Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Randomized trial of 13-cis retinoic acid compared with retinyl palmitate with or without beta-carotene in oral premalignancy.

PURPOSE To investigate whether retinyl palmitate (RP) alone or plus beta-carotene (BC) would be as effective and less toxic than low-dose 13-cis retinoic acid (13cRA) in treating oral premalignant lesions (OPLs) and reducing the risk of oral cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Initially, patients were randomly assigned to receive low-dose 13cRA or BC plus RP for 3 years (plus 2 years follow-up). After other randomized trials established an adverse effect of BC on lung cancer incidence/mortality, BC was dropped (patients randomly assigned to 13cRA or RP alone). The primary end point was OPL clinical response at 3 months. RESULTS We randomly assigned 162 eligible patients. The 3-month clinical response rate of the combined BC plus RP and RP alone arm (32.5%) was not statistically equivalent to that of 13cRA (48.1%). The clinical response rate of RP alone (20.0%) was significantly lower than that of BC plus RP (42.9%; P = .03). Similar oral cancer-free survival rates were observed across all arms. There was no significant association between 3-month OPL response and subsequent oral cancer development (P = .11). Grades 2 and higher adverse events were more common in the 13cRA than other groups (P < .0001). CONCLUSION This large chemoprevention trial did not establish the equivalence of RP plus BC or RP alone with low-dose 13cRA in reducing the long-term risk of oral cancer. At present, 13cRA, BC plus RP, and RP alone cannot be recommended for chemoprevention, and new, better agents are needed in this setting. Our results did not establish short-term OPL response as a surrogate end point for oral cancer-free survival.
The role of additional computed tomography in the decision-making process on the secondary prevention in patients after systemic cerebral thrombolysis

Introduction Patients with ischemic stroke undergoing intravenous (iv)-thrombolysis are routinely controlled with computed tomography on the second day to assess stroke evolution and hemorrhagic transformation (HT). However, the benefits of an additional computed tomography (aCT) performed over the next days after iv-thrombolysis have not been determined. Methods We retrospectively screened 287 Caucasian patients with ischemic stroke who were consecutively treated with iv-thrombolysis from 2008 to 2012. The results of computed tomography performed on the second (control computed tomography) and seventh (aCT) day after iv-thrombolysis were compared in 274 patients (95.5%); 13 subjects (4.5%), who died before the seventh day from admission were excluded from the analysis. Results aCTs revealed a higher incidence of HT than control computed tomographies (14.2% vs 6.6%; P=0.003). Patients with HT in aCT showed higher median of National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score on admission than those without HT (13.0 vs 10.0; P=0.01) and higher presence of ischemic changes >1/3 middle cerebral artery territory (66.7% vs 35.2%; P<0.01). Correlations between presence of HT in aCT and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score on admission (rpbi 0.15; P<0.01), and the ischemic changes >1/3 middle cerebral artery (phi=0.03) existed, and the presence of HT in aCT was associated with 3-month mortality (phi=0.03). Conclusion aCT after iv-thrombolysis enables higher detection of HT, which is related to higher 3-month mortality. Thus, patients with severe middle cerebral artery infarction may benefit from aCT in the decision-making process on the secondary prophylaxis.
Estimating the queue length at street intersections by using a movement feature space approach

This study aims to estimate the traffic load at street intersections obtaining the circulating vehicle number through image processing and pattern recognition. The algorithm detects moving objects in a street view by using level lines and generates a new feature space called movement feature space (MFS). The MFS generates primitives as segments and corners to match vehicle model generating hypotheses. The MFS is also grouped in a histogram configuration called histograms of oriented level lines (HO2 L). This work uses HO2 L features to validate vehicle hypotheses comparing the performance of different classifiers: linear support vector machine (SVM), non-linear SVM, neural networks and boosting. On average, successful detection rate is of 86% with 10 − 1 false positives per image for highly occluded images.
Zooming in on the Microvasculature in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) has traditionally been viewed as a form of hypertensive heart disease with increased left ventricular (LV) afterload ultimately leading to HFpEF. However, HFpEF patients typically have numerous other comorbidities.1 Although the severity of LV remodeling and ventricular vascular dysfunction2 and the rate of adverse outcomes3 are greater in patients with HFpEF than in patients with comorbidities alone, some argue that HFpEF is not a distinct syndrome but rather a collection of comorbidities masquerading as HF. See Article by Srivaratharajah et al More recently, based on integrative physiological studies in human HFpEF, the biology of nitric oxide–cyclic guanosine monophosphate–protein kinase G signaling, and elegant studies of human HFpEF myocardium, Paulus and Tschope synthesized an alternate HFpEF pathophysiologic paradigm.1 This paradigm postulates that multimorbidity creates a systemic proinflammatory milieu, coronary microvascular endothelial inflammation, and migration of inflammatory cells to the myocardium with production of proinflammatory cytokines, myocardial inflammation, and subsequent fibrosis. Further, they propose that microvascular endothelial inflammation promotes oxidative stress with generation of oxidative/nitrosative species, which limits myocardial nitric oxide–cyclic guanosine monophosphate–protein kinase G signaling by diminishing nitric oxide bioavailability and oxidizing downstream nitric oxide targets, thus promoting cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Impaired protein kinase G activity and peroxynitrite-stimulated phosphatases are proposed to alter the phosphorylation status of proteins that influence myofiber relaxation and stiffness and, thus, further impair LV diastolic function. This paradigm has sparked great interest in therapies that target impaired myocardial cyclic guanosine monophosphate–protein kinase G signaling in HFpEF. However, the Paulus paradigm has an important correlate in that an established consequence of coronary microvascular endothelial inflammation is impaired coronary microvascular endothelial function and ultimately coronary microvascular remodeling and rarefaction with decreased microvascular density (MVD). 4 The potential impact of diffuse microvascular endothelial inflammation on the functional and …
Effectiveness of a Custom-fitted Flange and Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) System in Controlling the Release of Nanoscale Metal Oxide Particulates During Reactor Cleanout Operations

Abstract As the nanotechnology industry expands, facilities engaged in the production and use of engineered nanoscale materials (ENMs) are challenged with determining whether their processes pose a risk for worker inhalation exposure. Although there are neither regulatory exposure limits specific to ENMs nor validated measurement standards for nanomaterials in the workplace, many facilities opt to be proactive in managing uncharacterized ENMs by reducing or eliminating the potential for exposure by controlling their release into the workplace atmosphere. A field study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a portable, HEPA-filtered, local exhaust ventilation system equipped with a custom-fitted flange for controlling the emission of engineered nanoscale metal oxide particulates during reactor cleanout operations. On the basis of the findings of this study, it appears that a properly designed LEV system, coupled with good work practices can be highly effective in controlling nanoscale material emissions during processes of this type.
Pain: a review of three commonly used pain rating scales.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES This review aims to explore the research available relating to three commonly used pain rating scales, the Visual Analogue Scale, the Verbal Rating Scale and the Numerical Rating Scale. The review provides information needed to understand the main properties of the scales. BACKGROUND Data generated from pain-rating scales can be easily misunderstood. This review can help clinicians to understand the main features of these tools and thus use them effectively. METHOD A MedLine review via PubMed was carried out with no restriction of age of papers retrieved. Papers were examined for methodological soundness before being included. The search terms initially included pain rating scales, pain measurement, Visual Analogue Scale, VAS, Verbal Rating Scale, VRS, Numerical/numeric Rating Scale, NRS. The reference lists of retrieved articles were used to generate more papers and search terms. Only English Language papers were examined. CONCLUSIONS All three pain-rating scales are valid, reliable and appropriate for use in clinical practice, although the Visual Analogue Scale has more practical difficulties than the Verbal Rating Scale or the Numerical Rating Scale. For general purposes the Numerical Rating Scale has good sensitivity and generates data that can be statistically analysed for audit purposes. Patients who seek a sensitive pain-rating scale would probably choose this one. For simplicity patients prefer the Verbal Rating Scale, but it lacks sensitivity and the data it produces can be misunderstood. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE In order to use pain-rating scales well clinicians need to appreciate the potential for error within the tools, and the potential they have to provide the required information. Interpretation of the data from a pain-rating scale is not as straightforward as it might first appear.
Method to Assess Interactivity of Drugs with Nonparallel Concentration‐Effect Relationships

Commonly used methods for analyzing interactivity between drugs (e.g., synergy, antagonism) such as isobologram, combination index, and curve shift are based on the Loewe Additivity principle of dose equivalence and the inherent assumption of similar concentration‐effect (C‐E) including parallel curves and equal maximum effects (Emax), and therefore are not suitable for drugs with dissimilar C‐E. This study describes a new method that is without this limitation and has the additional advantage of enabling statistical analysis. The method comprises two steps. First, based on the dose equivalence principle, the experimentally obtained C‐E of one drug was used to calculate the equally effective C‐E of the other drug at no interactivity; the resulting two zero‐interactivity C‐E formed the upper and lower boundaries of Additivity Envelope. Next, 95% confidence intervals calculated from experimental data were added to Additivity Envelope to obtain Uncertainty Envelope (UE). Experimentally observed effects of drug combinations (C‐Ecomb,observed) located within UE indicate additivity whereas C‐Ecomb,observed located above or below UE indicate statistically significant (p<0.05) synergy or antagonism, respectively. Additional in silico studies demonstrated the shape and size of Additivity Envelope, which determine the ability to detect drug interactivity, depended on the Drug A‐to‐B concentration ratios and the ratios of their C‐E curve shape parameter. Analyses of experimental results of combinations of drugs with nonparallel C‐E and/or unequal Emax indicate UE was more versatile and provided more information, compared to earlier methods. UE is a broadly applicable method for analysis, including statistical significance assessment, of drug interactivity.
Warming of the Upper Equatorial Indian Ocean and Changes in the Heat Budget (1960–99)

Abstract In the equatorial Indian Ocean, sea surface has warmed by 0.5°–1°C over the 1960–99 period, while waters have cooled at thermocline depth and the net atmospheric heat flux has decreased. Among a set of twentieth-century climate simulations from 12 coupled models, the Centre National de Recherches Meteorologiques Coupled Global Climate Model version 3 (CNRM-CM3) reproduces key observed features of these changes. It is used to investigate changes in the heat budget of the upper equatorial Indian Ocean and identify mechanisms responsible for the warming. By comparing twentieth-century and control simulations, significant shifts in the mean balance of the heat budget between the preindustrial and the 1960–99 periods can be identified. The main cause of the surface warming is a decrease in the upwelling-related oceanic cooling. It occurs in the thermocline dome region because of a slowdown of the wind-driven Ekman pumping. The observed decrease in net heat flux is a negative feedback driven by evapora.
Radioimmunotherapy in relapsed follicular lymphoma previously treated by autologous bone marrow transplant: a report of eight new cases and literature review

Multicenter, retrospective study of standard-dose RIT in eight heavily pre-treated patients with CD20-positive follicular lymphoma who had relapsed after previous autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT). Patients underwent nine courses of 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (0.3 or 0.4 mCi/kg body weight). Responses included five CR, two PR, one SD and one PD. Median DFS was 12 months with median follow-up of 17 months and 1-year OS was 83% (7/8 patients). Grade 4 thrombocytopenia occurred in 7/9 treatments, with no episodes of bleeding, and only two patients received a platelet transfusion. One patient, who had 20% bone marrow involvement at the time of relapse diagnosis, presented with Grade 4 thrombocytopenia and Grade 4 neutropenia and died of septic shock 6 months after RIT. One other case of Grade 4 neutropenia, without a serious infectious syndrome, was observed. Standard-dose RIT seems feasible and potentially effective after ABMT in correctly selected patients with follicular lymphoma.
Performance comparison of link adaptation and incremental redundancy in wireless data networks

Link adaptation and incremental redundancy are two link level techniques proposed to enhance data rate and increase throughput in wireless data networks. Link adaptation pro-actively adjusts the modulation and coding scheme based upon estimated channel conditions. Incremental redundancy, on the other hand, adjusts the code rate to actual channel conditions by incrementally transmitting redundancy information until decoding is successful. In this study, we investigate the system performance of these two techniques. Our results show that incremental redundancy achieves significantly higher throughput compared to link adaptation, especially under high traffic loading conditions. This gain is achieved at the expense of higher terminal and base station complexities, as well as a higher packet delay. On the other hand, in contrast to link adaptation, incremental redundancy does not require any channel quality measurements, and can operate based solely upon ACKs and NACKs.
Fine needle aspiration cytology of lobular carcinoma in situ on ThinPrep®

Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) of the breast is a recognized marker for increased risk of invasive carcinoma and has well‐established histologic criteria. However, its detection and diagnosis on FNA of breast has not been well defined. Cytology slides (all ThinPrep®) of 11 cases with biopsy‐proven LCIS at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center were reviewed. All 11 cases showed tight and/or loosely cohesive clusters of crowded mildly enlarged nuclei and ten of 11 showed at least moderate cellularity. Single epithelial cells, small but prominent nucleoli, intracytoplasmic lumina, and two distinct epithelial‐cell populations were also noted in some cases. As none of these features is specific for LCIS, it would be prudent to report such lesions as atypical so that a core biopsy or excisional biopsy will be performed before definitive treatment. The original FNA diagnosis of the 11 cases ranged from epithelial proliferation without atypia to carcinoma. Three of the 11 cases had fibroadenomas on histology with extensive involvement by LCIS. Since management for LCIS is different from that for invasive carcinoma or DCIS, it should be considered and distinguished from the latter two in cases suspicious for carcinoma on FNA. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2005;32:276–280. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Comparative pharmacokinetics between madecassoside and asiaticoside presented in a standardised extract of Centella asiatica, ECa 233 and their respective pure compound given separately in rats

Abstract 1. ECa 233, the standardised extract of Centella asiatica, contains not less than 80% triterpenoid glycosides, in a madecassoside:asiaticoside ratio of 1.5 (±0.5):1. 2. The pharmacokinetic comparison of madecassoside and asiaticoside was performed in rats following intravenous and oral administration of ECa 233, or an equivalent dose of the individual compounds. Blood, tissues, urine and faeces were collected after dosing to determine drug and metabolite levels using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. 3. Our study demonstrated that plasma levels of madecassoside, and to a lesser extent asiaticoside, were higher after administration of ECa 233 than the corresponding values for the pure compounds. There was a bidirectional interconversion between asiaticoside and madecassoside consistent with the increased exposure of madecassoside and asiaticoside in ECa 233. 4. Both madecassoside and asiaticoside appeared to be widely distributed in several organs and metabolized extensively; following intravenous administration of either compound, approximately 80–90% of the dose was recovered as madecassic acid and asiatic acid in the faeces.
Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Listeria species isolated from traditional dairy products in Chahar Mahal & Bakhtiyari, Iran.

E. RAHIMI, H. MOMTAZ, A. SHARIFZADEH, A. BEHZADNIA, M. S. ASHTARI, S. ZANDI ESFAHANI, M. RIAHI & M. MOMENI 5 Departments of Food Hygiene; Department of Microbiology; 4 Undergraduate student of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Graduate student of Food Sciences and Technology, College of Agriculture; Food Research Center, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran
QST < FST As a signature of canalization

A key aim of evolutionary biology – inferring the action of natural selection on wild species – can be achieved by comparing neutral genetic differentiation between populations (FST) with quantitative genetic variation (QST). Each of the three possible outcomes of comparisons of QST and FST (QST > FST, QST = FST, QST < FST) is associated with an inference (diversifying selection, genetic drift, uniform selection, respectively). However, published empirical and theoretical studies have focused on the QST > FST outcome. We believe that this reflects the absence of a straightforward biological interpretation of the QST < FST pattern. We here report recent evidence of this neglected evolutionary pattern, provide guidelines to its interpretation as either a canalization phenomenon or a consequence of uniform selection and discuss the significant importance this issue will have for the area of evolutionary biology.
A 2T Dual Port Capacitor-Less DRAM

A novel two-transistor (2T) dual port capacitor-less DRAM concept based on bulk floating body is demonstrated for the first time in this letter. The read operation can be performed without disturbance of refresh or write. A novel read method is proposed to improve device performance especially at high temperature. Experimental results show a refresh cycle time of 1.28 s, an initial memory window of 192.84 μA/μm, and an initial signal sensing margin of 112.75 μA/μm with ±5 sigma variations at 85°C. The 2T cell is very promising for high-speed, low-power, and low-cost embedded DRAM application.
A planar ultra wide band single layer microstrip BALUN operating from 200MHz to 10GHz

In this paper a new single layer BALUN is presented that covers the frequency range of 200MHz to 10GHz. The structure is composed of a two stage Wilkinson power divider followed by a wideband current flipping structure. Full wave simulations as well as measurements show that an amplitude imbalance of below 0.2dB and a phase imbalance of less than 5 degrees is achieved by this BALUN from 1.5GHz to 10GHz. Maximum phase and amplitude imbalance are 12degrees and 2dB respectively. The structure is very low loss with maximum insertion loss of 2dB and is matched at all the three ports with the maximum reflection coefficients of less than -10 dB in most of the bandwidth. The coupling between the two equally powered output ports is less than -10dB and the total length of the structure including the transitions to the connectors is 6.5cm.
Model independent measurement of form factors in the decay D{sup +}K⁻{sup +}e{sup +}ν{sub e}

M. R. Shepherd, D. Besson, T. K. Pedlar, D. Cronin-Hennessy, K. Y. Gao, D. T. Gong, J. Hietala, Y. Kubota, T. Klein, B. W. Lang, R. Poling, A. W. Scott, A. Smith, P. Zweber, S. Dobbs, Z. Metreveli, K. K. Seth, A. Tomaradze, J. Ernst, H. Severini, S. A. Dytman, W. Love, V. Savinov, O. Aquines, Z. Li, A. Lopez, S. Mehrabyan, H. Mendez, J. Ramirez, G. S. Huang, D. H. Miller, V. Pavlunin, B. Sanghi, I. P. J. Shipsey, B. Xin, G. S. Adams, M. Anderson, J. P. Cummings, I. Danko, J. Napolitano, Q. He, J. Insler, H. Muramatsu, C. S. Park, E. H. Thorndike, F. Yang, T. E. Coan, Y. S. Gao, F. Liu, M. Artuso, S. Blusk, J. Butt, J. Li, N. Menaa, R. Mountain, S. Nisar, K. Randrianarivony, R. Redjimi, R. Sia, T. Skwarnicki, S. Stone, J. C. Wang, K. Zhang, S. E. Csorna, G. Bonvicini, D. Cinabro, M. Dubrovin, A. Lincoln, D. M. Asner, K. W. Edwards, R. A. Briere, I. Brock, J. Chen, T. Ferguson, G. Tatishvili, H. Vogel, M. E. Watkins, J. L. Rosner, N. E. Adam, J. P. Alexander, K. Berkelman, D. G. Cassel, J. E. Duboscq, K. M. Ecklund, R. Ehrlich, L. Fields, R. S. Galik, L. Gibbons, R. Gray, S. W. Gray, D. L. Hartill, B. K. Heltsley, D. Hertz, C. D. Jones, J. Kandaswamy, D. L. Kreinick, V. E. Kuznetsov, H. Mahlke-Kruger, T. O. Meyer, P. U. E. Onyisi, J. R. Patterson, D. Peterson, J. Pivarski, D. Riley, A. Ryd, A. J. Sadoff, H. Schwarthoff, X. Shi, S. Stroiney, W. M. Sun, T. Wilksen, M. Weinberger, S. B. Athar, R. Patel, V. Potlia, J. Yelton, P. Rubin, C. Cawlfield, B. I. Eisenstein, I. Karliner, D. Kim, N. Lowrey, P. Naik, C. Sedlack, M. Selen, E. J. White, and J. Wiss
Color balance for video conferencing

This paper presents a method to color balance images. This method is useful for correcting images in video conferencing, where multiple video sources are displayed and each image has a different "look". The advantages of this approach are that it does not require a color reference object in each image, i.e. no a priori knowledge of the scene is required, that it can be used on the entire image, and that it is simple to implement. Preliminary results show that our approach can successfully correct images to appear more uniform and visually pleasing.