Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Androgen deprivation therapy and the risk of death from prostate cancer among men with favorable or unfavorable intermediate‐risk disease

Radiotherapy (RT), short‐course androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), and brachytherapy in various combinations are treatment options for patients with intermediate‐risk prostate cancer (PC), but the question of which combination if any is necessary to minimize PC‐specific mortality (PCSM) risk in patients with favorable or unfavorable intermediate‐risk PC is unknown. The authors assessed PCSM risk after commonly used treatments.
Limitations of PLL simulation: Hidden oscillations in MatLab and SPICE

Nonlinear analysis of the phase-locked loop (PLL) based circuits is a challenging task, thus in modern engineering literature simplified mathematical models and simulation are widely used for their study. In this work the limitations of numerical approach is discussed and it is shown that, e.g. hidden oscillations may not be found by simulation. Corresponding examples in SPICE and MatLab, which may lead to wrong conclusions concerning the operability of PLL-based circuits, are presented.
The Treatment of Joint Pain with Intra-articular Pulsed Radiofrequency

Background The intra-articular (IA) application of pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) for pain in small and large joints represents a recent development that has proven to be effective in many cases. We performed a retrospective study of 89 such procedures in 57 consecutive patients with chronic articular pain. Objectives The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the effectiveness of intraarticular PRF in a group of 57 consecutive patients with chronic joint pain. Patients and Methods Patients with intractable joint pain for more than 6 months were treated with IA PRF 40-45V for 10-15 min in small joints and 60V for 15 min in large joints using fluoroscopic confirmation of correct needle position. A total of 28 shoulders, 40 knees, 10 trapezio-metacarpal, and 11 first metatarso-phalangeal joints were treated. Results were evaluated at 1, 2, and 5 months. The procedure was repeated after 1 month in 10 patients with initial suboptimal results. Success was defined as a reduction of pain score by at least 50%. Results All groups showed significant reductions in pain scores at all three follow-up visits. Success rates were higher in small joints (90% and 82%, respectively) than large ones (64% and 60%, respectively). Interestingly, IA PRF was successful in 6 out of 10 patients who had undergone previous surgery, including 3 with prosthetic joint replacement and in 6 of the 10 repeated procedures. There were no significant adverse effects or complications. Conclusions IA PRF induced significant pain relief of long duration in a majority of our patients with joint pain. The exact mechanism is unclear, but may be related to the exposure of immune cells to low-strength RF fields, inducing an anti-inflammatory effect. The success rate appears to be highest in small joints. We recommend additional research including control groups to further investigate and clarify this method; our data suggest that it may represent a useful modality in the treatment of arthrogenic pain.
Ambulatory Monitoring of Activities and Motor Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease

Ambulatory monitoring of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) can improve our therapeutic strategies, especially in patients with motor fluctuations. Previously published monitors usually assess only one or a few basic aspects of the cardinal motor symptoms in a laboratory setting. We developed a novel ambulatory monitoring system that provides a complete motor assessment by simultaneously analyzing current motor activity of the patient (e.g., sitting, walking, etc.) and the severity of many aspects related to tremor, bradykinesia, and hypokinesia. The monitor consists of a set of four inertial sensors. Validity of our monitor was established in seven healthy controls and six PD patients treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus. The patients were tested at three different levels of DBS treatment. Subjects were monitored while performing different tasks, including motor tests of the Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS). Output of the monitor was compared to simultaneously recorded videos. The monitor proved very accurate in discriminating between several motor activities. Monitor output correlated well with blinded UPDRS ratings during different DBS levels. The combined analysis of motor activity and symptom severity by our PD monitor brings true ambulatory monitoring of a wide variety of motor symptoms one step closer.
’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs Digital CDS for image sensors with dominant white and 1 / f noise

This paper investigates the performance of digital correlated double sampling (DCDS) for processing of image sensor signals in the presence of white and 1/f noise. The DCDS is compared with the dual slope integrator, which is the optimal analogue processing technique when only white noise is present. Based on the concept of matched filters, the paper derives and explores the optimal signal processing algorithms for signals with dominant 1/f noise, resulting in the highest achievable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Experimental results based on optimal DCDS on artificially generated 1/f noise signals are presented and discussed, together with the limitations of the method for more realistic sensor signals. It is shown that the noise level of the optimal DCDS can get close to the theoretical minimum.
Transition of Brain Activation from Frontal to Parietal Areas in Visuomotor Sequence Learning

We studied the neural correlates of visuomotor sequence learning using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In the test condition, subjects learned, by trial and error, the correct order of pressing two buttons consecutively for 10 pairs of buttons (2 × 10 task); in the control condition, they pressed buttons in any order. Comparison between the test condition and the control condition revealed four brain areas specifically related to learning: the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA), the precuneus, and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). We found that the time course of activation during learning was different between these areas. To normalize the individual differences in the speed of learning, we classified the performance of each subject into three learning stages: early, intermediate, and advanced stages. Both the relative increase of signal intensity and the number of activated pixels within the four areas showed significant changes across the learning stages, with different time courses. The two frontal areas, DLPFC and pre-SMA, were activated in the earlier stages of learning, whereas the two parietal areas, precuneus and IPS, were activated in the later stages. Specifically, DLPFC, pre-SMA, precuneus, and IPS were most highly activated in the early stage, in both the early and intermediate stages, in the intermediate stage, and in both the intermediate and advanced stages, respectively. The results suggest that the acquisition of visuomotor sequences requires frontal activation, whereas the retrieval of visuomotor sequences requires parietal activation, which might reflect the transition from the declarative stage to the procedural stage.
Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Activity Controls the Onset of the HCMV Lytic Cycle

The onset of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) lytic infection is strictly synchronized with the host cell cycle. Infected G0/G1 cells support viral immediate early (IE) gene expression and proceed to the G1/S boundary where they finally arrest. In contrast, S/G2 cells can be infected but effectively block IE gene expression and this inhibition is not relieved until host cells have divided and reentered G1. During latent infection IE gene expression is also inhibited, and for reactivation to occur this block to IE gene expression must be overcome. It is only poorly understood which viral and/or cellular activities maintain the block to cell cycle or latency-associated viral IE gene repression and whether the two mechanisms may be linked. Here, we show that the block to IE gene expression during S and G2 phase can be overcome by both genotoxic stress and chemical inhibitors of cellular DNA replication, pointing to the involvement of checkpoint-dependent signaling pathways in controlling IE gene repression. Checkpoint-dependent rescue of IE expression strictly requires p53 and in the absence of checkpoint activation is mimicked by proteasomal inhibition in a p53 dependent manner. Requirement for the cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor p21 downstream of p53 suggests a pivotal role for CDKs in controlling IE gene repression in S/G2 and treatment of S/G2 cells with the CDK inhibitor roscovitine alleviates IE repression independently of p53. Importantly, CDK inhibiton also overcomes the block to IE expression during quiescent infection of NTera2 (NT2) cells. Thus, a timely block to CDK activity not only secures phase specificity of the cell cycle dependent HCMV IE gene expression program, but in addition plays a hitherto unrecognized role in preventing the establishment of a latent-like state.
Integrated condition indices as a measure of whole effluent toxicity in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Toxic exposure of organisms interferes with organismal integrity at the biochemical level and ultimately gives rise to effects at the individual level. These effects may result in reductions in ecologically relevant characteristics such as growth, reproduction, and survival. A chronic toxicity test with zebrafish (Danio rerio) was conducted where fish were exposed to 50, 75, and 100% effluent for 28 d under flow‐through conditions. Effects of effluent exposure were determined using endpoints of physiological (respiration during swimming), growth (condition, length, and weight), and reproductive (spawning and hatching) processes within the same population. Results clearly indicate that the condition and growth of zebrafish is depressed by exposure to the effluent. Also, increased oxygen consumption was found after 14, 21, and 28 d of exposure. Reproduction proved to correlate well with the condition of the motherfish in the control, and spawning and hatching were significantly depressed by effluent exposure. These results indicate that the evaluation of endpoints describing different ecologically relevant processes provides a rational assessment of the cause–effect relationships of effluent toxicity. This approach can quantify effects on different biological processes and can determine the interactions that occur between these different processes.
Three-dimensional Models of Embedded High-Mass Stars: Effects of a Clumpy Circumstellar Medium

We use three-dimensional radiative transfer models to show the effects of clumpy circumstellar material on the observed infrared colors of high-mass stars embedded in molecular clouds. We highlight differences between three-dimensional clumpy and one-dimensional smooth models that can affect the interpretation of data. We discuss several important properties of the emergent spectral energy distribution (SED). More near-infrared light (scattered and direct from the central source) can escape than in smooth one-dimensional models. The near- and mid-infrared SED of the same object can vary significantly with viewing angle, depending on the clump geometry along the sight line. Even the wavelength-integrated flux can vary with angle by more than a factor of 2. Objects with the same average circumstellar dust distribution can have very different near- and mid-IR SEDs, depending on the clump geometry and the proximity of the most massive clump to the central source. Although clumpiness can cause similar objects to have very different SEDs, there are some observable trends. Near- and mid-infrared colors are sensitive to the weighted average distance of clumps from the central source and to the magnitude of clumpy density variations (smooth-to-clumpy ratio). Far-infrared emission remains a robust measure of the total dust mass. We present simulated SEDs, colors, and images for 2MASS and Spitzer filters. We compare them to observations of some ultracompact H II regions and find that three-dimensional clumpy models fit better than smooth models. In particular, clumpy models with fractal dimensions in the range 2.3-2.8, smooth-to-clumpy ratios of ≲50%, and density distributions with shallow average radial density profiles fit the SEDs best (⟨ρ⟩ ∝ rα, - 1.0 < α < 0.0).
The International Neuroblastoma Risk Group (INRG) staging system: an INRG Task Force report.

PURPOSE The International Neuroblastoma Risk Group (INRG) classification system was developed to establish a consensus approach for pretreatment risk stratification. Because the International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS) is a postsurgical staging system, a new clinical staging system was required for the INRG pretreatment risk classification system. METHODS To stage patients before any treatment, the INRG Task Force, consisting of neuroblastoma experts from Australia/New Zealand, China, Europe, Japan, and North America, developed a new INRG staging system (INRGSS) based on clinical criteria and image-defined risk factors (IDRFs). To investigate the impact of IDRFs on outcome, survival analyses were performed on 661 European patients with INSS stages 1, 2, or 3 disease for whom IDRFs were known. RESULTS In the INGRSS, locoregional tumors are staged L1 or L2 based on the absence or presence of one or more of 20 IDRFs, respectively. Metastatic tumors are defined as stage M, except for stage MS, in which metastases are confined to the skin, liver, and/or bone marrow in children younger than 18 months of age. Within the 661-patient cohort, IDRFs were present (ie, stage L2) in 21% of patients with stage 1, 45% of patients with stage 2, and 94% of patients with stage 3 disease. Patients with INRGSS stage L2 disease had significantly lower 5-year event-free survival than those with INRGSS stage L1 disease (78% +/- 4% v 90% +/- 3%; P = .0010). CONCLUSION Use of the new staging (INRGSS) and risk classification (INRG) of neuroblastoma will greatly facilitate the comparison of risk-based clinical trials conducted in different regions of the world.
3I-5 Design and Fabrication of Temperature Compensated Liquid FBAR Sensors

In this work we demonstrate a practically complete temperature compensation of the second harmonic shear mode in composite AlN/SiO2 FBAR's in the temperature range 25degC to 95degC. The main advantages of this mode over the fundamental mode are its higher Q value in liquids as well as its higher frequency and hence higher resolution for sensor applications. For comparative reasons the non-compensated fundamental shear mode is also included in these studies. Both modes have been characterized when operated both in air and in pure water. Properties such Q value, electromechanical coupling, dissipation and sensitivity are studied both theoretically and experimentally. An almost full temperature compensation of the second harmonic shear mode was observed for an oxide thickness of 1.22 mum and a typical 2 mum thick AlN resonator with 200 nm thick Al electrodes. Thus, the measured TCF in air for the non-compensated fundamental shear mode (1.25 GHz) varied between -31 and -36 ppm/ degC over the above temperature range while that of the compensated second harmonic shear mode (1.32 GHz) varied between + 2 ppm/ degC and -2 ppm/ degC over the same temperature interval
Performance Analysis of Genetic Algorithm for Mining Association Rules

Association rule (AR) mining is a data mining task that attempts to discover interesting patterns or relationships between data in large databases. Genetic algorithm (GA) based on evolution principles has found its strong base in mining ARs. This paper analyzes the performance of GA in Mining ARs effectively based on the variations and modification in GA parameters. The recent works in the past seven years for mining association rules using genetic algorithm is considered for the analysis. Genetic algorithm has proved to generate more accurate results when compared to other formal methods available. The fitness function, crossover rate, and mutation rate parameters are proven to be the primary parameters involved in implementation of genetic algorithm. Variations and modifications introduced in primary GA parameters are found to have greater impact in increasing the accuracy of the system moderately. The speedup of the system is found to increase when the selection and fitness function are altered.
Power Allocation Strategies in Energy Harvesting Wireless Cooperative Networks

In this paper, a wireless cooperative network is considered, in which multiple source-destination pairs communicate with each other via an energy harvesting relay. The focus of this paper is on the relay's strategies to distribute the harvested energy among the multiple users and their impact on the system performance. Specifically, a non-cooperative strategy that uses the energy harvested from the i-th source as the relay transmission power to the i-th destination is considered first, and asymptotic results show that its outage performance decays as log SNR/SNR. A faster decay rate, 1/SNR, can be achieved by two centralized strategies proposed next, of which a water filling based one can achieve optimal performance with respect to several criteria, at the price of high complexity. An auction based power allocation scheme is also proposed to achieve a better tradeoff between system performance and complexity. Simulation results are provided to confirm the accuracy of the developed analytical results.
African Ancestry Is Associated with Asthma Risk in African Americans

Background Asthma is a common complex condition with clear racial and ethnic differences in both prevalence and severity. Asthma consultation rates, mortality, and severe symptoms are greatly increased in African descent populations of developed countries. African ancestry has been associated with asthma, total serum IgE and lower pulmonary function in African-admixed populations. To replicate previous findings, here we aimed to examine whether African ancestry was associated with asthma susceptibility in African Americans. In addition, we examined for the first time whether African ancestry was associated with asthma exacerbations. Methodology/Principal Findings After filtering for self-reported ancestry and genotype data quality, samples from 1,117 self-reported African-American individuals from New York and Baltimore (394 cases, 481 controls), and Chicago (321 cases followed for asthma exacerbations) were analyzed. Genetic ancestry was estimated based on ancestry informative markers (AIMs) selected for being highly divergent among European and West African populations (95 AIMs for New York and Baltimore, and 66 independent AIMs for Chicago). Among case-control samples, the mean African ancestry was significantly higher in asthmatics than in non-asthmatics (82.0±14.0% vs. 77.8±18.1%, mean difference 4.2% [95% confidence interval (CI):2.0–6.4], p<0.0001). This association remained significant after adjusting for potential confounders (odds ratio: 4.55, 95% CI: 1.69–12.29, p = 0.003). African ancestry failed to show an association with asthma exacerbations (p = 0.965) using a model based on longitudinal data of the number of exacerbations followed over 1.5 years. Conclusions/Significance These data replicate previous findings indicating that African ancestry constitutes a risk factor for asthma and suggest that elevated asthma rates in African Americans can be partially attributed to African genetic ancestry.
AgentDiag: An agent-assisted diagnostic framework for board-level functional failures

Diagnosing functional failures in complicated electronic boards is a challenging task, wherein debug technicians try to identify defective components by analyzing some syndromes obtained from the application of diagnostic tests. The diagnosis effectiveness and efficiency rely heavily on the quality of the in-house developed diagnostic tests and the debug technicians' knowledge and experience, which, however, have no guarantees nowadays. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel agent-assisted diagnostic framework for board-level functional failures, namely AgentDiag, which facilitates to evaluate the quality of the diagnostic tests and bridge the knowledge gap between the diagnostic programmers who write diagnostic tests and the debug technicians who conduct in-field diagnosis with a lightweight model of the boards and tests. Experimental results on a real industrial board and an OpenRISC design demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution.
KEPERLUAN SOKONGAN EMOSIONAL DALAM KALANGAN ANAK DEWASA YANG MENJAGA WARGA TUA (Emotional Support Ne

Peningkatan bilangan warga tua di Malaysia (60 tahun ke atas) akan mencapai jumlah 2.2 juta orang atau 9.5% menjelang 2020. Statistik juga menunjukkan bahawa kadar kelahiran semakin menurun beberapa dekad kebelakangan ini. Statistik ini menggambarkan satu dimensi baru berkaitan penjagaan warga tua dalam kalangan anak dewasa. Anak-anak dewasa pula, selain menghadapi bebanan untuk menyara keluarga sendiri, terpaksa menyara orang tua mereka yang kos kesihatan semakin hari semakin meningkat. Artikel ini meninjau aspek sokongan emosi dan timbal balik dalam hubungan anak dewasa (penjaga) dengan warga tua dengan menggunakan pendekatan teori pertukaran sosial. Kaedah survei digunakan dari bulan November 2008 hingga Januari 2009 untuk mengumpul data daripada 640 orang anak dewasa daripada etnik Melayu, Cina dan India. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan 65% anak dewasa bandar dan 59.7% anak dewasa luar bandar yang menjaga warga tua ialah anak dewasa perempuan yang majoritinya telah berkahwin dan mempunyai anak antara satu ke tiga orang. Majoriti responden luar bandar (92.8%) dan 43.1% responden bandar tinggal bersama warga tua yang dijaga mereka dan kerelaan untuk menjadi penjaga kepada warga tua merupakan pilihan mereka sendiri. Pasangan penjaga merupakan pemberi bantuan fizikal dan emosi utama dalam proses penjagaan warga tua.
Formation of the Building Plan of the Human Heart: Morphogenesis, Growth, and Differentiation

The intricate process of formation of the heart relies on the spatiotemporal regulation of differentiation and growth of its different parts. Errors in these processes can result in hypoplasia of the chambers and incorrect alignment of the atria and great arteries with the ventricles, with such abnormalities producing the worst forms of congenital heart disease.1 Although recent advances in molecular embryology have greatly improved our understanding of normal cardiac development, our insights into the pathogenesis of human cardiac malformations remain limited.2 With the current lack of data on gene expression in humans, inferences concerning morphogenesis rely on classic studies of human cardiac development or on extrapolation of experimental data from animal studies. Most textbooks on human embryology describe the embryonic heart tube as already possessing a linear array of the definitive components, despite this so-called segmental concept being disproved some time ago by fate-mapping experiments in chickens,3,4 which are now endorsed by recent molecular lineage analyses in mice.5 Proliferation studies in chickens revealed that the primary heart tube proliferates minimally and that its growth occurs through addition of differentiating cells from visceral mesoderm at the venous and arterial poles.6 These findings underscore previous lineage studies performed in mice, which have shown that transcription factors Islet1 and Tbx1 play a crucial role in the intricate balance between the cardiac precursor state and differentiation.7,8 Subsequent to its formation, the heart tube elongates and loops, producing its inner and outer curvatures and providing the general building plan for formation of the chambers and conduction system.9 The chambers themselves form by local proliferation and differentiation at the outer curvature.10,11 At the same time, the differentiating chamber myocardium remains flanked by primary myocardium, which is prevented from further differentiation by the …