Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Activity of Celecoxib in Metastatic Malignant Melanoma

Cyclo-oxygenase-2 has been demonstrated in primary and metastatic melanoma suggesting that it may have a functional role and be a potential therapeutic target. Celecoxib, which was approved by Health Canada for familial adenomatous polyposis coli, was offered to 27 patients with surgically incurable recurrent melanoma, 87 percent of whom had stage M1c disease. In this case series, 6 patients had received prior systemic therapy and one had prior CancerVax. Tumor regressions were seen in 7 patients (2 complete regressions, 2 partial regressions, and 3 mixed stable/partial response). For all patients, median overall survival time from first incurable metastasis was 31.9 months, and median times to progressive disease and death from start of celecoxib were 4.3 months and 10.4 months, respectively. Further clinical evaluation of celecoxib in melanoma is warranted.
Tick transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi to inbred strains of mice induces an antibody response to P39 but not to outer surface protein A

Natural tick transmission of infection by Borrelia burgdorferi induces a very different serum antibody response than needle inoculation of spirochetes. We present data, obtained by using the mouse model, that show that the OspA response was barely detectable, whereas all animals developed significant anti-P39 titers after exposure to B. burgdorferi-infected ticks.
Behavioral and emotional problems among children of cocaine- and opiate-dependent parents.

OBJECTIVE To test associations between parental drug abuse and children's problems, children of cocaine- and opiate-dependent parents were compared with demographically matched referred and nonreferred children. METHOD Cocaine- and opiate-dependent parents in treatment completed the Child Behavior Checklist for 410 children (218 boys, 192 girls) from ages 2 through 18 years (mean = 7.9 years). Children of drug abusers (CDAs) were demographically matched to referred (RCs) and nonreferred children (NRCs). RESULTS RCs scored lower than CDAs and NRCs on most competence scales, and higher than CDAs and NRCs on all problem scales. CDAs scored lower than NRCs on most competence scales, and higher than NRCs on Withdrawn, Thought Problems, Delinquent Behavior, Aggressive Behavior, Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems. Group status also predicted clinical range scores on most competence and all problem scales. CONCLUSIONS CDAs showed more internalizing and externalizing psychopathology relative to matched NRCs, but they showed significantly less psychopathology than shown by matched RCs. CDAs are an important group to target for preventive interventions.
Effect of Kava and Valerian on human physiological and psychological responses to mental stress assessed under laboratory conditions

This study investigated whether kava or valerian could moderate the effects of psychological stress induced under laboratory conditions in a group of healthy volunteers. Fifty‐four participants performed a standardized colour/word mental stress task on two occasions 1 week apart. Blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) and subjective ratings of pressure were assessed at rest and during the mental stress task. Following the first session (time 1 = T1), individuals took a standard dose of kava (n = 18), or valerian (n = 18) for 7 days, while the remainder acted as controls (n = 18). Differences in BP and HR from resting levels were calculated as reactions to the stress task at both time points. At the second session (time 2 = T2) there was a significant decrease in systolic BP responsivity in both the kava and valerian groups relative to T1, but there were no significant reductions in diastolic BP. Between T1 and T2, the HR reaction to mental stress was found to decline in the valerian group but not in the kava group. Individuals taking kava or valerian reported less pressure during the task at T2 relative to T1. There were no significant differences in BP, HR or subjective reports of pressure between T1 and T2 in the controls. Behavioural performance on the colour/word task did not change between the groups over the two time points. The results suggest that kava and valerian may be beneficial to health by reducing physiological reactivity during stressful situations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Unreported intrinsic disorder in proteins: Disorder emergency room

This article continues an “Unreported Intrinsic Disorder in Proteins” series, the goal of which is to expose some interesting cases of missed (or overlooked, or ignored) disorder in proteins. The need for this series is justified by the observation that despite the fact that protein intrinsic disorder is widely accepted by the scientific community, there are still numerous instances when appreciation of this phenomenon is absent. This results in the avalanche of research papers which are talking about intrinsically disordered proteins (or hybrid proteins with ordered and disordered regions) not recognizing that they are talking about such proteins. Articles in the “Unreported Intrinsic Disorder in Proteins” series provide a fast fix for some of the recent noticeable disorder overlooks.
Stage of breast cancer in relation to body mass index and bra cup size

Most studies on women with breast cancer indicate that obesity is positively associated with late‐stage disease. Some results have shown a similar relationship between breast size and stage. A recent study found that the association between body mass index (BMI) and stage was limited to cancers that were self‐detected, suggesting that the BMI‐stage relation may be due to delayed symptom recognition. We examined the relationships between stage and both BMI and breast (bra cup) size, stratified by method of detection, using data from a population‐based case‐control study of 1,361 women (ages 20–44 years) diagnosed with breast cancer during 1990–1992. Height and weight measurements and information on bra cup size, method of cancer detection and other factors predictive of stage at diagnosis were collected during in‐person interviews. A case‐case comparison was conducted using logistic regression to estimate odds of regional or distant stage rather than local stage in relation to BMI and bra size. Odds of late‐stage disease were increased with higher BMI [adjusted odds ratio (OR) for highest to lowest tertile = 1.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10–1.93] and larger bra cup size (OR for cup D vs. cup A = 1.61, 95% CI 1.04–2.48). These relationships were not modified by the method of detection. Differences in etiologic effects, rather than differences in detection methods, may explain the relations observed between stage and both BMI and breast size. Int. J. Cancer 82:23–27, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Chemotherapy-Associated Toxicity in a Large Cohort of Elderly Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Background: The objective of this study was to examine the risks for short-term (≤3 months) and long-term (>3 months) chemotherapy-associated toxicities in a large population-based cohort of patients with non-small cell lung cancer from 1991 to 2002. Methods: The population consisted of 41,361 men and 30,804 women ≥65 years identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results—Medicare-linked database. The incidence of 50 toxicity-associated end points was calculated for 14 chemotherapy agents. Short- and long-term toxicities with a ≥2-fold increase in incidence compared with the no-chemotherapy group were defined as chemotherapy-associated toxicities. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the risk of toxicity were calculated for the four most common chemotherapy agents for non-small cell lung cancer: cisplatin/carboplatin, paclitaxel, vinorelbine/vinblastine, and gemcitabine. Results: The most common short-term toxicities (9.2–60%) included acute anemia, nausea, and neutropenia. The most common long-term toxicities (15–37%) included acute anemia, respiratory failure, pulmonary fibrosis, dehydration, neutropenia, nausea, and fever. Multivariate analysis for selected chemotherapies demonstrated that after adjusting for other risk factors and confounders, some short-term toxicities became nonsignificant; however, almost all long-term toxicities remained significant. Long-term toxicity increased over time and was more likely in women, minority populations, those with fewer baseline comorbidities, and across disease stages. Conclusions: The administration of various chemotherapy agents for non-small cell lung was associated with a number of short- and long-term toxicities. The projected survival benefits of chemotherapy must be weighed against the risk of long-term toxicities.
Virtual Instrumentation Applied to Monitoring a Sensor Platform - Virtual Instrumentation based on Computer Supported Education

A virtual instrument is a system formed by a computer and an equipment of measurement or command which uses a program executed in the computer. The real equipment is accessible to the operator by the graphic interface of the employed software. The monitoring of sensors in the test platform uses a HMI (Human Machine Interface) developed in the software LabVIEW. The experimental tests with sensor platform allow the students perform experiments on-line for monitoring the observed signal in the output
Multiattribute and Single‐Attribute Utility Functions for the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 System

Background. The Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) is a generic multiattribute preference‐based measure of health status and health‐related quality of life that is widely used as an outcome measure in clinical studies, in population health surveys, in the estimation of quality‐adjusted life years, and in economic evaluations. HUI3 consists of eight attributes (or dimensions) of health status: vision, hearing, speech, ambulation, dexterity, emotion, cognition, and pain with 5 or 6 levels per attribute, varying from highly impaired to normal. Objectives. The objectives are to present a multiattribute utility function and eight single‐attribute utility functions for the HUI3 system based on community preferences. Study Design. Two preference surveys were conducted. One, the modeling survey, collected preference scores for the estimation of the utility functions. The other, the direct survey, provided independent scores to assess the predictive validity of the utility functions. Measures. Preference measures included value scores obtained on the Feeling Thermometer and standard gamble utility scores obtained using the Chance Board. Respondents. A random sample of the general population (≥16 years of age) in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Results. Estimates were obtained for eight single‐attribute utility functions and an overall multiattribute utility function. The intraclass correlation coefficient between directly measured utility scores and scores generated by the multiattribute function for 73 health states was 0.88. Conclusions. The HUI3 scoring function has strong theoretical and empirical foundations. It performs well in predicting directly measured scores. The HUI3 system provides a practical way to obtain utility scores based on community preferences.
Land allocation policy and conservat ion practices in the mountains of Northern Vietnam

In Vietnam, a quasi-private property regime has been established in 1993, with the issuance exchangeable and mortgageable land use right certificates. Using primary qualitative and quantitative data, this paper investigates the role of the titling policy in fostering the use of soil conservation practices by upland farmers in the northern mountains region. There, population growth and growing market demands have induced farmers to intensify agricultural production onto steep slopes. While poverty has been reduced, environmental problems such as soil erosion, landslides, and de clining soil fertility have become severe over the past years. Our findings suggest that soil conservation technologies although relatively well known are perceived as being economically unattractive. Focusing on agroforestry, we estimate household and plot level econometric models to empirically assess the determinants of adoption. We find that the possession of a formal land title influences adoption, but that the threat of land re-allocations in villages creates uncertainty and discourages this type of investment. We conclude that more efforts are needed from decision-makers to promote and support the adoption of conservation practices and also to clarify objectives of the land policy in order to secure land tenure and initiate a more sustainable development in fragile areas.
IN THE BEGINNING : Domain-Specific Topics and Grand Theories of Consumer Behavior

Itamar Simonson,1 Ziv Carmon,2 Ravi Dhar,3 Aimee Drolet,4 and Stephen M. Nowlis5 1Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5015; e-mail: simonsonitamar@gsb.stanford. edu 2INSEAD, 77305 Fountainbleau Cedex, France; e-mail: ziv.carmon@insead.fr 3School of Management, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; e-mail: ravi.dhar@yale.edu 4Anderson School of Management, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90048; e-mail: aimee.drolet@anderson.ucla. edu 5College of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287; e-mail: stephen.nowlis@asu.edu
P3I-1 Functional Ultrasound Contrast of Renal Tumors in a Mouse Model

The goal of this work is to apply ultrasonic contrast techniques for noninvasive, in vivo, monitoring of Wilms' tumor angiogenesis in the mouse. Tumors were induced by renal subcapsular injection of human tumor cells in nude mice (N = 56). At 18, 21, 27 and 28 days after tumor-cell injection, contrast imaging was performed with an Acuson Sequoia (7-14 MHz, contrast pulse sequence mode). Estimates of the characteristic refill time and fractional blood volume of tumors were obtained from fitting destruction/reperfusion curves to the established model. The fractional blood volume was between 0.002 and 0.8 times that in the cortex. The transit time was on the order of 3 times slower in the tumor than the cortex. The fractional blood volume in the tumor tended to increase as the % of nonnecrotic tissue in the tumor (r2 = 0.38, p < 0.05) and the MVD (r2 = 0.46, p < 0.01) increased. Validation of contrast ultrasound techniques in this model represents an important step towards their application for the noninvasive evaluation of different therapeutic approaches
Density fluctuations during crystallization of colloids.

Long-wavelength density fluctuations are recorded by small-angle light scattering during the crystallization of hard colloidal spheres. Measured structure factors show approximate scaling with a peak at finite scattering vectors. The time dependences of the peak intensity and the wave vector clearly reveal two different crystallization regimes. For samples near melting density, we find diffusion limited growth at small times and Lifshitz-Slyozov ripening at large times. Growth exponents in the ripening process seem to increase for higher densities. All measurements demonstrate a strong coupling of the observed conserved density parameter to the nonconserved crystal-order parameter
Fusarium Infection in Lung Transplant Patients: Report of 6 Cases and Review of the Literature

Fusarium is a fungal pathogen of immunosuppressed lung transplant patients associated with a high mortality in those with severe and persistent neutropenia. The principle portal of entry for Fusarium species is the airways, and lung involvement almost always occurs among lung transplant patients with disseminated infection. In these patients, the immunoprotective mechanisms of the transplanted lungs are impaired, and they are, therefore, more vulnerable to Fusarium infection. As a result, fusariosis occurs in up to 32% of lung transplant patients. We studied fusariosis in 6 patients following lung transplantation who were treated at Massachusetts General Hospital during an 8-year period and reviewed 3 published cases in the literature. Cases were identified by the microbiology laboratory and through discharge summaries. Patients presented with dyspnea, fever, nonproductive cough, hemoptysis, and headache. Blood tests showed elevated white blood cell counts with granulocytosis and elevated inflammatory markers. Cultures of Fusarium were isolated from bronchoalveolar lavage, blood, and sputum specimens. Treatments included amphotericin B, liposomal amphotericin B, caspofungin, voriconazole, and posaconazole, either alone or in combination. Lung involvement occurred in all patients with disseminated disease and it was associated with a poor outcome. The mortality rate in this group of patients was high (67%), and of those who survived, 1 patient was treated with a combination of amphotericin B and voriconazole, 1 patient with amphotericin B, and 1 patient with posaconazole. Recommended empirical treatment includes voriconazole, amphotericin B or liposomal amphotericin B first-line, and posaconazole for refractory disease. High-dose amphotericin B is recommended for treatment of most cases of fusariosis. The echinocandins (for example, caspofungin, micafungin, anidulafungin) are generally avoided because Fusarium species have intrinsic resistance to them. Treatment should ideally be based on the Fusarium isolate, susceptibility testing, and host-specific factors. Prognosis of fusariosis in the immunocompromised is directly related to a patient's immune status. Prevention of Fusarium infection is recommended with aerosolized amphotericin B deoxycholate, which also has activity against other important fungi. Abbreviations BAL = bronchoalveolar lavage, BDG = 1→3 &bgr;-D-Glucan, CT = computed tomography, FSSC = Fusarium solani species complex, G-CSF = granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, GM-CSF = granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, MALDI-TOF = matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight, MIC = minimum inhibitory concentration, PCR = polymerase chain reaction, TEF = translation elongation factor.
Finding the model parameters of photovoltaic (PV) modules by a novel modified differential evolution algorithm

We use the novel modified differential evolution (NMDE) algorithm algorithm to determine the model parameters of photovoltaic modules in this paper. NMDE is a new proposed DE variation, and each solution has its own scale factor and crossover rate. In detail, for each solution vector, its own scale factor and crossover rate are adaptively adjusted in terms of the corresponding values of all successful solutions. In addition, if it is continuously at a standstill during a fixed number of iterations SP (Stagnation period), its scale factor and crossover rate will be randomly generated according to normal distribution. Experimental results show that NMDE is an effective method on finding suitable parameters of PV model.
Self-hypnosis reduces anxiety following coronary artery bypass surgery. A prospective, randomized trial.

OBJECTIVE The role of complementary medicine techniques has generated increasing interest in today's society. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effects of one technique, self-hypnosis, and its role in coronary artery bypass surgery. We hypotesize that self-hypnosis relaxation techniques will have a positive effect on the patient's mental and physical condition following coronary artery bypass surgery. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN A prospective, randomized trial was conducted. Patients were followed beginning one day prior to surgery until the time of discharge from the hospital. SETTING The study was conducted at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, a large tertiary care teaching institution. PATIENTS All patients undergoing first-time elective coronary artery bypass surgery were eligible. A total of 32 patients were randomized into two groups. INTERVENTIONS The study group was taught self-hypnosis relaxation techniques preoperatively, with no therapy in the control group. MEASURES Outcome variables studied included anesthetic requirements, operative parameters, postoperative pain medication requirements, quality of life, hospital stay, major morbidity and mortality. RESULTS Patients who were taught self-hypnosis relaxation techniques were significantly more relaxed postoperatively compared to the control group (p=0.032). Pain medication requirements were also significantly less in patients practising the self-hypnosis relaxation techniques that those who were noncompliant (p=0.046). No differences were noted in intraoperative parameters, morbidity or mortality. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates the beneficial effects self-hypnosis relaxation techniques on patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery. It also provides a framework to study complementary techniques and the limitations encountered.
A new boost type cascaded inverter with single DC source

Cascaded multilevel inverters with Y-connection or Delta-connection have been proposed for high voltage applications. However, these topologies always require isolated transformers for each inverter cell, which makes cost high and wiring complex. Furthermore, system weight and volume also increase accordingly. This paper presents two new types of boost type delta-connection cascaded inverters with only a single DC source. Based on it, a suitable voltage control with PWM modulation is also proposed to improve the inverter control performance and DC capacitors voltage fluctuation. Verification has been carried out by simulation with MATLAB.
Expression, biotinylation and purification of a biotin-domain peptide from the biotin carboxy carrier protein of Escherichia coli acetyl-CoA carboxylase.

A protein segment consisting of the C-terminal 87 residues of the biotin carboxy carrier protein from Escherichia coli acetyl-CoA carboxylase was overexpressed in E. coli. The expressed biotin-domain peptide can be fully biotinylated by coexpression with a plasmid that overproduces E. coli biotin ligase. The extent of biotinylation was limited in vivo, but could be taken to completion in cell lysates on addition of ATP and biotin. We used the coexpression of biotin ligase and acceptor protein to label the biotin-domain peptide in vitro with [3H]biotin, which greatly facilitated development of a purification procedure. The apo (unbiotinylated) form of the protein was prepared by induction of biotin-domain expression in a strain lacking the biotin-ligase-overproduction plasmid. The apo domain could be separated from the biotinylated protein by ion-exchange chromatography or non-denaturing PAGE, and was converted into the biotinylated form of the peptide on addition of purified biotin ligase. The identify of the purified biotin-domain peptide was confirmed by N-terminal sequence analysis, amino acid analysis and m.s. The domain was readily produced and purified in sufficient quantities for n.m. r. structural analysis.
HEAT TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT OF HEAT EXCHANGER INSERTED TWISTED PLATES FOR CARBON DIOXIDE GAS

Overall heat transfer coefficients of the heat exchanger inserted twisted plates for CO 2 were measured. The overall heat transfer coefficients increased with mass flow rates of water at the same Reynolds number in the experiment. It is considered that the helically twisting fluid motions in the twisted heat exchanger were contributed to the heat transfer enhancements.