Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gemcitabine-based chemotherapy as a viable option for treatment of advanced breast cancer patients: a meta-analysis and literature review

This meta-analysis was designed to compare the efficacy and safety of gemcitabine-based regimens for the treatment advanced breast cancer (ABC). Altogether 15 studies involving 8195 ABC patients were retrieved for analysis. Compared with non-gemcitabine-based chemotherapies, patients receiving gemcitabine-based therapy exhibited better overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), and objective response rate (ORR) (HR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.19; HR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.30; HR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.24). Grade 3/4 hematologic toxicity was significantly high but manageable in gemcitabine-based groups. Subgroup analysis revealed that patients with first-line gemcitabine-based chemotherapy had better OS (HR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.32), PFS (HR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.27), and ORR (RR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.32). In addition, additional gemcitabine chemotherapy also showed better OS (HR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.30), PFS (HR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.30) and ORR (RR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.42) than gemcitabine replacement therapy. Furthermore, patients receiving gemcitabine-taxanes-based regimens had better OS (HR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.28), PFS (HR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.20) and ORR (RR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.35) than patients with non-gemcitabine-taxanes-based chemotherapy. These findings indicate that gemcitabine combination regimens could serve as a promising regimen for ABC patients, though increased hematologic toxicity should be considered with caution.
Oral Transmission of L-Type Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Agent among Cattle

To determine oral transmissibility of the L-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prion, we orally inoculated 16 calves with brain homogenates of the agent. Only 1 animal, given a high dose, showed signs and died at 88 months. These results suggest low risk for oral transmission of the L-BSE agent among cattle.
A comparison of RSV and influenza in vitro kinetic parameters reveals differences in infecting time

Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cause acute infections of the respiratory tract. Since the viruses both cause illnesses with similar symptoms, researchers often try to apply knowledge gleaned from study of one virus to the other virus. This can be an effective and efficient strategy for understanding viral dynamics or developing treatment strategies, but only if we have a full understanding of the similarities and differences between the two viruses. This study used mathematical modeling to quantitatively compare the viral kinetics of in vitro RSV and influenza virus infections. Specifically, we determined the viral kinetics parameters for RSV A2 and three strains of influenza virus, A/WSN/33 (H1N1), A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 (H1N1), and pandemic H1N1 influenza virus. We found that RSV viral titer increases at a slower rate and reaches its peak value later than influenza virus. Our analysis indicated that the slower increase of RSV viral titer is caused by slower spreading of the virus from one cell to another. These results provide estimates of dynamical differences between influenza virus and RSV and help provide insight into the virus-host interactions that cause observed differences in the time courses of the two illnesses in patients.
Prediction of Protein Pairs Sharing Common Active Ligands Using Protein Sequence, Structure, and Ligand Similarity

We benchmarked the ability of comparative computational approaches to correctly discriminate protein pairs sharing a common active ligand (positive protein pairs) from protein pairs with no common active ligands (negative protein pairs). Since the target and the off-targets of a drug share at least a common ligand, i.e., the drug itself, the prediction of positive protein pairs may help identify off-targets. We evaluated representative protein-centric and ligand-centric approaches, including (1) 2D and 3D ligand similarity, (2) several measures of protein sequence similarity in conjunction with different sequence sources (e.g., full protein sequence versus binding site residues), and (3) a newly described pocket shape similarity and alignment program called SiteHopper. While the sequence-based alignment of pocket residues achieved the best overall performance, SiteHopper outperformed sequence-based approaches for unrelated proteins with only 20-30% pocket residue identity. Analogously, among ligand-centric approaches, path-based fingerprints achieved the best overall performance, but ROCS-based ligand shape similarity outperformed path-based fingerprints for structurally dissimilar ligands (Tanimoto 25%-40%). A significant drop in recognition performance was observed for ligand-centric approaches when PDB ligands were used instead of ChEMBL ligands. Finally, we analyzed the relationship between pocket shape and ligand shape in our data set and found that similar ligands tend to bind to similar pockets while similar pockets may accept a range of different-shaped ligands.
Milk/dairy products consumption and gastric cancer: an update meta-analysis of epidemiological studies

The relationship between dairy consumption and gastric cancer risk has not been well studied. We therefore performed a update meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship. Published cohort and case-control studies were identified via computer searches and reviewing the reference lists of the key articles. Random effects meta-analysis was used to pool effects from 5 cohort and 29 case-control studies. The odds ratio for the overall association between dairy consumption and gastric cancer was 1.20 (95%confidence interval: 1.04–1.39). The combined risk estimate was similar for population-based case-control studies (odds ratio = 1.27, 95%confidence interval: 1.00–1.61), but was reduced for hospital-based studies (odds ratio = 1.22; 95%confidence interval: 0.95–1.57) and cohort studies (odds ratio = 0.99; 95%confidence interval: 0.77–1.28). There was high heterogeneity in overall analyses. In the population-based subgroup analyses, the odds ratio was 0.96 (95%confidence interval: 0.69–1.34) when considering five studies assessing exposure two or more years before interview, and the association strengthened (odds ratio = 1.91, 95%confidence interval: 1.60–2.28) when dairy consumption was evaluated one year or less prior to interview. In conclusion, we found adverse effect of dairy consumption associated with gastric cancer.
Recommender system techniques applied to Netflix movie data Research Paper Business Analytics

This paper contains the approach, methodology, elaboration, and evaluation of several common recommender system techniques, applied to Netflix ratings. The data contains many user ratings on a 1-5 Likert scale on different movies. The goal is to recommend movies to users which they have not watched yet. First, we start with a general introduction and discuss the recent work that has been done in this field, followed by a data preparation section where we explain the extension of the original data with features gathered from IMDb. Next, we will discuss collaborative filtering (item-based, user-based and singular value decomposition), content-based filtering, and hybrid filtering as techniques for a recommender system. After evaluating, the singular value decomposition model came out as the most suitable model for this dataset.
The Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Substandard Fitness in a Population-Based Firefighter Cohort

Objective: To examine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in firefighters. Methods: Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and body fat percentage (BF%) were assessed in 478 career and 199 volunteer male firefighters from randomly selected departments. Results: High prevalence rates of overweight + obesity (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) were found in career (79.5%; 33.5%) and volunteer firefighters (78.4%; 43.2%). False-positive obesity misclassification based on BMI, compared to waist circumference and BF%, was low (9.8% and 2.9%, respectively). False negatives were much higher: 32.9% and 13.0%. Obese firefighters demonstrated unfavorable cardiovascular disease (CVD) profiles. Conclusions: The prevalence of overweight and obesity exceeded that of the US general population. Contrary to common wisdom, obesity was even more prevalent when assessed by BF% than by BMI, and misclassifying muscular firefighters as obese by using BMI occurred infrequently.
Neuronal Regression of Internal Leg Vibroreceptor Organs in a Cave-Dwelling Insect (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae: Dolichopoda araneiformis)

Animals' adaptations to cave habitats generally include elaboration of extraoptic senses, and in insects the receptor structures located on the legs are supposed to become more prominent in response to constant darkness. The receptors for detecting substrate vibrations are often highly sensitive scolopidial sensilla localized within the legs or the body. For troglobitic insects the evolutionary changes in vibroreceptor organs have not been studied. Since rock is an extremely unfavorable medium for vibration transmission, selection on vibration receptors may be weakened in caves, and these sensory organs may undergo regressive evolution. We investigated the anatomy of the most elaborate internal vibration detection system in orthopteroid insects, the scolopidial subgenual organ complex in the cave cricket Dolichopoda araneiformis (Orthoptera: Ensifera: Rhaphidophoridae). This is a suitable model species which shows high levels of adaptation to cave life in terms of both phenotypic and life cycle characteristics. We compared our data with data on the anatomy and physiology of the subgenual organ complex from the related troglophilic species Troglophilus neglectus. In D. araneiformis, the subgenual organ complex contains three scolopidial organs: the subgenual organ, the intermediate organ, and the accessory organ. The presence of individual organs and their innervation pattern are identical to those found in T. neglectus, while the subgenual organ and the accessory organ of D. araneiformis contain about 50% fewer scolopidial sensilla than in T. neglectus. This suggests neuronal regression of these organs in D. araneiformis, which may reflect a relaxed selection pressure for vibration detection in caves. At the same time, a high level of overall neuroanatomical conservation of the intermediate organ in this species suggests persistence of the selection pressure maintaining this particular organ. While regressive evolution of chordotonal organs has been documented for insect auditory organs, this study shows for the first time that internal vibroreceptors can also be affected.
Stroke Prevention in the Very Elderly.

Stroke remains a common cause of death and disability in the very elderly (here defined as those aged 80 years and older), with about a third of all stroke occurring in this age bracket in high-income countries.1 There is uncertainty on the exact pattern of stroke type in extreme old age, because of potential poor ascertainment of very frail and institutionalized older people in prior studies. However, epidemiological and clinical trial data demonstrate an important increase in atrial fibrillation (AF) cardioembolic stroke in the very elderly.2,3 Important causes of hemorrhagic stroke in the very elderly are cerebral amyloid angiopathy and anticoagulant-related hemorrhagic stroke.4,5 Preventing, or delaying, stroke will be an important component in compressing morbidity, or increasing healthy life expectancy. For devotees of evidence-based medicine (including this author), the prevention of stroke in the very elderly is complex because of 3 main reasons: first, older people have been largely excluded by design (or by accident) from many randomized controlled trials (RCTs)6; second, the underlying causes of stroke change with aging; and final, there is a large body of evidence from geriatric medicine that potentially conflicts with usual stroke preventative measures, for example, data on frailty, polypharmacy, and falls.7 The exclusion of older people from RCTs is well known and has many causes. The age limit of 75 years in the statin trials was based on a misinterpretation of the early epidemiology,6 the 80-year-old age limit in the ECASS thrombolysis trials (European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study) was probably related to the practical organization of German neurology units at the time, when those aged 80 years were usually admitted under general medicine, and therefore the stroke neurologists simply had no access to these patients. Exclusion criteria that include the common diseases …
AtHMA4 Drives Natural Variation in Leaf Zn Concentration of Arabidopsis thaliana

Zinc (Zn) is an essential element for plant growth and development, and Zn derived from crop plants in the diet is also important for human health. Here, we report that genetic variation in Heavy Metal-ATPase 4 (HMA4) controls natural variation in leaf Zn content. Investigation of the natural variation in leaf Zn content in a world-wide collection of 349 Arabidopsis thaliana wild collected accessions identified two accessions, Van-0 and Fab-2, which accumulate significantly lower Zn when compared with Col-0. Both quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis and bulked segregant analysis (BSA) identified HMA4 as a strong candidate accounting for this variation in leaf Zn concentration. Genetic complementation experiments confirmed this hypothesis. Sequence analysis revealed that a 1-bp deletion in the third exon of HMA4 from Fab-2 is responsible for the lose of function of HMA4 driving the low Zn observed in Fab-2. Unlike in Fab-2 polymorphisms in the promoter region were found to be responsible for the weak function of HMA4 in Van-0. This is supported by both an expression analysis of HMA4 in Van-0 and through a series of T-DNA insertion mutants which generate truncated HMA4 promoters in the Col-0 background. In addition, we also observed that Fab-2, Van-0 and the hma4-2 null mutant in the Col-0 background show enhanced resistance to a combination of high Zn and high Cd in the growth medium, raising the possibility that variation at HMA4 may play a role in environmental adaptation.
Experiments Study for Scientific Texts Domain Keyword Acquisition

Scientific texts domain keyword is one of the basic elements of the text high-level semantics acquisition, domain ontology building and the knowledge representation in semantic grid, knowledge grid and escience environment. It is also the indispensable foundation and prerequisite work of Web scientific texts automatic classification, clustering and personalized services. TFIDF based TDDF formula is proposed to extract scientific texts domain keyword. The experiments proved that TDDF formula extracting texts domain keyword is superior to the classic TFIDF formula does. Above discussions and achievements can provide certain support not only for the establishment of semantic grid, knowledge grid and escience environment, but also for the Web knowledge acquisition, representation and text information retrieval and so on.
Differential serotonergic modulation across the main and accessory olfactory bulbs

There are serotonergic projections to both the main (MOB) and the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB). Current‐clamp experiments demonstrate that serotonergic afferents are largely excitatory for mitral cells (MCs) in the MOB where 5‐HT2A receptors mediate a direct excitatory action. Serotonergic afferents are predominately inhibitory for MCs in the AOB. There are two types of inhibition: indirect inhibition mediated through the 5‐HT2 receptors on GABAergic interneurons and direct inhibition via the 5‐HT1 receptors on MCs. Differential 5‐HT neuromodulation of MCs across the MOB and AOB could contribute to select behaviours such as olfactory learning or aggression.
THE USE OF AN INJECTABLE CALCIUM SULFATE/CALCIUM PHOSPHATE COMPOSITE IN THE TREATMENT OF OSTEONECROSIS OF THE FEMORAL HEAD

Core decompression is a common treatment for early stage osteonecrosis of the femoral head due to the simplicity of the procedure and the positive results of this intervention. A number of different core decompression methods exist: including methods backfilled by a bone graft material and those without filling. Due to the inherent desire that the core decompression defect regenerate healthy bone, reduce pain, and stave off the need for total hip arthroplasty for some period of time, this surgically created defect is an excellent application for the use of a bone graft substitute. Recently, an injectable calcium sulfate (CaSO 4 )/calcium phosphate (CaPO 4 ) composite graft has become available for use in the treatment of surgically created defects. The synthetic graft is an injectable composite of CaSO 4 , tricalcium phosphate (TCP) granules, and brushite that hardens in situ . The triphasic resorption pattern exhibited by this material in vitro and in pre-clinical canine studies has indicated that the CaSO 4 matrix resorbs at early time points to reveal a longer resorbing CaPO 4 scaffold for bone onlay. In a canine proximal humerus model, the use of this material in a critical bone defect has demonstrated a regenerate with higher compressive strength at 13 week time points than defects treated with CaSO 4 alone, defects treated with autograft, and normal untreated bone. By 26 weeks, the regenerated bone within the defect resembled normal bony architecture with similar mechanical properties. Early clinical series have indicated similar results to the canine studies. Reports of early clinical findings have included a 12 patient benign bone tumor series with 4–12 month follow up and a core decompression series of 38 Ficat stage I–III hips with 6–16 month follow up. Preliminary radiological results in the bone tumor series showed peripheral resorption of the injectable CaSO 4 /CaPO 4 composite with new bone formation along the resorbing edge. Clinically, patients in the bone cyst series have not experienced fractures or additional surgery and all patients have displayed full functional recovery. In the core decompression series, 32 of the 38 hips experienced pain relief and within the subset of 30 symptomatic hips, 24 had pain relief. These results, although preliminary, are promising outcomes. Collectively, the pre-clinical and preliminary clinical results indicate that the use of an injectable CaSO 4 /CaPO 4 composite could prove to be of benefit in core decompression of the femoral head. The staged resorption and dense bone formation evidenced in canine studies would be desirable in core decompression techniques where healthy bony ingrowth is the goal. Due to the straightforward compilation and use of this composite, the incorporation of this material as a backfill matrix into the core decompression procedure is technically simple. Although additional studies are certainly merited, these early clinical results are encouraging.
Vasomotor assessment by camera-based photoplethysmography

Abstract Camera-based photoplethysmography (cbPPG) is a novel technique that allows the contactless acquisition of cardio-respiratory signals. Previous works on cbPPG most often focused on heart rate extraction. This contribution is directed at the assessment of vasomotor activity by means of cameras. In an experimental study, we show that vasodilation and vasoconstriction both lead to significant changes in cbPPG signals. Our findings underline the potential of cbPPG to monitor vasomotor functions in real-life applications.
Fracture resistance of roots obturated with a novel calcium silicate-based endodontic sealer (BioRoot RCS)

Abstract The aim of this ex vivo study was to evaluate the vertical-fracture resistance of roots obturated with a newly developed tricalcium silicate cement (BioRoot RCS; Septodont, Saint Maur Des Fosses, France) using cold lateral compaction technique (LC) or matched-taper single-cone gutta-percha technique (SC). Decoronated 82 single-rooted mandibular premolars were chemo-mechanically prepared and then randomly divided into 6 experimental groups (n = 12) and 2 control groups (n = 5): Group 1 iRoot SP-LC; Group 2 iRoot SP-SC; Group 3 MTA Fillapex-LC; Group 4 MTA Fillapex-SC; Group 5 BioRoot RCS-LC and Group 6 BioRoot RCS-SC. In the positive-control group, roots were instrumented but not filled, and in the negative-control group, roots were neither instrumented nor filled. All samples were incubated for two weeks and then subjected to vertical loading force (1 mm/min) until fracture. The force required to fracture each specimen were determined, and the data were statistically analyzed. The highest significant fracture resistance was recorded for the iRoot SP-LC, iRoot SP-SC, BioRoot RCS-LC, and BioRoot RCS-SC groups, with no significant difference among them (p > 0.05) when compared with the positive-control group (p < 0.05), whereas the lowest significant values were observed in the MTA Fillapex-LC and MTA Fillapex-SC groups (p < 0.05). The vertical fracture resistance of roots obturated with BioRoot RCS and iRoot SP sealers using either LC or SC technique was found to be similar to that of intact teeth. BioRoot RCS, newly developed tricalcium silicate cement, might have the potential to reinforce the instrumented teeth against vertical root fracture.
Identification of LTV Dynamical Models with Smooth or Discontinuous Time Evolution by means of Convex Optimization

We establish a connection between trend filtering and system identification which results in a family of new identification methods for linear, time-varying (LTV) dynamical models based on convex optimization. We demonstrate how the design of the cost function promotes a model with either a continuous change in dynamics over time, or causes discontinuous changes in model coefficients occurring at a finite (sparse) set of time instances. We further discuss the introduction of priors on the model parameters for situations where excitation is insufficient for identification. The identification problems are cast as convex optimization problems and are applicable to, e.g., ARX models and state-space models with time-varying parameters. We illustrate usage of the methods in simulations of jump-linear systems, a nonlinear robot arm with non-smooth friction and stiff contacts as well as in model-based, trajectory centric reinforcement learning on a smooth nonlinear system.
A Two-Factor Asset Pricing Model and the Fat Tail Distribution of Firm Sizes

In the standard equilibrium and/or arbitrage pricing framework, the value of any asset is uniquely specified from the belief that only the systematic risks need to be remunerated by the market. Here, we show that, even for arbitrary large economies when the distribution of the capitalization of firms is sufficiently heavy-tailed as is the case of real economies, there may exist a new source of significant systematic risk, which has been totally neglected up to now but must be priced by the market. This new source of risk can readily explain several asset pricing anomalies on the sole basis of the internal-consistency of the market model. For this, we derive a theoretical two-factor model for asset pricing which has empirically a similar explanatory power as the Fama-French three-factor model. In addition to the usual market risk, our model accounts for a diversification risk, proxied by the equally-weighted portfolio, and which results from an ``internal consistency factor'' appearing for arbitrary large economies, as a consequence of the concentration of the market portfolio when the distribution of the capitalization of firms is sufficiently heavy-tailed as in real economies. Our model rationalizes the superior performance of the Fama and French three-factor model in explaining the cross section of stock returns: the size factor constitutes an alternative proxy of the diversification factor while the book-to-market effect is related to the increasing sensitivity of value stocks to this factor.