Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surveillance for endometrial cancer in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndrome

The estimated lifetime risk for endometrial carcinoma (EC) in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndrome (HNPCC) is 32–60%, thus supporting surveillance. The survival rate of EC patients is, however, favourable questioning the need for surveillance. Yet, the effectiveness of gynecological surveillance remains to be shown. The 2 previously published studies were based on transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) alone. Intrauterine biopsy has not been tested in surveillance for EC in HNPCC families. The effect of gynecological surveillance was evaluated among 175 Finnish mutation carriers. During 759 person years at risk, there were 503 surveillance visits including TVUS and intrauterine biopsy of endometrium at 94% and 74% of the visits, respectively. EC occurred in 14 cases, 11 of which were diagnosed by surveillance, 8 by intrauterine biopsies. TVUS indicated only 4 EC patients but missed 6 other cases. Intrauterine sampling detected 14 additional cases of potentially premalignant hyperplasia. The stage distribution and survival tended to be more favorable in the 14 EC cases of the surveilled group (no deaths) than in the group of 83 symptomatic mutation carriers of whom 6 died of EC, but with no statistical significance. Four cases of ovarian cancer occurred but none was detected by surveillance in TVUS examinations. In conclusion, EC surveillance in HNPCC seems more effective with endometrial biopsies than with TVUS alone. A definite improvement in survival remains to be shown. The detection of early cancer stages and premalignant lesions offers the opportunity to avoid extensive adjuvant treatment. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Feeding and foraging behaviour of a generalist caterpillar: are third instars just bigger versions of firsts?

Abstract Similarities and differences in foraging behaviour between first and third instar Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek (Fabaceae) (mung bean) were determined by frequent, repeated observation of insects on whole plants. The time apportioned to feeding, resting and searching by these two larval instars differed. Third instars were often found feeding on exposed areas of the plant and, if in the terminal parts, would leave these areas more frequently than first instars. Third instars fed at fewer sites and spent less time searching and resting, fed in longer bouts and spent 20% more time feeding than first instars. Although both instars tended to move upwards to the top of the plant, this applied to approximately half of the third instars observed compared to all of the first instars. First instars were found to have a higher relative growth rate than third instars. The results show that it cannot be assumed that first instars are just smaller versions of late instars.
Assessing accuracy in linkage analysis by means of confidence regions

When statistical linkage to a certain chromosomal region has been found, it is of interest to develop methods quantifying the accuracy with which the disease locus can be mapped. In this paper, we investigate the performance of three different types of confidence regions, with asymptotically correct coverage probability as the number of pedigrees grows. Our setup is that of a saturated map of marker data. We allow for arbitrary combinations of pedigree structures, and treat various kinds of genetic models (e.g. binary and quantitative phenotypes) in a unified way. The linkage scores are weighted sums of the individual family scores, with NPL and lod scores as special cases. We show that the expected length of the confidence region is inversely proportional to the slope‐to‐noise ratio, or equivalently, inversely proportional to the product of the square of the noncentrality parameter and a certain normalized slope‐to‐noise ratio. Our investigations reveal that maximal expected linkage scores can be quite different from estimation‐based performance criteria based on expected length of confidence regions. The main reason is that there is no simple relationship between peak height and peak slope of the mean linkage score. One application of our results is planning of linkage studies: given a certain genetic model, we can approximate the number of pedigrees needed to obtain a confidence region with given coverage probability and expected length. Genet Epidemiol 25:59–72, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Processing by Endoplasmic Reticulum Mannosidases Partitions a Secretion-impaired Glycoprotein into Distinct Disposal Pathways*

In the early secretory pathway, a distinct set of processing enzymes and family of lectins facilitate the folding and quality control of newly synthesized glycoproteins. In this regard, we recently identified a mechanism in which processing by endoplasmic reticulum mannosidase I, which attenuates the removal of glucose from asparagine-linked oligosaccharides, sorts terminally misfolded α1-antitrypsin for proteasome-mediated degradation in response to its abrogated physical dissociation from calnexin (Liu, Y., Choudhury, P., Cabral, C., and Sifers, R. N. (1999) J. Biol. Chem. 274, 5861–5867). In the present study, we examined the quality control of genetic variant PI Z, which undergoes inappropriate polymerization following biosynthesis. Here we show that in stably transfected hepatoma cells the additional processing of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides by endoplasmic reticulum mannosidase II partitions variant PI Z away from the conventional disposal mechanism in response to an arrested posttranslational interaction with calnexin. Intracellular disposal is accomplished by a nonproteasomal system that functions independently of cytosolic components but is sensitive to tyrosine phosphatase inhibition. The functional role of ER mannosidase II in glycoprotein quality control is discussed.
Recommendations for reporting economic evaluations of haemophilia prophylaxis: a nominal groups consensus statement on behalf of the Economics Expert Working Group of The International Prophylaxis Study Group

Summary. Background: The need for clearly reported studies evaluating the cost of prophylaxis and its overall outcomes has been recommended from previous literature. Objectives: To establish minimal ‘‘core standards’’ that can be followed when conducting and reporting economic evaluations of hemophilia prophylaxis. Methods: Ten members of the IPSG Economic Analysis Working Group participated in a consensus process using the Nominal Groups Technique (NGT). The following topics relating to the economic analysis of prophylaxis studies were addressed; Whose perspective should be taken? Which is the best methodological approach? Is micro‐ or macro‐costing the best costing strategy? What information must be presented about costs and outcomes in order to facilitate local and international interpretation? Results: The group suggests studies on the economic impact of prophylaxis should be viewed from a societal perspective and be reported using a Cost Utility Analysis (CUA) (with consideration of also reporting Cost Benefit Analysis [CBA]). All costs that exceed $500 should be used to measure the costs of prophylaxis (macro strategy) including items such as clotting factor costs, hospitalizations, surgical procedures, productivity loss and number of days lost from school or work. Generic and disease specific quality of lífe and utility measures should be used to report the outcomes of the study. Conclusions: The IPSG has suggested minimal core standards to be applied to the reporting of economic evaluations of hemophilia prophylaxis. Standardized reporting will facilitate the comparison of studies and will allow for more rational policy decisions and treatment choices.
Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria lactamica in infants and children.

Asymptomatic carriage of Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria lactamica was studied in a total of 2,969 healthy infants and children in Danbury, Conn. , between October 1971 and June 1975. The prevalence of N. meningitidis averaged 0.71% during the first four years of life and increased to 5.4% by 14--17 years. Rates of carriage of N. lactamica increased from 3.8% in three-month-old infants to a peak of 21.0% at 18 months and then declined to 1.8% by 14--17 years of age. Of the children who acquired N. lactamica, 66% developed fourfold or greater rises in titers of IgG antibody to groups A, B, and/or C meningococci as determined by immunofluorescence compared with only 5% of control children. Of new carriers of N. lactamica, 40% developed increased titers of bactericidal antibody to groups A, B, and/or C meningococci as compared with 7% of noncarriers. Carriage of N. lactamica may assist in the development of natural immunity to N. meningitidis by induction of cross-reactive antibodies.
Histopathological and Molecular Prognostic Markers in Medulloblastoma: c‐myc, N‐myc, TrkC, and Anaplasia

Several molecular and histopathological prognostic markers have been proposed for the therapeutic stratification of medulloblastoma patients. Amplification of the c-myc oncogene, elevated levels of c-myc mRNA, or tumor anaplasia have been associated with worse clinical outcomes. In contrast, high TrkC mRNA expression generally presages longer survival. The goal of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of c-myc, N-myc and TrkC expression in medulloblastomas and compare them to histopathological classification. We used in situ hybridization to measure expression of these molecular markers. c-myc mRNA was detected in 18 of 59 (31%) cases, and was significantly associated with shorter patient survival times on both univariate and multivariate analyses (p = 0.04). The presence of c-myc mRNA was also significantly associated with tumor anaplasia. While survival rates were higher for patients with low N-myc or high TrkC expression, these differences were not statistically significant. The group of patients with either moderate or severely anaplastic tumors showed only a trend towards shorter survival (p = 0.11). However, severe anaplasia alone was significantly prognostic (p = 0.002). Given the prognostic import of c-myc, we investigated 2 potential mechanisms by which its expression might be regulated: Wnt signaling and Mxi-1 mutation. Nuclear translocation of beta-catenin, a marker of Wnt pathway activation, was more common in medulloblastomas with high c-myc than in tumors overall, but the difference was not statistically significant. No Mxi-1 mutations were detected in the 22 cases examined. The association we describe between c-myc expression, tumor anaplasia, and worse clinical outcomes provides further evidence for the importance of this oncogene in medulloblastoma pathobiology.
Force Feedback Control Assisted Tympanostomy Tube Insertion

Otitis media with effusion (OME) is a common ear disease affecting children and adults all over the world. After medication as the first treatment fails, the tympanostomy tube insertion is the frequently performed otologic surgical procedure to treat OME. During the surgery, an incision is made on the tympanic membrane first and followed by the tube insertion through the incision on the eardrum. To overcome the disadvantages of the current surgical treatment for OME, an office-based surgical device suitable for patients with OME is developed and introduced in this paper. Since the tube insertion is the key to success in this surgery, it is necessary to ensure that the procedure is carried out in a quick and safe manner with a high success rate via the proposed surgical device. Moreover, the insertion time should be as short as possible so that the discomfort on the patient can be minimized. To this end, a control scheme with a new insertion method using force feedback is proposed, implemented, and tested in a mock-up system. The experimental results show that the proposed insertion method can achieve better performance on tube insertion than a pure motion controller or a pure force feedback controller. The success rate of the proposed insertion method is close to 100% and the insertion time is less than 0.19 s while it is carried out on a stable setup.
A complexity-scalable hybrid H.264/AVC-to-SVC transcoder

Transcoding of H.264/AVC bitstreams is frequently used for adapting video streams to varying network conditions or different end-user device characteristics. Transcoding requires a relatively high complexity (and thus high operational cost) for each adaptation operation, and possibly reduces the video quality. In comparison, transcoding the input bitstream to SVC requires only one adaptation step. Afterwards, the resulting SVC bitstream can be adapted instantly. To reduce the H.264/AVC-to-SVC transcoding complexity, a transcoding architecture which combines existing open-loop transcoding techniques with optimized closed-loop transcoding is proposed. Furthermore, this approach allows to scale the complexity of the system. Doing so, compared with a cascaded decoder-encoder only 8.48% of the complexity is required for the highest complexity, while a high rate-distortion efficiency is maintained and a high degree of scalability is guaranteed. When only limited resources are available, the transcoding complexity can be scaled such that over 99% of the complexity is reduced compared to a cascaded decoder-encoder.
Capabilities, Strategy, and Performance: The Case of ICT Firms in New Zealand

Smaller technology-based firms are critical for many economies. This study investigates the determinants of performance in a sample of 110 firms from the information and communication technology industry in New Zealand. It is a single industry study, reflecting the industry specificity of resource-based capabilities. Partial least squares methods are used to investigate relationships between capabilities, strategy, and performance. A product-innovation strategy maximized performance, mediating innovation and human capital capabilities. Pursuing a market-expansion strategy ahead of one of product innovation led to inferior performance outcomes. Financial and organizational capabilities had direct positive effects on performance irrespective of strategy.
Random Active Shield

Recently, some active shielding techniques have been broken (e.g. by FlyLogic). The caveat is that their geometry is easy to guess, and thus they can be bypassed with an affordable price. This paper has two contributions. First of all, it provides a definition of the objectives of shielding, which is seldom found in publicly available sources. Notably, we precise the expected functionality, but also the constraints it must meet to be both manufacturable and secure. Second, we propose an innovative solution based on random shielding. The goal of this shielding is to make the geometry of the shield difficult to recognize, thereby making the "identification" phase of the attack harder than in previous schemes. Also, a proof of the shielding existence for two layers of metal is provided, which guarantees that the generation of the layout will succeed. Finally, we provide real tests of the shield generation algorithm, that show it is computationally tractable even for large areas to protect.
Characterisation of baroreflex sensitivity of recreational ultra-endurance athletes

Abstract Altered autonomic function has been identified following ultra-endurance event participation among elite world-class athletes. Despite dramatic increases in recreational athlete participation in these ultra-endurance events, the physiological effects on these athletes are less known. This investigation sought to characterise changes in surrogate measures of autonomic function: heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure variability (BPV) and baroreceptor sensitivity (BRS) following ultra-endurance race participation. Further, we sought to compare baseline measures among ultra-endurance athletes and recreationally active controls not participating in the ultra-endurance race. Recreational ultra-endurance athletes (n = 25, 44.6 ± 8.2 years, 8 females) and recreationally active age, sex and body mass index matched controls (n = 25) were evaluated. Measurements of HRV, BPV and BRS were collected pre- and post-race for recreational ultra-endurance athletes and at baseline, for recreationally active controls. Post-race, ultra-endurance athletes demonstrated significantly greater sympathetic modulation [low frequency (LF) power HRV: 50.3 ± 21.6 normalised units (n.u.) to 65.9 ± 20.4 n.u. , p = 0.01] and significantly lower parasympathetic modulation [high frequency (HF) power HRV: 45.0 ± 22.4 n.u. to 23.9 ± 13.1 n.u. , p < 0.001] and BRS. Baseline measurements BRS (spectral: 13.96 ± 10.82 ms·mmHg−1 vs. 11.39 ± 5.33 ms·mmHg−1) were similar among recreational ultra-endurance athletes and recreationally active controls, though recreational ultra-endurance athletes demonstrated greater parasympathetic modulation of some HRV and BPV measures. Recreational ultra-endurance athletes experienced increased sympathetic tone and declines in BRS post-race, similar to previously reported elite world-class ultra-endurance athletes, though still within normal population ranges.
Survival in patients with brain metastases from breast cancer

Brain metastases (BM) are the most common intracranial tumors in adults. To the authors' knowledge, established prognostic factors for survival after the diagnosis of BM in breast cancer patients do not take into account HER–2 status, which may have increasing relevance in the trastuzumab therapy era.
Evaluation de prises en charge précoces et d'interventions médico-sociales auprès de familles « à risque ». Analyse d'une démarche exploratoire

Evaluer l'adequation des outils de travail et des actions entreprises au sein d'un service de soins est une exigence si on veut en ameliorer les pratiques, meme si chaque institution ou chaque population traitee est unique. Plusieurs institutions axees sur les dysfonctionnements de la relation parents-enfants et sur le developpement des potentialites de l'enfant, pionnieres dans leur conception du travail avec les familles (acces aux soins precoces, interventions et accompagnements a domicile.), ont desire evaluer leur action apres de tres nombreuses annees de fonctionnement. Ce chapitre presente la demarche methodologique utilisee aupres des familles, parents et enfants, en collaboration avec les equipes de soins.
Assessing Pedometer Accuracy while Walking, Skipping, Galloping, Sliding, and Hopping

The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of the pedometer when walking, skipping, galloping, sliding, and hopping. One hundred-two college students were fitted with a pedometer (Walk4Life LS-7010) at mid-thigh on the right and left of the hip. Participants then performed the randomly assigned movements for the length (26 m) of a hardwood court playing surface, during which time the investigator tallied the steps with a hand counter. Each step with the lead foot elicited a tally on the counter. Participants were instructed to perform the movement at a brisk pace, to jump-stop at the end of the court, and to remain still until after the pedometer reading was recorded. Repeated measure ANOVAs using the Bonferroni technique were used to compare differences between pedometer counts and hand counts. Significant differences were evident between the hand tally counts and readings from the right and left pedometers during all five locomotor movements (P < .01). Mean error was lowest between the hand tally and the average of the right and left pedometers while walking (−1.35 ± 1.60) and hopping (−2.94 ± 2.33), and increased while sliding (−6.42 ± 4.78), galloping (−8.22 ± 4.63), and skipping (−8.30 ± 4.45). Results indicate the pedometer may not consistently register the vertical force produced by the trail foot contact, the lead foot contact, or a combination of the two while skipping, galloping, and sliding. Though the pedometer is a valid instrument when estimating physical activity levels, caution is urged when interpreting movements other than walking.
ALFABETIZAÇÃO FINANCEIRA DOS JOVENS UNIVERSITÁRIOS RIO-GRANDENSES

A crescente proliferacao de instrumentos de credito tem reforcado a necessidade da alfabetizacao financeira que vem assumindo papel fundamental ao possibilitar a tomada de decisoes responsaveis e o alcance do bem-estar financeiro. Este estudo teve por objetivo verificar se os estudantes universitarios do interior do estado do Rio Grande do Sul (RS) sao alfabetizados financeiramente e se ha diferencas de media no nivel de alfabetizacao financeira se avaliadas variaveis como genero, idade, estado civil, ascendencia, independencia financeira, dependentes, renda, fonte de renda e area de ensino. Foram aplicados 810 questionarios em estudantes de graduacao de universidades publicas e privadas do estado do RS. Os resultados revelam que os estudantes exibem um comportamento financeiro positivo, mas aquem do ideal; apresentam nivel insatisfatorio de conhecimento financeiro, culminando em um grau mediano de alfabetizacao financeira e preocupam-se em controlar e pagar todos os seus compromissos de credito, apesar de nao apresentam habitos de poupar mensalmente.
The DNA rearrangement that generates the TRK-T3 oncogene involves a novel gene on chromosome 3 whose product has a potential coiled-coil domain

Oncogenic rearrangements of the NTRK1 gene (also designated TRKA), encoding one of the receptors for the nerve growth factor, are frequently detected in thyroid carcinomas. Such rearrangements fuse the NTRK1 tyrosine kinase domain to 5'-end sequences belonging to different genes. In previously reported studies we have demonstrated that NTRK1 oncogenic activation involves two genes, TPM3 and TPR, both localized similarly to the receptor tyrosine kinase, on the q arm of chromosome 1. Here we report the characterization of a novel NTRK1-derived thyroid oncogene, named TRK-T3. A cDNA clone, capable of transforming activity, was isolated from a transformant cell line. Sequence analysis revealed that TRK-T3 contains 1,412 nucleotides of NTRK1 preceded by 598 nucleotides belonging to a novel gene that we have named TFG (TRK-fused gene). The TRK-T3 amino acid sequence displays, within the TFG region, a coiled-coil motif that could endow the oncoprotein with the capability to form complexes. The TRK-T3 oncogene encodes a 68-kDa cytoplasmic protein reacting with NTRK1-specific antibodies. By sedimentation gradient experiments the TRK-T3 oncoprotein was shown to form, in vivo, multimeric complexes, most likely trimers or tetramers. The TFG gene is ubiquitously expressed and is located on chromosome 3. The breakpoint producing the TRK-T3 oncogene occurs within exons of both the TFG gene and the NTRK1 gene and produces a chimeric exon that undergoes alternative splicing. Molecular analysis of the NTRK1 rearranged fragments indicated that the chromosomal rearrangement is reciprocal and balanced and involves loss of a few nucleotides of germ line sequences.