currently holds roughly 42 000 synsets. We describe here how some language specific and technical challenges have been overcome and discuss efforts to localise the content of the wordnet and quality assurance methods. A comparison of the number of synsets per language is given before concluding with plans to fast-track the development and for dissemination of the resource.
Modeling and Querying Spatial Networks in Databases

Infrastructures like transportation, power, and pipeline networks which are characterized by a spatial embedding are known as spatial networks. Spatial networks are ubiquitous in our everyday life and used in transport, navigation, and city planning as well as in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and other geo-spatial applications. The largely increasing amount of generated data about spatial networks can only be efficiently stored and analyzed in a database system. However database support for large spatial networks in order to represent, store, query, and manipulate them is rare. This article aims to provide a conceptual, abstract, and formal model of spatial networks, called Spatial Network Algebra (SNA). It includes data types, operations, and predicates and serves as a specification for their later implementation in spatial database systems and GIS. Finally, we show how our spatial network concepts can be embedded into an SQL-like query language.
Nanowelded Carbon Nanotubes: From Field-Effect Transistors to Solar Microcells

Carbon Nanotube Structure, Electronic, and Transport Properties. - Synthesis and Purification of Carbon Nanotubes. - Directed Alignment of Carbon Nanotubes. - Ultrasonic Nanowelding Technology Between Carbon Nanotubes and Metal Electrodes. - Nanowelded Multichannel Carbon-Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors (MC-CNTFETs). - Carbon-Nanotube Solar Photovoltaic Microcells with Nanowelded Contacts.
A Trellis-Based Recursive Maximum-Likelihood Decoding Algorithm for Binary Linear Block Codes

This paper presents an efficient trellis-based maximum-likelihood decoding algorithm for binary linear block codes. This algorithm is recursive in nature and is devised based on the structural properties and optimum sectionalization of a code trellis. The complexity of the proposed decoding algorithm is analyzed. Numerical results show that the proposed decoding algorithm significantly reduces the decoding complexity. A recursive method for finding the optimum sectionalization of a trellis in terms of computational complexity is given.
Determination of the Minimum Depth of Cut in Nanometric Machining Using Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The Minimum Depth of Cut (MDC) is a major limiting factor on achievable accuracy in nanomachining, because the generated surface roughness is primarily attributed to the ploughing process when the uncut chip thickness is less than the MDC. This paper presents an evaluation of a cutting process where a sharp diamond tool with an edge radius of few atoms acts on a crystalline copper workpiece. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results show the phenomena of rubbing, ploughing and cutting. The formation of chip occurred from the depth of cut thickness of 1-1.5nm.
WD Repeat Protein WDR48 in Complex with Deubiquitinase USP12 Suppresses Akt-dependent Cell Survival Signaling by Stabilizing PH Domain Leucine-rich Repeat Protein Phosphatase 1 (PHLPP1)*

Background: PHLPP1 is a tumor suppressor phosphatase. Results: WDR48 in complex with USP12 controls cell survival signaling by deubiquitinating PHLPP1. Conclusion: WDR48 acts as a potential tumor suppressor by positively regulating PHLPP1 stability. Significance: WDR48 was identified as novel PHLPP1 regulator, which is critical in understanding its role as tumor suppressor in human cancers. PHLPP1 (PH domain leucine-rich repeat protein phosphatase 1) is a protein-serine/threonine phosphatase and a negative regulator of the PI3-kinase/Akt pathway. Although its function as a suppressor of tumor cell growth has been established, the mechanism of its regulation is not completely understood. In this study, by utilizing the tandem affinity purification approach we have identified WDR48 and USP12 as novel PHLPP1-associated proteins. The WDR48·USP12 complex deubiquitinates PHLPP1 and thereby enhances its protein stability. Similar to PHLPP1 function, WDR48 and USP12 negatively regulate Akt activation and thus promote cellular apoptosis. Functionally, we show that WDR48 and USP12 suppress proliferation of tumor cells. Importantly, we found a WDR48 somatic mutation (L580F) that is defective in stabilizing PHLPP1 in colorectal cancers, supporting a WDR48 role in tumor suppression. Together, our results reveal WDR48 and USP12 as novel PHLPP1 regulators and potential suppressors of tumor cell survival.
Gait Measures as Predictors of Poststroke Cognitive Function: Evidence From the TABASCO Study

Background and Purpose— Patients with stroke are at risk for developing cognitive impairment. We tested whether the assessment of balance and gait can enhance the prediction of long-term cognitive outcome in stroke survivors. Methods— Participants were patients with first-ever, mild-moderate ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack from the Tel Aviv Brain Acute Stroke Cohort (TABASCO) study, a large prospective cohort study, who underwent 3-T MRI and were followed for ≥2 years using neurological, neuropsychological, and mobility examinations 6, 12, and 24 months after the index event. Results— Data were available for 298 patients (age: 66.7±9.6 years). Forty-six participants (15.4%) developed cognitive decline (CD) over the 2 years of follow-up. The CD group and cognitively intact group did not differ in their neurological deficits or in their infarct volume or location. Nonetheless, 6 months after stroke, the Timed Up and Go test took longer in those who later developed CD (P<0.001). Additionally, the CD group also had lower Berg Balance Scale scores (P<0.001), slower gait (P<0.001), and fewer correct answers during dual-task walking (P=0.006). Separate analyses of the patients with transient ischemic attack revealed similar results. Multivariate regression analysis showed that Timed Up and Go times >12 s at 6 months after stroke/transient ischemic attack was a significant independent risk marker of CD 24 months after stroke (odds ratio=6.07, 95% confidence interval: 1.36–27.15). Conclusions— These results suggest that measures of balance and gait are significant risk markers of cognitive status 2 years after stroke. Relatively simple, performance-based tests of mobility may enhance the identification of stroke/transient ischemic attack survivors who have an increased risk of developing CD. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT01926691.
Novel velocity and call duration support for QoS provision in mobile wireless networks

This article presents a novel mobility-based resource reservation and call admission control scheme that is applicable to any real wireless multimedia network. The scheme exploits three key mobility parameters - the position, direction, and speed of a mobile unit - together with the duration of a particular call to accurately estimate the cell visiting probability in order to identify a shadow cluster of cells the unit is most likely to visit. Each cell in the cluster reserves resources for an estimated time interval, which is adapted depending on the aggregated probability of all active units visiting a particular cell. Simulation results confirm the superiority of the new scheme over the existing predictive mobility support scheme in terms of three QoS parameters: call blocking rate, call dropping rate, and channel utilization.
Stretching BFT

State-of-the-art BFT protocols remain far from the maximum theoretical throughput. Based on exhaustive evaluation and monitoring of existing BFT protocols, we highlight few impediments to their scaling. These include the use of IP multicast, the presence of bottlenecks due to asymmetric replica processing, and an unbalanced network bandwidth utilization. To better evaluate the actual impact of these scalability impediments, we devised Ring, a new BFT protocol, which circumvents them. As its name suggests, Ring uses a ring communication topology, where, in the fault-free case, each replica only performs point-to-point communications with two other replicas, namely its neighbors on the ring. Moreover, all replicas equally accept requests from clients and perform symmetric processing. Our experiments show that on a Fast Ethernet network Ring achieves an aggregate throughput of 118 Mbps, which is 27% higher than most efficient state-of-the-art BFT protocols. Ring approaches but does not reach the throughput theoretical maximum. Yet, its very performance makes it possible to envision a new generation of BFT protocols that might reach the actual theoretical maximum. Keywords-BFT protocol, fault-tolerance, throughput