Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase II study of proteasome inhibitor bortezomib in relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

PURPOSE Evaluate efficacy and toxicity of bortezomib in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients were stratified, based on preclinical data, into arm A (mantle-cell lymphoma) or arm B (other B-cell lymphomas) without limitation in number of prior therapies. Bortezomib was administered as an intravenous push (1.5 mg/m2) on days 1, 4, 8, and 11 every 21 days for a maximum of six cycles. RESULTS Sixty patients with a median number of prior therapies of 3.5 (range, one to 12 therapies) were enrolled; 33 patients were in arm A and 27 were in arm B, including 12 diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, five follicular lymphomas (FL), three transformed FLs, four small lymphocytic lymphomas (SLL), two Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemias (WM), and one marginal zone lymphoma. In arm A, 12 of 29 assessable patients responded (six complete responses [CR] and six partial responses [PR]) for an overall response rate (ORR) of 41% (95% CI, 24% to 61%), and a median time to progression not reached yet, with a median follow-up of 9.3 months (range, 1.7 to 24 months). In arm B, four of 21 assessable patients responded (one SLL patient had a CR, one FL patient had a CR unconfirmed, one diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patient had a PR, and one WM patient had a PR) for an ORR of 19% (95% CI, 5% to 42%). Grade 3 toxicity included thrombocytopenia (47%), gastrointestinal (20%), fatigue (13%), neutropenia (10%), and peripheral neuropathy (5%). Grade 4 toxicity occurred in nine patients (15%), and three deaths from progression of disease occurred within 30 days of withdrawal from study. CONCLUSION Bortezomib showed promising activity in relapsed mantle-cell lymphoma and encouraging results in other B-cell lymphomas. Future studies will explore bortezomib in combination with other cytotoxic or biologic agents.
Integrating network motifs into a genetic network: A case of study based on the Phop/PhoQ two-component system

Genetic and genomic approaches have been successfully employed to assign genes to distinct regulatory networks. The strength of the connections in these networks must be specified to define the kinetics of a group of genes, but the uncertainty concerning the connections between genes, the ambiguity inherent to the biological processes, and the impossibility of experimentally determining the underlying biological properties only allow a rough prediction of gene interaction. Here we describe a framework that examines promoter sequences and identifies those cis-acting features that define transcriptional network motifs. Then, we employ an iterative process, based on Ordinary Differential Equations, to learn a network architecture that appropriately integrates these motifs into a full structure. The application of this method to the two component systems PhoP/PhoQ and the PmrA/PmrB in Salmonella enterica uncovered novel mechanisms that enable the inter-connection of these networks. The predictions were experimentally verified.
Design of Grooved Microstrip Band Pass Filter at 4.2 GHz

In advanced communication systems, the filters play an important role in terms of selectivity and rejection of the unwanted signals. In microwave frequency applications the design of filter is difficult as lumped components cannot be used in this range of frequency. Microstrip filters are always chosen over the lumped filters at greater frequency for their higher performance, smaller size, lighter weight and lower cost. In this paper design of parallel grooved band-pass resonator filter has been presented at mid-band frequency 4.25 GHz, which is new concept in filter design. This filter has high attenuation in stop band, return loss of 35.16 dB and small insertion loss of 1.102 dB in the pass band.
MRC performance for binary signals in Nakagami fading with general branch correlation

Exact expressions are derived for the performance of predetection maximal ratio combiner diversity reception with L correlated branches in Nakagami fading. Bit error rates are evaluated for both coherent and noncoherent binary phase-shift-keying and frequency-shift-keying signals, starting from the L-variate moment generating function of the random input power vector. The new formulation presented for the bit error rate, in which the covariance matrix of the fading at the L branches explicitly appears, allows arbitrary branch correlation to be taken into account for any diversity order in the case of identical fading severity on the branches. Results are presented for evaluation of the outage probability, for integer values of fading severity, as well as for the effect of the presence of unbalanced channels with arbitrary correlation.
An Analysis of Gender Pay Disparity in the Nonprofit Sector

Although pay differences between men and women with comparable characteristics are generally smaller in the nonprofit than in the for-profit sector, gender pay gaps in the nonprofit sector vary widely across industries. In some industries, gender pay gaps are as large as in the for-profit sector, but in others, women make more than comparably qualified men. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling on the combined 2001-2006 American Community Surveys, we test nonprofit labor motivation theories against a gendered-job hypothesis to explain this variation. We find that gender pay gaps in the nonprofit sector are smaller in industries where nonprofits outnumber for-profits and where higher proportions of female-dominated occupations exist.
Towards Automated Melanoma Screening: Proper Computer Vision & Reliable Results

In this paper we survey, analyze and criticize current art on automated melanoma screening, reimplementing a baseline technique, and proposing two novel ones. Melanoma, although highly curable when detected early, ends as one of the most dangerous types of cancer, due to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Its incidence is soaring, much faster than the number of trained professionals able to diagnose it. Automated screening appears as an alternative to make the most of those professionals, focusing their time on the patients at risk while safely discharging the other patients. However, the potential of automated melanoma diagnosis is currently unfulfilled, due to the emphasis of current literature on outdated computer vision models. Even more problematic is the irreproducibility of current art. We show how streamlined pipelines based upon current Computer Vision outperform conventional models - a model based on an advanced bags of words reaches an AUC of 84.6%, and a model based on deep neural networks reaches 89.3%, while the baseline (a classical bag of words) stays at 81.2%. We also initiate a dialog to improve reproducibility in our community
Investigation of Effectiveness of Sensorless Operation in Carrier-Signal-Injection-Based Sensorless-Control Methods

This paper investigates the effectiveness of sensorless operation in carrier-signal-injection-based sensorless-control methods for permanent-magnet brushless ac motors. The sensorless safety operation area (SSOA) is introduced with due account for the quantization error in the analog to digital conversion. The SSOA defines a working area in the d-q plane in which the motor can operate in sensorless mode with a guaranteed performance in steady state. With the aid of SSOA, a proper injected carrier signal can be selected for the specific prototype machine and current-measurement resolution. Experimental results confirm that the performance of sensorless operation can be guaranteed when the machine operates inside the SSOA with cross-saturation compensation.
Co-evolutionary Genetic Fuzzy System: A Self-adapting Approach

The ability of an algorithm to adapt its strategy during the search process is an important concept associated with models inspired by GAs. In this paper a self-adapting mechanism is proposed to enrich the performance of a co-evolutionary genetic approach, devised to support hierarchical, collaborative relations between individuals representing different parameters of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models. The resulting self-adaptive co-evolutionary genetic fuzzy system represents an alternative to release user from arbitrarily denning evolutionary and fuzzy parameters. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with another co-evolutionary GFS based on fixed evolutionary parameters and other approaches via examples of function approximation problems.
Secret of Eternal Youth; Teaching from the Centenarian Hot Spots (“Blue Zones”)

The euphoria of modern day health achievements is in an epidemiological cross road. We are going to lose out the hard caught health benefits to modern monsters such as obesity and its associated diseases. For example, the present American life expectancy of 77.8 years is expected to plummet due to the current trend of noncommunicable diseases. (1) However, there are zones (blue zones) on our planet where people live like in fairy tales, holding the secret of eternal youth. (2) Time has come to explore these areas to enrich our academic and research. Scientific exploration has shown some basic factors as being behind a long lifespan: a plant-based diet; regular, low-intensity activity; an investment in family; a sense of faith; and purpose. (3–8)
Two unisexual artificial polyploid clones constructed by genome addition of common carp (Cyprinus carp) and crucian carp (Carassius auratus)

A polyploid hybrid fish with natural gynogenesis can prevent segregation and maintain their hybrid vigor in their progenies. Supposing the reproduction mode of induced polyploid fish being natural gynogenesis, allopolyploid hybrid between common carp and crucian carp into allopolyploid was performed. The purpose of this paper is to describe a lineage from sexual diploid carp transforming into allotriploid and allotetraploid unisexual clones by genome addition. The diploid hybrid between common carp and crucian carp reproduces an unreduced nucleus consisting of two parental genomes. This unreduced female pronucleus will fuse with male pronucleus and form allotriploid zygote after penetration of related species sperms. Allotriploid embryos grow normally, and part of female allotriploid can produce unreduced mature ova with three genomes. Mature ova of most allotriploid females are provided with natural gynogenetic trait and their nuclei do not fuse with any entrance sperm. All female offspring are produced by gynogenesis of allotriploid egg under activation of penetrating sperms. These offspring maintain morphological traits of their allotriploid maternal and form an allotetraploid unisexual clone by gynogenetic reproduction mode. However, female nuclei of rare allotriploid female can fuse with penetrating male pronuclei and result in the appearance of allotetraploid individuals by means of genome addition. All allotetraploid females can reproduce unreduced mature eggs containing four genomes. Therefore, mature eggs of allotetraploid maintain gynogenetic trait and allotetraploid unisexual clone is produced under activation of related species sperms.
Role of alpha-adrenoceptors in the maintenance of core temperature in humans.

1. Although alpha-adrenoceptor antagonists have been shown to induce core hypothermia in animals, it is unclear whether the primary mechanism is increased heat loss or decreased heat production. Furthermore, studies have not been performed in humans to determine the role of alpha-adrenoceptors in the maintenance of core temperature. 2. alpha-Adrenoceptor blockade was achieved with three doses of phentolamine given by random assignment on three different study days in five male and five female healthy subjects. Core temperature, mean skin-surface temperature, fingertip capillary blood flow and metabolic heat production were measured. Dose-response curves were plotted for all measured variables, and males and females were compared to identify potential gender differences. 3. Core temperature decreased with all doses of phentolamine. At the completion of the phentolamine infusion, the decrease in core temperature was more significant with high-dose (0.3 +/- 0.1 degrees C, P = 0.03) and with medium-dose (0.2 +/- 0.0 degrees C, P = 0.05) phentolamine than with low-dose phentolamine (0.1 +/- 0.0 degrees C). The maximum core temperature decrease during the study was more significant with high dose (0.6 +/- 1 degrees C) than with medium (0.3 +/- 1 degrees C, P = 0.04) or low (0.3 +/- 1 degrees C, P = 0.005) doses. Mean skin-surface temperature was increased with all doses. Fingertip blood flow was increased (approximately 60% above baseline) with the medium and high doses, but was unchanged with the low dose. Total body oxygen consumption was unchanged regardless of dose. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Potent Antioxidative Activity of Cacalol, a Sesquiterpene Contained in Cacalia delphiniifolia Sleb et Zucc

The potent antioxidative sesquiterpene, cacalol, was isolated from Cacalia delphiniifolia Sleb et Zucc, and identified by an analysis of the MS and NMR spectral data. Cacalol showed potent antioxidative activity in a rat brain homogenate model (IC50 of 40 nM). Cacalol also proved to be a potent neuroprotective substance which could protect neuronal hybridoma N18-RE-105 cells from L-glutamate toxicity.
Communication techniques and challenges for wireless food quality monitoring

Remote measurement of product core temperature is an important prerequisite to improve the cool chain of food products and reduce losses. This paper examines and shows possible solutions to technical challenges that still hinder practical applications of wireless sensor networks in the field of food transport supervision. The high signal attenuation by water-containing products limits the communication range to less than 0.5 m for the commonly used 2.4 GHz radio chips. By theoretical analysis of the dependency of signal attenuation on the operating frequency, we show that the signal attenuation can be largely reduced by the use of 433 MHz or 866 MHz devices, but forwarding of messages over multiple hops inside a sensor network is mostly unavoidable to guarantee full coverage of a packed container. Communication protocols have to provide compatibility with widely accepted standards for integration into the global Internet, which has been achieved by programming an implementation of the constrained application protocol for wireless sensor nodes and integrating into IPv6-based networks. The sensor's battery lifetime can be extended by optimizing communication protocols and by in-network pre-processing of the sensor data. The feasibility of remote freight supervision was demonstrated by our full-scale ‘Intelligent Container’ prototype.
Long-Term Effects of Peripubertal Binge EtOH Exposure on Hippocampal microRNA Expression in the Rat

Adolescent binge alcohol abuse induces long-term changes in gene expression, which impacts the physiological stress response and memory formation, two functions mediated in part by the ventral (VH) and dorsal (DH) hippocampus. microRNAs (miRs) are small RNAs that play an important role in gene regulation and are potential mediators of long-term changes in gene expression. Two genes important for regulating hippocampal functions include brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and sirtuin-1 (SIRT1), which we identified as putative gene targets of miR-10a-5p, miR-26a, miR-103, miR-495. The purpose of this study was to quantify miR-10a-5p, miR-26a, miR-103, miR-495 expression levels in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus of male Wistar rats during normal pubertal development and then assess the effects of repeated binge-EtOH exposure. In addition, we measured the effects of binge EtOH-exposure on hippocampal Drosha and Dicer mRNA levels, as well as the putative miR target genes, BDNF and SIRT1. Overall, mid/peri-pubertal binge EtOH exposure altered the normal expression patterns of all miRs tested in an age- and brain region-dependent manner and this effect persisted for up to 30 days post-EtOH exposure. Moreover, our data revealed that mid/peri-pubertal binge EtOH exposure significantly affected miR biosynthetic processing enzymes, Drosha and Dicer. Finally, EtOH-induced significant changes in the expression of a subset of miRs, which correlated with changes in the expression of their predicted target genes. Taken together, these data demonstrate that EtOH exposure during pubertal development has long-term effects on miRNA expression in the rat hippocampus.
How can we recognize continuous quality improvement?

Objective Continuous quality improvement (CQI) methods are foundational approaches to improving healthcare delivery. Publications using the term CQI, however, are methodologically heterogeneous, and labels other than CQI are used to signify relevant approaches. Standards for identifying the use of CQI based on its key methodological features could enable more effective learning across quality improvement (QI) efforts. The objective was to identify essential methodological features for recognizing CQI. Design Previous work with a 12-member international expert panel identified reliably abstracted CQI methodological features. We tested which features met rigorous a priori standards as essential features of CQI using a three-phase online modified-Delphi process. Setting Primarily United States and Canada. Participants 119 QI experts randomly assigned into four on-line panels. Intervention(s) Participants rated CQI features and discussed their answers using online, anonymous and asynchronous discussion boards. We analyzed ratings quantitatively and discussion threads qualitatively. Main outcome measure(s) Panel consensus on definitional CQI features. Results Seventy-nine (66%) panelists completed the process. Thirty-three completers self-identified as QI researchers, 18 as QI practitioners and 28 as both equally. The features ‘systematic data guided activities,’ ‘designing with local conditions in mind’ and ‘iterative development and testing’ met a priori standards as essential CQI features. Qualitative analyses showed cross-cutting themes focused on differences between QI and CQI. Conclusions We found consensus among a broad group of CQI researchers and practitioners on three features as essential for identifying QI work more specifically as ‘CQI. ’ All three features are needed as a minimum standard for recognizing CQI methods.
A base-line character recognition for Syriac-Aramaic

Serto is the cursive alphabet of Syriac-Aramaic, which is used by the largest corpus of documents in libraries in Aramaic. A lingua franca, and often a source language, Aramaic has influenced major Judaic, Christian and Islamic thoughts as well as the development of science. The script is cursive, e.g. Arabic, and consequently it has a hand-writing appearance compared to Latin. Serto, and Aramaic in practice, has not an automatic character recognition system, OCR Most library documents are reproductions using printed characters. The readers would strongly benefit from having an OCR, as these reproductions are predominantly books, printed in the pre-computer era. We propose a segmentation-free OCR using linear symmetry features with an individual threshold for the tensors of the characters, and an ordered search sequence. It yields ~ 90 % correctly identified characters in the average. As a first recognition scheme for Serto, it represents a base-line OCR for Syriac-Aramaic.
Attacks on MD5 and SHA-1: Is this the "Sword of Damocles" for Electronic Commerce?

A high reliability computer system includes a first processing engine (PE), a first memory and a third memory both accessible by the first PE, a second PE, and a second memory and a fourth memory both accessible by the second PE. The first memory contains initialization information for the first PE. The third memory has a location for storing an enable password or a surrogate therefor for the first PE. The second memory contains initialization information for the second PE. The computer system also includes circuitry for switching control of the system from the first PE to the second PE upon detection of a failure of the first PE, and a password passer writing the enable password or a surrogate therefor of the first PE to the fourth memory. Alternatively, a network system includes an authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) or any other password server having a database for maintaining an enable password for a high reliability computer system. The high reliability computer system includes an interface capable of communicating with the password server over an information bus. The interface obtains the enable password from the password server in response to a request from either one of the first and second PEs.
Evaluation of New Inorganic Scintillators for Application in a Prototype Small Animal PET Scanner

In the study of new pharmaceuticals as well as brain and genetic research, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a useful method. It has also recently entered the clinical domain in cardiology and particularly in oncology. Small animals such as mice, are often used to validate sophisticated models of human disease. High spatial resolution PET instrumentation is therefore necessary due to the reduced dimensions of the organs. Inorganic scintillators are employed in most of the diagnostic imaging devices. The ultimate performance of the PET scanner is tightly bound to the scintillation properties of the crystals. In the last years there has been an effort to develop new scintillating materials characterized by high light output, high detection efficiency and fast decay time. The most studied systems are mainly Ce-doped crystals such as LSO:Ce, YAP:Ce, LuAP:Ce, and recently also mixed Lux(RE)1-xAlO3:Ce crystals. These crystals are very attractive for medical application because of their high density (with the exception of YAP:Ce), short decay time, and high light output. This work deals with the development of cerium doped LuYAP crystals, with varying amount of yttrium, for application in several small animal PET scanners. In addition the scintillation properties and mechanism of lutetium based oxyorthosilicates are investigated. The results in light yield, energy resolution and decay time are presented for all the studied compounds. The light yield non-proportionality on photon energy was studied as well as the intrinsic energy resolution. Optical characteristics such as excitation, emission and absorption spectra were measured and important correlations with the scintillation properties are pointed out. Phoswich detectors are currently being considered by a number of investigators for depth of interaction (DOI) measurements in PET. The Crystal Clear Collaboration plans to construct several small animal PET scanners using LuYAP and LSO crystals. The identification of the layer of interaction is done using the pulse shape of the corresponding scintillator material. First results on the combination of LuYAP:Ce crystals with LSO:Ce crystals in phoswich geometry for the final PET scanner are presented. The experimental results show that the new DOI technique is applicable for high-resolution PET systems.