Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of azacytidine on the quality of life of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome treated in a randomized phase III trial: a Cancer and Leukemia Group B study.

PURPOSE The impact of azacytidine (Aza C) on the quality of life of 191 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome was assessed in a phase III Cancer and Leukemia Group B trial (9221). PATIENTS AND METHODS One hundred ninety-one patients (mean age, 67.5 years; 69% male) were randomized to receive either Aza C (75 mg/m(2) subcutaneous for 7 days every 4 weeks) or supportive care, with supportive care patients crossing over to Aza C upon disease progression. Quality of life was assessed by centrally conducted telephone interviews at baseline and days 50, 106, and 182. Overall quality of life, psychological state, and social functioning were assessed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 and the Mental Health Inventory (MHI). RESULTS Patients on the Aza C arm experienced significantly greater improvement in fatigue (EORTC, P =.001), dyspnea (EORTC, P =.0014), physical functioning (EORTC, P =.0002), positive affect (MHI, P =.0077), and psychological distress (MHI, P =.015) over the course of the study period than those in the supportive care arm. Particularly striking were improvements in fatigue and psychological state (MHI) in patients treated with Aza C compared with those receiving supportive care for patients who remained on study through at least day 106, corresponding to four cycles of Aza C. Significant differences between the two groups in quality of life were maintained even after controlling for the number of RBC transfusions. CONCLUSION Improved quality of life for patients treated with Aza C coupled with significantly greater treatment response and delayed time to transformation to acute myeloid leukemia or death compared with patients on supportive care (P <.001) establishes Aza C as an important treatment option for myelodysplastic syndrome.
Establishment and characterization of three new breast‐cancer cell lines

We have established and characterized 3 new breast‐cancer cell lines from pleural effusions of patients with advanced breast cancer. All 3 cell lines, designated IBEP‐1, IBEP‐2 and IBEP‐3, showed typical ultrastructural characteristics of epithelial mammary tumor cells. Electron microscopy showed, among other characteristics, the presence of numerous microvilli, desmosomal junctions, intracytoplasmic duct‐like vacuoles, well‐developed endoplasmic reticulum and large nuclei. Immunohistochemical and biochemical studies revealed that the 3 cell lines expressed cytokeratin, epithelial membrane antigen, CEA and CA 15‐3, but all showed negative immunoreaction for vimentin. On the other hand, other antigens (LEU‐M1, GCDFP 15, c‐erbB‐2) were expressed by some of the cell lines, but in a variable manner. Ploidy studies confirmed the neoplastic origin of the cell lines. The doubling times were 68 hr for IBEP‐1, 29 hr for IBEP‐2 and 39 hr for IBEP‐3. Only IBEP‐2 cells expressed estrogen receptors (ER+), which were down‐regulated after pre‐incubation with E2, but they did not express progesterone receptors (PgR−). IBEP‐1 and IBEP‐3 cells were ER− but expressed PgR (PgR+). In these 2 cell lines, PgR were down‐regulated after pre‐incubation of the cells with progesterone (10−8 M) for 24 hr. Estradiol (E2) increased the proliferation rate of IBEP‐2 cells and progesterone increased the proliferation of IBEP‐1 and ‐3 cell lines. S.C. injection of the 3 IBEP cell lines into nude mice resulted in the growth of solid tumors between 11 and 16 weeks after inoculation. These cell lines could thus be new models for studying various aspects of the biology and the tumorigenicity of breast‐cancer cells. A major interest of these new cell lines is that 2 of them were ER− and PgR+, which is an exceptional phenotypic feature. These 2 cell lines could be interesting models for studying the regulation of PgR and the effects of progestins and antiprogestins independently of the presence of ER. Int. J. Cancer 76:677–683, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The rhythms of human sleep propensity and core body temperature

Evidence from human free‐running studies has suggested a close relationship between the timing of the circadian rhythm of core body temperature and the rhythm of sleep propensity. However, this relationship may be questioned by variations of sleep and wakeful activity which could have masked the endogenous temperature rhythm. A constant routine was used here to «unmask» the endogenous temperature rhythm in addition to frequent sleep trials across a 24‐h period to confirm the relationship between temperature and sleep propensity rhythms. Of the 14 healthy, good sleeping subjects 13 had significant 24‐h cosine rhythms of sleep propensity. Eight of these also had a significant 12‐h cosine rhythm. The eight subjects with both 24‐h and 12‐h rhythms showed a minor peak of sleep propensity in the early afternoon followed by a trough in the early evening (20.00 hours). Sleep propensity then rose rapidly at about midnight to a major peak in the early morning. This was followed by a second trough of sleep propensity in the late morning. The average times of the sleep propensity phases relative to the circadian temperature rhythm were very similar to the earlier free‐running studies. Furthermore, the times of the sleep propensity phases were highly correlated with the body temperature minimum. These results suggested the possibility that a common oscillator determines the timing of both the body temperature rhythm and the phases of the sleep propensity rhythm.
Estimating Specular Roughness and Anisotropy from Second Order Spherical Gradient Illumination

This paper presents a novel method for estimating specular roughness and tangent vectors, per surface point, from polarized second order spherical gradient illumination patterns. We demonstrate that for isotropic BRDFs, only three second order spherical gradients are sufficient to robustly estimate spatially varying specular roughness. For anisotropic BRDFs, an additional two measurements yield specular roughness and tangent vectors per surface point. We verify our approach with different illumination configurations which project both discrete and continuous fields of gradient illumination. Our technique provides a direct estimate of the per‐pixel specular roughness and thus does not require off‐line numerical optimization that is typical for the measure‐and‐fit approach to classical BRDF modeling.
Intracellular processing of surfactant lipids in the lung.

Early studies of the lung surfactant system were concerned with its physiologi­ cal role, physical properties, chemical composition, ultrastructural identifica­ tion, and biochemical pathways for synthesis. These topics are covered in detail in other chapters of this section. More recently, attention has focused on intracellular transport, assembly, and storage of surfactant components, surfac­ tant secretion, and removal of surfactant from the alveolar space. These can be categorized as cell biology of the surfactant system and are the subjects of this review. This topic will be discussed within the framework of Assembly and Storage of Lung Surfactant Components, Secretion of Lung Surfactant, and Removal and Reprocessing of Lung Surfactant.
Large artery compliance in essential hypertension. Effects of calcium antagonism and beta-blocking.

This study used 2D Doppler flowmetry to assess the effects on peripheral hemodynamics of effective treatment with nicardipine or atenolol in 40 patients with mild or moderate essential hypertension. Two groups of 20 patients received treatment with nicardipine or atenolol, respectively, for 8 months. Consequently, those patients considered to be responders (blood pressure less than 150/90 mm Hg) were monitored for another 4 weeks after the therapy was suspended in order to determine whether the changes, if any, in arterial compliance persisted. Following the 8-month therapy, four patients from each group were excluded from the study because of unsatisfactory blood pressure levels. After the treatment, there was a decrease in blood pressure in both groups (P less than .01). In the nicardipine group, there was a significant increase in diameter and compliance (P less than .01), whereas pulse wave velocity and resistance decreased (P less than .01). In the atenolol group, these parameters did not change significantly. After therapy was ended, blood pressure returned to baseline values in both groups. However, in the nicardipine group, the observed improvement in forearm hemodynamics persisted. This result may indicate that nicardipine is able to induce a regression of functional and/or structural changes in the large arteries of hypertensive patients.
VERSION “ Modularity , Theory of Mind , and Autism Spectrum Disorder ”

The theory of mind (ToM) deficit associated with autism spectrum disorder has been a central topic in the debate about the modularity of the mind. In a series of papers, Philip Gerrans and Valerie Stone argue that positing a ToM module does not best explain the deficits exhibited by individuals with autism (Gerrans 2002; Stone & Gerrans 2006a, 2006b; Gerrans & Stone 2008). In this paper, I first criticize Gerrans and Stone‟s (2008) account. Second, I discuss various studies of individuals with autism and argue that they are best explained by positing a higher-level, domain-specific ToM module.
Natural shadow matting

This article addresses the problem of natural shadow matting, the removal or extraction of natural shadows from a single image. Because textures are maintained in the shadowless image after the extraction process, our approach produces some of the best results to date among shadow removal techniques. Using the image formation equation typical of computer vision, we advocate a new model for shadow formation where shadow effect is understood as light attenuation instead of a mixture of two colors governed by the conventional matting equation. This leads to a new shadow equation with fewer unknowns to solve, where a three-channel shadow matte and a shadowless image are considered in our optimization. Our problem is formulated as one of energy minimization guided by user-supplied hints in the form of a quadmap which can be specified easily by the user. This formulation allows for robust shadow matte extraction while maintaining texture in the shadowed region by considering color transfer, texture gradient, and shadow smoothness. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach in shadow removal, image matting, and compositing.
The Impact of Digital Media on Citizenship from a Global Perspective

Introduction As new technologies are evolving worldwide, many theoretical challenges have arisen that surpass the frameworks used so far to pose questions about digital media and citizens’ lives. There is a great need for broader perspectives to understand what is common and what is different in emerging political practices across nations. That need motivates this chapter, which starts from the observation that a great deal of research on digital media and politics since the late 1990s has centered on one of two sets of issues. In the United States and the United Kingdom, and to some extent in other European countries, a central concern has been whether the use of digital media increases political participation or civic engagement. In research on authoritarian regimes, however, questions of censorship and state control over media have dominated the discussion. Although these two frameworks for analysis have been productive, they are ultimately quite limited in addressing the broad range of changes in the character of citizenship that is underway because of digital media. The transformations associated with digital media extend well beyond how many people vote or how much content is circumscribed by state control. In many nations, both democratic and nondemocratic, the changes are similar or overlapping or common, whereas in others they differ because of political institutions and culture, or other aspects of political context, and as a result of different stages of internet diffusion. The goal of this chapter is to examine some common theoretical issues in digital media across nations as a framework for understanding citizenship practices in a broader way. We focus on five issues: political attitudes, political practices, sociality of politics, political voice, and transnational allegiance. In each, we account for some commonalities and differences across regimes.
A Toolbox for Adaptive Sequence Dissimilarity Measures for Intelligent Tutoring Systems

We present the TCS Alignment Toolbox, which offers a flexible framework to calculate and visualize (dis)similarities between sequences in the context of educational data mining and intelligent tutoring systems. The toolbox offers a variety of alignment algorithms, allows for complex input sequences comprised of multi-dimensional elements, and is adjustable via rich parameterization options, including mechanisms for an automatic adaptation based on given data. Our demo shows an example in which the alignment measure is adapted to distinguish students' Java programs w.r. t. different solution strategies, via a machine learning technique.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae in asthma: effect of clarithromycin.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of clarithromycin therapy in patients with asthma. DESIGN Randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING A tertiary referral center. PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS Fifty-five subjects with chronic, stable asthma recruited from the general Denver, CO, community. INTERVENTIONS Patients underwent airway evaluation for Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and culture, followed by treatment with clarithromycin, 500 bid, or placebo for 6 weeks. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Outcome variables were lung function, sinusitis as measured by CT, and the inflammatory mediators tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-12 messenger RNA (mRNA) measured via in situ hybridization, in airway biopsies, and BAL. Mycoplasma or chlamydia were detected by PCR in 31 of 55 asthmatics. Treatment resulted in a significant improvement in the FEV(1), but only in the PCR-positive subjects (2.50 +/- 0.16 to 2.69 +/- 0.19 L, mean +/- SEM; p = 0.05). This was not appreciated in the PCR-negative subjects (2.59 +/- 0.24 to 2.54 +/- 0.18 L, p = 0.85) or the PCR-positive or PCR-negative subjects who received placebo. Sinus CTs revealed no change in sinusitis with clarithromycin treatment. In situ hybridization revealed no significant difference in baseline airway tissue or BAL-mediator expression between the PCR-positive and PCR-negative subjects. However, the PCR-positive subjects who received clarithromycin demonstrated a reduction in TNF-alpha (p = 0.006), IL-5 (p = 0.007), and IL-12 (p = 0.004) mRNA in BAL and TNF-alpha mRNA in airway tissue (p = 0.0009). The PCR-negative subjects who received clarithromycin only demonstrated a reduction in TNF-alpha (p = 0.01) and IL-12 (p = 0.002) mRNA in BAL and TNF-alpha mRNA in airway tissue (p = 0.004). There were no significant differences in cytokine expression in those subjects who received placebo. CONCLUSIONS These observations support the hypothesis that clarithromycin therapy improves lung function, but only in those subjects with positive PCR findings for M pneumoniae or C pneumoniae.
A Combination Indexing for Image Social Bookmarking System to Improve Search Results

Web 3.0 and social bookmarking have altered the traditional roles of the indexer and user. Recently, web, allows users to create, organize, and search for images and other information sources through social tagging and other method activities. One of the image social bookmarking is such as Flickr. This research examines to increase the efficiency of image search result by creating indexes. The assumption of the experiment is a combination of social tagging and other factor such as image description that can improve web performance. Therefore, three indexers were created and were compared with the search results between a search engine using the indexing method of “Description with Tag” or DT indexer, “Posted Time With Tag” or PT indexer and the “Tag only” or T indexer which is a native method. The retrieval performance of this search engine is evaluated using the mean values of Normalized Discount Cumulative Gain (NDCG). The result illustrates that the search engine with indexer using DT indexer provides better indexer using the T indexer in all the ranks. This primary evaluation in the experiments proves that the chosen heuristic indexer can improve the efficiency of the web image searching on social bookmarking websites. Subject Categories and Descriptors H.3. 1 [Content Analysis and Indexing]; I.4 [Image Processing and Computer Vision]; I.4. 10 Image Representation General Terms Image Processing and Indexing.
T Cell Receptor Signaling Precedes Immunological Synapse Formation

The area of contact between a T cell and an antigen-presenting cell (APC) is known as the immunological synapse. Although its exact function is unknown, one model suggests that it allows for T cell receptor (TCR) clustering and for sustained signaling in T cells for many hours. Here we demonstrate that TCR-mediated tyrosine kinase signaling in naı̈ve T cells occurred primarily at the periphery of the synapse and was largely abated before mature immunological synapses had formed. These data suggest that many hours of TCR signaling are not required for T cell activation. These observations challenge current ideas about the role of immunological synapses in T cell activation.
Correction for Liberati et al., An ordered, nonredundant library of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14 transposon insertion mutants

Random transposon insertion libraries have proven invaluable in studying bacterial genomes. Libraries that approach saturation must be large, with multiple insertions per gene, making comprehensive genome-wide scanning difficult. To facilitate genome-scale study of the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14, we constructed a nonredundant library of PA14 transposon mutants (the PA14NR Set) in which nonessential PA14 genes are represented by a single transposon insertion chosen from a comprehensive library of insertion mutants. The parental library of PA14 transposon insertion mutants was generated by using MAR2xT7, a transposon compatible with transposon-site hybridization and based on mariner. The transposon-site hybridization genetic footprinting feature broadens the utility of the library by allowing pooled MAR2xT7 mutants to be individually tracked under different experimental conditions. A public, internet-accessible database (the PA14 Transposon Insertion Mutant Database, http://ausubellab.mgh.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/pa14/home.cgi) was developed to facilitate construction, distribution, and use of the PA14NR Set. The usefulness of the PA14NR Set in genome-wide scanning for phenotypic mutants was validated in a screen for attachment to abiotic surfaces. Comparison of the genes disrupted in the PA14 transposon insertion library with an independently constructed insertion library in P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 provides an estimate of the number of P. aeruginosa essential genes.
“Chemical Analogues” of HLA-DM Can Induce a Peptide-receptive State in HLA-DR Molecules*

We had recently identified small molecular compounds that are able to accelerate the ligand exchange reactions of HLA-DR molecules. Here we show that this acceleration is due to the induction of a “peptide-receptive” state. Dissociation experiments of soluble HLA-DR2·CLIP (class II-associated invariant chain peptide) complex and peptide-binding studies with “nonreceptive” empty HLA-DR1 and -DR2 molecules revealed that the presence of a small phenolic compound carrying an H-bond donor group (–OH) results in the drastic increase of both off- and on-rates. The rate-limiting step for ligand exchange, the transition of the major histocompatibility complex molecule from a nonreceptive into the receptive state, is normally mediated by interaction with the chaperone HLA-DM. In this respect, the effect of small molecules resembles that of the natural catalyst, except that they are still active at neutral pH. These “chemical analogues” of HLA-DM can therefore modulate the response of CD4+ T cells by editing the antigen composition of surface-bound class II major histocompatibility complex on living antigen-presenting cells.
iotSilo: The Agent Service Platform Supporting Dynamic Behavior Assembly for Resolving the Heterogeneity of IoT

Although a lot of researchers have painted a rosy picture of Internet of Things (IoT), there have been no widely accepted solution and related standards until now. To achieve the successful realization of IoT, the close collaboration of devices is the primary requisite. However, the heterogeneity of devices such as different hardware or network connectivity prohibits the realization of IoT. In order to overcome the heterogeneity issue, we suggested the agent service platform named iotSilo in which agents can communicate and cooperate on behalf of their devices. With this delegation approach, the iotSilo can support diverse devices without worrying about their differences. In designing an agent, several software design patterns are adopted to enable the agent to assemble behaviors for hiding the heterogeneity of devices. To investigate the effectiveness of the iotSilo, we developed eleven different types of the IoT devices to emulate real world things with Arduino, deployed the devices in both Korea and Japan, and then conducted three experiments.
Dependence of center radius on temporal frequency for the receptive fields of X retinal ganglion cells of cat

We examined the dependence of the center radius of X cells on temporal frequency and found that at temporal frequencies above 40 Hz the radius increases in a monotonic fashion, reaching a size approximately 30% larger at 70 Hz. This kind of spatial expansion has been predicted with cable models of receptive fields where inductive elements are included in modeling the neuronal membranes. Hence, the expansion of the center radius is clearly important for modeling X cell receptive fields. On the other hand, we feel that it might be of only minor functional significance, since the responsivity of X cells is attenuated at these high temporal frequencies and the signal-to-noise ratio is considerably worse than at low and midrange temporal frequencies.
Annals of Combinatorics

In this paper we classify all Schur functions and skew Schur functions that are multiplicity free when expanded in the basis of fundamental quasisymmetric functions, termed F-multiplicity free. Combinatorially, this is equivalent to classifying all skew shapes whose standard Young tableaux have distinct descent sets. We then generalize our setting, and classify all F-multiplicity free quasisymmetric Schur functions with one or two terms in the expansion, or one or two parts in the indexing composition. This identifies composition shapes such that all standard composition tableaux of that shape have distinct descent sets. We conclude by providing such a classification for quasisymmetric Schur function families, giving a classification of Schur functions that are in some sense almost F-multiplicity free.