Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Normal Tempo of Bone Formation in Turner Syndrome despite Signs of Accelerated Bone Resorption

Aims: To evaluate area bone mineral density (aBMD) and volumetric BMD (vBMD) by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and relations to bone markers and hormones in adolescent women with Turner syndrome (TS). Methods: Cross-sectional study in TS patients (n = 37, 16.7 ± 3.4 years) and control group (n = 49), assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, bone markers and hormones. TS patients were divided into a young group receiving (‘ongoing’) GH (n = 15) and an older group previously receiving (‘previous’) GH (n = 22). Results: vBMDspine was similar in ‘ongoing GH’ TS, but higher in ‘previous GH’ TS, compared to controls. vBMDhip was lower in ‘ongoing GH’ TS, but similar in ‘previous GH’. z scores for aBMD were uniformly reduced in ‘ongoing TS’, but near-normalized in ‘previous GH’ TS. Bone formation and resorption markers were increased in ‘ongoing GH’ TS, while ‘previous GH’ TS had elevated bone resorption markers. Conclusion: BMD increased in parallel with age in TS patients receiving optimal estradiol replacement therapy and GH according to consensus guidelines, and in controls. Young TS undergoing pubertal induction and still receiving GH have lower z score BMD than older TS patients receiving hormonal replacement therapy, where a near-normalization of BMD was achieved. TS patients previously receiving GH showed signs of increased bone resorption.
Gene × Environment Interactions: From Molecular Mechanisms to Behavior

&NA; Gene‐by‐environment interactions (G×Es) can provide important biological insights into psychiatric disorders and may consequently have direct clinical implications. In this review, we begin with an overview of the major challenges G×E studies have faced (e.g., difficulties replicating findings and high false discovery rates). In light of these challenges, this review focuses on describing examples in which we might begin to understand G×Es on the molecular, cellular, circuit, and behavioral level and link this interaction to altered risk for the development of psychiatric disorders. We also describe recent studies that utilize a polygenic approach to examine G×Es. Finally, we discuss how gaining a deeper understanding of G×Es may translate into a therapeutic practice with more targeted treatments.
Choice of angiotensin receptor blocker in moderate hypertension. A UK-based cost–benefit comparison of olmesartan- and candesartan-based regimens

Abstract Introduction: Selection of antihypertensive therapy hinges on an appropriate combination of efficacy, tolerability and compatibility with co-morbidities. Within a given class of antihypertensives, the choice of agent is often driven by cost, with the cheapest appropriate agent being chosen. Amongst the angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), this choice will often be losartan, as it is available in generic form. However, as the blood pressure lowering efficacy of losartan is modest, some patients will require an alternative ARB. In the UK this choice is often candesartan, although the agent with greatest BP lowering efficacy is olmesartan. The objective of this study was to use a cost-benefit model to compare the costs associated with target achievement using each of these two agents, in order to guide optimum use of prescribing budgets. Method: A probabilistic cost-benefit model was constructed for a cohort of patients with moderate hypertension, based on a standardised titration and maintenance algorithm using either olmesartan or candesartan, combined with thiazide and calcium channel blocker where required. Direct treatment costs were recorded, along with the proportion of patients achieving pre-defined treatment targets at each treatment level. Results were expressed as mean treatment cost per patient reaching target. Results: Based on the current QoF target of 150 mmHg systolic, 94.3% of patients on the olmesartan-based regimen reached target of 150 mmHg, compared with 89.0% of those on the candesartan-based regimen. 86% of olmesartan patients reached target on <3 drugs, compared with 74% of candesartan patients. The mean 12-month cost per patient reaching target was £171.36 for olmesartan versus £189.91 for candesartan. Ongoing annual maintenance costs for patients at target were £169.97 and £182.64, respectively. Similar results were obtained when considering alternative treatment targets Limitations: The study only compared two ARBs – candesartan and olmesartan and the results relate to prescribing costs only and do not include other healthcare costs. Additionally, the chosen outcome was blood pressure target achievement, rather than clinical endpoints. Given the stated objectives of the model, we do not believe these issues will have introduced bias in the direction of either comparator Conclusion: Although olmesartan has an apparently higher acquisition cost than candesartan, its superior BP lowering efficacy means that the overall cost per patient treated to target is actually lower. This result could have significant implications for making savings within primary care prescribing budgets in the UK.
What factors are associated with improvement after brief psychological interventions in primary care? Issues arising from using routine outcome measurement to inform clinical practice

Abstract Study purpose: This descriptive study used a routine practice dataset to investigate whether demographic variables and intervention length were associated with outcome after brief psychological interventions in primary care. Brief description of the participants: The data are from 3687 adults with a wide range of presenting problems, from a culturally diverse inner London borough, referred to primary care psychologists and counsellors. Methodology: Demographic and service activity data were routinely collected using a local monitoring form and self-report outcome data using the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure (CORE-OM). The paradigm of reliable and clinically significant change was used to explore individual as well as group change. The relationship between demographic variables, intervention length and outcome was investigated. Results, conclusions and implications: Sixty-six per cent of the group with complete outcome data (n = 458) showed reliable improvement and 45% al.
Cancer esearch cular and Cellular Pathobiology egulation of DLX 5 Promotes Ovarian Cancer Cell R liferation by Enhancing IRS-2-AKT Signaling

nloaded distal-less homeobox gene (dlx) 5 encodes a transcription factor that controls jaw formation and dage differentiation during embryonic development. We had previously found that Dlx5 is overexpressed Akt2 transgenic model of T-cell lymphoma. To investigate if DLX5 is involved in human cancer, we ed its expression in the NCI 60 cancer cell line panel. DLX5 was frequently upregulated in cell lines d from several tumor types, including ovarian cancer. We next validated its upregulation in primary n cancer specimens. Stable knockdown of DLX5 by lentivirus-mediated transduction of short hairpin shRNA) resulted in reduced proliferation of ovarian cancer cells due to inhibition of cell cycle progresconnection with the downregulation of cyclins A, B1, D1, D2, and E, and decreased phosphorylation of ell proliferation resumed following introduction of a DLX5 cDNA harboring wobbled mutations at the -targeting sites. Cell proliferation was also rescued by transduction of a constitutively active form of ntriguingly, downregulation of IRS-2 and MET contributed to the suppression of AKT signaling. MoreLX5 was found to directly bind to the IRS-2 promoter and augmented its transcription. Knockdown of in xenografts of human ovarian cancer cells resulted in markedly diminished tumor size. In addition, was found to cooperate with HRAS in the transformation of human ovarian surface epithelial cells. DLX5 Together, these data suggest that DLX5 plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of some ovarian cancers. Cancer Res; 70(22); 9197–206. ©2010 AACR.
Vacina BCG contra tuberculose: efeito protetor e políticas de vacinação

OBJETIVO: A vacina BCG e utilizada desde 1921, embora ainda apresente controversias e aspectos nao esclarecidos. O objetivo do artigo foi analisar aspectos relacionados ao efeito protetor da primeira e segunda doses da vacina BCG e as politicas de vacinacao adotadas. METODOS: Foi realizada revisao sistematica da literatura publicada em ingles e espanhol, abrangendo o periodo compreendido entre 1948 e 2006, na base PubMed. Os principais descritores utilizados foram BCG vaccine, BCG efficacy, BCG e tuberculosis. Os estudos foram agrupados por tipo de desenho, apresentando-se separadamente os principais resultados de ensaios clinicos, estudos de caso-controle e metanalises. RESULTADOS: O efeito protetor da primeira dose da vacina BCG contra a tuberculose na forma miliar ou na meningite e elevado. No entanto, os resultados sao discordantes em relacao a forma pulmonar, variando de ausencia de efeito a niveis proximos a 80%. Estao sendo conduzidas pesquisas sobre novas vacinas candidatas a substituir a BCG ou serem utilizadas como reforco. CONCLUSOES: Ha evidencias de que a segunda dose da BCG nao aumenta o seu efeito protetor. Apesar de seus limites e da expectativa futura de nova vacina para tuberculose, a vacina BCG mantem-se como importante instrumento no controle dos efeitos danosos da doenca, sobretudo em paises com taxas de incidencia medias e elevadas.
MergeTree

Ray tracing is a computationally intensive rendering technique traditionally used in offline high-quality rendering. Powerful hardware accelerators have been recently developed that put real-time ray tracing even in the reach of mobile devices. However, rendering animated scenes remains difficult, as updating the acceleration trees for each frame is a memory-intensive process. This article proposes MergeTree, the first hardware architecture for Hierarchical Linear Bounding Volume Hierarchy (HLBVH) construction, designed to minimize memory traffic. For evaluation, the hardware constructor is synthesized on a 28nm process technology. Compared to a state-of-the-art binned surface area heuristic sweep (SAH) builder, the present work speeds up construction by a factor of 5, reduces build energy by a factor of 3.2, and memory traffic by a factor of 3. A software HLBVH builder on a graphics processing unit (GPU) requires 3.3 times more memory traffic. To take tree quality into account, a rendering accelerator is modeled alongside the builder. Given the use of a toplevel build to improve tree quality, the proposed builder reduces system energy per frame by an average 41% with primary rays and 13% with diffuse rays. In large ( > 500K triangles) scenes, the difference is more pronounced, 62% and 35%, respectively.
Pramlintide for diabetes mellitus (Protocol)

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To assess the effects of pramlintide for diabetes mellitus. 1 Pramlintide for diabetes mellitus (Protocol) Copyright © 2010 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Gunshot residue analysis and its evidential values: a review

Gunshot residue analysis has revealed vital trace evidence consequent to the criminal use of firearms. In forensic investigations, gunshot residue examination is sought for solving a wide range of issues from identification of a shooter to relating a bullet with the wound in reconstructing crime involving firearm. Thus, a review of analytical techniques that had been found useful for such context-oriented analysis is considered relevant. Besides the methods in forensic gunshot residue analysis, this review highlights the evidential values of organic and inorganic gunshot residues analysis that can relate a person, the place and the time with the firearm involved.
miR-122-5p Expression and Secretion in Melanoma Cells Is Amplified by the LPAR3 SH3–Binding Domain to Regulate Wnt1

The lysophosphatidic acid receptor-3 (LPAR3) is a G protein–coupled receptor that mediates viability among malignant cells and aggressiveness among certain tumors. The study's objective was to determine the interplay between LPAR3 and miRNAs to impact key cellular signaling pathways. Using SK-Mel-2 and SK-Mel-5 melanoma cells, wild-type and mutated receptors were stably expressed to explore molecular mechanisms. LPAR3 signaling induced miR-122-5p intracellularly and subsequently its inclusion into exosomes. This amplification resulted in less abundant Wnt1, maintenance of GSK3 inactivation and to a lesser extent, partial degradation of β-catenin. The surge in miR-122-5p and reduction in Wnt1 originated from signaling at the Src homology 3 (SH3) ligand–binding motif within the third intracellular loop of LPAR3, because mutant receptors did not increase miR-122-5p and had a weakened capacity to reduce Wnt1. In addition, a key mediator of melanoma survival signaling, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-α (PPARGC1A/PGC1), was involved in miR-122-5p transcription. In conclusion, this study highlights the powerful role miRNAs have in fine-tuning specific G protein–coupled receptor-mediated signaling events by altering the transcription of signaling transduction pathway components. This study also identifies that LPAR3 increases miR-122-5p expression, which occurs mechanistically through the SH3 domain and helps explain why miR-122-5p increases are detected in cancer patient serum. Implications: LPAR3 is partially responsible for the production and secretion of miR-122-5p, found in the serum of a wide variety of patients with cancer.
Revascularização cirúrgica do miocárdio em pacientes com stents coronários

Objective: To observe the surgical characteristics of patients operated on after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). Method: Fifty-six patients (41 M and 15 F), at the time of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), had already been submitted to coronary stenting procedures. In 101 PCI, 116 stents were implanted. At the time of the first PCI, 32 patients had three or more coronaries affected by severe stenosis. Six patients were treated with PCI for severe left coronary trunk stenosis. After the implantation of the first stent, 12 patients developed severe de novo lesions of the left coronary trunk. In 6 of these, stenosis developed within 6 months of stent implantation. Diabetes was present in 35.7% of the patients. In 22 patients (39.2%), at the time of CABG, the left ventricular function was reduced (p<0.001). During surgery, 160 grafts were implanted. Surgical studies included coronary and muscle biopsies. Results: Surgical observation showed more arteritis and inflammatory tissues adjacent to the stent when compared to other areas. Seventeen patients that could not have platelet antiaggregates withdrawn needed more blood transfusions. There were no hospital deaths. Conclusion: In patients operated on after stent implantation, facts like loss in LV function or de novo vascular lesions complicate surgical procedures and may impair longterm results. Due to endothelial dysfunction caused by stents, grafts may obstruct earlier. In addition the efficiency of clinical therapy may not be the same.
Real‐time weekly global green vegetation fraction derived from advanced very high resolution radiometer‐based NOAA operational global vegetation index (GVI) system

[1] To provide quality-improved and consistent real-time global green vegetation fraction (GVF) data products that are suitable for use in operational numerical weather, climate, and hydrological models, necessary processing steps are applied to the output data stream from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR)-based NOAA operational global vegetation index (GVI) system. This paper reviewed the NOAA GVI data and described the algorithm to derive weekly updated real-time GVF from the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The methodology description focuses on algorithm justification in an operational production context. The described algorithm was implemented in the global vegetation processing system (GVPS). The new global GVF data sets include the multiyear GVF weekly climatology and the real-time weekly GVF. Compared to the old 5 year GVF monthly climatology currently used in the operational National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) weather and climate models, the new data sets provide an overall higher vegetation value, real-time surface vegetation information, and numerous other improvements. The new GVF data set quality was partially assured by validation against Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI at a few EOS land validation core sites and comparison with another independently processed NDVI data set. Impact of the new GVF data sets in numerical weather prediction (NWP) model was investigated using EMC mesoscale model simulations and concluded overall positive.
Interfaces with Other Disciplines Modeling churn using customer lifetime value

0377-2217/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. A doi:10.1016/j.ejor. 2008.06. 027 * Corresponding author. Tel. : +32 16326817. E-mail address: Nicolas.Glady@econ.kuleuven. ac.b The definition and modeling of customer loyalty have been central issues in customer relationship management since many years. Recent papers propose solutions to detect customers that are becoming less loyal, also called churners. The churner status is then defined as a function of the volume of commercial transactions. In the context of a Belgian retail financial service company, our first contribution is to redefine the notion of customer loyalty by considering it from a customer-centric viewpoint instead of a product-centric one. We hereby use the customer lifetime value (CLV) defined as the discounted value of future marginal earnings, based on the customer’s activity. Hence, a churner is defined as someone whose CLV, thus the related marginal profit, is decreasing. As a second contribution, the loss incurred by the CLV decrease is used to appraise the cost to misclassify a customer by introducing a new loss function. In the empirical study, we compare the accuracy of various classification techniques commonly used in the domain of churn prediction, including two cost-sensitive classifiers. Our final conclusion is that since profit is what really matters in a commercial environment, standard statistical accuracy measures for prediction need to be revised and a more profit oriented focus may be desirable. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Limb salvage with isolated perfusion for soft tissue sarcoma: could less TNF-α be better?

Background: The optimal dose of TNF-a delivered by isolated limb perfusion (ILP) in patients with locally advanced soft tissue sarcoma is still unknown. Patients and methods: Randomised phase II trial comparing hyperthermic ILP (38 – 408) with melphalan and one of the four assigned doses of TNF-a: 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 2 mg, and 3/4 mg upper/lower limb. The main end point was objective tumour response on MRI. Secondary end points were histological response, rate of amputation and toxicity. Resection of the remnant tumour was performed 2 – 3 months after ILP. The sample size was calculated assuming a linear increase of 10% in the objective response rates between each dose level group. Results: One hundred patients (25 per arm) were included. Thirteen per cent of patients had a systemic leakage with a cardiac toxicity in six patients correlated with high doses of TNF-a. Objective tumour responses were: 68%, 56%, 72% and 64% in the 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 2 mg and 3 or 4 mg arms, respectively (NS). Sixteen per cent of patients were not operated, 71% had a conservative surgery and 13% were amputated with no difference between the groups. With a median follow-up of 24 months, the 2 year overall and disease-free survival rates (95% CI) were 82% (73% to 89%) and 49% (39% to 59%), respectively. Conclusion: At the range of TNF-a doses tested, there was no dose effect detected for the objective tumour response, but systemic toxicity was significantly correlated with higher TNF-a doses. Efficacy and safety of low-dose TNF-a could greatly facilitate ILP procedures in the near future.
Validity and Responsiveness of the Dutch McMaster Toronto Arthritis Patient Preference Questionnaire (MACTAR) in Patients with Osteoarthritis of the Hip or Knee

Objective. To determine the content validity, the construct validity, and the responsiveness of the Dutch McMaster Toronto Arthritis Patient Preference Questionnaire (MACTAR) in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee. Methods. The MACTAR comprises 2 parts: a transitional part and a status part. Content validity was investigated by comparing patient-elicited activities to items on the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36 (SF-36). Construct validity was determined by correlating MACTAR outcomes with WOMAC/SF-36 outcomes. Responsiveness was investigated by correlating MACTAR, WOMAC, and SF-36 change scores with patient global assessment (PGA) scores and plotting a receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve. Results. Eleven percent of the 894 impaired activities, identified by 192 patients, were not represented in either the WOMAC or the SF-36. The correlations (rs) investigated for the MACTAR transitional part varied between 0.27 and −0.40; the status part correlated moderately with the general health scale of the SF-36 (rs = 0.44). MACTAR change scores correlated better with PGA than with WOMAC/SF-36 change scores. The area under the ROC curve amounted to 0.90. Conclusion. Our results suggest that the MACTAR exhibits moderate construct validity and good responsiveness in a population of patients with OA of the hip or knee. The MACTAR is potentially better able to detect changes over time in activities that are important to individual patients compared to other tools measuring physical function (WOMAC, SF-36). Clinicians could use the MACTAR to evaluate clinically relevant changes over time in patient-specific physical functioning.