Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase II trial of tetrathiomolybdate in patients with advanced kidney cancer.

PURPOSE Tetrathiomolybdate (TM), a copper-lowering agent, has been shown in preclinical murine tumor models to be antiangiogenic. We evaluated the antitumor activity of TM in patients with advanced kidney cancer in a Phase II trial. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Fifteen patients with advanced kidney cancer were eligible to participate in this trial. TM was initiated p.o. at 40 mg three times a day with meals and 60 mg at bedtime to deplete copper. A target serum ceruloplasmin (CP) level of 5-15 mg/dl was defined as copper depletion. Doses of TM were reduced for grade 3-4 toxicity and to maintain a CP level in the target range. Once copper depletion was attained, patients underwent baseline tumor measurements and then again every 12 weeks for response assessment. Patients not exhibiting progressive disease at 12 weeks after copper depletion continued on treatment. Serum levels of Interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) were assayed pretreatment and at various time points on treatment. Dynamic contrast enhanced-magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) was performed on selected patients in an attempt to assess changes in tumor vascularity. RESULTS All of the patients rapidly became copper depleted. Thirteen patients were evaluable for response. No patient had a complete response or PR. Four patients (31%) had stable disease for at least 6 months during copper depletion (median, 34.5 weeks). TM was well tolerated, with dose reductions most commonly occurring for grade 3-4 granulocytopenia of short duration not associated with febrile episodes. Serum levels of IL-6, IL-8, VEGF, and bFGF did not correlate with clinical activity. Serial DCE-MRI was performed only in four patients, and a decrease in vascularity seemed to correlate with necrosis of a tumor mass associated with tumor growth. CONCLUSIONS TM is well tolerated and consistently depletes copper as measured by the serum CP level. Clinical activity was limited to stable disease for a median of 34.5 weeks in this Phase II trial in patients with advanced kidney cancer. Serum levels of proangiogenic factors IL-6, IL-8, VEGF, and bFGF may correlate with copper depletion but not with disease stability in this small cohort. TM may have a role in the treatment of kidney cancer in combination with other antiangiogenic therapies.
In vivo/ex vivo targeting of Langerhans cells after topical application of the immune response modifier TMX-202: confocal Raman microscopy and histology analysis

Abstract. The increased ability of TMX-202 (derivative of imiquimod) to penetrate the intact stratum corneum (SC) and the follicular orifices of porcine ear skin was shown ex vivo using confocal Raman microscopy and laser scanning microscopy. Moreover, to assess whether TMX-202 is able to reach the immune cells, Langerhans cells extracted from pretreated human skin were investigated ex vivo using confocal Raman microscopy combined with multivariate statistical methods. Tracking the Raman peak of dimethyl sulfoxide centered at 690 cm−1, the absorption of TMX-202 containing formulation by Langerhans cells was shown. To answer the question whether the TMX-202 active ingredient is able to reach Langerhans cells, the attraction of immune cells to TMX-202 containing formulation treated skin was measured in the in vivo rodent model Mastomys coucha. The results show that TMX-202 active ingredient is able to reach Langerhans cells after penetrating through the intact skin and subsequently attract immune cells. Both the intercellular/transcellular as well as the follicular pathways allow the penetration through the intact barrier of the SC.
A Study of Joint Hypermobility in School Children of Rawalpindi / Islamabad , Pakistan : Prevalence and Symptomatic Features

Aim: To find out the percentage prevalence of HMS and it correlation with different aspects including family history, dietary status and socio-economic status Methods: The Hypermobility Syndrome (HMS) is considered as a benign condition in which joints mobility is beyond the normal range. The syndrome is identified by a variety of names and is maximum at birth than in adult life. Women generally have more lax joints than men at all ages. It is a common familial condition which results from genetic variations in connective tissue matrix, associated with common rheumatic disorders. It is aggregation of varieties of articular and extra-articular abnormalities depending on age, race and ethnicity. Hypermobility appears to decrease with advancing age and may present as symptomatic or asymptomatic condition. Results: The data was collected from students of a private school at Rawalpindi city using goinometer. Data was analyzed by using statistical system (Percentage Method and Chi Square). It was observed that 30.8 percent students between 8 to 17 years of age were hypermobile. Although both the genders were seen to be hypermobile but its percentage was higher in females than in males. Other nonspecific conditions noticed in HMS patients included headache, breathing problems, Flat Feet, Diabetes Mellitus, joint and Heart diseases.
Competitive vehicle routing problem projects with time windows and stochastic demands

The vehicle routing problem is one of the most impo rtant issues in transportation. Among these issues, competitive VRP is one of the n ew concepts that have attracted the attention of many researchers. In thi s study we introduced a new method for competitive VRP. In this method three ti me boundaries are given and the probability of arrival time between each time b ound is assumed to be 1/3. Based on this information, demands of each customer will differ in each time window. Therefore, the revenue given in each time w indow is different. In this paper we consider a project with two companies in a city with eight customers and the best routing with maximum revenue is determ ined.
A Sub-policy Pruning Method for Meta Learning Shared Hierarchies

Meta Learning Shared Hierarchies(MLSH) is a example of Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning.n Assuming some task distribution and reusing the knowledge learned on the preceding tasks, it aims to rapidly adjust to new tasks. It divides the policy into several sub-policies and master policy which choose one of the sub-policies, expecting each sub-policy is responsible for each sub-goal in the task. One of the drawbacks of this approach is that, in general, it is not possible know the number of sub-goals in unseen task distribution, hence, the number of sub-policies. With improper number of sub-policies, the performance of MLSH is degraded. To solve this problem, we propose a method to locate the proper number of sub-policies by pruning excessive sub-policies. The proposed method save resources and reduce the time the algorithm to converge. We test the method using 2D-bandit problem and demonstrate the effectiveness.
Reduction of Dental Decay in Rampant Caries Individuals Following Short-Term Kanamycin Treatment

A week of kanamycin gel treatment before and after the placement of dental restorations, compared to a placebo gel treatment, significantly reduced the levels of cultivable bacteria, S mutans and S sanguis, in the plaque samples collected immediately after the completion of the gel treatments, and was associated with a 46% reduction in new carious surfaces in the 14- to 37-month period following the gel treatment.
AUV Cable Tracking System Based on Electromagnetic and Video Data

Questions of autonomous underwater vehicle /AUV/ movement control during cable inspection are considered in this paper. Mostly problematic stage of inspection is cable tracking. To solve this problem AUV should have reliable detection systems for cable recognition. Video imaging complex and electromagnetic searcher can be used for these purposes. Video imaging complex not always allows obtaining reliable data for cable recognition. Electromagnetic searcher (designed in the Institute of Marine Technology Problems can recognize metallic lengthy object during mutually crossing movement. Developed data integration system from these two subsystems allows increasing cable detection probability and quality of AUV movement along the inspection object. The devices description, data processing and AUV motion control on the basis of electromagnetic and video data are considered in this paper.
Overexpression of nreB, a New GATA Factor-encoding Gene of Penicillium chrysogenum, Leads to Repression of the Nitrate Assimilatory Gene Cluster*

To investigate the mechanism of nitrogen metabolite repression in the biotechnologically important fungusPenicillium chrysogenum a polymerase chain reaction approach was employed to identify transcription factors involved in this regulatory circuit, leading to the isolation of a new gene (nreB) encoding a 298 amino acid protein. Despite a low overall amino acid sequence identity of approximately 30%, it shares several features with Dal80p/Uga43p and Gzf3p/Nil2p, both repressors in nitrogen metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. All three proteins contain an N-terminal GATA-type zinc finger motif, displaying 86% amino acid sequence identity, and a putative leucine zipper motif in the C terminus. Northern blot analysis revealed the presence of twonreB transcripts, 1.8 and 1.5 kilobases in length, that differ in polyadenylation sites. The steady state level of both transcripts is subject to nitrogen metabolite repression. The putative DNA binding domain of NREB, expressed as a fusion protein inEscherichia coli, binds in vitro to GATA sites of its own 5′-upstream region as well as in the promoter of the nitrate assimilation gene cluster. Consistent with a role in the regulation of nitrogen metabolism, overexpression of nreB leads to repression of nitrate assimilatory genes. Hence, the simple view of nitrogen regulation by four GATA factors in yeast, but only one key regulator in filamentous ascomycetes seems no longer valid.
Relatives’ experiences of family members’ eating difficulties

Patients with stroke or traumatic injury often suffer from eating disorders. This study describes relatives’ experiences of their next of kin's eating and swallowing disorders. A strategic sample was obtained, and nine informants were interviewed. Using a constant comparative approach for data analysis, three themes emerged: provider for health and well-being, sensitive attitudes about the next of kin's changed appearance, and adaptation to the new situation. The informants’ roles included qualities of caring and concern. Food preparation was crucial, with more time spent on cooking than previously. Combined with circumstantial eating, it dominated the working hours. The informants expressed emotional reactions to eating behaviour. In particular the loss of good, proper eating and affinity during meals left them feeling sad. Strategies such as dinner arrangements and shared responsibility guided the informants in adapting to a new situation. In clinical practice it is important to support informal caregivers, to provide adequate information, and to share responsibility. In occupational therapy one intervention could be to help clients find a balance in activities of work, leisure, and rest.
A decomposition approach to CPM

It is shown that any continuous-phase-modulation (CPM) system can be decomposed into a continuous-phase encoder and a memoryless modulator in such a way that the former is a linear (modulo some integer P) time-invariant sequential circuit and the latter is also time invariant. This decomposition is exploited to obtain alternative realizations of the continuous-phase encoder (and hence of CPM) and also to obtain alternative forms of the optimum decoding algorithm. When P is a prime p so that the encoder is linear over the finite field GF(p), it is shown that cascading it with an outside convolutional encoder is equivalent to a single convolutional encoder. It is pointed out that the cascade of the modulator, the waveform channel (which it is assumed is characterized by additive white Gaussian noise), and the demodulator that operates over one symbol interval yield a discrete memoryless channel that can be studied without the distractions introduced by continuous-phase encoding. >
Desktop-Gluey: Augmenting Desktop Environments with Wearable Devices

Upcoming consumer-ready head-worn displays (HWDs) can play a central role in unifying the interaction experience in Distributed display environments (DDEs). We recently implemented Gluey, a HWD system that 'glues' together the input mechanisms across a display ecosystem to facilitate content migration and seamless interaction across multiple, co-located devices. Gluey can minimize device switching costs, opening new possibilities and scenarios for multi-device interaction. In this paper, we propose Desktop-Gluey, a system to augment situated desktop environments, allowing users to extend the physical displays in their environment, organize information in spatial layouts, and 'carry' desktop content with them. We extend this metaphor beyond the desktop to provide 'anywhere and anytime' support for mobile and collaborative interactions.
The use of cueing to alleviate recurrent verbal perseverations: Evidence from transcortical sensory aphasia

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that stimulus factors, including item frequency, presentation rate, stimulus repetition, and semantic relatedness, can influence the rate of recurrent verbal perseverations. These manipulations alter the balance of activation between current targets and past responses, suggesting that perseverations arise when the activation of a previously presented item overrides the weak processing of a new stimulus. By this view, cues and sentence contexts that bias inter‐item competition towards the target and away from earlier responses should dramatically reduce the frequency of perseverative errors. However, the influence of these factors on perseverations has not been previously investigated. Aims: To examine the effect on perseverative rate of altering the activational balance between past and present responses using both intrinsic and extrinsic stimulus manipulations. Methods & Procedures: This study examined repetition, reading, and picture naming in a highly perseverative patient with transcortical sensory aphasia. Outcomes & Results: The patient's strong perseverative tendencies were impervious to the stimulus factors listed above but he was able to overcome these errors to produce more correct responses when he was provided with phonemic, word, and sentence cues. These environmental constraints had a similar effect on perseverations in reading aloud and picture naming, although active repetition was necessary for a cue to benefit reading, whereas passively hearing the cue was sufficient to improve picture naming. Conclusions: This task difference is likely to reflect the greater reliance of picture naming on semantic processing, which will benefit from cues regardless of whether they are repeated. We propose that poor internal control of language production allowed perseverations to dominate our patient's output. External constraints in the form of cues/sentence contexts overcame this deficit, dramatically reducing the rate of perseverations.
Detection of left ventricular dysfunction after acute myocardial infarction: comparison of clinical, echocardiographic, and neurohormonal methods.

OBJECTIVE--The SAVE study showed that captopril improves mortality in patients with left ventricular dysfunction after myocardial infarction and that this benefit occurred even in patients with no clinically overt heart failure. On the basis of this, it seems important to identify correctly which patients have left ventricular dysfunction after a myocardial infarction. The objective was to compare various methods of identifying patients with left ventricular dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction, LVEF, < or = 40%) after acute myocardial infarction. The methods compared were echocardiography (quantitative and qualitative visual assessment), clinical evaluation (subjective assessment and three clinical score methods), and measurement of plasma concentrations of cardiac natriuretic peptide hormones (atrial and brain natriuretic peptides, ANP and BNP). DESIGN--Cross sectional study of left ventricular function in patients two to eight days after acute myocardial infarction. SETTING--Coronary care unit of a teaching hospital. PATIENTS--75 survivors of a recent myocardial infarction aged 40 to 88 with no history of cardiac failure and without cardiogenic shock at the time of entry to the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Sensitivities and specificities of the various methods of detecting left ventricular dysfunction were calculated by comparing them with a cross sectional echocardiographic algorithm for LVEF. RESULTS--Clinical impression was poor at identifying LVEF < 40% (sensitivity 46%). Clinical scoring improved this figure somewhat (modified Peel index sensitivity 64%). Qualitative visual assessment echocardiography was a more sensitive method (sensitivity 82%) for detecting LVEF < 40%. Plasma BNP concentration was also a sensitive measure for detecting left ventricular dysfunction (sensitivity 84%) but plasma ANP concentration was much poorer (sensitivity 64%). CONCLUSION--Left ventricular dysfunction is easily and reliably detected by echocardiographic measurement of LVEF and also by a quick qualitative echocardiographic assessment but is likely to be missed by clinical assessment alone. High concentrations of plasma BNP maybe another useful indicator of left ventricular dysfunction, particularly in hospitals where not all patients can be screened by echocardiography or radionuclide ventriculography after myocardial infarction.
Modeling the Relationship between Motivating Factors; Employee' Retention; and Job Satisfaction in the Nigerian Banking Industry

The concept of motivation in the field of management is as old as human race and it is seen as major strategy in managing employees. Organizations thrive to adopt various strategies in satisfying their employees in order to retain them and be relevant in the industry where they operate. This study explores the relationship between motivation (salary, promotion, incentives, award, relationships, & benefits); employee’ retention; and job satisfaction in the Nigerian banking industry. The survey method was adopted, and the primary data was obtained through the selfadministered questionnaire. The valid three hundred and seventy six (376) respondents were analyzed by AMOS 21. Structural equation model (SEM) analysis results shows that salary and promotion have strong positive implications for employee retention. Similarly, incentives and benefits also have positive effects on job satisfaction. While unexpectedly, award and relationships have negative effects on job satisfaction. This study tends to assist managers and decision makers in selecting the appropriate motivating factors in order to retain and satisfy their employees.
“Solvent Annealing” Effect in Polymer Solar Cells Based on Poly(3‐hexylthiophene) and Methanofullerenes

The self‐organization of the polymer in solar cells based on regioregular poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (RR‐P3HT):[6,6]‐phenyl C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) is studied systematically as a function of the spin‐coating time ts (varied from 20–80 s), which controls the solvent annealing time ta, the time taken by the solvent to dry after the spin‐coating process. These blend films are characterized by photoluminescence spectroscopy, UV‐vis absorption spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and grazing incidence X‐ray diffraction (GIXRD) measurements. The results indicate that the π‐conjugated structure of RR‐P3HT in the films is optimally developed when ta is greater than 1 min (ts ∼ 50 s). For ts < 50 s, both the short‐circuit current (JSC) and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the corresponding polymer solar cells show a plateau region, whereas for 50 < ts < 55 s, the JSC and PCE values are significantly decreased, suggesting that there is a major change in the ordering of the polymer in this time window. The PCE decreases from 3.6 % for a film with a highly ordered π‐conjugated structure of RR‐P3HT to 1.2 % for a less‐ordered film. GIXRD results confirm the change in the ordering of the polymer. In particular, the incident photon‐to‐electron conversion efficiency spectrum of the less‐ordered solar cell shows a clear loss in both the overall magnitude and the long‐wavelength response. The solvent annealing effect is also studied for devices with different concentrations of PCBM (PCBM concentrations ranging from 25 to 67 wt %). Under “solvent annealing” conditions, the polymer is seen to be ordered even at 67 wt % PCBM loading. The open‐circuit voltage (VOC) is also affected by the ordering of the polymer and the PCBM loading in the active layer.
Nonsmooth Speed-Gradient algorithms

The first step toward development a “nonsmooth” version of Speed-Gradient (SG) method is made. As a basis for formal approach the Hadamard subdifferential and set-valued analysis are chosen. Nonsmooth versions of SG-algorithm in differential and finite form are formulated. Conditions for the control goal achievement are proposed. The results are illustrated by an example of asymptotic minimization of the max-norm for a second order linear system.
Urban Traffic Congestion Evaluation Based on Kernel the Semi-Supervised Extreme Learning Machine

There is always an asymmetric phenomenon between traffic data quantity and unit information content. Labeled data is more effective but scarce, while unlabeled data is large but weaker in sample information. In an urban transportation assessment system, semi-supervised extreme learning machine (SSELM) can unite manual observed data and extensively collected data cooperatively to build connection between congestion condition and road information. In our method, semi-supervised learning can integrate both small-scale labeled data and large-scale unlabeled data, so that they can play their respective advantages, while the ELM can process large scale data at high speed. Optimized by kernel function, Kernel-SSELM can achieve higher classification accuracy and robustness than original SSELM. Both the experiment and the real-time application show that the evaluation system can precisely reflect the traffic condition.
Identification of resistance sources and evaluation of Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flacumfacceins inoculation methods in snap bean

The bacterial wilt of bean was first reported in Brazil in 1995, in Sao Paulo state and since then, this bacteria has also been identified in other states in Brazil. The disease is caused by Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens (Cff) and has become a serious problem in bean crop. The aims of this study were to evaluate the resistance of snap bean genotypes considering bacterial wilt and also to define the most accurate method to distinguish resistant and susceptible genotypes to Cff. Two experiments were carried out, one of them from December 2005 to February 2006, in a randomized block design, six replications and 39 treatments. The second experiment was carried out from May to July, 2006, in a randomized block design, with five replications, in a factorial arrangement (three inoculation methods x 11 genotypes), in order to compare three inoculation methods for Cff. The genotypes used in this test were the most resistant and susceptible according to the first experiment. The rates of evaluation were used to determine the area under disease progress curve (AUDPC). The genotypes Novirex, IAC Carioca Tybata and Amarelo Baixo were considered resistant. The toothpick inoculation method allowed an efficient discrimination among resistant and susceptible genotypes and it was also faster and easier to perform than the other methods.