Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tissue necrosis after chemotherapy in osteosarcoma as the important prognostic factor.

OBJECTIVE To determine the histological response to preoperative chemotherapy of the percentage of tumor necrosis, and to assess the relationship between the histological response and the oncological result. METHODS Eighty patients with osteosarcoma were managed with preoperative and postoperative chemotherapy and operative resection at Shafa Yahyaeeyan Hospital, Tehran, Iran between 2003-2005. Sections of each operative specimen were examined, and the histological response to chemotherapy was graded. Grade 1 indicated necrosis of 50% of the tumor or less; grade 2, necrosis of more than 50% yet less than 90 percent; grade 3, necrosis of more than 90 percent. RESULTS The mean duration of the follow-up of the surviving patients, who were continuously free from disease was 1044 days. The histological response to preoperative chemotherapy (p=0.016) was the most important predictor of event-free survival. The rate of event-free short-term survival for the 80 patients entering this study was 86 percent (69 patients) at 12 months, 50% 24 patients at 24 months, and 21% (5 patients) at 40 months, with 5 patients surviving for a median of 1096 days. CONCLUSION The histological response to preoperative chemotherapy is an important clinical predictor of the result of operative treatment of osteosarcoma. This indicator should be used to identify patients who are at high risk for metastasis, as such patients may be candidates for more intensive or novel therapy.
Anaesthesia for treatment of retinopathy of prematurity

Blindness secondary to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) can be prevented in the majority of cases if the treatment is initiated within 72 h of diagnosis of “threshold disease”. To avoid delays and to facilitate optimal management, national guidelines have been issued.1 However, these guidelines do not offer clear guidance on anaesthesia for infants during treatment. This survey was conducted to evaluate the differences in anaesthetic management across regional neonatal units (NNUs) in the UK, problems associated with different modalities of anaesthesia and their impact on treatment. A …
Selection of Alpha/Beta Interferon- and Gamma Interferon-Resistant Rickettsiae by Passage of Rickettsia prowazekii in L929 Cells

The ability of endogenously produced alpha/beta interferon (IFN-alpha/beta) to inhibit rickettsial growth in infected L929 cell cultures was evaluated by comparing the growth of Rickettsia prowazekii Madrid E in untreated cultures and cultures treated with anti-mouse IFN (alpha + beta) serum. The endogenously produced IFN was neutralized, and rickettsial growth was enhanced in the antiserum-treated cultures. This inhibitory effect of endogenously produced IFN-alpha/beta was used to select rickettsiae resistant to IFN-alpha/beta. Rickettsiae were screened for resistance to IFN-alpha/beta after being cultured in untreated L929 cells for several weeks to several months. Two isolates derived from R. prowazekii Madrid E and two isolates derived from plaque-purified R. prowazekii Madrid E were plaque-purified twice, grown in embryonated hen eggs, and evaluated for resistance to IFN-alpha/beta and IFN-gamma. Compared with the parental rickettsial strain, all four isolates were significantly resistant to IFN-alpha/beta and IFN-gamma. In addition, they were as resistant or more resistant to IFN-gamma when compared with two previously described IFN-gamma resistant isolates that were selected in IFN-gamma-treated L929 cells. One of the two isolates from IFN-gamma-treated L929 cells was also resistant to IFN-alpha/beta; the other isolate was similar to the parental Madrid E strain in sensitivity to IFN-alpha/beta.
Intelligent Control of a Prosthetic Ankle Joint

The ability to control the prosthetic ankle joints of below-knee amputees is a challenging problem due to the lack of adequate mathematical models, the variations in the gait in response to the environment, sensor noise, and unknown intent of users. Artificial ankle joints are required to exhibit variable stiffness based on the gait and aid in locomotion as well as stability of the individual. It is desirable for control strategies for such ankle joints to adapt in real-time to any variations in the gait, have robust performance, and optimize specified performance indices relating to efficiency of the gait. In this paper, we investigate the potential of Direct Neural Dynamic Programming (DNDP) method for learning the gait in real-time and in generating control torque for the ankle joint. The residual limb is first represented by a link-segment model and the kinematic patterns for the model are derived from human gait data. Then augmented training rules are proposed to implement the DNDP-based control to generate torque which drives the prosthetic ankle joint along the designed kinematic patterns. Numerical results show that the DNDP controller is able to maintain stable gait with robust tracking and reduced performance cost in spite of measurement/actuator noises and variations in walking speed.
CloudAC: a cloud-oriented multilayer access control system for logic virtual domain

The security issue has been a challenging concern for cloud computing because of the multitenant usage model. In cloud, each application normally runs on a dynamic coalition that is composed by multiple virtual machines (VMs) running on different virtualised service nodes, which the authors called logic virtual domain (LVD). Moreover, the owners of cloud applications, who are also the tenants of cloud, would specify some security policies to control the access to those resources that they have paid for. Therefore the owners of cloud infrastructures have to provide the tenants with the mechanism to correctly configure and enforce the access control policies on resources that are from multiple service nodes, to meet the security requirements from cloud applications. To address the above challenge, this study presents the design and implementation about a multilayer access control architecture for LVD, named CloudAC, aiming to provide isolation control, information flow control and resource-sharing control among multiple VMs on Xen virtualisation platforms in cloud computing environment. The theory and technology this research formed will provide reliable security guarantee for resource configuration and application deployment on LVDs.
An examination of statistical disclosure issues related to publication of aggregate statistics in the presence of a known subset of the dataset using Baseball Hall of Fame ballots

Abstract Each year the members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) vote for eligible former players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The BBWAA tabulates and releases vote totals, but individual ballots remain private. However, many voters forgo their ballot privacy to publish their ballots through various media channels. These publicly available ballots can be aggregated to create a subset of the true ballots. Using these released ballots and the totals released by the BBWAA, this research assesses what can be learned about the group of voters who chose to not disclose their ballot. Attributes of the known and unknown ballot groups are studied by looking at differences in voting preference for individual players as well as voting differences between classes of voters that are defined using latent class analysis (LCA).
Health Supervision for Children With Down Syndrome

These guidelines are designed to assist the pediatrician in caring for the child in whom a diagnosis of Down syndrome has been confirmed by chromosome analysis. Although a pediatrician's initial contact with the child is usually during infancy, occasionally the pregnant woman who has been given a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome will be referred for review of the condition and the genetic counseling provided. Therefore, this report offers guidance for this situation as well.
MANET multicast with multiple gateways

A current challenge in interconnecting mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) with backbone legacy networks is the lack of compatibility between different multicast routing protocols when using multiple gateways, due to differences in both forwarding semantics and implementations of the different protocols. We present designs and experimental results involving the interconnection of the simplified multicast forwarding (SMF) MANET protocol with the protocol independent multicast (PIM) protocols, both dense- and sparse-mode. We illustrate the types of interconnections and multicast forwarding configurations, evaluate performance issues of existing approaches, and propose solutions to them. We describe techniques for allowing multiple gateways to dynamically detect one another and coordinate the forwarding behavior. We also highlight how the open source implementations of these protocols can be combined. We show that SMF can be connected to both PIM-SM and PIMDM variants, and that policies at the gateways can control the fine-grained forwarding behavior on a per-group basis.
Shared etiology of phonological memory and vocabulary deficits in school-age children.

PURPOSE The goal of this study was to investigate the etiologic basis for the association between deficits in phonological memory (PM) and vocabulary in school-age children. METHOD Children with deficits in PM or vocabulary were identified within the International Longitudinal Twin Study (ILTS; Samuelsson et al., 2005). The ILTS includes 1,045 twin pairs (between the ages of 5 and 8 years) from the United States, Australia, and Scandinavia. The authors applied the DeFries-Fulker ( DeFries & Fulker, 1985, 1988) regression method to determine whether problems in PM and vocabulary tend to co-occur because of overlapping genes, overlapping environmental risk factors, or both. RESULTS Among children with isolated PM deficits, the authors found significant bivariate heritability of PM and vocabulary weaknesses both within and across time. However, when probands were selected for a vocabulary deficit, there was no evidence for bivariate heritability. In this case, it appears that the PM-vocabulary relationship is caused by common shared environmental experiences. CONCLUSIONS The findings are consistent with previous research on the heritability of specific language impairment and suggest that there are etiologic subgroups of children with low vocabulary for different reasons, 1 being more influenced by genes and another being more influenced by environment.
Weight-related and shape-related self-evaluation in eating-disordered and non-eating-disordered women.

OBJECTIVE Weight- and shape-related self-evaluation refers to the process whereby an individual determines her self-worth based on an evaluation of her body weight and shape. This is a hallmark feature of both anorexia and bulimia nervosa, as specified in the 4th ed. of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of weight-related self-evaluation in eating-disordered women. METHOD Eating-disordered patients, restrained eaters, and unrestrained eaters completed an experimenter-designed questionnaire that examines different dimensions of weight-related self-evaluation (i.e., the Multidimensional Weight-Related Self-Evaluation Inventory). RESULTS Results revealed that weight-related self-evaluation is a feature shared, to some extent, by both eating-disordered patients and restrained eaters. However, eating-disordered patients extend weight-related self-evaluation to include more domains of self-esteem than did restrained eaters. DISCUSSION These findings support a multidimensional approach to weight-related self-evaluation and further our understanding of the process of weight-related self-evaluation in eating-disordered patients.
Apathy predicts more severe parkinsonism in Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVES Parkinsonian signs are frequent in Alzheimer disease (AD) and are associated with a faster cognitive decline, worse quality of life, and early nursing home admission. Cross-sectional studies in AD reported a significant association between parkinsonism and apathy. The aim of this study was to assess the chronological association between apathy and parkinsonism in AD. DESIGN Longitudinal study of a consecutive series of patients with AD. SETTING Dementia clinic from a tertiary clinical center. PARTICIPANTS One hundred sixty-nine patients meeting diagnostic criteria for AD. INTERVENTION A consecutive series of 169 patients with probable AD were assessed for the presence of parkinsonism, cognitive deficits, apathy, and depression with the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale and a comprehensive neuropsychiatry assessment. One hundred thirty-six (80%) of the patients had a follow-up assessment between 1 and 4 years after the baseline evaluation. MEASUREMENTS Scores on apathy, parkinsonism, and depression scales at follow-up were the main outcome measures. RESULTS Patients with apathy at baseline or those who developed apathy during follow-up had a significant increase in parkinsonism at follow-up when compared with patients with no apathy at both assessments. The association between apathy and increasing parkinsonism was unrelated to age, gender, the severity of cognitive deficits, the presence of depression, or use of psychotropic medications. On the other hand, neither the presence of parkinsonism nor depression at baseline was significantly associated with more severe apathy at follow-up. CONCLUSION Apathy may be an early manifestation of a more aggressive AD phenotype characterized by loss of motivation, increasing parkinsonism, a faster cognitive and functional decline, and more severe depression.
Fighting infection in chronic wounds.

Q: What is the best way to manage bioburden and biofilm in a chronic wound? A: Some chronic wounds are prone to an especially high bioburden, including wounds related to venous hypertension, diabetic neuropathic wounds, and wounds in areas difficult to keep clean, such as the sacrum. Approximately 25% of pressure ulcers have underlying osteomyelitis that can progress to necrotizing fasciitis. Most often, the infection is due to mixed aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, with bacteremia a common occurrence. Venous ulcers tend to be polymicrobial, with anaerobes reported in 30% of clinically noninfected wounds; Staphylococcus aureus is most prevalently isolated. These ulcers are generally heavily colonized but rarely reach clinical infection. Diabetic foot ulcers are more susceptible to infection because of the disease process of diabetes mellitus, poorly controlled blood glucose levels, and suppression of classic inflammatory signs and symptoms. They are most often polymicrobial, with aerobes present in 95% of these wounds; S aureus is most dominant.
Subanesthetic effects of the noncompetitive NMDA antagonist, ketamine, in humans. Psychotomimetic, perceptual, cognitive, and neuroendocrine responses.

BACKGROUND To characterize further behavioral, cognitive, neuroendocrine, and physiological effects of subanesthetic doses of ketamine hydrochloride in healthy human subjects. Ketamine, a phencyclidine hydrochloride derivative, is a dissociative anesthetic and a noncompetitive antagonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate subtype of excitatory amino acid receptor. METHODS Nineteen healthy subjects recruited by advertisements from the community participated in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Subjects completed three test days involving the 40-minute intravenous administration of placebo, ketamine hydrochloride (0.1 mg/kg), or ketamine hydrochloride (0.5 mg/kg). Behaviors associated with the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia were assessed by using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Changes in perception and behaviors associated with dissociative states were assessed by the Perceptual Aberration Subscale of the Wisconsin Psychosis Proneness Scale and the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale. Cognitive function was assessed by using the (1) Mini-Mental State Examination; (2) tests sensitive to frontal cortical dysfunction, including a continuous performance vigilance task, a verbal fluency task, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; and (3) tests of immediate and delayed recall. Plasma levels of cortisol, prolactin, homovanillic acid, and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenethyleneglycol were measured. RESULTS Ketamine (1) produced behaviors similar to the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia; (2) elicited alterations in perception; (3) impaired performance on tests of vigilance, verbal fluency, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; (4) evoked symptoms similar to dissociative states; and (5) preferentially disrupted delayed word recall, sparing immediate recall and postdistraction recall. Ketamine had no significant effect on the Mini-Mental State Examination at the doses studied. Ketamine also had no effect on plasma 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenethyleneglycol levels, although it blunted a test day decline in plasma homovanillic acid levels at the higher dose. It also dose dependently increased plasma cortisol and prolactin levels. Ketamine produced small dose-dependent increases in blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonists produce a broad range of symptoms, behaviors, and cognitive deficits that resemble aspects of endogenous psychoses, particularly schizophrenia and dissociative states.
Resource-Reservation in Multihop IEEE 802 . 11 e Wireless Mesh Networks

In this paper, we address the problem of resource reservation and admission control for multimedia flows in IEEE 802.11e wireless mesh networks. Previous research on IEEE 802.11e focuses on admission control in single-hop Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) and neglects wireless multihop scenarios which are becoming increasingly popular. This paper proposes the first, completely distributed admission control scheme for IEEE 802.11e-based wireless mesh networks. In this paper, we propose a measurementbased scheme for EDCA mode of IEEE 802.11e. This scheme is based on promiscuous listening capability of wireless radio in which interference measurement on the channel is used to predict the available bandwidth. The proposed scheme is evaluated through extensive simulations against a contemporary solution in the area and results show that the proposed scheme performs significantly better in terms of instantaneous throughput, instantaneous end-to-end delay, routing overhead and admission ratio metrics for several topologies.
Activation of human endothelial cells by tumor necrosis factor‐α results in profound changes in the expression of glycosylation‐related genes

The endothelium plays a central role in the logistics of the immune system by allowing the selective transmigration of leukocytes, as well as the maintenance of the circulation and coagulation homeostasis. Evidence is increasing that the carbohydrate composition of the endothelial cell surface is critical for the cells to exert their physiological function. The major aim of this study is to unravel the mechanisms underlying the expression of carbohydrate structures by endothelial cells, which are involved in leukocyte adhesion and migration. Using quantitative real‐time PCR, the expression profile of a selected group of 74 glycosylation‐related genes has been determined in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and human foreskin microvascular endothelial cells (FMVEC) under control and TNFα‐induced conditions. The set of genes comprised 59 glycosyltransferases, 6 mannosidases and 9 sulfotransferases. In parallel, the overall cell surface glycan profile has been assessed by the use of glycan‐specific lectins and monoclonal antibodies. The results demonstrate that HUVEC and FMVEC differ substantially in the expression of glycosylation‐related genes and, accordingly, also in the presence of different glycan epitopes on the cell membrane. Induction of an inflamed phenotype of the cells by treatment with TNFα differentially modulates a set of these genes in HUVEC and FMVEC resulting in a change in the cell membrane associated glycans that are of importance in inflammation‐related endothelial cell‐surface processes. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Inhibition of Th1 development and treatment of chronic‐relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis by a non‐hypercalcemic analogue of 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3

1α,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25(OH)2D3] inhibits production of IL‐12, a cytokine involved in the development of Th1 cells and in the pathogenesis of Th1‐mediated autoimmune diseases. Here, we show that 1,25(OH)2D3 and a non‐hypercalcemic analogue are selective and potent inhibitors of Th1 development in vitro and in vivo without inducing a deviation to the Th2 phenotype. Administration of 1,25(OH)2D3 or its analogue prevents chronic‐relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (CR‐EAE) induced by the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) peptide 35 – 55 (MOG35 – 55) in Biozzi AB / H mice. The inhibition of EAE induction is associated with a profound reduction of MOG35 – 55‐specific proliferation and Th1 cell development. Importantly, the non‐hypercalcemic analogue also provides long‐term protection from EAE relapses induced by immunization with spinal cord homogenate when administered for a short time at symptom onset or even after the first peak of disease. Neuropathological analysis shows a reduction of inflammatory infiltrates, demyelinated areas and axonal loss in brains and spinal cords of treated mice. These resuls indicate that inhibition of IL‐12‐dependent Th1 cell development is associated with effective treatment of CR‐EAE and suggest the feasibility of an approach based on low molecular weight inhibitors of IL‐12 production in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Ion-exchanged integrated waveguide structures

The authors describe an ion-exchange approach for producing waveguides that are circular, with a diameter of 50 μm for multimode fibers and from 5 μm to 10 μm for single-mode fibers. Such waveguides will permit high coupling efficiencies in both directions between the optical fibres and the waveguides. To avoid difficulties with diffusion masks, silver thin-film ion sources were chosen for the process. Several difficult glass materials were tested as substrates. At present, the fabrication involves only normal thin-film processes and photolithography for the guide pattern definition. Lift-off and sputter-etch techniques have been used to obtain 8-μm-wide waveguides. Since only planar processes are used, the ion-exchange technique is very suitable for batch processing and mass production.
Broadband branch-line coupler with arbitrary power split ratio utilizing microstrip series stubs

This paper treats broadband branch-line couplers with arbitrary power split ratios utilizing microstrip series stubs as matching networks. Proposed series stubs are structurally integrated in input/output microstrip transmission lines. Based on the equivalent admittance approach, dual-band/wide-band characteristics with relative bandwidths of over 30 % can be obtained in the case of a coupler with a power split ratio of 1 to 5. Validity of this design procedure can be demonstrated by electromagnetic simulations and experiment.