Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase I and correlative study of combination bryostatin 1 and vincristine in relapsed B-cell malignancies.

PURPOSE Bryostatin 1 activates protein kinase C (PKC) with short-term exposure and results in depletion of PKC with prolonged exposure. Preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate synergistic activity and increased tumor apoptosis in B-cell malignancies when a prolonged infusion of bryostatin 1 is followed by vincristine. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We embarked on a Phase I trial of bryostatin 1 as a 24-h continuous infusion followed by bolus vincristine in patients with refractory B-cell malignancies other than acute leukemias. Twenty-four evaluable patients were enrolled. RESULTS The dose-limiting toxicity was myalgia. The MTD and recommended Phase II dose of bryostatin 1 was 50 microg/m2/24 h followed by vincristine 1.4 mg/m2 (maximum total dose of 2 mg) repeated every 2 weeks. Significant antitumor activity was observed in this relapsed population, including patients who had failed high-dose chemotherapy. This included 5 durable complete and partial responses and 5 patients with stable disease lasting > or =6 months (range, 6-48+ months). Median time to response was 8 months. Correlative studies demonstrated a progressive increase in serum interleukin-6 with bryostatin 1 infusion followed by an additional increase after vincristine. Flow cytometry for detection of apoptosis in B and T cells showed an initial decrease in apoptotic frequency in CD5+ cells within 6 h of bryostatin 1 infusion compatible with its known increase in PKC activity in the majority of patients followed by a return to baseline or overall increase in apoptotic frequency after completion of infusion. All (5 of 5) patients who had an overall increase in apoptotic frequency in CD5+ cells achieved either a clinical response or prolonged stable disease. Four of these 5 patients did not have the initial decrement in apoptosis at 6 h. CONCLUSIONS Given the lack of myelosuppression and early evidence of clinical efficacy, additional exploration of this regimen in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma is warranted.
Visibility based planners for kinematically constrained vehicles

We implement a visibility-based motion planner for systems in which, because of kinematic constraints, not all maneuvers may be reversible. We use samples that are nonzero dimensional subspaces of the configuration space in an attempt to make the heuristic more efficient at generating large strongly connected components; the non-zero dimensional samples also reduce the computation load associated with validating trajectories. We integrate the resulting planner method with various local planner strategies for kinematically constrained vehicles, and compare the sizes of the roadmaps needed to solve a problem with bug traps for several vehicle models, one of which is reversible and serves as a base-line. Finally, we suggest directions of improvement of the algorithm based on simulation results.
Respiratory illness in agricultural workers.

Respiratory diseases have long been recognized in association with work in farming. Overall, only a small proportion of the population is employed in agriculture, so respiratory disease in farmers is not a major public health issue. However, farmers are known to have high morbidity and mortality from certain respiratory diseases, as shown by routinely collected statistics. Despite this, knowledge of the frequency, nature and risk factors for some respiratory disorders in agricultural workers is incomplete. Multiple exposures are common and some exposures can give rise to more than one specific disease. Moreover, the most common respiratory symptoms reported by farm workers (wheeze, dyspnoea and cough) are relatively non-specific and can be associated with several occupational respiratory disorders. This review describes the main occupational respiratory illnesses in farming and summarizes the current literature about epidemiology and prevention. The most important diseases are rhinitis and asthma, which, although common, are not usually fatal. Some non-allergic conditions, e.g. asthma-like syndrome and organic toxic dust syndrome, are not yet fully understood, but appear to be common among farm workers. The most serious respiratory diseases are hypersensitivity pneumonitis and respiratory infections, but these are rare. Most importantly, respiratory diseases are preventable by controlling harmful exposures to organic dust, toxic gases and chemicals on farms through improvements in animal rearing techniques, ventilation of animal accommodation, careful drying and storage of animal feed-stuffs, crops and other products, and use of personal protective equipment.
A Low-Cost Wireless Voltage Sensor for Monitoring MV/HV Utility Assets

Voltage sensing of the utility network provide critical information for asset management, prioritizing asset replacements, increasing situational awareness and providing increased visibility of the grid. For ease of use, and to increase commercial appeal among utilities, these sensors should be designed to have a low cost, long life ( > 10 years), be self-powered, and require no maintenance. This paper deals with the development of a novel low-cost wireless voltage sensor for medium- and high-voltage (MV/HV) utility assets such as cables, transformers, switchgear, capacitor banks, and conductors. A review of existing techniques along with their drawbacks is outlined in this paper. Further, the challenges pertaining to the development a low-cost floating voltage sensor such as variability of voltage, self-calibration requirements, and distance-to-earth variations are presented. These challenges are circumvented by deriving a detailed mathematical model of the sensor. Further, using a set of valid assumptions, a new moving average voltage sensing (MAVS) algorithm is proposed, tested using simulations and validated using a high-voltage prototype. The wireless voltage sensor prototype is tested at up to 35 kV and is built to accommodate electric field energy harvesting in addition to voltage sensing. The prototype has a low-volume production cost of $150 and shows promising results by providing self-calibrated measurements capable of tracking the voltage variation with less than 2.5% error.
K‐ras AND p53 MUTATIONS IN HUMAN COLORECTAL ABERRANT CRYPT FOCI

Aberrant crypt foci (ACF) are putative precursor lesions of colon cancer, recently identified on the methylene blue‐stained mucosal surface of human colon. No mutations in K‐ras or p53 genes were found by non‐radioactive single‐strand conformation polymorphism analysis in 14 ACF collected from five patients. Using the more sensitive method of allele‐specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for K‐ras, 8 of 14 ACF were found to contain K‐ras mutations, suggesting that mutated cells are present in minute clones in ACF. No dysplasia was observed in any of the ACF containing a mutated clone. The presence of K‐ras mutations in ACF suggests that these lesions occur at a very early stage in human colorectal carcinogenesis.
Reduction Mammaplasty Provides Long-Term Improvement in Health Status and Quality of Life

The objective of this study was to assess health status and quality of life in macromastia patients undergoing reduction mammaplasty. From January of 1997 to June of 1997, the Department of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, at Stockholm Söder Hospital/Karolinska Hospital, conducted a prospective questionnaire study with preoperative and postoperative (6 and 12 months) assessments in 49 women who were 20 years or older. The questionnaire included four parts: Part I assessed pain (scale 1 to 10) in the neck, shoulders, back, breast, bra strap indention, and head. Part II assessed effects of breast size and weight on body posture, sleep, choice of clothing, sexual relations, and working capacity (scale 1 to 10). Part III assessed preoperative expectations for the operation in comparison with postoperative result (scale 1 to 6). Part IV included SF-36, an international health-related quality-of-life questionnaire, which has been standardized for Swedish women. As a result, reduction mammaplasty (mean resection weight, 1052 g) provided significant reduction of pain in all locations (p < 0.001). The improvements continued up to 12 months postoperatively. The patients’ main subjective problems related to the size and weight of the breast were body posture and choice of clothing. The patients scored significant improvements of all subjective problems (p < 0.001), except sleep. The patients’ expectations were met to a high extent. In some areas such as intimate situations, femininity, and social contacts, the results exceeded the preoperative expectations. Preoperatively, the mammaplasty patients scored significantly lower (p < 0.05 to p < 0.001, depending on area) in SF-36, i.e., the patients had lower quality of life compared with women in the same age group. Reduction mammaplasty resulted in significantly improved quality of life; furthermore, the results were similar after 6 and 12 months, indicating long-term improvement. In fact, after 1 year, there was no statistically significant difference between the patients who had been operated on and the age-matched women, i.e., the women were normalized in health-related quality of life as judged by the SF-36.
[Pre-postoperative neuropsychological evaluation in the surgical treatment of epilepsy].

INTRODUCTION Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, affecting about one percent of the world population. Pharmacological treatment fails in one-third of these patients. Surgical intervention has become an accepted treatment option for those patients with seizure disorders that are refractory to conventional therapies. Cortical resection and callosotomy are the most widely accepted methods of surgical intervention. A prerequisite for success in this type of surgical intervention is the preoperative clinical assessment of the epilepsy surgery candidate. DEVELOPMENT This paper examines the current uses of neuropsychological assessment in an epilepsy surgery program. Several areas are addressed for discussion with respect to the contributions of neuropsychological assessment: the preoperative evaluation of the epilepsy surgery candidates, including the clinical examination of language and memory functions during the Wada test; the neuropsychological changes that result from surgery and the predictive role of neuropsychology in these areas, and prediction for seizure control following surgery. CONCLUSION Assessment of cognitive functions is an important component of the preoperative evaluation of the epilepsy surgery candidate, and is needed in order to obtain complete diagnostic information.
SAS architecture: verification oriented formal modeling of concrete critical systems

Concrete critical systems validation is a major challenge in any development process. Model checking verification offers exhaustive and automated validation. To apply this methodology, the specification of critical systems must be supported by a formal mathematical well-sounded model. To this end, we rely on synchronous language to model such systems and to ensure model existence we consider systems falling into a particular SAS architecture. SAS systems are composed by a synchronous main controller that manages autonomic asynchronous tasks. Abstraction methods provide us with the required synchronous model. We show how our approach suits wearable computer applications designing and how the modeling we propose meets the requirements of wearable computer validation.
Incidence and Significance of Early Recurrences of Atrial Fibrillation After Cryoballoon Ablation: Insights From the Multicenter Sustained Treatment of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation (STOP AF) Trial

Background—Early recurrence of atrial fibrillation (ERAF) is common after radiofrequency catheter ablation for AF. We sought to determine the incidence and prognostic significance of ERAF after cryoballoon ablation. Moreover, the benefit of early reablation for ERAF after cryoballoon ablation is undetermined. Methods and Results—The Sustained Treatment of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation (STOP AF) trial randomized 245 patients with paroxysmal AF to medical therapy versus cryoballoon-based pulmonary vein ablation. Patients were followed for 12 months. ERAF was defined as any recurrence of AF >30 seconds during the first 3 months of follow-up. Late recurrence (LR) was defined as any recurrence of AF >30 seconds between 3 and 12 months. Of the 163 patients randomized to cryoablation, 84 patients experienced ERAF (51.5%). The only significant factor associated with ERAF was male sex (hazard ratio [HR], 2.18; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03–4.61; P=0.041). LR was observed in 41 patients (25.1%), and was significantly related to ERAF (55.6% LR with ERAF versus 12.7% without ERAF; P<0.001). Among patients with ERAF, only current tobacco use (HR, 3.84; 95% CI, 1.82–8.11; P<0.001) was associated with LR. Conversely, early reablation was associated with greater freedom from LR (3.3% LR with early reablation versus 55.6% without; HR, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01–0.32; P=0.002). Conclusions—ERAF after cryoballoon ablation occurs in ≈50% of patients and is strongly associated with LR. Early reablation for ERAF is associated with excellent long-term freedom from recurrent AF.
Overtaking Vehicle Detection Using Dynamic and Quasi-Static Background Modeling

Robust and reliable detection of overtaking vehicles is an important component of any on-board driver assistance system. Optical flow, with the abundant motion information present in image sequences, has been studied extensively for vehicle detection. However, using dense optical ? ow for vehicle detection is sensitive to shocks and vibrations of the mobile camera; image outliers caused by illumination changes; and high computational complexity. To improve vehicle detection performance and reduce computational complexity, we propose an efficient and robust methodology for overtaking vehicle detection based on homogeneous sparse optical flow and eigenspace modeling. Specifically, our method models the background into dynamic and quasi-static regions. Instead of using dense optical flow to model the dynamic parts of the background, we employ homogeneous sparse optical flow, which makes detection more robust to camera shocks and vibrations. Moreover, to make detection robust to illumination changes, we employ a blockbased eigenspace approach to represent quasi-static regions in the background. A region-based hysteresis-thresholding approach, augmented by a localized spatial segmentation procedure, attains a good tradeoff between true detections and false positives. The proposed methodology has been evaluated using challenging traf? c scenes illustrating good performance.
What happens when you can’t be who you are: Professional identity at the institutional periphery

This article examines the impact of large scale, ‘macro’ role transitions on professional identity. Drawing on in-depth interviews with two different groups of immigrant professionals, it theorizes how organizational outsiders with established professional identities respond to the institutional requirements and specifically to professional pre-entry scripts in their new host country. The study demonstrates how identity work evolves among each group as they navigate the permeable and impermeable pre-entry scripts in their respective professions. It identifies both barriers and facilitators to engagement with, and fulfillment of, local pre-entry scripts. These findings demonstrate how different professional domains and power structures create different opportunities for re-entry and as a result give rise to different forms of identity work – involving, for example, identity customization, identity shadowing, struggle and enrichment. Implications for policy makers in the field will be discussed, focusing on how different groups of professionals respond to unique forms of identity threat emerging from their respective professional institutions and structural barriers.
A Capacity Study of a Bayesian Neural Network with Hypercolumns

The dynamics and storage capacity of a Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN) with hypercolumns is studied. Hypercolumns is a concept derived from the local connectivity seen between neurons in cortex. The BCPNN has recurrent connections and it is used as an autoassociative memory. A parallel implementation of the BCPNN is used to run simulations of large BCPNN. Those simulations enabled good approximations of relationships between theoretical scaling laws and storage capacity of the BCPNN, and confirm theoretical work on the properties of the BCPNN. The report provides a guide of how to set the parameters of a BCPNN used as an autoassociative memory.
Trait Aggressiveness and Aggressive Behavior in the Context of Provocation and Inhibition

ABSTRACT Aggressive behavior often occurs despite salient cues within the immediate environment that indicate aversive consequences will likely follow. Prior research has shown high trait aggressiveness to be related to sensitivity to situational provocation; however, little research has examined whether it is also related to insensitivity to situational inhibitors. This study examines the relationship between trait aggressiveness and aggressive behavior in a provocative context with, and without, an unambiguous inhibitory stimulus. Prior to experiencing provocation and being afforded the opportunity to retaliate, participants who varied in trait aggressiveness were explicitly given (or not given) an instruction that aggressive behavior might lead to aversive consequences and, thus, one should not behave aggressively. Findings revealed that without the instruction, those higher in trait aggressiveness exhibited steeper increases in aggressive responding as provocation increased. In the group that received the instruction, trait aggressiveness was unrelated to aggressive responding at all levels of provocation.
Polyvictimization: Latent profiles and mental health outcomes in a clinical sample of adolescents.

OBJECTIVE Exposure to multiple traumatic events (polyvictimization) is a reliable predictor of deleterious health outcomes and risk behaviors in adolescence. The current study extends the literature on the prevalence and consequences of adolescent trauma exposure by (a) empirically identifying and characterizing trauma exposure profiles in a large, ethnically diverse, multi-site, clinical sample of adolescents, and (b) evaluating relations among identified profiles with demographic characteristics and clinical correlates. METHOD Data from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Core Data Set were used to identify and characterize victimization profiles using latent class analysis in a sample of 3,485 adolescents (ages 13-18, 63% female, 35.7% White, 23.2% Black/African American, 35.0% Hispanic/Latino). Multiple measures of psychological distress and risk behaviors were evaluated as covariates of trauma exposure classes. RESULTS Five trauma exposure classes, or profiles, were identified. Four classes-representing approximately half the sample-were characterized by polyvictimization. Polyvictimization classes were differentiated on number of trauma types, whether emotional abuse occurred, and whether emotional abuse occurred over single or multiple developmental epochs. Unique relations with demographic characteristics and mental health outcomes were observed. DISCUSSION Results suggest polyvictimization is not a unidimensional phenomenon but a diverse set of trauma exposure experiences with unique correlates among youth. Further research on prevention of polyvictimization and mechanisms linking chronic trauma exposure, gender, and ethnicity to negative outcomes is warranted.
Hints of isocurvature perturbations in the cosmic microwave background?

The improved data on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy allow a better determination of the adiabaticity of the primordial perturbation. Interestingly, we find that recent CMB data seem to favor a contribution of a primordial isocurvature mode where the entropy perturbation is positively correlated with the primordial curvature perturbation and has a large spectral index (niso ∼ 3). With four additional parameters we obtain a better fit to the CMB data by Δχ2 = 9.7 compared to an adiabatic model. For this best-fit model the non-adiabatic contribution to the CMB temperature variance is 4%. According to a Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis the non-adiabatic contribution is positive at more than 95% confidence level. The exact confidence level depends somewhat on the choice of priors, and we discuss the effect of different priors as well as additional cosmological data.
Response to Joshua Dunn's review ofOur Schools Suck: Students Talk Back to a Segregated Nation on the Failures of Urban Education

Joshua Dunn's thoughtful review raises methodological and substantive issues that require clarification. According to Dunn, my coauthors and I “contend” that students' “statements” criticizing their lack of academic drive or that of their peers “show how students have ‘internalized’ the perspective of scholars such as Patterson. ” This is evidence, he contends, that we “tend not to treat young people as ‘experts’ of their lives” when they failed to support our critique of the “culture of failure” thesis. However, we make no such contention. Moreover, his critique misrepresents our ethnographic approach. While researchers who conduct interviews as part of their methods often report statements by public officials and others to support their arguments, as ethnographers we engaged in an interpretative task.
Relationship Between Aneurysm Volume and Histologic Healing after Coil Embolization in Elastase-Induced Aneurysms: A Retrospective Study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There are, to our knowledge, no histologic data correlating aneurysm volume with histologic healing following coil embolization of aneurysms. We report a retrospective study comparing histologic outcome with aneurysm volume in elastase-induced aneurysms in rabbits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Aneurysm volume and histologic healing after coil embolization were retrospectively analyzed in 37 elastase-induced aneurysms in rabbits. Aneurysm dimensions (including neck, width, height, and volume) were measured and calculated. Packing density (PD) was calculated. Angiographic results were evaluated as recurrence, stable, and progressive occlusion. An ordinal grading system was used to evaluate the histologic healing after embolization. Correlations among aneurysm volume, PD, and histologic healing were analyzed by conducting linear regression analysis. RESULTS: For all the aneurysms in this study, mean aneurysm volume was 80.8 ± 48.6 mm3 (from 22 to 192 mm3), mean PD was 30.4 ± 8.3% (from 17% to 49%), and mean histologic score was 6.1 ± 2.0 (from 0.5 to 9.5), respectively. Correlations between aneurysm volume and PD, aneurysm volume and histologic healing, and aneurysm packing and histologic healing were all significant (P < .01). CONCLUSION: In this study, aneurysms with smaller volumes and higher PD were associated with the most complete histologic healing. The incomplete healing seen in the larger aneurysms is consistent with the higher incidence of recurrences after endovascular treatment that is seen in large human aneurysms.