Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The value of pulse cyclophosphamide in ANCA-associated vasculitis: meta-analysis and critical review.

BACKGROUND The study aimed at studying efficacy and adverse effects of pulse cyclophosphamide (pCyc) treatment and to compare it to continuous cyclophosphamide (cCyc) for induction of remission in ANCA-associated vasculitides from data in the published literature. METHODS A Medline search identified 14 studies, containing more than five patients. From the 11 non-randomized studies, data on outcome following pCyc treatment were extracted. Results were given as fraction of the number of evaluable patients. A meta-analysis was performed on the three prospective, randomized controlled trials to compare outcomes concerning remission, relapses, infection, leucopenia, death and renal failure in patients treated with pCyc as opposed to cCyc. RESULTS The 11 non-randomized studies comprised 202 patients receiving pCyc. Cyc pulses of 375-1000 mg/sqm/pulse were applied at weekly to monthly intervals with different concomitant prednisolone regimens and variable adjunctive therapy. Complete remission was achieved in 112/191, partial remission in 23/191 evaluable patients. Relapses occurred in 68/135 patients, 40/115 patients were non-responders. Leucopenia, infections, haemorrhagic cystitis, and deaths were rare. The meta-analysis, comprising 143 patients, showed that pCyc compared with cCyc treatment was significantly less likely to fail to induce remission (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.12-0.73) and had a significantly lower risk of infection (OR 0.45; 95% CI 0.23-0.89) and leucopenia (OR 0.36; 95% CI 0.17-0.78). Relapses occurred slightly, although not statistically significantly, more often under pCyc treatment (OR 1.79; 95% CI 0.85-3.75). There were no differences in end-stage renal failure or deaths between the two regimens. CONCLUSIONS The currently available, rather sparse data show that pCyc is less toxic than cCyc therapy and is an at least equally potent inductor of remission, but possibly at the expense of a higher relapse rate. The existing data do not give sufficient information on outcomes as time to remission and relapse, irreversible damage or quality of life without which a treatment regimen cannot satisfactorily be evaluated today. A large prospective randomized controlled trial is needed to address these issues and their relative importance.
Utilitarianism and the Disabled: Distribution of Resources

Utilitarianism is more convincing than resource egalitarianism or welfare egalitarianism as a theory of how resources should be distributed between disabled people and nondisabled people. Unlike resource egalitarianism, utilitarianism can redistribute resources to the disabled when they would benefit more from those resources than nondisabled people. Unlike welfare egalitarianism, utilitarianism can halt redistribution when the disabled would no longer benefit more than the nondisabled from additional resources. The author considers one objection to this view: it has been argued, by Sen and others, that there are circumstances under which utilitarianism would unfairly distribute fewer resources to the physically disabled than to nondisabled people, on the ground that the disabled would derive less benefit from those resources. In response, the author claims that critics of utilitarianism have fallaciously exaggerated the circumstances under which the disabled would benefit less than the nondisabled from additional resources. In those limited circumstances in which the disabled really would benefit less from resources, the author argues, it does not seem unfair to distribute fewer resources to them.
Ante-Mortem Diagnosis, Diarrhea, Oocyst Shedding, Treatment, Isolation, and Genetic Typing of Toxoplasma gondii Associated with Clinical Toxoplasmosis in a Naturally Infected Cat

Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii infections are common in humans and other animals, but clinical disease is relatively rare. It is unknown whether the severity of toxoplasmosis in immunocompetent hosts is due to the parasite strain, host variability, or to other factors. Recently, attention has been focused on the genetic variability among T. gondii isolates from apparently healthy and sick hosts. Whether T. gondii genetic makeup plays a part in the pathogenesis of clinical feline toxoplasmosis is uncertain because little is known of genetic typing of strains associated with clinical feline toxoplasmosis. A 6-mo-old domestic male cat was hospitalized because of lethargy, anorexia, fever, and diarrhea. Numerous (6 million in 1 sample) T. gondii oocysts were found in feces of the cat and antibodies to T. gondii (titer 1:800) were found in its serum by the modified agglutination test. The cat was medicated orally with Clindamycin for 10 days; it became asymptomatic after 10 days and was discharged from the hospital. Viable T. gondii (designated TgCatUs9) was isolated from feces (oocysts) by bioassays in mice. Genetic typing using the DNA extracted from the brains of infected mice and 10 PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers revealed Type II allele at the SAG1, SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, c22-8, c29-2, and PK1 loci and Type I at the L358 and Apico loci; therefore, this isolate belongs to the ToxoDB PCR-RFLP genotype no. 4, which is grouped into the Type 12 lineage that is dominant in wildlife from North America. To our knowledge, this is the first T. gondii isolate characterized genetically from a sick cat in the USA.
Sonic hedgehog in temporal control of somite formation

Vertebrate embryo somite formation is temporally controlled by the cyclic expression of somitogenesis clock genes in the presomitic mesoderm (PSM). The somitogenesis clock is believed to be an intrinsic property of this tissue, operating independently of embryonic midline structures and the signaling molecules produced therein, namely Sonic hedgehog (Shh). This work revisits the notochord signaling contribution to temporal control of PSM segmentation by assessing the rate and number of somites formed and somitogenesis molecular clock gene expression oscillations upon notochord ablation. The absence of the notochord causes a delay in somite formation, accompanied by an increase in the period of molecular clock oscillations. Shh is the notochord-derived signal responsible for this effect, as these alterations are recapitulated by Shh signaling inhibitors and rescued by an external Shh supply. We have characterized chick smoothened expression pattern and have found that the PSM expresses both patched1 and smoothened Shh signal transducers. Upon notochord ablation, patched1, gli1, and fgf8 are down-regulated, whereas gli2 and gli3 are overexpressed. Strikingly, notochord-deprived PSM segmentation rate recovers over time, concomitant with raldh2 overexpression. Accordingly, exogenous RA supplement rescues notochord ablation effects on somite formation. A model is presented in which Shh and RA pathways converge to inhibit PSM Gli activity, ensuring timely somite formation. Altogether, our data provide evidence that a balance between different pathways ensures the robustness of timely somite formation and that notochord-derived Shh is a component of the molecular network regulating the pace of the somitogenesis clock.
Pretreatment Variables That Predict Completion of an Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program

The present study was designed to determine the utility of pretreatment data in predicting completion and dropout from adolescent substance abuse treatment. One hundred thirty two consecutively admitted adolescents (mean age=16.4 years; 93 male subjects, 39 female subjects) with significant substance abuse were administered a battery of standardized substance abuse, psychopathology, and social questionnaires immediately after admission to an intensive, set-length substance abuse treatment program. Seventy-four adolescents completed the program. Using discriminant function analyses, five pretreatment measures were found to predict treatment completion in male subjects, including: greater severity of problems with alcohol; greater use of drugs other than alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco; higher degree of internalizing problems; and lower self-esteem. Significant predictors for completion by female subjects were not found. The role of treatment readiness and motivation for male subjects is examined, and the lack of significant findings for female subjects is discussed.
Orthogonal spreading with transmit diversity for multicarrier systems

In this paper we explore in a multicarrier system with different orthogonal spreading types two transmit diversity schemes, namely the Alamouti scheme and cyclic delay diversity. We compare both in different channel scenarios and also vary the interleaving for the spread data symbols. Finally, we show how to overcome the limits of orthogonal space–time block codes of orthogonal designs by combining the Alamouti scheme with the cyclic delay diversity scheme.
Automatic Quality of Life Prediction Using Electronic Medical Records

Health related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important variable used for prognosis and measuring outcomes in clinical studies and for quality improvement. We explore the use of a general pur-pose natural language processing system Metamap in combination with Support Vector Machines (SVM) for predicting patient responses on standardized HRQOL assessment instruments from text of physicians notes. We surveyed 669 patients in the Mayo Clinic diabetes registry using two instruments designed to assess functioning: EuroQoL5D and SF36/SD6. Clinical notes for these patients were represented as sets of medical concepts using Metamap. SVM classifiers were trained using various feature selection strategies. The best concordance between the HRQOL instruments and automatic classification was achieved along the pain dimension (positive agreement .76, negative agreement .78, kappa .54) using Metamap. We conclude that clinicians notes may be used to develop a surrogate measure of patients HRQOL status.
Real-time Botnet command and control characterization at the host level

A Botnet is a network of compromised machines which are controlled by a person called botmaster via a typical Command and Control (C&C) structure. Besides malicious activity on infected host, bots are employed to deliver attacks against outside targets including phishing, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and spamming. Counter measures against Botnet phenomenon are usually formed based on passive traffic analysis at network level. This limits encountering Botnets in a proactive manner. In this paper, we proposed a real-time approach which not only detects Botnet traffic on the host, but also can filter it from outgoing traffic in order to suppress the Botnet. Our approach works by detecting Botnet communication patterns which belongs to a centralized C&C structure. The capability of bot detection by real-time processing of host-related data solely, distinguishes our work from other existing approaches.
Population structure and conservation genetics of wild rice Oryza rufipogon (Poaceae): a region‐wide perspective from microsatellite variation

Oryza rufipogon Griff. is the most agriculturally important but seriously endangered wild rice species. To better estimate how genetic structure can be used to obtained a conservation perspective of the species, genetic variability at six polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci was examined. High levels of genetic variability were detected at six loci in 1245 individuals of 47 natural populations covering most of the species’ range in China (overall RS = 3.0740, HO = 0.2290, HS = 0.6700). Partitioning of genetic variability (FST = 0.246) showed that most microsatellite variation was distributed within populations. Significant departures from Hardy–Weinberg expectations and very strong linkage disequilibrium indicate a high degree of inbreeding in the species and severe subdivision within populations. A mean Nm value of 0.7662 suggested a limited gene flow among the assayed populations. Our study suggests that conservation and restoration genetics should focus in particular on the maintenance of historically significant processes such as high levels of outbreeding and gene flow and large effective population size in the species.
The Cauterization of Adhesions in Artificial Pneumothorax Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis under Thoracoscopic Control.

FOR about ten years I have been occupied with endoscopy of the serous cavities, peritoneum and pleura. At first, I was interested only in the diagnostic advantages which could be gained by such a method. In a case of ascites. after tapping and replacing the fluid by air, I could by endoscopy get a clear view of the abdominal organs. There was thus no difficulty in diagnosing liver cirrhosis, malignant tumour, Pick's disease, syphilis, &c. Further, in carcinoma and tuberculosis of the peritoneum, I could see changes characteristic of these diseases. After first performing endoscopy, or laparoscopy, only on patients with ascites, I have, during the last few years, to a larger extent, also carried out the examination on patients without ascites and thereby widened the sphere of the method considerably. I have further combined laparoscopy with simultaneous X-ray examination of the abdominal organs, with the air still left in the abdominal cavity, performing the latter according to the methods of Long, Weber and others. These methods of examination complement each other in a very successful way, especially with regard to disease of the liver and the spleen and the formation of adhesions in the abdominal cavity. It is not yet possible to judge how great a value they may obtain in practice. Without doubt, the predominant value of endoscopy centres around the examination of the pleural cavities, the so-called thoracoscopy. With regard to the chest cavity there is, as we know; nothing corresponding to exploratory laparotomy. Further, thoracoscopy is so simple a method that it can be performed without inconvenience in every exudative pleurisy which is available to a thoracocentesis. The ocular examination of the pleural surfaces is in most cases relatively complete. In cases of so-called idiopathic pleurisy I have also succeeded in finding distinct tubercles in most of them. In the differential diagnosis of tumours and pleurisy of other origin, thoracoscopy is likewise of no small value. After some practice it is at least possible, with some degree of certainty, to differentiate between tumour metastases and tuberculous changes. In doubtful cases one can by test-excision, under guidance of the
Analytical power allocation for a full duplex decode-and-forward relay channel

For a Rayleigh fading full-duplex decode-and-forward relay channel, we analytically derive optimum power allocation schemes subject to individual power constraints for the source and the relay. The optimization problem is taken over the source power and the relay power. It is proven that the optimization problem is concave for this scenario, and optimum power allocations are derived in a closed-form. Finally, the implications of the theoretical results are discussed through the graphs.
Telephone-Administered Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Exposure with response prevention and cognitive behavior therapy are widely recognized as effective treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Unfortunately, many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder - particularly those living in rural areas - do not have access to therapists providing these treatments. Accordingly, we investigated the efficacy of telephone-administered cognitive behavior therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Two open trials are reported, for a total of 33 people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (without major depression). The first trial consisted of 12 weeks on a waiting list followed by 12 weeks of treatment (delayed treatment). The second trial consisted of 12 weeks of immediate treatment. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms did not change during the waiting period. Symptoms declined from pre- to post-treatment, with gains maintained at 12-week follow-up. For the pooled sample our pre-to-post-treatment effect size was as large or larger than those obtained in other studies of reduced contact treatment, and similar to those of face-to-face exposure with response prevention. Our proportion of treatment dropouts tended to be lower than those of other reduced contact interventions. The results suggest that telephone-administered cognitive behavior therapy is effective and well-tolerated, at least for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder without major depression. It remains to be seen whether this treatment is safe and effective when comorbid major depression is present.
Brief Intervention Impact on Truant Youths' Marijuana Use: 18-Month Follow-Up.

and BI-Youth plus Parent) in comparison to Standard Truancy Services (control condition) on youth psychosocial functioning. Previous studies for this project have examined the diversity of the sample with regard to psychosocial problems (substance use, emotional, sexual, and behavioral issues) at baseline and over time. This is the first study from the BI project that examines the influence of BI treatment on future substance use. The present report describes the impact of BI services on the youths’ alcohol and marijuana use in an 18-month post-intervention follow-up period. Following a discussion of the method and our results, we consider their implications for intervention services.
High‐dose cisplatin for locally advanced or metastatic head and neck cancer. A phase ii pilot study

High‐dose cisplatin (40 mg/m2 every day × 5) was administered to 14 patients (11 men, three women) with locally advanced or metastatic head and neck cancer not curable by surgery or refractory to previous chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. All 14 patients were evaluable for toxicity; one patient was inevaluable for response due to early death. A total of 24 courses of therapy were administered. The dose‐limiting toxicity was myelosuppression with 73% of patients experiencing Grade III or IV neutropenia. Grade II or above thrombocytopenia occurred in 30% of the patients. Renal and neurologic toxicity was minimal. Two patients experienced laryngeal edema from vigorous hydration with one of them requiring a tracheostomy for respiratory compromise. Partial responses were seen in six patients (46%). Two of the six patients had received previous treatment with standard dose cisplatin. Two patients achieved long‐term responses (54+, 44+ months, respectively). Both of these patients were previously untreated, inoperable (T4N3MO, T3NIMO), and subsequently received radiation therapy after two cycles of chemotherapy. Median duration of response in the remaining responders was 3 months (range, 3‐10 months). High‐dose cisplatin may benefit selected patients with inoperable, advanced head and neck tumors. However, further randomized trials need to be conducted before firm conclusions can be established.
Don't be so emotional! How tone of voice and service type affect the relationship between message valence and consumer responses to WOM in social media

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the boundary conditions of the effect of the valence of word-of-mouth on social networking sites (sWOM) on consumer responses (attitude toward the service provider, purchase intention and positive word-of-mouth intention). Specifically, the authors examine two moderators: the tone of voice (factual vs emotional) of the sWOM and service type (utilitarian vs hedonic) of the service that the sWOM is about. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (message valence: positive vs negative) × 2 (tone of voice: factual vs emotional) × 2 (service type: utilitarian vs hedonic) full-factorial between-subjects online experiment with 400 respondents was conducted and the data were analyzed using Hayes’ PROCESS macro. Findings The results show that message valence exerts a greater impact on consumer responses with factual sWOM messages compared to emotional ones. Furthermore, the impact of message valence is stronger for hedonic services compared to utilitarian services. In contrast to the authors’ expectations, there is no significant impact of matching the tone of voice to the service type. Practical implications First, for sWOM senders, factual messages are found to be more influential: backing an sWOM up with arguments and specific details increases the chance of it affecting consumers’ responses. As a result, marketers, especially of predominantly hedonic services, should encourage their followers and customers to spread positive factual sWOM about their service. Originality/value The study tests two previously unstudied moderating variables that affect the relationship between message valence and consumer responses to sWOM messages. Moreover, this study provides interesting insights for marketers and bloggers or reviewers.
Veterans and suicide: a reexamination of the National Death Index-linked National Health Interview Survey.

OBJECTIVES We assessed the risk of suicide among veterans compared with nonveterans. METHODS Cox proportional hazards models estimated the relative risk of suicide, by self-reported veteran status, among 500,822 adult male participants in the National Death Index (NDI)-linked National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a nationally representative cohort study. RESULTS A total of 482 male veterans died by suicide during 1,837,886 person-years of follow-up (76% by firearm); 835 male nonveterans died by suicide during 4,438,515 person-years of follow-up (62% by firearm). Crude suicide rates for veterans and nonveterans were, respectively, 26.2 and 18.8 per 100,000 person-years. The risk of suicide was not significantly higher among veterans, compared with nonveterans, after adjustment for differences in age, race, and survey year (hazard ratio = 1.11; 95% confidence interval = 0.96, 1.29). CONCLUSIONS Consistent with most studies of suicide risk among veterans of conflicts before Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom, but in contrast to a previous study using the NDI-linked NHIS data, we found that male veterans responding to the NHIS were modestly, but not significantly, at higher risk for suicide compared with male nonveterans.