Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cisplatin and etoposide regimen is superior to cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and vincristine regimen in small-cell lung cancer: results from a randomized phase III trial with 5 years' follow-up.

PURPOSE To investigate whether chemotherapy with etoposide and cisplatin (EP) is superior to cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and vincristine (CEV) in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 436 eligible patients were randomized to chemotherapy with EP (n = 218) or CEV (n = 218). Patients were stratified according to extent of disease (limited disease [LD], n = 214; extensive disease [ED], n = 222). The EP group received five courses of etoposide 100 mg/m(2) intravenously (IV) and cisplatin 75 mg/m(2) IV on day 1, followed by oral etoposide 200 mg/m(2) daily on days 2 to 4. The CEV group received five courses of epirubicin 50 mg/m(2), cyclophosphamide 1,000 mg/m(2), and vincristine 2 mg, all IV on day 1. In addition, LD patients received thoracic radiotherapy concurrent with chemotherapy cycle 3, and those achieving complete remission during the treatment period received prophylactic cranial irradiation. RESULTS The treatment groups were well balanced with regard to age, sex, and prognostic factors such as weight loss, and performance status. The 2- and 5-year survival rates in the EP arm (14% and 5%, P =.0004) were significantly higher compared with those in the CEV arm (6% and 2%). Among LD patients, median survival time was 14.5 months versus 9.7 months in the EP and CEV arms, respectively (P =.001). The 2- and 5-year survival rates of 25% and 10% in the EP arm compared with 8% and 3% in the CEV arm (P =.0001). For ED patients, there was no significant survival difference between the treatment arms. Quality-of-life assessments revealed no major differences between the randomized groups. CONCLUSION EP is superior to CEV in LD-SCLC patients. In ED-SCLC patients, the benefits of EP and CEV chemotherapy seem equivalent, with similar survival time and quality of life.
CRAB 2.0: A text mining tool for supporting literature review in chemical cancer risk assessment

Chemical cancer risk assessment is a literature-dependent task which could greatly benefit from text mining support. In this paper we describe CRAB ‐ the first publicly available tool for supporting the risk assessment workflow. CRAB, currently at version 2.0, facilitates the gathering of relevant literature via PubMed queries as well as semantic classification, statistical analysis and efficient study of the literature. The tool is freely available as an in-browser application.
Transcriptional Regulation of Connective Tissue Metabolism Genes in Women With Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Objective The aim of this study was to compare differences in expressions and relationships between key genes involved in extracellular matrix metabolism and tissue cellularity in women with and without pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Methods A total of 80 biopsies (anterior cuff, posterior cuff, and/or leading edge) were obtained from 30 women: n = 10 premenopausal without POP (controls), n = 10 premenopausal with POP, and n = 10 postmenopausal with POP. Quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to assess gene expression of bone morphogenetic protein 1 (BMP1), collagen types I (COL1) and III (COL3), relaxin family peptide receptor 1 (RXFP1), matrix metallopeptidase 2, and TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitors 2 and 3. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to assess cellularity of the connective tissue layer. Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson correlation, or linear regression analyses were used, as appropriate. Results Bone morphogenetic protein 1 expression was significantly up-regulated in patients with POP compared with controls. Bone morphogenetic protein 1 expression was correlated with COL1 expression in all groups but only correlated with TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 3 expression in controls. Similarly, COL3 expression was correlated with RXFP1 expression in women with POP but not in controls. The degree of dependence (slope of the regression line) between COL1 and COL3 expressions was significantly elevated in premenopausal women with POP compared with the other 2 groups. The slopes between COL1-COL3, COL3–matrix metallopeptidase 2, COL1-RXFP1, and COL3-RXFP1 expressions were significantly lower in postmenopausal women compared with premenopausal women with POP. No differences were found in overall tissue cellularity. Conclusions Bone morphogenetic protein 1 expression may play a significant role in the pathophysiology of POP. The finding that BMP1 expression was correlated with COL1 expression in all groups suggests a conserved association between BMP1 and collagen synthesis in the vaginal wall. The elevated slope between COL1 and COL3 expressions may be associated with early (premenopausal) development of POP. The expression of RXFP1 in postmenopausal women and its altered intergene regulation suggests a role for RXFP1 in connective tissue metabolism outside pregnancy.
Decentralized diagnosis of Petri nets

In this paper we deal with the problem of failure diagnosis of discrete event systems with decentralized information. The decentralized architecture that we use is composed by a set of sites communicating their diagnosis information with a coordinator that is responsible of detecting the occurrence of failures in the system. In particular, we define two protocols that differ for the amount of information exchanged between the local sites and the coordinator, and the rules adopted by the coordinator to compute the global diagnosis states.
Boosted of Haar-like Features and Local Binary Pattern Based Face Detection

Effective and real time face detection has been made possible by using the method of rectangle Haar-like features with AdaBoost learning and cascade of the strong classifiers since Viola and Jones' work. After that, Rainer Lienhart had improved Viola and Jones' work by extending set of Haar-like features. However, it still has drawbacks; the detection results often have high false positives. In A. Hadid et al. have used local binary pattern (LBP) method for face description and they applied effectively in face detection problem. However, it is slow. Therefore, it is difficult to apply in real time applications. In this work, we proposed an approach to combine a boosted of Haar-like features and LBP to achieve a good trade-off between two extreme. The system, which is built from proposed model, is conducted on MIT + CMU test set. Experimental results show that our method performs favorably compared to state of the art methods.
Noisy channel-output feedback capacity of the linear deterministic interference channel

In this paper, the capacity region of the two-user linear deterministic (LD) interference channel with noisy output feedback (IC-NOF) is fully characterized. This result allows the identification of several asymmetric scenarios in which implementing channel-output feedback in only one of the transmitter-receiver pairs is as beneficial as implementing it in both links, in terms of achievable individual rate and sum-rate improvements w.r. t. the case without feedback. In other scenarios, the use of channel-output feedback in any of the transmitter-receiver pairs benefits only one of the two pairs in terms of achievable individual rate improvements or simply, it turns out to be useless, i.e., the capacity regions with and without feedback turn out to be identical even in the full absence of noise in the feedback links.
Nonvolatile memory device and memory array

An NVM(non-volatile memory) device is provided to simplify the structure of a cell by eliminating the necessity for a separate switching device such as a transistor or a diode in a unit cell structure. A first-type semiconductor oxide layer(22) is formed on a lower electrode. A second-type semiconductor oxide layer(23) is formed on the first-type semiconductor oxide layer. An upper electrode is formed on the second-type semiconductor oxide layer. The first-type or second-type semiconductor oxide layer can be made of a p-type or n-type semiconductor. The first-type or second-type semiconductor oxide layer can be made of a transition metal oxide.
The production of Mandarin coarticulated tones by inexperienced and experienced English speakers of Mandarin

This study tested the effects of language learning experience, tonal environment, tonal context and syllable position on American English speakers’ ability to produce Mandarin Chinese coarticulated tones in disyllabic words. Two groups of learners with different amount of classroom learning experience participated in the study. The results obtained indicated that (a) American learners with more learning experience were more accurate than less experienced learners in producing coarticulated Mandarin tones; (b) with increased experience, production of coarticulated tone becomes less affected by such phonological and phonetic factors as syllable position and tonal environment and tonal contexts; (c) tonal environment and tonal context only affected tone 1 production; and (d) syllable position affected tone 2 and tone 4 production accuracy.
Normalization of leaky gut in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is accompanied by a clinical improvement: effects of age, duration of illness and the translocation of LPS from gram-negative bacteria.

BACKGROUND There is now evidence that an increased translocation of LPS from gram negative bacteria with subsequent gut-derived inflammation, i.e. induction of systemic inflammation and oxidative & nitrosative stress (IO&NS), is a new pathway in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). METHODS The present study examines the serum concentrations of IgA and IgM to LPS of gram-negative enterobacteria, i.e. Hafnia Alvei; Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Morganella Morganii, Pseudomonas Putida, Citrobacter Koseri, and Klebsielle Pneumoniae in CFS patients both before and after intake of natural anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative substances (NAIOSs), such as glutamine, N-acetyl cysteine and zinc, in conjunction with a leaky gut diet during 10-14 months. We measured the above immune variables as well as the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Rating Scale in 41 patients with CFS before and 10-14 months after intake of NAIOSs. RESULTS Subchronic intake of those NAIOSs significantly attenuates the initially increased IgA and IgM responses to LPS of gram negative bacteria. Up to 24 patients showed a significant clinical improvement or remission 10-14 months after intake of NAIOSs. A good clinical response is significantly predicted by attenuated IgA and IgM responses to LPS, the younger age of the patients, and a shorter duration of illness (< 5 years). DISCUSSION The results show that normalization of the IgA and IgM responses to translocated LPS may predict clinical outcome in CFS. The results support the view that a weakened tight junction barrier with subsequent gut-derived inflammation is a novel pathway in CFS and that it is a new target for drug development in CFS. Meanwhile, CFS patients with leaky gut can be treated with specific NAIOSs and a leaky gut diet.
Virulence Properties of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli (STEC) Strains of Serogroup O118, a Major Group of STEC Pathogens in Calves

ABSTRACT Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains of serogroup O118 are the most prevalent group among STEC strains in diarrheic calves in Germany (L. H. Wieler, Ph.D. thesis, University of Giessen, 1997). To define their virulence properties, 42 O118 (O118:H16 [n = 38] and O118:H− [n = 4]) strains were characterized. The strains displayed three different Stx combinations (Stx1 [36 of 42], Stx1 and Stx2 [2 of 42], and Stx2 [4 of 42]). A total of 41 strains (97.6%) harbored a large virulence-associated plasmid containinghly EHEC (hly from enterohemorrhagicE. coli). The strains’ adhesive properties varied in relation to the eukaryotic cells tested. Only 28 of 42 strains (66.7%) showed localized adhesion (LA) in the human HEp-2 cell line. In contrast, in bovine fetal calf lung (FCL) cells, the number of LA-positive strains was much higher (37 of 42 [88.1%]). The locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) was detected in 41 strains (97.6%). However, not all LEE-positive strains reacted positively in the fluorescence actin-staining (FAS) test, which indicated the attaching and effacing (AE) lesion. In HEp-2 cells, only 22 strains (52.4%) were FAS positive, while in FCL cells, the number of FAS-positive strains was significantly higher (38 of 42 [90.5%; P < 0.001]). In conclusion, the vast majority of the O118 STEC strains from calves (41 of 42 [97.6%]) have a high virulence potential (stx, hly EHEC, and LEE). This virulence potential and the high prevalence of STEC O118 strains in calves suggest that these strains could be a major health threat for humans in the future. In addition, the poor association between results of the geno- and phenotypical tests to screen for the AE ability of STEC strains calls the diagnostic value of the FAS test into question.
Free-floating intracardiac mass after cardiopulmonary bypass for aortic valve replacement.

A 58-year-old woman presented for aortic valve (AV) replacement (AVR) because of a severely calcified bicuspid AV with a peak gradient of 99 mm Hg and an AV area of 0.58 cm on preoperative transthoracic echocardiogram. Consent for publication of this case has been obtained from the patient. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) demonstrated a severely calcified AV (valve area 0.56 cm) measured by continuity equation and peak and mean gradients were verified using continuous-wave Doppler through the AV in the deep transgastric view. Moderate aortic regurgitation was also observed. The left ventricle (LV) was moderately depressed and hypertrophied; LV septal and posterior wall thickness equaled 15 mm. The mitral valve revealed trace regurgitation with moderate mitral annular calcification, including calcification of the leaflets but sparing of the subvalvular apparatus (Video 1, see Supplemental Digital Content 1,
Developing a serious game for cognitive assessment: choosing settings and measuring performance

Gamification and serious games are becoming increasingly important for training, wellness, and other applications. How can games be developed for non-traditional gaming populations such as the elderly, and how can gaming be applied in non-traditional areas such as cognitive assessment? The application that we were interested in is detection of cognitive impairment in the elderly. Example use cases where gamified cognitive assessment might be useful are: prediction of delirium onset risk in emergency departments and postoperative hospital wards; evaluation of recovery from stroke in neuro-rehabilitation; monitoring of transitions from mild cognitive impairment to dementia in long-term care. With the rapid increase in cognitive disorders in many countries, inexpensive methods of measuring cognitive status on an ongoing basis, and to large numbers of people, are needed. In order to address this challenge we have developed a novel game-based method of cognitive assessment. In this paper, we present findings from a usability study conducted on the game that we developed for measuring changes in cognitive status. We report on the game's ability to predict cognitive status under varying game parameters, and we introduce a method to calibrate the game that takes into account differences in speed and accuracy, and in motor coordination. Recommendations concerning the development of serious games for cognitive assessment are made, and detailed recommendations concerning future development of the whack-a-mole game are also provided.
Adaptive Affine Sequence Alignment Using Algebraic Dynamic Programming

A core issue in machine learning is the classification of data. However, for data structures that can not easily be summarized in a feature representation, standard vectorial approaches are not suitable. An alternative approach is to represent the data not by features, but by their similarities or disimilarities to each other. In the case of sequential data, dissimilarities can be efficiently calculated by well-established alignment distances. Recently, techniques have been put forward to adapt the parameters of such alignment distances to the specific data set at hand, e.g. using gradient descent on a cost function. In this thesis we provide a comprehensive theory for gradient descent on alignment distance based on Algebraic Dynamic Programming, enabling us to adapt even sophisticated alignment distances. We focus on Affine Sequence Alignment, which we optimize by gradient descent on the Large Margin Nearest Neighbor cost function. Thereby we directly optimize the classification accuracy of the popular k-Nearest Neighbor classifier. We present a free software implementation of this theory, the TCS Alignment Toolbox, which we use for the subsequent experiments. Our experiments entail alignment distance learning on three diverse data sets (two artificial ones and one real-world example), yielding not only an increase in classification accuracy but also interpretable resulting parameter settings.
Contribution of protozoa to lysine synthesis in the in vitro rumen microbial ecosystem

Isotopic tracer experiments were conducted in vitro to determine contribution of protozoa toward the biosynthesis of lysine in the rumen microbial ecosystem. The presence of protozoa in a rumen microbial suspension always increased lysine synthesis from aspartate. Rumen contents from a faunated goat produced a higher amount of lysine than did those from a defaunated one.
Thyme: Improving Smartphone Prompt Timing Through Activity Awareness

Smartphone prompts and notifications are popular because they provide users with timely and important information. However, they can also be an annoyance if they pop up at inopportune times and interrupt important tasks. In this paper, we introduce Thyme, an intelligent notification front end that uses activity recognition and machine learning to identify the best times to prompt smartphone users. We evaluate the performance of an activity-aware prompting approach based on 47 participants with fixed time and Thyme-based prompts. Our results show that responsiveness improves from 12.8% to 93.2% using this intelligent approach to the timing of smartphone-based prompts.
An Alternative Strategy for Estimation of a Nonlinear Model of the Term Structure of Interest Rates

This paper develops and tests a nonlinear general equilibrium model of the term structure of interest rates based on the framework of Cox, Ingersoll and Ross (CIR, 1985). The contributions of this paper to the literature are both theoretical and empirical. The theoretical advantages of the general equilibrium model developed in this paper over the CIR model are (a) the risk premium is endogenously derived as a nonlinear function of the instantaneous interest rate. The nonlinear model shows that the term premium need not be strictly increasing in maturity as in CIR's model; it can be either increasing or humped, a result that is consistent with recent findings by Fama (1984) and McCulloch (1987). A partial differential equation for valuing the discount bond price is presented, and a closed-form expression is derived. In an empirical application of the model, we develop a strategy for estimation which permits analysis of the model's temporal stability. Our model, like that of CIR, expresses the underlying stochastic process as a highly nonlinear function of two fundamental, time-invariant parameters. Many researchers have found that general equilibrium models such as CIR's provide quite poor explanations of the evolution of the term structure of interest rates. As an alternative strategy to that of fitting the fundamental parameters, we employ nonlinear system estimation of the unrestricted reduced-form parameters with a moving-window strategy in order to capture the term structure volatility caused by factors other than the instantaneous interest rate. We purposefully do not impose any law of motion on the estimated volatilities. This methodology is shown to have strong predictive power for the observed term structure of interest rates, both in-sample and out-of-sample.
Barley responses to combined waterlogging and salinity stress: separating effects of oxygen deprivation and elemental toxicity

Salinity and waterlogging are two major factors affecting crop production around the world and often occur together (e.g., salt brought to the surface by rising water tables). While the physiological and molecular mechanisms of plant responses to each of these environmental constraints are studied in detail, the mechanisms underlying plant tolerance to their combined stress are much less understood. In this study, whole-plant physiological responses to individual/combined salinity and waterlogging stresses were studied using two barley varieties grown in either vermiculite (semi-hydroponics) or sandy loam. Two weeks of combined salinity and waterlogging treatment significantly decreased plant biomass, chlorophyll content, maximal quantum efficiency of PSII and water content (WC) in both varieties, while the percentage of chlorotic and necrotic leaves and leaf sap osmolality increased. The adverse effects of the combined stresses were much stronger in the waterlogging-sensitive variety Naso Nijo. Compared with salinity stress alone, the combined stress resulted in a 2-fold increase in leaf Na+, but a 40% decrease in leaf K+ content. Importantly, the effects of the combined stress were more pronounced in sandy loam compared with vermiculite and correlated with changes in the soil redox potential and accumulation of Mn and Fe in the waterlogged soils. It is concluded that hypoxia alone is not a major factor determining differential plant growth under adverse stress conditions, and that elemental toxicities resulting from changes in soil redox potential have a major impact on genotypic differences in plant physiological and agronomical responses. These results are further discussed in the context of plant breeding for waterlogging stress tolerance.
ACK Offloading for Reliable Multipath Transfer over Self-Contention Wireless Network

Multipath between end-to-end hosts has been prevailing in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks nowadays, and thus path selection has become an important issue in research for reliable multipath transfer. Most existed path selection algorithms assume that the data and ACK paths are independent, which does not hold for self-contention based wireless networks. This paper has analyzed self-contention's influence on throughput and indicated that throughput would be improved by ACK offloading. Furthermore, throughput of ACK offloading is analyzed and the upper bound of its throughput is given. Simulation and experiment results show that the throughput gain of ACK offloading is up to 150\% and resilience to the increase of alternative ACK path's delay.
Development of interpenetrating polymeric network for controlled drug delivery and its evaluation

Abstract Polymers play vital role in drug delivery systems. Aim of current research work was to elucidate the effect of Hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), acrylic acid (AA) and N'N'-methylene bis-acrylamide (MBA) in formulation of pH sensitive nexus for targeted delivery of acid sensitive drug perindopril erbumine (PE). Different feed ratios were employed to prepare nexus via free radical polymerization. FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) depicts efficient grafting. Thermal parameters (DSC, DTA and TGA) were thermodynamically stable and morphological (SEM) analysis represented porous architecture. pH sensitivity was supported by on-off switching in acid and basic media. Hence, HEC-co-AA based design was encouraging for targeted delivery of perindopril erbumine. Graphical Abstract