Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic Value of Endocan in Prostate Cancer: Clinicopathologic Association between Serum Endocan Levels and Biochemical Recurrence after Radical Prostatectomy

Purpose To assess the diagnostic capability of serum endocan level in association with clinicopathologic features and its impact on biochemical progression-free survival in patients with prostate cancer (PCa). Methods A total of 86 patients with localized prostate cancer were treated with open radical prostatectomy (RP). The control group included 80 patients who were referred to the urology outpatient clinic with normal rectal examination and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. The patients’ characteristics, baseline PSA value, and serum endocan levels were recorded. The patients were followed up with the measurement of PSA concentration every 3 months during the first year, thereafter every 6 months until 5 years, then yearly after surgery. The primary endpoint of follow-up was the time of biochemical recurrence. Results The median serum endocan levels were 3.14 ng/mL in the RP group and 2.98 ng/mL in the control group (p = 0.122). A total of 86 patients who underwent RP for PCa were divided into 2 groups based on a cutoff serum endocan level of 1.8 ng/mL. The distribution of Gleason score and biochemical failure rate were significantly higher in patients with serum endocan ≥1.8 ng/mL (p = 0.031 and p = 0.047). The biochemical recurrence-free time for endocan ≥1.8 ng/mL and <1.8 ng/mL were 38 and 56 months, respectively (p = 0.041). Spearman correlation analysis showed a linear relationship between endocan expression and Gleason score (p = 0.025, p = 0.511). Multivariate analysis revealed that elevated serum endocan level (≥1.8 ng/mL) was a significant predictor of biochemical progression-free survival (hazard ratio 2.44; 95% confidence interval 1.78-3.23; p = 0.001). Conclusions The current study indicates that endocan has a close relationship with tumor recurrence in PCa.
Effects of joint immobilization on changes in myofibroblasts and collagen in the rat knee contracture model

The purpose of this study was to examine the time‐dependent changes in the development of joint capsule fibrosis and in the number of myofibroblasts in the joint capsule after immobilization, using a rat knee contracture model. Both knee joints were fixed in full flexion for 1, 2, and 4 weeks (immobilization group). Untreated rats were bred for each immobilization period (control group). Histological analysis was performed to evaluate changes in the amount and density of collagen in the joint capsule. The changes in type I and III collagen mRNA were examined by in situ hybridization. The number of myofibroblasts in the joint capsule was assessed by immunohistochemical methods. In the immobilization group, the amount of collagen increased within 1 week and the density of collagen increased within 2 weeks, as compared with that in the control group. Type I collagen mRNA‐positive cell numbers in the immobilization group increased at all time points. However, type III collagen mRNA‐positive cell numbers did not increase. Myofibroblasts in the immobilization group significantly increased compared with those in the control group at all time points, and they increased significantly with the period of immobilization. These results suggest that joint capsule fibrosis with overexpression of type I collagen occurs and progresses within 1 week after immobilization, and an increase in myofibroblasts is related to the mechanism of joint capsule fibrosis. The findings suggest the need for a treatment targeting accumulation of type I collagen associated with an increase in myofibroblasts. © 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:1998–2006, 2017.
Schools as Community Hubs: Integrating Support Services to Drive Educational Outcomes. A Series of Discussion Papers on Building Healthy Neighborhoods. No. 3.

Education and Support Services There is a growing recognition that the most effective strategies to address the problems of struggling neighborhoods—from health to school success and poverty—involve the focused use of integrated strategies. Integrated strategies can address challenges that are complicated and interdependent in nature. For example, a change in health can influence students’ academic outcomes, and academic outcomes can influence the economic and social health of a community, often in unpredictable ways. As a result of these interdependencies, organizations are increasingly wrapping their arms around whole, multi-faceted problems to solve a particular problem. To do this, practitioners are exploring ways to use their institutions as “hubs” to organize and deliver a range of services beyond their traditional core offerings. Examples include hospitals utilizing “population health” strategies, and community schools and public charter schools providing a range of services, including social service support, “two-generation” support to parents, and health services. As schools seek to tackle the achievement gap, a critical question is how should they organize and act as hubs of services for students and the school community? In turn, as schools transform themselves to achieve Managing Population Health: The Role of the Hospital, 2012. Butler, Grabinsky, and Masi, 2015. Executive Summary
Physical Performance Effects of Low-Intensity Exercise among Clinically Defined High-Risk Elders

Background: Falls are among the leading causes of injuries and deaths. Results from a number of studies have suggested that a community-based exercise program may be effective in improving lower body strength, although some have shown only limited improvements. However, the impact of these programs on gait and balance are equivocal. Further, studies that have specifically targeted deconditioned elderly individuals, rather than individuals drawn from the general community, either showed limited or no improvements in gait and balance. Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of a community-based, short-term, low-intensity exercise intervention strategy on measures of mobility skills, gait and balance, and muscle strength for a clinically targeted group of elderly individuals at high risk of falls. Methods: 245 men and women aged 60 years or older were randomized into either an intervention or control group and received a baseline (T1) assessment. Subjects in the intervention group received up to 24 sessions (45 min long) of low-intensity standard exercise modalities tailored to the individual patient over an 8- to 10-week period. At the conclusion of the program, the participants in the intervention group were instructed to continue performing the exercises at home until 1 year after T1. Measures of physical function and performance were collected for all subjects at three different points of study enrollment. Results: Of the subjects assessed at baseline, 138 (56%) also had a postintervention assessment (T2), 128 (52%) had a 6-month follow-up assessment (T3), and 105 subjects had assessments at all time points. Primary analyses were based on the 105 subjects who had assessments at all time points. Intervention and control subjects did not differ in any of the physical function or performance measures at baseline. Between T1 and T2, the intervention subjects showed significantly greater improvement than the control subjects on all outcomes, with improvements plateauing for most measures between T2 and T3. Gait and balance scores continued to improve throughout the study period for both groups of subjects. Conclusions: This easily implemented, low-intensity exercise program may lead to improvements in physical functioning that are retained over the long term and effectively targets a clinically defined population of deconditioned elders at high risk of falling and sustaining serious injury.
Association of Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein 5 (LRP5) Promoter SNP with Peak Bone Mineral Density in Chinese Women

Objective: Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 (LRP5) is important for osteoblast differentiation and mutations of the gene are associated with both low and high bone mass syndromes. Our study aimed to evaluate the importance of LRP5 in the determination of peak bone mass acquisition in Chinese females in the general population. Methods: A total of 286 young southern Chinese females (aged 22–44 years) with low bone mineral density (BMD) (defined by a BMD Z score ≤–1.28 at either the hip or spine) or high BMD (Z score ≧+1) were studied. The LRP5 gene was sequenced for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 4 SNPs were tagged from 8 genotyped SNPs for this study. Results: Single locus allele association tests revealed significant associations of rs682429 and rs686921 with BMD variation (p < 0.05). Omnibus test (likelihood ratio test) revealed overall significant association between LRP5 gene locus and total hip BMD, with rs682429 being most predictive. rs682429 is located in 5′UTR, 2 bases adjacent to a consensus recognition site for the Elk-1 binding element. Conclusion: Common variations of the LRP5 promoter are associated with BMD in young women. These significant associations appear to be driven by rs682429. Functional studies are necessary to elucidate the role of this SNP on the effect of Elk-1 binding element transcriptional activity of LRP5 gene.
Clinical utility of the memory complaints inventory to detect invalid test performance

Abstract Objective: This investigation was designed to examine the classification statistics of Memory Complaints Inventory (MCI) scores relative to the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT) and the Non-Verbal Medical Symptom Validity Test (NV-MSVT), as well as various validity scales on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form(MMPI-2-RF). Method: The sample consisted of 339 active duty service members with a history of concussion who completed performance validity tests (PVTs), symptom validity tests (SVTs), and the MCI. Results: Those who failed the MSVT and NV-MSVT had significantly higher scores across all MCI scales. In addition, those who scored above specified cut scores on the evaluated PAI and MMPI-2-RF validity scales also had significantly higher MCI scale scores. Receiver operator characteristics analysis demonstrated acceptable area under the curve (AUC) across the evaluated SVTs for the mean of all MCI subtests with values ranging from (.77 to .86), with comparable findings for PVTs (MSVT AUC = .75; NV-MSVT AUC = .72). Conclusions: In general the MCI scales demonstrated better classification statistics relative to SVTs vs. PVTs, which is consistent with the nature of the MCI as a self-report instrument.
Inhibition of Listeria monocytogenes in Cooked Ham by Virulent Bacteriophages and Protective Cultures

ABSTRACT Protective cultures can be used successfully as an additional hurdle together with phages to reduce growth of Listeria monocytogenes on sliced cooked ham. Addition of phages resulted in a rapid 10-fold reduction of L. monocytogenes. After 14 to 28 days of storage, a 100-fold reduction was observed in samples with phages and protective culture compared to results for samples with phages alone.
A miniaturization method of parallel coupled-line filters using lumped capacitors and grounding

This paper proposes a new miniaturization method of the parallel coupled-line filter by using lumped capacitors and grounding. The proposed method can dramatically reduce the size of the resonators in the parallel coupled line filter. In addition to the size reduction, an excellent suppression of spurious harmonic responses, which are inherent in this type of filter, is achieved with improved skirt characteristics. To show the validity of the proposed method a filter, which has a center frequency of 900 MHz and an FBW of 10%, is scaled down to half its original dimension. The measured result shows a high level of agreement with the theory.
A General Knowledge Base for Comparing Descriptions of Knowledge

Our goal is the accumulation of general knowledge, such as that a room may have windows; people may want to be rid of a dictator; when a person enters a room, it is generally through a door; and when a car crashes, the driver and passengers may well be hurt or killed. The applications we are working on are (1) improved guidance of a parser; (2) support for deep learning by reading; and (3) building a large knowledge base for our Epilog inference engine, to support commonsense reasoning, in particular in a self-motivated, self-aware dialog agent.
Co-delivery of docetaxel and bortezomib based on a targeting nanoplatform for enhancing cancer chemotherapy effects

Abstract Using facile polydopamine (PDA)-based surface modification and a pH-sensitive catechol-boronate binding mechanism, a novel drug delivery system was designed for the treatment of breast cancer. The system was able to achieve the following goals: active targeting, pH responsiveness, in vivo blood circulation for a prolonged period of time, and dual drug loading. After coating with PDA, the docetaxel (DTX)-loaded star-shaped copolymer cholic acid-poly(lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles (CA-PLGA@PDA/NPs) were functionalized with amino-poly(ethylene glycol)-folic acid (NH2-PEG-FA) and bortezomib (BTZ) to form the targeting composition, DTX-loaded CA-PLGA@PDA-PEG-FA + BTZ/NPs. The novel NPs exhibited similar drug release characteristics compared to unfunctionalized CA-PLGA/NPs. Meanwhile, the incorporated NH2-PEG-FA contributed to active targeting which was illustrated by cellular uptake experiments and biodistribution studies. Moreover, the pH responsive binding between BTZ and PDA was demonstrated to be effective to release BTZ at the tumor acidic environment for synergistic action with DTX. Both in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo antitumor studies demonstrated that the novel nanoplatform exhibited the most suitable therapeutic effects. Taken together, the versatile PDA modified DTX-loaded CA-PLGA@PDA-PEG-FA + BTZ/NPs offered a promising chemotherapeutic strategy for enhancing breast cancer treatment.
BrickNet: A Software Toolkit for Network-Based Virtual Worlds

Network-based virtual worlds allow multiple virtual worlds connected on a network to share information with one another. The development effort required to produce a network-based virtual world is quite large. The BrickNet toolkit simplifies this development by providing the standard facilities required by a wide range of network-based virtual worlds. It provides support for graphical, behavioral and network modeling of virtual worlds in an object-oriented fashion. BrickNet enables graphic objects to be maintained, managed, and used efficiently, and permits objects to be shared by multiple virtual worlds. In this paper, the architecture and implementation of BrickNet are described.
Intracluster Planetary Nebulae in Clusters and Groups

We present the results from multiple surveys for intracluster planetary nebulae (IPNe) in nearby galaxy clusters and groups. We find that in the case of clusters, our observations imply: 1) the amount of intracluster starlight is significant, up to 20% of the total starlight, 2) in Virgo, is elongated along our line of sight, and 3) is clustered on the sky, implying ongoing tidal stripping. In contrast, searches for IPNe in groups have found little or no intra-group population, implying there may be something in the cluster environment that significantly enhances intracluster star production. from high-resolution N-body simulations, we find that the IPNe should create observable features in position-velocity space, and that these features may eventually allow us to place limits on the dynamics of galaxy clusters.
Gene Expression Pattern in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats Exposed to Urban Particulate Matter (EHC-93)

Epidemiological studies show associations of short-term exposure to particulate matter with morbidity and mortality. Although many studies investigate the health effects of ambient particulate matter, the associated mechanisms, and the causality, they often focus on classical parameters. The objective of the present study was to gain insight into the roles of a wide range of genes in this process. Particular attention has been paid to immediate oxidative stress in the lung. We isolated total lung RNA from spontaneously hypertensive male rats 2–40 h after exposure to reference EHC-93 (10 mg/kg). Our results show that exposure to particulate matter generates a time-dependent pattern of gene expression. From the 8799 genes or expressed sequence tags tested, we see that 132 genes were up- or downregulated shortly after exposure (i.e., 2–6 h), whereas after 15–21 h and 24–40 h, 46 and 56 genes showed altered expression, respectively. Focusing on the earliest point, 99 of the 132 genes were identified as unique. They include genes involved in an oxidative stress response (hemeoxygenase-1, metallothioneins, and thioredoxin reductase), an inflammatory response macrophage inflammatory protein-2, and tumor necrosis factor α), transcription factors belonging to the activating protein-1 family, and genes involved in cardiovascular functions. The present study, although not representing an ambient situation, is used to identify the biological pathways implicated in the initial injury response to PM exposure. Using Affymetrix chips, this study shows time-dependent gene expression, it identifies many genes that can be affected by exposure to particulate matter, and it confirms the involvement of oxidative stress in particulate-matter-related effects.
Measurement of the subjective effects of methylphenidate in 11- to 15-year-old children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE This study examined subjective and other behavioral effects of methylphenidate (MPH) among adolescents. METHODS Standard abuse liability assessment methods that have been used in adult populations were modified for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) adolescents. MPH effects (0, 0.25 mg/kg) were evaluated under randomized, double-blind conditions in two 5-hour laboratory sessions in 24 (13 female) 11-15 year olds diagnosed with ADHD. RESULTS Repeated measures analysis of covariance indicated significant dose and dose by time interactions on subjective ratings on the modified amphetamine (A) [F (1, 20) = 5.98; p < 0.05; eta2 = 0.36], morphine-benzedrine group (MBG) [F (1, 21) = 8.93 p < 0.01; eta2 = 0.38] and benzedrine group scale (BG) [F (1, 21) + 13.10 p < 0.01; eta2 = 0.37] scales of the Addiction Research Center Inventory; "Hungry" and "How sure are you that you got the medication today? " from the Visual Analogue Scale, the Profile of Mood States Depression scale, performance on the Continuous Performance Task, heart rate and blood pressure, and level of activity. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study to document subjective effects of stimulants in adolescents with ADHD that have been associated with drug abuse potential in adults. There are increasing concerns about nontherapeutic stimulant use in adolescents and young adults. Assessing subjective effects of pharmacotherapies for ADHD along with other measures of abuse potential such as drug self-administration may aid in assessing the therapeutic effects and/or risk of medications used in the treatment of ADHD.
Making physical activity evidence accessible: are these infographics the answer?

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for 68% of all deaths worldwide. In the UK, NCDs are responsible for 80% of all deaths.1 Physical inactivity is one of the four key behavioural risk factors for NCDs. Across the four countries of the UK, at least one-third of adults are insufficiently active, which is higher than the global average, the majority of our European neighbours and the USA.2 The 2011 physical activity recommendations, published by the four UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs), emphasised the goal of achieving an active lifestyle across the life course. The challenge of increasing and sustaining the physical activity levels of the UK's child and adult populations has been central to national policies and plans since the mid-1990s. A consistent feature of these plans has been the role of the healthcare setting in the promotion of physical activity for the prevention and treatment of disease. Reports by the Royal Colleges,3 ,4 House of Commons Health Committee,5 Public Health England (PHE)6 and the National …
Machine Learning and Data Mining for Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Monitoring

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is gaining renewed attention in light of growing worldwide interest in mitigating risks of nuclear weapons proliferation and testing. Since the International Monitoring System (IMS) installed the first suite of sensors in the late 1990's, the IMS network has steadily progressed, providing valuable support for event diagnostics. This progress was highlighted at the recent International Scientific Studies (ISS) Conference in Vienna in June 2009, where scientists and domain experts met with policy makers to assess the current status of the CTBT Verification System. A strategic theme within the ISS Conference centered on exploring opportunities for further enhancing the detection and localization accuracy of low magnitude events by drawing upon modern tools and techniques for machine learning and large-scale data analysis. Several promising approaches for data exploitation were presented at the Conference. These are summarized in a companion report. In this paper, we introduce essential concepts in machine learning and assess techniques which could provide both incremental and comprehensive value for event discrimination by increasing the accuracy of the final data product, refining On-Site-Inspection (OSI) conclusions, and potentially reducing the cost of future network operations.