Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A phase I trial of cisplatin in hypertonic saline and escalating doses of 5‐fluorouracil by continuous intravenous infusion in patients with advanced malignancies

Thirty‐four patients with incurable solid tumors were treated in a Phase I trial with a fixed dose of high‐dose cisplatin (CDDP) administered in hypertonic saline and escalating doses of infusional 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU). Five treatment levels of 5‐FU, ranging from 500 to 900 mg/m2/day for 5 days, were studied. Leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and oral mucositis were the dose‐limiting toxicities encountered. Nephrotoxicity was minimal. Ototoxicity and peripheral neuropathies were rare and mild in this patient group, but most patients received only a small number of treatment cycles. Diarrhea was not dose‐limiting. Two complete responses (one non‐small cell lung cancer and one sweat gland carcinoma) were observed. No other major responses were noted. With the dose of CDDP set at 35 mg/m2/day for 5 consecutive days, the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of a concurrent 5‐day 5‐FU infusion was found to be 900 mg/m2/day. The recommended dosages for Phase II trials are 35 mg/m2/day CDDP and 800 mg/m2/day 5‐FU for 5 consecutive days. Cancers of the lung, breast, gastrointestinal tract, and genitourinary tract would be reasonable targets for Phase II studies.
Tumour Suppressor Genes with Oncogenic Roles in Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. High-throughput sequencing efforts have uncovered the molecular heterogeneity of this disease, unveiling several genetic and epigenetic disruptions driving its development. Unlike oncogenes, tumour suppressor genes negatively regulate cell cycle control and exhibit loss-of-function alterations in cancer. Although tumour suppressor genes are more frequently disrupted, oncogenes are more likely to be drug-targeted. Many genes are described as presenting both tumour suppressive and oncogenic functions in different tumour types or even within the natural history of the disease in a single tumour. In this chapter, we describe current knowledge of tumour suppressor genes in lung tissues, focusing on tumour suppressor/oncogene duality.
Obtenção de membranas biopoliméricas eletrofiadas para liberação de cloridrato de propranolol

Gelatin is a biopolymer obtained from the denaturation process of collagen from animal sources, presenting several technological applications including nanofibers manufacture obtained by the electrospinning technique. This technique allows the efficient production of nanofibers by fitting the processing parameters. Propranolol hydrochloride is a beta blocker used in the treatment of various diseases such as arterial hypertension, angina pectoris, and migraine. The present work studied the processing and characterization of gelatin electrospinning membranes crosslinked with (EDC/NHS) to release propranolol hydrochloride for application in transdermal systems. The pure gelatin (GeP) and gelatin with drug (GeF) solutions were evaluated by viscosity values, where viscosity increased with incorporation of the referred drug. Morphology analysis informed diameters of 109 ± 48 nm and 278 ± 78 nm for GeP and GeF, respectively. The nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal analysis (TGA and DSC) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Crosslinking effect via EDC/NHS was evaluated under three concentrations of the crosslinking agent (0.1 mmol, 0.5 mmol, and 1,0 mmol). Crosslinked gelatin at the concentration 0.1 mmol (GeRF01) nanofibers were produced and evaluated for the propranolol hydrochloride releasing profile. The results showed the viability of the produced gelatin membranes incorporating propranolol hydrochloride for application in transdermal systems.
Density-Based Clustering for Similarity Search in a P2P Network

P2P systems represent a large portion of the Internet traffic which makes the data discovery of great importance to the user and the broad Internet community. Hence, the power of a P2P system comes from its ability to provide an efficient search service. In this paper we address the problem of similarity search in a Hybrid Overlay P2P Network which organizes data and peers in a high dimensional feature space. Data and peers are described by a set of features and clustered using a density-based algorithm. We experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of the similarity-search using uniform and zipf data distribution.
Implementation of Selective Fault Tolerance with conventional synthesis tools

Circuits implementing the concept of Selective Fault Tolerance according to [1] are fault-tolerant for a specified subset of inputs. In this paper, a new heuristic is presented to make the method of Selective Fault Tolerance applicable to industrial designs. The heuristic can be efficiently implemented by use of conventional design tools. Compared to TMR, the method, in combination with the heuristic, saves a huge amount of area redundancy and fault tolerance is adapted to the real requirements of a system specification. This is demonstrated by experimental results obtained from circuit descriptions in Verilog and a synthesis with the tool Synopsys.
The verdict from ALLHAT--thiazide diuretics are the preferred initial therapy for hypertension.

Quite simply, the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) is one of the most important trials of antihypertensive therapy. For decades, experts have passionately debated which class of drugs should be initial therapy for hypertension. Resolution of this issue, which has enormous clinical, public health, and economic implications, comes at a time of intense pressure to reduce health care costs while improving clinical outcomes. In this setting, the ALLHAT results, reported in this issue of THE JOURNAL, are particularly noteworthy, because there is no cost-quality tradeoff; the most effective therapy was also the least expensive.
Exploring Mass Transfer in Mesoporous Zeolites by NMR Diffusometry

With the advent of mesoporous zeolites, the exploration of their transport properties has become a task of primary importance for the auspicious application of such materials in separation technology and heterogeneous catalysis. After reviewing the potential of the pulsed field gradient method of NMR (PFG NMR) for this purpose in general, in a case study using a specially prepared mesoporous zeolite NaCaA as a host system and propane as a guest molecule, examples of the attainable information are provided.
Cytokine and Lipid Mediator Blood Concentrations After Coronary Artery Surgery

This study investigates whether increased levels of cytokines and lipid mediators may be associated with complications after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with extracorporeal circulation (ECC). Hemodynamic measurements and blood samples were obtained in 32 patients before and after the end of ECC and at the 6th and the 24th postoperative hours. Coagulation and pulmonary and cardiovascular functions were specifically assessed post-operatively at the same time. Patients with cardiovascular dysfunction had higher interleukin 8 (IL-8) levels. Higher platelet-activating factor (PAF) and decreased PAF acetylhydrolase activity (AHA, the enzyme that inactivates PAF) levels were found in patients with moderate cardiovascular dysfunction. Interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-8, and AHA levels correlated with most hemodynamic parameters and creatine phosphokinase myocardial band levels obtained after surgery. Patients with severe lung injury had lower PAF, 6-keto prostaglandin (Pg)F1 alpha, and PgE2 levels and higher thromboxane (Tx) B2 concentrations compared with patients without lung injury. Increased IL6 levels were only associated with moderate lung injury. Impaired hemostasis was associated with higher IL6 levels. AHA, IL-6, and IL-8 seem to be associated with cardiovascular dysfunction. The IL-6 blood levels and the ratio of TxB2/6 keto-PgF1 alpha blood levels are increased during post-CABG lung injury. These results identify an association between specific post-CABG complications and the systemic inflammatory response. The clinical significance of this association remains to be evaluated. Implications: Patients with pulmonary, cardiovascular, or hemostasis dysfunction after cardiopulmonary bypass demonstrate aberrancies in a variety of cytokines and lipid mediators in arterial blood or plasma. The relationship between these findings and inflammatory response-induced complications remains to be determined. (Anesth Analg 1997;85:1240-6)
Neural Mechanisms for Discounting Head-Roll-Induced Retinal Motion

An extensive series of physiological studies in macaques shows the existence of neurons in three multisensory cortical regions, dorsal medial superior temporal area (MSTd), ventral intraparietal area (VIP), and visual posterior sylvian area (VPS), that are tuned for direction of self-motion in both visual and vestibular modalities. Some neurons have congruent direction preferences, suggesting integration of signals for optimum encoding of self-motion trajectory; others have opposite preferences and could be used for discounting retinal motion that arises from perceptually irrelevant head motion. Whether such a system exists in humans is unknown. Here, artificial vestibular stimulation was administered to human participants during fMRI scanning in conjunction with carefully calibrated visual stimulation that emulated either congruent or opposite stimulation conditions. Direction and speed varied sinusoidally, such that the two conditions contained identical vestibular stimulation and identical retinal stimulation, differing only in the relative phase of the two components. In human MST and putative VIP, multivoxel pattern analysis permitted classification of stimulus phase based on fMRI time-series data, consistent with the existence of separate neuron populations responsive to congruent and opposite cue combinations. Decoding was also possible in the vicinity of parieto-insular vestibular cortex, possibly in a homolog of macaque VPS.
EFFECT OF AGE AND SEX ON SLAUGHTER VALUE OF GUINEA FOWL ( NUMIDA MELEAGRIS) WPŁYW WIEKU I PŁCI NA WARTOŚĆ RZEŹNĄ PERLIC (NUMIDA MELEAGRIS)

The effects of age and sex of guinea fowl on their dressing percentage, carcass composition, pH value, water holding capacity, colour and sensory properties of meat was determined. At 16 weeks of age, males and females had significantly higher body weights and carcass weights compared to birds at 13 weeks of age. The carcasses of older birds contained more breast muscles, leg muscles and skin with subcutaneous fat, and less wings, with a significant difference for males. At both evaluation times, males compared to females had lower body weight, carcass weight, dressing percentage, content of breast muscles and abdominal fat, and a higher proportion of leg muscles. Older birds had significantly lower redness (a*) values for breast muscles in males and for leg muscles in females.
Effects of four coarse cereals on blood glucose levels in rats with STZ-induced hyperglycemia

ABSTRACT This study aims to compare the protection effects of different varieties of oats, buckwheat, barley and foxtail millet against streptozotocin (STZ)-induced hyperglycemia in rats. Eight varieties of each coarse cereal were selected from the main production areas of China. The contents of resistant starch in oats, buckwheat, barley and foxtail millet were 31.41 ± 5.16%, 31.55 ± 10.34%, 19.77 ± 4.13% and 43.54 ± 9.01%, respectively. These four coarse cereals were added to diets of rats at 15%. The results showed that five varieties of buckwheat (Chitianqiao No. 1, Xinong No. 9976, Taixing, Chuanqiao No. 1 and Heifeng No. 1) significantly decreased the blood glucose levels (P < .05) with the highest total phenolic content. Two varieties of barley (Supi No. 3 and Zangqing No. 2000) and two varieties of foxtail millet (Yugu No. 18 and Ansai) significantly reduced the blood glucose levels in vivo (P < .05).
ICESat GLAS Data for Urban Environment Monitoring

Although the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) onboard the NASA Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite was not designed for urban applications, its 3-D measurement capability over the globe makes it a nice feature for consideration in monitoring urban heights. However, this has not been previously done. In this paper, we report some preliminary assessment of the GLAS data for building height and density estimation in a suburb of Beijing, China. Building heights can be directly calculated from a GLAS data product (GLA14). Because GLA14 limits height levels to six in each ground footprint, we developed a new method to remove this restriction by processing the raw GLAS data. The maximum heights measured in the field at selected GLAS footprints were used to validate the GLAS measurement results. By assuming a constant incident energy and surface reflectance within a GLAS footprint, the building density can be estimated from GLA14 or from our newly processed GLAS data. The building density determined from high-resolution images in Google Earth was used to validate the GLAS estimation results. The results indicate that the newly developed method can produce more accurate building height estimation within each GLAS footprint (R2 = 0.937, rmse = 6.4 m, and n = 26) than the GLA14 data product (R2 = 0.808, rmse = 11.5 m, and n = 26). However, satisfactory estimation results on building density cannot be obtained from the GLAS data with the methods investigated in this paper. Forest cover could be a challenge to building height and density estimation from the GLAS data. It should be addressed in future research.
Remote sensing of near-infrared chlorophyll fluorescence from space in scattering atmospheres: implications for its retrieval and interferences with atmospheric CO 2 retrievals

Abstract. With the advent of dedicated greenhouse gas space-borne spectrometers sporting high resolution spectra in the O2 A-band spectral region (755–774 nm), the retrieval of chlorophyll fluorescence has become feasible on a global scale. If unaccounted for, however, fluorescence can indirectly perturb the greenhouse gas retrievals as it perturbs the oxygen absorption features. As atmospheric CO2 measurements are used to invert net fluxes at the land–atmosphere interface, a bias caused by fluorescence can be crucial as it will spatially correlate with the fluxes to be inverted. Avoiding a bias and retrieving fluorescence accurately will provide additional constraints on both the net and gross fluxes in the global carbon cycle. We show that chlorophyll fluorescence, if neglected, systematically interferes with full-physics multi-band XCO2 retrievals using the O2 A-band. Systematic biases in XCO2 can amount to +1 ppm if fluorescence constitutes 1% to the continuum level radiance. We show that this bias can be largely eliminated by simultaneously fitting fluorescence in a full-physics based retrieval. If fluorescence is the primary target, a dedicated but very simple retrieval based purely on Fraunhofer lines is shown to be more accurate and very robust even in the presence of large scattering optical depths. We find that about 80% of the surface fluorescence is retained at the top-of-atmosphere, even for cloud optical thicknesses around 2–5. We further show that small instrument modifications to future O2 A-band spectrometer spectral ranges can result in largely reduced random errors in chlorophyll fluorescence, paving the way towards a more dedicated instrument exploiting solar absorption features only.
Code-Switching speech recognition for closely related languages

This work presents an approach to recognition of multispeaker conversational speech with code-switching between Ukrainian and Russian languages. Both inter-sentential and intra-sentential code-switching is handled. The approach takes into account peculiarities of phonetic systems of the closely related Russian and Ukrainian languages. A crosslingual LVCSR system is developed. The acoustic model and pronunciation lexicon are based on Ukrainian phone set. Modeling of pronunciation variation in lexicons helps to cope not only with code-switching speech but also with accented speech. Results of code-switching speech recognition are presented. The approach is suitable especially in cases of intra-sentential code-switching where language identification is problematic. Index Terms mixed speech, bilingual speech, codeswitching, Ukrainian, Russian
Glutamic acid decarboxylase in the striate cortex of normal and monocularly deprived kittens

Degeneration of the thalamic fibers in the visual cortex of turtles leads to an increase in the numerical density of cortical synapses with flattened vesicles and symmetrical membrane differentiations (Smith, L. M., and F. F. Ebner (1980) Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. 6: 328). This change correlates with an increase in the cortical activity of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the synthetic enzyme for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). These data are consistent with the hypothesis that removal of thalamic input activity is the stimulus for cortical GABAergic neurons to form new synapses. Pharmacological evidence suggests that even simple environmental deprivation may induce a similar increase in the numerical density of GABAergic synapses in kitten striate cortex (Duffy, F. H., S. R., Snodgrass, J. L. Burchfiel, and J. L. Conway (1976) Nature 260: 256–257). We have examined this possibility in monocularly deprived kittens using methods to localize and measure GAD. GAD in kitten striate cortex was localized using immunocytochemistry. GAD-positive cells were found in all layers and were uniformly distributed in layers II to VI. Immunoreactivity associated with axon terminals (puncta), in contrast, was laminated with a distinct band in layer IV. Monocular deprivation (MD), by either unilateral enucleation or lid closure, had no detectable effect on the distribution of GAD in striate cortex. The band of layer IV puncta remained uniform even under conditions that produced alterations in layer IV cytochrome oxidase activity. We measured GAD activity in homogenates of striate cortex to address the possibility that MD causes an absolute change in the density of GABAergic synapses. Again, however, GAD activity in the binocular and monocular segments of striate cortex was found to be unaffected by early enucleation. These data suggest two conclusions: first, that the numerical density of GABAergic synapses in visual cortex is not regulated directly by thalamic activity, and second, that changes in GABAergic synapse density do not account for the ocular dominance shift observed in kitten striate cortex after MD.
PomBase: a comprehensive online resource for fission yeast

PomBase (www.pombase.org) is a new model organism database established to provide access to comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date molecular data and biological information for the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe to effectively support both exploratory and hypothesis-driven research. PomBase encompasses annotation of genomic sequence and features, comprehensive manual literature curation and genome-wide data sets, and supports sophisticated user-defined queries. The implementation of PomBase integrates a Chado relational database that houses manually curated data with Ensembl software that supports sequence-based annotation and web access. PomBase will provide user-friendly tools to promote curation by experts within the fission yeast community. This will make a key contribution to shaping its content and ensuring its comprehensiveness and long-term relevance.
Persistent hippocampal neurogenesis and epilepsy

The dogma of no neuronal production, or neurogenesis, in the adult mammalian brain slowly has been laid to rest over the past five decades. Resounding experimental evidence indicates that neural stem cells and neurogenesis persist in at least two regions of the adult mammalian brain, the hippocampal dentate gryus and striatal subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles (Ming & Song, 2005). In the adult mammalian dentate gyrus, neural stem cells in a proliferative zone under the granule cell layer give rise to dentate granule cells (DGCs) throughout life. Although important questions about the biological function of adult neurogenesis remain unanswered, a growing body of data suggests that adult neurogenesis adds an additional layer of plasticity into the hippocampal circuitry (Bruel-Jungerman et al., 2007). This plasticity likely plays a role in specific forms of hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. The recognition of persistent neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain has led to studies of how injury influences neurogenesis. Interestingly, nearly all types of brain insults appear to stimulate neurogenesis in the adult neurogenic zones (Parent, 2003). These findings have led to two distinct areas of inquiry with respect to epileptogenic brain injuries. The more obvious question is the following: Are neural stem cells that persist in the adult capable of repairing the injured brain if stimulated appropriately? If so, do they accomplish this through compensatory effects on neural networks or by replacing lost cells? General interest and advances in neural stem cell biology have led to related investigations of whether transplanted neural progenitors may serve similar therapeutic functions. The other main question regarding postnatal or adult hippocampal neurogenesis and epilepsy involves the idea that abnormally occurring neurogenesis is critically involved in aberrant plasticity during epileptogenesis. Simply stated, if new neurons integrate abnormally into existing circuits after an epileptogenic insult, do they contribute to the development of epilepsy or associated morbidities such as memory dysfunction or depression? These ideas relate to both acute changes in neurogenesis after injury and chronic dysfunction of the neural stem cell niche or environment.
Reference Values and Age Differences in Body Composition of Community-Dwelling Older Japanese Men and Women: A Pooled Analysis of Four Cohort Studies

Objectives To determine age- and sex-specific body composition reference values and investigate age differences in these parameters for community-dwelling older Japanese men and women, using direct segmental multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis. Methods We conducted a pooled analysis of data collected in four cohort studies between 2008 and 2012: Kusatsu Longitudinal Study, Hatoyama Cohort Study, Itabashi Cohort Study, and Kashiwa Cohort Study. The pooled analysis included cross-sectional data from 4478 nondisabled, community-dwelling adults aged 65-94 years (2145 men, 2333 women; mean age: 72.9 years in men and 72.6 years in women). Body weight, fat mass (FM), percentage FM, fat-free mass (FFM), and appendicular lean soft tissue mass were measured using the InBody 720 and 430 (Biospace Co. Ltd, Seoul, Korea). The values were then normalized by height in meters squared to determine body mass index (BMI), FM index (FMI), FFM index (FFMI), and skeletal muscle mass index (SMI). Results Simple means (standard deviation) of BMI, percentage FM, FMI, FFMI, and SMI were 23.4 (2.9) kg/m2, 24.9 (6.3)%, 5.96 (2.09) kg/m2, 17.4 (1.5) kg/m2, and 7.29 (0.76) kg/m2, respectively, in men and 22.7 (3.3) kg/m2, 31.7 (7.1)%, 7.40 (2.61) kg/m2, 15.3 (1.2) kg/m2, and 5.86 (0.67) kg/m2, respectively, in women. We then calculated quartiles and quintiles for these indices after stratifying for sex and 5-year age group. FFMI and SMI decreased significantly with age in both sexes (P < 0.001 for trends), but FFMI remained constant among the women with only a 1% decrease up to age 84 years. Percentage FM increased significantly, with age (P < 0.001 in men and P = 0.045 in women for trends), but FMI was unchanged in both sexes (P = 0.147 in men and P = 0.176 in women for trends). Conclusion The present data should be useful in the clinical evaluation of body composition of older Japanese and for international comparisons. The small age-related decrease in FFMI may be a noteworthy characteristic of body composition change in older Japanese women.