Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prostate Cancer Prevention: Do the 5-ARIs Make the Grade?

Although imperfect, PSA testing is here to stay. Men who undergo PSA testing should do so with an understanding of the potential benefits (decreased prostate cancer mortality) and known risks (increased likelihood of being diagnosed with prostate cancer) of screening. The diagnosis of prostate cancer often leads to radical therapy in men who would never have known they had the disease if not for early detection. Although it is possible that 5-ARIs may occasionally cause a high-grade prostate cancer, the magnitude of this potential harm is likely to be tempered by earlier detection. Also balancing this potential harm is the well-established fact that the 5-ARIs decrease the likelihood that a man who desires PSA testing will become a prostate cancer patient. These are admittedly difficult risk–risk calculations. However, to suggest that only “unambiguously safe” drugs should be approved for cancer risk reduction sets a standard that can only be met by homeopathic nostrums. That is not the standard to which we should aspire.
Helicobacter pylori, pepsinogen, and gastric adenocarcinoma in Hawaii.

BACKGROUND The objective was to investigate the association of Helicobacter pylori and serum pepsinogen (PG) levels with gastric adenocarcinoma. METHODS Serum obtained from 299 patients at the time of cancer diagnosis and from 336 population-based control subjects was tested for PG I, PG II, and antibodies to H. pylori and to CagA. RESULTS Subjects with low PG I levels or low PG I/II ratios were at increased risk for cardia and noncardia gastric cancer, whereas those with H. pylori or CagA seropositivity had an elevated risk for noncardia cancer only. Subjects seropositive for either H. pylori or CagA who had low PG I levels had the highest odds ratio (OR) (9.21 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 4.95-17.13]) for noncardia cancer, compared with subjects with neither factor. Elevated risks were also found among subjects with only 1 factor (OR, 5.40 [95% CI, 2.61-11.20] for low PG I level only; OR, 4.86 [95% CI, 5.90-8.13] for H. pylori or CagA seropositivity only). This pattern persisted when PG I/II ratio replaced PG I level and when CagA seropositivity alone replaced H. pylori immunoglobulin G or CagA seropositivity. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that persons with both H. pylori or CagA seropositivity and a low PG I level or PG I/II ratio are highly susceptible to development of noncardia gastric cancer.
Certificateless Signature with Strong Unforgeability in the Standard Model

Certificateless public-key systems (CL-PKS) were introduced to simultaneously solve two critical problems in public-key systems. One is the key escrow problem in ID-based public-key systems and the other is to eliminate the presence of certificates in conventional public-key systems. In the last decade, several certificateless signature (CLS) schemes have been proposed in the ran- dom oracle model. These CLS schemes possess existential unforgeability against adaptive chosen- message attacks, and only few of them possess strong unforgeability. A CLS scheme with strong unforgeability plays an important role in the construction of certificateless cryptographic schemes. Unfortunately, all the existing CLS schemes in the standard model (without random oracles) have been shown insecure to provide existential unforgeability under a generally adopted security model. In the article, we propose a strongly secure CLS scheme in the standard model under the generally adopted security model. Our scheme possesses not only existential unforgeability but also strong unforgeability, and turns out to be the first strongly secure CLS scheme in the standard model. Un- der the collision resistant hash (CRH) and computational Diffie-Hellman (CDH) assumptions, we prove that our CLS scheme possesses strong unforgeability against both Type I (outsiders) and Type II (key generation center) adversaries.
A joint frequency offset estimation algorithm based on training symbol and virtual subcarriers for CO-OFDM systems

In this paper, we propose a joint method of frequency offset estimation based on training symbol and virtual subcarriers for coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(CO-OFDM) system. In the proposed method, the integer frequency offset is estimated through subtraction between the mode got form the first data subcarriers' position in OFDM symbols and the number of virtual subcarriers inserted in each side of the OFDM symbol, in which the first subcarrier's position can be found at the maximum slope of the fitting curve to virtual subcarriers; While the fractional frequency offset is estimated by periodic characteristic of the training symbol. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the estimation accuracy is improved by the proposed method in the additive white Gaussian noise(AWGN) and the dispersive channel. Simultaneously, estimation range of the proposed algorithm is about [-5GHz, +5GHz], satisfying the practical application requirement, and when the optical signal-to-noise ratio(OSNR) is low, it can still operate properly.
From mild cognitive impairment to subjective cognitive decline: conceptual and methodological evolution

Identification of subjects at the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is fundamental for drug development and possible intervention or prevention of cognitive decline. The concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) evolved during the past two decades to define subjects at the transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. Evidence from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies has shown that MCI is associated with an increased risk of positive AD biomarkers and an increased annual conversion rate of 5%–17% to AD. The presence of AD biomarkers in subjects with MCI was associated with an even higher risk of progression to dementia. However, earlier clinical trials for pharmacotherapy in subjects with MCI were disappointing. To extend the spectrum of AD to an earlier stage before MCI, subjective cognitive decline (SCD) was introduced and was defined as self-reported cognitive decline before the deficits could be detected by cognitive tests. Subjects with SCD have an increased risk of underlying AD pathology. However, SCD can also develop secondary to other heterogeneous etiologies, including other neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases, personality traits, physical conditions, and medication use. Several clinical and biomarker features were proposed to predict risk of conversion to AD in subjects with SCD. Further longitudinal studies are needed to support the validity of these high-risk features.
Semidefinite Hankel-Type Model Reduction Based on Frequency Response Matching

This technical note is dedicated to model order reduction of linear time-invariant systems. The main contribution of this technical note is the derivation of two scalable stability-preserving model reduction algorithms. Both algorithms constitute a development of a recently proposed model reduction method. The algorithms perform a curve fitting procedure using frequency response samples of a model and semidefinite programming methods. Computation of these samples can be done efficiently even for large scale models. Both algorithms are obtained from a reformulation of the model reduction problem. One proposes a semidefinite relaxation, while the other is an iterative semidefinite approach. The relaxation approach is similar to Hankel model reduction, which is a well-known and established method in the control literature. Due to this resemblance, the accuracy of approximation is also similar to the one of Hankel model reduction. An appealing quality of the proposed algorithms is the ability to easily perform extensions, e.g., introduce frequency-weighting, positive-real and bounded-real constraints.
Baseline Trachoma Surveys in Kaskazini A and Micheweni Districts of Zanzibar: Results of Two Population-Based Prevalence Surveys Conducted with the Global Trachoma Mapping Project

ABSTRACT Purpose: Based on health care records and trachoma rapid assessments, trachoma was suspected to be endemic in Kaskazini A and Micheweni districts of Zanzibar. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of trachomatous inflammation–follicular (TF), and trachomatous trichiasis (TT) in each of those districts. Methods: The survey was undertaken in Kaskazini A and Micheweni districts on Unguja and Pemba Islands, respectively. A multi-stage cluster random sampling design was applied, whereby 25 census enumeration areas (clusters) and 30 households per cluster were included. Consenting eligible participants (children aged 1–9 years and people aged 15 years and older) were examined for trachoma using the World Health Organization simplified grading system. Results: A total of 1673 households were surveyed and 6407 participants (98.0% of those enumerated) were examined for trachoma. Examinees included a total of 2825 children aged 1–9 years and 3582 people aged 15 years and older. TF prevalence in 1–9-year-olds was 2.7% (95% confidence interval, CI, 2.7–4.1%) in Kazkazini A and 11.4% (95% CI 6.6–16.5%) in Micheweni. Among people aged 15 years and older, TT prevalence was 0.01% (95% CI 0.00–0.04%) in Kazkazini A and 0.21% (95% CI 0.08–0.39%) in Micheweni. Conclusion: Trachoma is a public health problem in Micheweni district, where implementation of all four components of the SAFE strategy (surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness, and environmental improvement), including mass drug administration with azithromycin, is required. These findings will facilitate planning for trachoma elimination.
Prosody and Automatic Speech Recognition —-Why not yet a Success Story and where to go from here

We describe the different linguistic and paralinguistic fu nctions of prosody, show how features can be computed that describe the prosodic marking of these functions, and how this knowledge can be used in an automatic speech understanding system . This is done in the context of the speech–to–speech translat ion system Verbmobil, where prosody is used to segment the user utterance and to find self repairs. We then go on to discuss, wh y most speech processing systems do not use prosodic information and end by showing some new trends in prosody research, namely the classification of emotion and the classification o f “offtalk” (speaking aside).
Distributed image file system based on human cognition

Big Data era is characterized by the explosive increase of image files on the Internet, massive image files bring great challenges to storage. It is required not only the storage efficiency of massive image files but also the accuracy and robustness of massive image file management and retrieval. To meet these requirements, distributed image file storage system based on cognition is proposed. According to the human brain function, humans can correlate image files with thousands of distinct object and action categories and sorted store these files. Thus we proposed to sorted store image files according to different visual categories based on human cognition. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed distributed image file system (DIFS) based on cognition performs better than Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS).
Epicatechin selectively prevents nitration but not oxidation reactions of peroxynitrite.

The flavanol (-)-epicatechin has been found to protect against damage inflicted by peroxynitrite, an inflammatory intermediate. Here, epicatechin was tested in systems of increasing complexity. The compound efficiently protected against nitration of protein tyrosine residues by peroxynitrite (IC(50) approximately 0.02 mol epicatechin/mol peroxynitrite). However, at epicatechin concentrations completely preventing nitration of tyrosine by peroxynitrite, protection against the oxidative inactivation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase or soybean lipoxygenase-1 was marginal (IC(50) > 1 mol epicatechin/mol peroxynitrite), approximately two orders of magnitude less. Likewise, epicatechin was relatively ineffective against oxidation of thiols in cell lysates, and against the oxidation of 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein in cultured cells. The activation of the kinases Akt/protein kinase B, ERK1/2 and p38-MAPK by peroxynitrite in murine aorta endothelial cells was not altered by epicatechin, suggesting that activation of these kinases is due to processes other than tyrosine nitration.
Applying Word Pair Model to the Chinese Syllable-to-Word Problem

Syllable-to-word (STW) conversion is a main task of Chinese Language Processing and a fundamental to syllable/speech understanding. The two major problems of STW conversion are syllable-word segmentation and homophone selection. This paper presents a word pair model (WPM) that can effectively perform homophone selection and syllable-word segmentation to improve Chinese input systems. The STW experimental results show that: (1) the WPM is able to achieve tonal (syllables input with four tones) and toneless (syllables input without four tones) STW accuracies of 99% and 93%, respectively, among the converted words; (2) the WPM is able to cover 97% (in average) tonal and toneless STW conversions of poly-syllabic words for the testing syllables; and (3) while applying the WPM as an adaptation processing, together with the Microsoft Input Method Editor 2003 (MSIME) and an optimized bigram model (BiGram), the average tonal and toneless STW improvements are 33% and 31%, respectively.
Randomized, controlled trial of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil versus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and fluorouracil with and without tamoxifen for high-risk, node-negative breast cancer: treatment results of Intergroup Protocol INT-0102.

PURPOSE We evaluated the efficacy of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF) versus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and fluorouracil (CAF) in node-negative breast cancer patients with and without tamoxifen (TAM), overall and by hormone receptor (HR) status. PATIENTS AND METHODS Node-negative patients identified by tumor size (> 2 cm), negative HR, or high S-phase fraction (n = 2,690) were randomly assigned to CMF, CAF, CMF + TAM (CMFT), or CAF + TAM (CAFT). Cox regression evaluated overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) for CAF versus CMF and TAM versus no TAM separately. Two-sided CIs and one-sided P values for planned comparisons were calculated. RESULTS Ten-year estimates indicated that CAF was not significantly better than CMF (P = .13) for the primary outcome of DFS (77% v 75%; HR = 1.09; 95% CI, 0.94 to 1.27). CAF had slightly better OS than CMF (85% v 82%, HR = 1.19 for CMF v CAF; 95% CI, 0.99 to 1.43); values were statistically significant in the planned one-sided test (P = .03). Toxicity was greater with CAF and did not increase with TAM. Overall, TAM had no benefit (DFS, P = .16; OS, P = .37), but the TAM effect differed by HR groups. For HR-positive patients, TAM was beneficial (DFS, HR = 1.32 for no TAM v TAM; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.61; P = .003; OS, HR = 1.26; 95% CI, 0.99 to 1.61; P = .03), but not for HR-negative patients (DFS, HR = 0.81 for no TAM v TAM; 95% CI, 0.64 to 1.03; OS, HR = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.60 to 1.05). CONCLUSION CAF did not improve DFS compared with CMF; there was a slight effect on OS. Given greater toxicity, we cannot conclude CAF to be superior to CMF. TAM is effective in HR-positive disease, but not in HR-negative disease.
Into turbulent air: size-dependent effects of von Kármán vortex streets on hummingbird flight kinematics and energetics

Animal fliers frequently move through a variety of perturbed flows during their daily aerial routines. However, the extent to which these perturbations influence flight control and energetic expenditure is essentially unknown. Here, we evaluate the kinematic and metabolic consequences of flight within variably sized vortex shedding flows using five Anna's hummingbirds feeding from an artificial flower in steady control flow and within vortex wakes produced behind vertical cylinders. Tests were conducted at three horizontal airspeeds (3, 6 and 9 m s−1) and using three different wake-generating cylinders (with diameters equal to 38, 77 and 173% of birds' wing length). Only minimal effects on wing and body kinematics were demonstrated for flight behind the smallest cylinder, whereas flight behind the medium-sized cylinder resulted in significant increases in the variances of wingbeat frequency, and variances of body orientation, especially at higher airspeeds. Metabolic rate was, however, unchanged relative to that of unperturbed flight. Hummingbirds flying within the vortex street behind the largest cylinder exhibited highest increases in variances of wingbeat frequency, and of body roll, pitch and yaw amplitudes at all measured airspeeds. Impressively, metabolic rate under this last condition increased by up to 25% compared with control flights. Cylinder wakes sufficiently large to interact with both wings can thus strongly affect stability in flight, eliciting compensatory kinematic changes with a consequent increase in flight metabolic costs. Our findings suggest that vortical flows frequently encountered by aerial taxa in diverse environments may impose substantial energetic costs.
Optimizing Xen inter-domain data transfer

The delivery of data to computing ressources in a short time is a crucial issue for the effectiveness of High Performance Computing. We meet this issue when, for example, designing drivers for virtual machines. We developped two tools to speed up data transfers between Xen virtual machines. The first one is a circular buffer shared in user memory space between the two communicating domains and allowing transfers without copy. The second pins pages in memory and transfers their Machine Frame Number (MFN), significantly reducing the transfered data volume. This paper briefly unveils the architecture of our tools and compare them with TCP sockets and XenSocket, a circular buffer in kernel memory space.
Enforcing scalable and dynamic hierarchical access control in cloud computing

In cloud computing, the sensitive data are required to be encrypted before being outsourced to the server, which introduce a heavy computation overhead for key derivation and data management when dynamic hierarchical access control is desired. In this paper, we address this challenging problem by delegating the computation intensive task, such as data re-encryption, key distribution and derivation to cloud servers. Only bilinear pairing and random padding are used in our construction. Extensive analysis shows that the proposed scheme achieves scalability and dynamic simultaneously, and is proved to be secure formally.
Executive functioning and overt/covert patterns of conduct disorder symptoms in children with ADHD

Title of Document: EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS AND OVERT/COVERT PATTERNS OF CONDUCT DISORDER SYMPTOMS IN CHILDREN WITH ADHD. Tana L. Clarke, PhD, 2009 Directed By: Associate Professor Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, PhD, Department of Psychology There are inconsistencies in findings exploring the relationship between executive functions (EF), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and conduct disorder (CD) symptoms in children in adolescents. In order to reconcile conflicting results in the existing literature, it is necessary to consider more carefully how these constructs are measured and the theory underlying any expected associations. The proposed study examined the EF correlates of overt and covert CD symptoms in a high-risk sample of 6-14 year old children with ADHD and varying levels of conduct problems. Several aspects of EF were examined, including shifting, working memory, behavioral inhibition, and interference control, to examine their relationship to both ADHD and overt and covert conduct problems. It was expected, after ADHD was accounted for, that deficits in behavioral inhibition and working memory would be related to both overt and covert CD symptoms, whereas deficits in shifting and interference control would be uniquely related to overt CD symptoms. Set shifting abilities were found to be significantly lower in children with cooccurring ADHD and CD in comparison to children with ADHD-only. Results failed to find consistent evidence for differential relationships between individual overt and covert behaviors and domains of EF, but an interaction between set shifting and interference control did significantly predict overt, but not covert symptoms. Potential reasons for these findings, as well as future directions for research are discussed. EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING AND OVERT/COVERT PATTERNS OF CONDUCT DISORDER SYMPTOMS IN CHILDREN WITH ADHD
Slow Fluctuations in Attentional Control of Sensory Cortex

Top–down control of visual sensory cortex has long been tied to the orienting of visual spatial attention on a rapid, moment-to-moment basis. Here, we examined whether sensory responses in visual cortex are also modulated by natural and comparatively slower fluctuations in whether or not one is paying attention to the task at hand. Participants performed a simple visual discrimination task at fixation as the ERPs to task-irrelevant probes in the upper visual periphery were recorded. At random intervals, participants were stopped and asked to report on their attentional state at the time of stoppage—either “on-task” or “off-task. ” ERPs to the probes immediately preceding these subjective reports were then examined as a function of whether attention was in an on-task versus off-task state. We found that sensory-evoked responses to the probes were significantly attenuated during off-task relative to on-task states, as measured by the visual P1 ERP component. In two additional experiments, we replicated this effect while (1) finding that off-task sensory attenuation extends to the auditory domain, as measured by the auditory N1 ERP component, and (2) eliminating state-dependent shifts in general arousal as a possible explanation for the effects. Collectively, our findings suggest that sensory gain control in cortex is yoked to the natural ebb and flow in how much attention we pay to the current task over time.
SURGERY OF THE COLON AND RECTUM

:recent work of Hochstetter, while the chapters on the meuron, neuroglia and histogenesis are excellent; the figures . Illustrattng cross-sections of the medulla oblongata, pons . and midbrain are also good, and compare favourably with those of other similar text-books. In general criticism, . some minor defects are noted, namely, that the autonomic . nervous system could be more fully treated, especially with regard to visceral afferent pathways, that recent work on 'the dermatomes, so important in intervertebral disk and . spfnal cord work, has not been incorporated, that tract overlap in the spinal cord might receive a little more emphasis, and that the treatment of the thalamic nuclei and their -connextons, and especially the optic pathway, could be improved. Also no mention is made of recent work on the relation of size to function in myelinated nerves, while the -controverstal statement is made that muscle spindles are -especfa.Ily abundant in the small muscles of the eyes (page 75). The cerebellum, especially its histology, is beautifully illustrated, while the chapters on the hypothalamus and cortex are excellent, the latter incorporating Lorente de No's and Bucy's recent work. In conclusion then, this work can be recommended to the medical student, or to the graduate studying for a higher degree, as a suitable alternative to other well-known works on neuroanatomy, although in our opinion those features indicated above need further . elaboratfon.