Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resection versus no intervention or other surgical interventions for colorectal cancer liver metastases.

BACKGROUND About one in four of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer have metastases isolated to the liver, of which 10% to 25% are eligible for ablation of the liver metastases, improving the five year survival rate. Treatments include hepatic resection and other modalities using cryosurgery and radiofrequency thermal ablation. Although new modalities allow safe ablation of liver metastases without the need for surgical intervention, there are still no clear guidelines on the appropriate management of patients with colorectal cancer and hepatic metastases. OBJECTIVES The primary objectives were to compare resection of liver metastases to no intervention and other modalities of intervention (including cryosurgery and radiofrequency ablation) in terms of the benefits and harms for each intervention. SEARCH STRATEGY Searches were conducted of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE and EMBASE databases up to October 2006. In addition, references were scrutinized in identified eligible trials. SELECTION CRITERIA Only randomized controlled trials reporting patients (regardless of age and sex) who had had curative surgery for adenocarcinoma of the colon or rectum, had been diagnosed with liver metastases and who were eligible for liver resection (i.e. with no evidence of primary or metastatic cancer elsewhere) were considered. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two review authors independently extracted data using a form designed for this review. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus. MAIN RESULTS Only one trial involving 123 people (87 male 36 female) was included. The data from this ten year prospective, randomized clinical trial suggest that hepatic cryosurgery is effective in the treatment of resectable and nonresectable liver metastases. The results show intra-operative tumor reduction (>/=90% or </= 97%) and extended higher survival in these patients. The study indicated a five year and ten year survival rate of 44% and 19% after cryosurgery, respectively. However, it was not possible to separate out and unravel the outcomes data that related only to the participants (66.6%) with liver metastases from colorectal cancer as opposed to those with liver metastases from other primary tumors. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS There is currently insufficient evidence to support a single approach, either surgical or non-surgical, for the management of colorectal liver metastases. Therefore, treatment decisions should continue to be based on individual circumstances and clinician's experience. The authors conclude that local ablative therapies are probably useful, but that they need to be further evaluated in a randomized controlled trial.
Acoustic-Based Non-Destructive Estimation of Wood Quality Attributes within Standing Red Pine Trees

The relationship between acoustic velocity (vd) and the dynamic modulus of elasticity (me), wood density (wd), microfibril angle, tracheid wall thickness (wt,), radial and tangential diameters, fibre coarseness (co) and specific surface area (sa), within standing red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) trees, was investigated. The data acquisition phase involved 3 basic steps: (1) random selection of 54 sample trees from 2 intensively-managed 80-year-old plantations in central Canada; (2) attainment of cardinal-based vd measurements transecting the breast-height position on each sample tree; and (3) felling, sectioning and obtaining cross-sectional samples from the first 5.3 m sawlog from which Silviscan-based area-weighted mean attribute estimates were determined. The data analysis phase consisted of applying graphical and correlation analyses to specify regression models for each of the 8 attribute-acoustic velocity relationships. Results indicated that viable relationships were obtained for me, wd, wt, co and sa based on a set of statistical measures: goodness-of-fit (42%, 14%, 45%, 27% and 43% of the variability explained, respectively), lack-of-fit (unbiasedness) and predictive precision (±12%, ±8%, ±7%, ±8% and ±6% error tolerance intervals, respectively). Non-destructive approaches for estimating the prerequisite wd value when deploying the analytical framework were also empirically evaluated. Collectively, the proposed approach and associated results provide the foundation for the development of a comprehensive and precise end-product segregation strategy for use in red pine management.
Rapid and accurate identification of mycobacterium tuberculosis complex by simultaneous detection of 16S rRNA and IS6110 sequence in FFPE samples

Backgrounds: Conventional biochemical tests for Tuberculosis M. (MTB) identification are not only timeconsuming but also none applicable for Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) samples. In this study, we developed a rapid multiplex qPCR (M-qPCR) assay for identification of MTB, which was confirmed sensitive and specific for FFPE sample in conventional surgical pathology works. Materials and methods: A single-tube M-qPCR was designed to simultaneously detect tuberculosis specific 16S rRNA hypervariable region and IS6110 sequence in the tuberculosis genome. Short length of PCR products of 110 bp and 134 bp were designed for 16S rRNA and IS6110 respectively. The specificity of this assay for MTB was also confirmed by a discriminative panel for MTB from Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) combined with several other respiratory tract bacteria. Further we tested on 532 clinical FFPE samples which were suspected for infection with MTB. Results: The analytical sensitivity of our assay was 10 fg of purified mycobacterial DNA (estimated 4.6 fg each M. tuberculosis) and the specificity was found to be 100% in being able to distinguish from all the reference bacterials. For the clinical FFPE samples, our assay can increase about 10% sensitivity compared with Ziehl-Neeslen staining. Conclusion: This M-qPCR assay might be a quick, specific and cost-effective test for detecting of M. tuberculosis in conventional surgical pathology works.
DNA Promoter Methylation-dependent Transcription of the Double C2-like Domain β (DOC2B) Gene Regulates Tumor Growth in Human Cervical Cancer*

Background: DOC2B promoter hypermethylation is an early and frequent event in cervical cancer. Results: DOC2B hypermethylation induces transcriptional repression, reactivated by demethylation; ectopic expression increases Ca2+ flux and inhibits key characteristics of tumorigenesis including proliferation, motility, and invasion. Conclusion: DOC2B gene is epigenetically regulated and inhibits cervical cancer growth. Significance: DNA methylation regulates DOC2B gene expression in cervical cancer. Double C2-like domain β (DOC2B) gene encodes for a calcium-binding protein, which is involved in neurotransmitter release, sorting, and exocytosis. We have identified the promoter region of the DOC2B gene as hypermethylated in pre-malignant, malignant cervical tissues, and cervical cancer cell lines by methylation-sensitive dimethyl sulfoxide-polymerase chain reaction and bisulfite genome sequencing; whereas, it was unmethylated in normal cervical tissues (p < 0.05). The promoter hypermethylation was inversely associated with mRNA expression in SiHa, CaSki, and HeLa cells and treatment with demethylating agent 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine restored DOC2B expression. The region −630 to +25 bp of the DOC2B gene showed robust promoter activity by a luciferase reporter assay and was inhibited by in vitro artificial methylation with Sss1 methylase prior to transient transfections. Overexpression of the DOC2B gene in SiHa cells when compared with controls showed significantly reduced colony formation, cell proliferation, induced cell cycle arrest, and repressed cell migration and invasion (p < 0.05). Ectopic expression of DOC2B resulted in anoikis-mediated cell death and repressed tumor growth in a nude mice xenograft model (p < 0.05). DOC2B expressing cells showed a significant increase in intracellular calcium level (p < 0.05), impaired AKT1 and ERK1/2 signaling, and induced actin cytoskeleton remodeling. Our results show that promoter hypermethylation and silencing of the DOC2B gene is an early and frequent event during cervical carcinogenesis and whose reduced expression due to DNA promoter methylation may lead to selective cervical tumor growth.
New antibody drug treatments for lymphoma

Introduction: The advent of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb) rituximab heralded a new era in the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma leading to significant improvements in outcome for patients. This unprecedented success has changed the mindset of the clinical community and catalyzed the interest in the pharmaceutical industry to develop the next-generation of antibodies and antibody conjugates in cancer. Areas covered: There are an ever increasing number of newer generation anti-CD20 and rituximab ‘bio-similars’ undergoing early phase clinical development. In addition emerging novel therapies including antibody drug conjugates (brentuximab vedotin, SGN-35) and mAb against T-cell lymphomas antigens (e.g., zanolimumab) offer hope of improved outcome for other lymphomas. Bispecific T-cell-engaging antibodies and combination immunotherapy, also provide the promise of further improvements. Radiolabelled antibodies or radioimmunotherapy (RIT) has also demonstrated high clinical activity and two drugs namely 131I-tositumomab (Bexxar) and 90Y-ibritumomab (Zevalin) are licensed. Expert opinion: Despite the large numbers of new anti-CD20 mAb currently undergoing clinical testing, improving on clinical efficacy of rituximab is a substantial challenge. Further improvements in outcome for patients will require rigorous testing in well designed clinical trials alongside the translation of new insights into mechanism of mAb action that lead to improvements in clinical efficacy.
Comprehension of Subject and Object Relative Clauses in a Trilingual Acquisition Context

Chinese relative clauses (RCs) have word order properties that are distinctly rare across languages of the world; such properties provide a good testing ground to tease apart predictions regarding the relative complexity of subject and object RCs in acquisition and processing. This study considers these special word order properties in a multilingual acquisition context, examining how Cantonese(L1)-English(L2)-Mandarin(L3) trilingual children process RCs in two Chinese languages differing in exposure conditions. Studying in an English immersion international school, these trilinguals are also under intensive exposure to English. Comparisons of the trilinguals with their monolingual counterparts are made with a focus on the directionality of cross-linguistic influence. The study considers how various factors such as language exposure, structural overlaps in the target languages, typological distance, and language dominance can account for the linguistic abilities and vulnerabilities exhibited by a group of children in a trilingual acquisition context. Twenty-one trilingual 5- to 6-year-olds completed tests of subject- and object- RC comprehension in all three languages. Twenty-four age-matched Cantonese monolinguals and 24 age-matched Mandarin monolinguals served as comparison groups. Despite limited exposure to Mandarin, the trilinguals performed comparable to the monolinguals. Their Cantonese performance uniquely predicts their Mandarin performance, suggesting positive transfer from L1 Cantonese to L3 Mandarin. In Cantonese, however, despite extensive exposure from birth, the trilinguals comprehended object RCs significantly worse than the monolinguals. Error analyses suggested an English-based head-initial analysis, implying negative transfer from L2 English to L1 Cantonese. Overall, we identified a specific case of bi-directional influence between the first and second/third languages. The trilinguals experience facilitation in processing Mandarin RCs, because parallels and overlaps in both form and function provide a transparent basis for positive transfer from L1 Cantonese to L3 Mandarin. On the other hand, they experience more difficulty in processing object RCs in Cantonese compared to their monolingual peers, because structural overlaps with competing structures from English plus intensive exposure to English lead to negative transfer from L2 English to L1 Cantonese. The findings provide further evidence that head noun assignment in object RCs is especially vulnerable in multilingual Cantonese children when they are under intensive exposure to English.
China's new rural pension scheme: can it be improved?

Purpose – This paper aims to describe China's need for old‐age pension coverage in its rural areas, to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the new rural pension system currently being implemented, and to suggest some needed reforms.Design/methodology/approach – This paper's analysis is based largely on evidence from Chinese government documents, newspaper reports, and research reports including those discussing related programs in rural areas of other developing countries. This evidence is supplemented with a small number of interviews with government officials, Chinese academics, and farmers living in rural China.Findings – China has recently started a major effort to bring old‐age pension coverage to rural China. While it is too early to know how successful this effort will be, there are some structural issues that should be addressed. The paper's major conclusion is that the current funded accounts component needs to be supplemented with a modest social pension scheme.Originality/value – To date .
Direct Determination of Carbon and Nitrogen Contents of Natural Bacterial Assemblages in Marine Environments

ABSTRACT In order to better estimate bacterial biomass in marine environments, we developed a novel technique for direct measurement of carbon and nitrogen contents of natural bacterial assemblages. Bacterial cells were separated from phytoplankton and detritus with glass fiber and membrane filters (pore size, 0.8 μm) and then concentrated by tangential flow filtration. The concentrate was used for the determination of amounts of organic carbon and nitrogen by a high-temperature catalytic oxidation method, and after it was stained with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, cell abundance was determined by epifluorescence microscopy. We found that the average contents of carbon and nitrogen for oceanic bacterial assemblages were 12.4 ± 6.3 and 2.1 ± 1.1 fg cell−1 (mean ± standard deviation; n = 6), respectively. Corresponding values for coastal bacterial assemblages were 30.2 ± 12.3 fg of C cell−1 and 5.8 ± 1.5 fg of N cell−1(n = 5), significantly higher than those for oceanic bacteria (two-tailed Student’s t test; P< 0.03). There was no significant difference (P > 0.2) in the bacterial C:N ratio (atom atom−1) between oceanic (6.8 ± 1.2) and coastal (5.9 ± 1.1) assemblages. Our estimates support the previous proposition that bacteria contribute substantially to total biomass in marine environments, but they also suggest that the use of a single conversion factor for diverse marine environments can lead to large errors in assessing the role of bacteria in food webs and biogeochemical cycles. The use of a factor, 20 fg of C cell−1, which has been widely adopted in recent studies may result in the overestimation (by as much as 330%) of bacterial biomass in open oceans and in the underestimation (by as much as 40%) of bacterial biomass in coastal environments.
Fusão de dados em redes de sensores sem fio

Este trabalho oferece uma discussao geral sobre o tema de fusao de dados em redes de sensores sem fio (RSSFs) que permite: (i) a identificacao de problemas em aberto e (ii) o entendimento dos requisitos e implicacoes do uso de fusao de dados em RSSFs.Esta discussao e feita atraves de um levantamento bibliografico do estado-da-arte envolvendo fusao de dados em RSSFs. Analisando as arquiteturas, modelos e metodos de fusao de dados identificados neste levantamento bibliografico, e proposto um arcabouco (framework), chamado Diffuse, que compreende as principais funcoes eatividades de um processo generico de fusao de dados e uma API que implementa metodos de fusao frequentemente utilizados em RSSFs. O Diffuse e, portanto, uma ferramenta que permite ao projetista refletir e avaliar quais tipos e quais metodos de fusao de dados podem ser utilizados em sua solucao, e como especificamente estes metodos podem ser usados para compor uma tarefa ou uma aplicacao de fusao de dados. Embora o Diffuse possa ser aplicado em diferentes contextos, como prova de conceito, este trabalho mostra como o Diffuse pode ser usado para projetar uma solucao economica (em termos de consumo de energia) que ofereca um servico confiavel (tolerante a falhas) de roteamento. Os resultados aqui apresentados mostram que a abordagem proposta e capaz de reduzir o custo de comunicacao para prover tal servico. Em alguns casos, o trafego gerado por esta abordagem chega a ser 85% inferior ao trafego gerado por solucoes frequentemente utilizadas em RSSFs. Alem disso, este trabalho propoe uma estrategia de roteamento, baseada em atribuicao de papeis, para garantir a execucao de uma aplicacao de fusao de dados. Neste caso, baseando-se na premissa de que fusao de dados e utilizada pela aplicacao para deteccao de eventos, e proposto um algoritmo de atribuicao de papeis, chamado InFRA, que organiza a rede somente quando um evento e detectado. De maneira resumida, o InFRA e um algoritmo reativo de atribuicao de papeis que procura pelas menores rotas (conectando os nos fontes aos sorvedouros) que maximizam aagregacao de dados. Os resultados apresentados mostram que, em alguns casos, o InFRA utiliza apenas 70% da energia gasta por outros algoritmos de roteamento usualmente adotados em RSSFs.
Alternative networks for monolingual bottleneck features

While recent advances in deep neural networks have lead to significant improvements in speech recognition, they have been applied mainly to acoustic and language modeling. We instead apply the models to bottleneck feature extraction. Several DNN, CNN, and BLSTM-based bottleneck feature networks are compared using both DNN and BLSTM acoustic models. Multiple variations in network architecture and feature input are explored. Results are reported on four languages from the IARPA Babel program. The shallow CNN and BLSTM both improve performance by a similar amount. The best network is a deep CNN and improves WER by 1.4% and ATWV by 2% absolute compared to the baseline DNN network when using a DNN acoustic model. Relative gains hold when using stronger BLSTM acoustic models.
Regional Leptomeningeal Score on CT Angiography Predicts Clinical and Imaging Outcomes in Patients with Acute Anterior Circulation Occlusions

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The regional leptomeningeal score is a strong and reliable imaging predictor of good clinical outcomes in acute anterior circulation ischemic strokes and can therefore be used for imaging based patient selection. Efforts to determine biological determinants of collateral status are needed if techniques to alter collateral behavior and extend time windows are to succeed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective Institutional Review Board–approved study of patients with acute ischemic stroke and M1 middle cerebral artery+/− intracranial internal carotid artery occlusion at our center from 2003 to 2009. The rLMC score is based on scoring pial and lenticulostriate arteries (0, no; 1, less; 2, equal or more prominent compared with matching region in opposite hemisphere) in 6 ASPECTS regions (M1–6) plus anterior cerebral artery region and basal ganglia. Pial arteries in the Sylvian sulcus are scored 0, 2, or 4. Good clinical outcome was defined as mRS ≤2 at 90 days. RESULTS: The analysis included 138 patients: 37.6% had a good (17–20), 40.5% a medium (11–16), and 21.7% a poor (0–10) rLMC score. Interrater reliability was high, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.87 (95% CI, 0.77%–0.95%). On univariate analysis, no single vascular risk factor was associated with the presence of poor rLMCs (P ≥ .20 for all comparisons). In multivariable analysis, the rLMC score (good versus poor: OR, 16.7; 95% CI, 2.9%–97.4%; medium versus poor: OR, 9.2, 95% CI, 1.7%–50.6%), age (<80 years), baseline ASPECTS (≥8), and clot burden score (≥8) were independent predictors of good clinical outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The rLMC score is a strong imaging parameter on CT angiography for predicting clinical outcomes in patients with acute ischemic strokes.
Study on the Signboard Region Detection in Natural Image

In this paper, we present the prior art to find the ROI of computer vision research in order to acquire the necessary information using images. or video. We adaptively obtain the ROI from the problems of conventional method. A method for signboard detection is proposed by searching the Hough line and determining the area of interest and reconstructing it taking into consideration the warped image.
Clinical and economic consequences of first‐year urinary tract infections, sepsis, and pneumonia in contemporary kidney transplantation practice

We examined United States Renal Data System registry records for Medicare‐insured kidney transplant recipients in 2000–2011 to study the clinical and cost impacts of urinary tract infections (UTI), pneumonia, and sepsis in the first year post‐transplant among a contemporary, national cohort. Infections were identified by billing diagnostic codes. Among 60 702 recipients, 45% experienced at least one study infection in the first year post‐transplant, including UTI in 32%, pneumonia in 13%, and sepsis in 12%. Older recipient age, female sex, diabetic kidney failure, nonstandard criteria organs, sirolimus‐based immunosuppression, and steroids at discharge were associated with increased risk of first‐year infections. By time‐varying, multivariate Cox regression, all study infections predicted increased first‐year mortality, ranging from 41% (aHR 1.41, 95% CI 1.25–1.56) for UTI alone, 6‐ to 12‐fold risk for pneumonia or sepsis alone, to 34‐fold risk (aHR 34.38, 95% CI 30.35–38.95) for those with all three infections. Infections also significantly increased first‐year costs, from $17 691 (standard error (SE) $591) marginal cost increase for UTI alone, to approximately $40 000–$50 000 (SE $1054–1238) for pneumonia or sepsis alone, to $134 773 (SE $1876) for those with UTI, pneumonia, and sepsis. Clinical and economic impacts persisted in years 2–3 post‐transplant. Early infections reflect important targets for management protocols to improve post‐transplant outcomes and reduce costs of care.