Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single-session and multisession CyberKnife radiosurgery for spine metastases-University of Pittsburgh and Georgetown University experience.

OBJECT The authors compared the effectiveness of single-session (SS) and multisession (MS) stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the treatment of spinal metastases. METHODS The authors conducted a retrospective review of the clinical outcomes of 348 lesions in 228 patients treated with the CyberKnife radiosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Georgetown University Medical Center. One hundred ninety-five lesions were treated using an SS treatment regimen (mean 16.3 Gy), whereas 153 lesions were treated using an MS approach (mean 20.6 Gy in 3 fractions, 23.8 Gy in 4 fractions, and 24.5 Gy in 5 fractions). The primary end point was pain control. Secondary end points included neurological deficit improvement, toxicity, local tumor control, need for retreatment, and overall survival. RESULTS Pain control was significantly improved in the SS group (SSG) for all measured time points up to 1 year posttreatment (100% vs 88%, p = 0.003). Rates of toxicity and neurological deficit improvement were not statistically different. Local tumor control was significantly better in the MS group (MSG) up to 2 years posttreatment (96% vs 70%, p = 0.001). Similarly, the need for retreatment was significantly lower in the MSG (1% vs 13%, p < 0.001). One-year overall survival was significantly greater in the MSG than the SSG (63% vs 46%, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS Single-session and MS SRS regimens are both effective in the treatment of spinal metastases. While an SS approach provides greater early pain control and equivalent toxicity, an MS approach achieves greater tumor control and less need for retreatment in long-term survivors.
New Adaptive Method for IQ Imbalance Compensation of Quadrature Modulators in Predistortion Systems

Imperfections in quadrature modulators (QMs), such as inphase and quadrature (IQ) imbalance, can severely impact the performance of power amplifier (PA) linearization systems, in particular in adaptive digital predistorters (PDs). In this paper, we first analyze the effect of IQ imbalance on the performance of a memory orthogonal polynomials predistorter (MOP PD), and then we propose a new adaptive algorithm to estimate and compensate the unknown IQ imbalance in QM. Unlike previous compensation techniques, the proposed method was capable of online IQ imbalance compensation with faster convergence, and no special calibration or training signals were needed. The effectiveness of the proposed IQ imbalance compensator was validated by simulations. The results clearly show the performance of the MOP PD to be enhanced significantly by adding the proposed IQ imbalance compensator.
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with Erlotinib: Heterogeneity of (18)F-FDG Uptake at PET-Association with Treatment Response and Prognosis.

PURPOSE To determine if first-order and high-order textural features on fluorine 18 ((18)F) fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) images of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (a) at baseline, (b) at 6 weeks, or (c) the percentage change between baseline and 6 weeks can predict response or survival in patients treated with erlotinib. MATERIALS AND METHODS Institutional review board approval was obtained for post hoc analysis of data from a prospective single-center study for which informed consent was obtained. The study included 47 patients with NSCLC who underwent (18)F-FDG PET/computed tomography (CT) at baseline (n = 47) and 6 weeks (n = 40) after commencing treatment with erlotinib. First-order and high-order primary tumor texture features reflecting image heterogeneity, standardized uptake values, metabolic tumor volume, and total lesion glycolysis were measured for all (18)F-FDG PET studies. Response to erlotinib was assessed by using the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) on CT images obtained at 12 weeks (n = 32). Associations between PET parameters, overall survival (OS), and RECIST-based treatment response were tested by Cox and logistic regression analyses, respectively. RESULTS Median OS was 14.1 months. According to CT RECIST at 12 weeks, there were 21 nonresponders and 11 responders. Response to erlotinib was associated with reduced heterogeneity (first-order standard deviation, P = .01; entropy, P = .001; uniformity, P = .001). At multivariable analysis, high-order contrast at 6 weeks (P = .002) and percentage change in first-order entropy (P = .03) were independently associated with survival. Percentage change in first-order entropy was also independently associated with treatment response (P = .01). CONCLUSION Response to erlotinib is associated with reduced heterogeneity at (18)F-FDG PET. Changes in first-order entropy are independently associated with OS and treatment response.
Image-guided IMRT

Twenty six years on from the conception of arguably the most significant development in radiation oncology: intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), implementation into clinical practice is becoming internationally widespread, with image-guided and adaptive radiotherapy being hot topics. Image guidance is particularly important in IMRT, where incorrect deposition of precisely sculpted 3D dose could have at best sub-optimal and at worst disastrous consequences.
Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Primary Causes of Disability Among Canadian Seniors: An Analysis of the 1986 and 1991 Health and Activity Limitation Surveys

An aging Canadian population highlights the need to examine the prevalence and causes of disabilities in seniors in order to be able to meet their health care needs. This report represents a step in that direction by examining disabilities among Canadian seniors using the 1986 and 1991 Health and Activity Limitation Surveys (HALS), two nation-wide surveys assessing the prevalence and impact of disabilities in the Canadian population. From these two surveys, disabilities among noninstitutionalized seniors, 65 years of age and older, were examined. Findings revealed that over 40% of seniors had at least one disability that impacted on activities of daily living and that one-quarter of disabled seniors were severely disabled. Risk factors that were associated with having a disability included marital status, language spoken, total household income, tenure of dwelling, number of people living in the household, and region of the country. Mobility and agility disabilities were the most common types of disabilities among seniors, with approximately 80% of disabled seniors having at least one mobility or agility disability. Further, mobility and agility disabilities tended to coexist, with approximately 70% of all seniors who had a mobility disability also having an agility disability. Arthritis/rheumatism was the medical condition that most often caused mobility and agility disabilities, followed by cerebrovascular disease, other forms of heart disease, and fractures/bone breaks. Women were more likely than men to have mobility and agility disabilities, with other risk factors associated with having mobility and agility disabilities similar to those for having any disability. The findings of this report indicate that many Canadian seniors suffer from disabilities, particularly disabilities that affect their mobility and agility. Therefore, to have a substantial effect on reducing the impact of disabilities on Canadian seniors, efforts should be directed toward finding effective medical interventions that reduce or control the most common conditions which result in mobility and agility disabilities. Further, finding means to reduce the negative impact that mobility and agility type impairments have on everyday living would serve to help disabled seniors.
Quantifying accuracy and precision of diffusion MR tractography of the corticospinal tract in brain tumors.

OBJECT The aim of this paper was to validate the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) model for delineation of the corticospinal tract using cortical and subcortical white matter electrical stimulation for the location of functional motor pathways. METHODS The authors compare probabilistic versus deterministic DTI fiber tracking by reconstructing the pyramidal fiber tracts on preoperatively acquired DTI in patients with brain tumors. They determined the accuracy and precision of these 2 methods using subcortical stimulation points and the sensitivity using cortical stimulation points. The authors further explored the reliability of these methods by estimation of the potential that the found connections were due to a random chance using a novel neighborhood permutation method. RESULTS The probabilistic tracking method delineated tracts that were significantly closer to the stimulation points and was more sensitive than deterministic DTI fiber tracking to define the tracts directed to the motor sites. However, both techniques demonstrated poor sensitivity to finding lateral motor regions. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights the importance of the validation and quantification of preoperative fiber tracking with the aid of electrophysiological data during the surgery. The poor sensitivity of DTI to delineate lateral motor pathways reported herein suggests that DTI fiber tracking must be used with caution and only as adjunctive data to established methods for motor mapping.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: longitudinal hyperpolarized (3)He MR imaging.

PURPOSE To quantitatively evaluate a small pilot group of ex-smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and healthy volunteers during approximately 2 years by using hyperpolarized helium 3 ((3)He) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS All subjects provided written informed consent to the study protocol, which was approved by the local research ethics board and Health Canada and was compliant with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and HIPAA. Hyperpolarized (3)He MR imaging, hydrogen 1 MR imaging, spirometry, and plethysmography were performed in 15 ex-smokers with COPD and five healthy volunteers (with the same mean age and age range) at baseline and 26 months +/- 2 (standard deviation) later. Apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) derived from (3)He MR imaging were calculated from diffusion-weighted (3)He MR images, and (3)He ventilation defect volume (VDV) and ventilation defect percentage (VDP) were generated after manual segmentation of (3)He MR spin-density images. RESULTS For subjects with COPD, significant increases in (3)He MR imaging-derived VDV (P = .03), VDP (P = .006), and ADC (P = .02) were detected, whereas there was no significant change in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) (P = .97). For healthy never-smokers, there was no significant change in imaging or pulmonary function measurements at follow-up. There was a significant correlation between changes in FEV(1) and changes in VDV (r = -0.70, P = .02) and VDP (r = -0.70, P = .03). CONCLUSION For this small pilot group of ex-smokers with COPD, (3)He MR imaging-derived VDV, VDP, and ADC measurements worsened significantly, but there was no significant change in FEV(1), suggesting increased sensitivity of hyperpolarized (3)He MR imaging for depicting COPD changes during short time periods.
Public Health and the Risk Factor: A History of an Uneven Medical Revolution

The greatest revolutions in twentieth-century public health and preventive medicine have been the concepts of risk factors and healthy lifestyles as methods of preventing disease. A risk factor is anything that increases the risk of disease in an individual. Lifestyle refers to the individual's personal behaviors with regard to risk factors. Identifying risk factors and modifying them by changing lifestyles in order to prevent disease has become ubiquitous as a strategy in public health. The book examines the history and evolution of the concepts of risk factors and healthy lifestyles and their application to coronary heart disease, the major chronic disease of the twentieth century. The first part contains a history of the use of statistics in public health and medicine, and the ways in which various industries developed the concept of the risk factor. The second part describes the concept of healthy lifestyles, which was devised by municipal public health departments and life insurance companies in the early part of the century.The third and fourth parts examine how the concepts of risk factors and lifestyles were applied to the primary chronic disease of the twentieth century -- coronary heart disease. The focus of the book overall is on coronary heart disease as a public health, rather than a medical, issue, and the various concepts that have been used in preventing it. William G. Rothstein is professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Antipapain activity in the serum of patients with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND Complement information about the share the role of antipapain activity in serum people with breast cancer. OBJECTIVE We measured the activity of cysteine peptidase inhibitors in the sera of 150 patients with breast cancer. Patients were divided into four groups depending on the cancer type and treatment method. We also analysed the control group. The activity of cysteine peptidase inhibitors was defined as a 'defensiveness' marker. METHODS The activity of cysteine peptidase inhibitors was measured against papain using the colorimetric method and the BANA substrate. RESULTS The highest activity of enzymes was found in the group of patients with BC and hereditary predisposition to it, and the lowest activity was found in patients after surgical treatment. CONCLUSION The activity of cysteine peptidase inhibitors in serum was measured against papain. We found that the activity levels were correlated with the cancer stage and treatment method. The lowest activity was found in patients after surgical treatment; the highest in women with active cancer and a hereditary predisposition to it.
The Lens Opacities Classification System III

• Objective. —To develop the Lens Opacities Classification System III (LOCS III) to overcome the limitations inherent in lens classification using LOCS II. These limitations include unequal intervals between standards, only one standard for color grading, use of integer grading, and wide 95% tolerance limits. Design and Results. —The LOCS III contains an expanded set of standards that were selected from the Longitudinal Study of Cataract slide library at the Center for Clinical Cataract Research, Boston, Mass. It consists of six slitlamp images for grading nuclear color (NC) and nuclear opalescence (NO), five retroillumination images for grading cortical cataract (C), and five retroillumination images for grading posterior subcapsular (P) cataract. Cataract severity is graded on a decimal scale, and the standards have regularly spaced intervals on a decimal scale. The 95% tolerance limits are reduced from 2.0 for each class with LOCS II to 0.7 for nuclear opalescence, 0.7 for nuclear color, 0.5 for cortical cataract, and 1.0 for posterior subcapsular cataract with the LOCS III, with excellent interobserver agreement. Conclusion. —The LOCS III is an improved LOCS system for grading slit-lamp and retroillumination images of age-related cataract.
The Prognostic and Predictive Value of Expression of P-AKT in Patients with FIGO IIB Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer under Chemotherapy

To evaluate the relation between expression of P-Akt and radiotherapy response, disease-free survival and overall survival in cervi- cal cancer patients. A total of 50 patients with FIGO stage IIB locally advanced squamous cell cervical cancer treated primarily with chemoradiotherapy were included in the present study. All patients received external beam radiotherapy (EBRT; 46-50.4 Gy with 1.8-2 Gy of daily fraction, five times a week) followed by high-dose rate brachytherapy (HDR 26 Gy at point A, with 6.5 Gy per frac- tion a week for 4 weeks). Chemotherapy consisted of 40 mg/m2 cisplatin i.v. once a week for 5 weeks concomitant with external pelvic radiation. Paraffin-embedded, formalin-fixed primary tumor tissue was collected from each patient to identify P-Akt expres- sion, retrospectively. The median follow up time for the study population was 30 (12-120) months. Expression of P-Akt was identi- fied in 86% (43/50) of patients. Overall 3-years survival and disease free survival were 89.3% and 79% ; respectively in the study population. There was no significant association between P-Akt staining and survival (89% vs 85.7%, p= 0.641) and disease-free survival (80% vs 88.2%, p= 0.498). There was no relation between expression of P-Akt and treatment response, size of the tumor, lymph node status, age, local and distant failures. Univariate analysis revealed significantly reduced overall 3-years survival and dis- ease free survival only for patients with poor treatment response (p= 0.001). In multivariate analysis, treatment response was found to be statistically significant parameter only for DFS ( p= 0.001 ). In conclusion, in our study, expression of P-Akt was detected in majority of cervical cancer patients. However no correlation was observed between P-Akt staining degree and treatment response
Evaluating the extent of HIV/AIDS in the Lebombo Ward centres with reference to the ABET community.

Using Soft Systems Methodology, this dissertation presents an evaluation of the incidence of HIV/AIDS among ABET educators and learners in the Lebombo Ward Centres. The researcher aims to recommend ways and means that it is hoped could decrease the alarmingly high death rate of educators and learners in this part of northern KwaZulu-Natal. The painful physical and emotional effects of the virulent HIV/AIDS pandemic, and also the longterm consequences for both individuals and their families, are making many ABET educators' lives extremely complex and difficult. Many ABET Centres are facing teething problems connected to HIV/AIDS because centre managers and tutors do not have sufficient knowledge, skills and resources to be able to cope proactively and resourcefully with the difficulties that confront them. The unabated spread of HIV/AIDS in this particular area (Lebombo) is damaging and ravaging the society and undermining education at large. The researcher also wants to contribute towards a stage being reached, both by the education authorities and by individuals within the society, at which relevant and effective ways and means can be found to understand better the underlying factors that are feeding this scourge, to transmit requisite knowledge more effectively, and to introduce measures that will begin to turn around the tragically high incidence of HIV/AIDS in this area. Further, the researcher will point to, and explore, social issues and social behaviours that are impacting negatively on the spread of HIV/AIDS, such as sexual abuse of schoolgirls by educators, the widespread practising of unprotected sex by educators, the disregard for human rights that this entails, continuing gender-based prejudices, the prevalence of superstition, and the tendency among many people to disregard warnings about HIV/AIDS.
Modeling control of HIV infection through structured treatment interruptions with recommendations for experimental protocol

The imaging technique of X-ray radiography is useful for the inspection of parts used in military aircraft. Given a source/detector/object configuration, a two-dimensional radiographic image is collected. Using a series of these images, a three-dimensional image of a part is constructed in which defects can be detected. The inverse problem of interest is to estimate, to an arbitrarily high degree of accuracy, the position of the X-ray source and detector system based upon a given object’s geometry and its radiographic image. A least squares approach is taken, and the optimization technique DIRECT-1 is applied to the resulting constrained minimization problem. Numerical results are presented. Based upon those results, conclusions are made and possibilities for future work are discussed. We end with an idea for a different approach to finding the solution to the problem. 1.2 Introduction and Motivation Boeing Corporation manufactures high-performance military aircraft which are used in Class I efforts involving dangerous missions or serious risk to pilot safety. The high integrity of Class I aircraft components is therefore of the utmost importance. Aircraft parts may be manufactured through either forging or mold casting methods. Cast parts have many benefits over forged parts. They are lighter, are easier to produce, and provide a four to one cost benefit. Nevertheless, forged parts are used exclusively because cast parts are difficult to manufacture 1Montana State University 2University of Maryland, Baltimore County 3University of Southern Mississippi 4East Tennessee State University 5University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 6North Carolina State University 7Univerity of California, Los Angeles
Comparison between bipolar and tetrapolar of the interferential current in nociceptive threshold, accommodation and pleasantness in healthy individuals

Abstract The study compared the effects between bipolar (BI) and tetrapolar (TT) forms of the interferential current (IC), on intensity and pain threshold to cold and pressure, accommodation and pleasantness of the current in healthy subjects. For this, a random, double-blind crossover study with 24 healthy subjects, of both genders, who were equally distributed in two groups, was conducted. The first evaluated item was the pain threshold to cold. The volunteers immersed the dominant foot in iced water (5°C) for 30 s, and recorded the pain threshold to cold. At the end, they graded the pain intensity by a visual analog scale (VAS). Soon after the pain threshold to pressure was evaluated with the use of a pressure algometer between the first and second metatarsal and L3 spinous process. Then the volunteers were submitted to the application of the IC, with the following parameters: 4000 Hz base frequency, amplitude modulated frequency (AMF) 50 Hz, for 20 min. Volunteers were re-evaluated straight away, 20 and 60 min after the IC usage. The last part of the analysis consisted of, after application of BI and TT, knowing which was the most enjoyable. The results revealed that in the evaluation of the pain threshold to pressure on the metatarsal, there was significant difference when comparing all evaluations of BI with only the last of TT; there was also difference on the accommodation threshold. We concluded that the IC usage, on nerve roots L4 and S3, on the proposed parameters, produced a higher accommodation threshold in the TT form, and it was more effective than BI on the metatarsal. However, the pain threshold to pressure (on the spine), to cold and its intensity did not suffer any change.