Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of Dose Intensification for Salvage Radiation Therapy after Radical Prostatectomy

For primary radiation therapy (RT) of prostate cancer, dose intensification is established as standard of care. Less is known on the role of dose intensification in the postprostatectomy setting for salvage RT. Thus, we aimed to identify and summarize the existing literature. In retrospective analyses, dose-intensified salvage RT showed a superior biochemical control compared to standard dose salvage radiation with favorable acute and late gastrointestinal and genitourinary toxicity rates, especially when modern radiation techniques such as intensity modulated RT were applied. We identified one randomized phase III trial addressing the potential benefits of dose-intensified salvage RT (SAKK 09/10). Recently, acute gastrointestinal and genitourinary toxicities and early quality of life data of this trial were reported, and no significant difference in acute toxicities between both treatment arms were found; however, a significant worsening of genitourinary quality of life was noted in the dose-intensified treatment arm. Whereas dose-intensified salvage RT appears to be feasible and well tolerated, the improved biochemical control rates using dose intensified RT as suggested by retrospective analyses have yet to be validated by prospective trials.
ffi cacy and tolerability of amorol fi ne 5 % nail lacquer in combination with systemic antifungal agents for onychomycosis : A meta-analysis and systematic review

Department of Dermatovenerology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, 637000, China Departments of Dermatovenerology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 610041, China Correspondence: Xiaowei Feng, Department of Dermatovenerology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, No. 63 of Wen Hua Road, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, 637000, China. Email: 845217284@qq.com Abstract The efficacy and safety of amorolfine 5% nail lacquer in combination with systemic antifungal agents in the treatment of the onychomycosis were evaluated. According to our meta-analysis, combination treatment of amorolfine 5% nail lacquer and systemic antifungals can result in higher percentage of complete clearance of onychomycosis. It showed that the experimental combination group was more effective than monotherapy of the systemic antifungals [OR (odds ratio)51.97, 95%CI (95% confidence interval)51.44–2.69], and no more adverse events happened with the addition of amorolfine 5% nail lacquer (OR5 .96, 95%CI5 .56–1.63, p5 .95). This effect strengthens the fact that amorolfine 5% nail lacquer in combination with systemic antifungal agents was better than the monotherapy of systemic antifungals like itraconazole and terbinafine.
Pro-Government Militias and the Repertoires of Illicit State Violence

ABSTRACT Most studies of pro-government militias (PGMs) take a narrowly functionalist approach. This article sees PGMs as the product of broader processes of state formation and regime dynamics that generate distinctive repertoires of violence. The article uses a cross-national dataset to shows that low state capacity is singularly correlated with the appearance and activity of all forms of PGMs. Once militias are active, they tend to endure even after initial conditions change, suggesting a strong measure of path dependence in how states PGMs evolve. Democracy curbs the activity of semi-official PGMs but not informal ones. Different authoritarian regime sub-types have varying propensities for militia activity. These findings have major implications for efforts to address state frailty.
Effect of cholestyramine-induced bile acid depletion on the hepatobiliary transport of cholephilic organic anions in rats.

Four hours after oral administration of cholestyramine (1.0 g/kg) the biliary output of bile acids decreased to 21 per cent of the control value. The biliary excretion of indocyanine green (ICG; 15--60 mumol/kg i.v.), rose bengal (RB; 15--60 mumol/kg i.v.), bromsulphthalein (BSP; 15--60 mumol/kg i.v.), bromcresol green (BCG;15--60 mumol/kg i.v.) and eosine (EO; 30--120 mumol/kg i.v.) was considerably depressed by cholestyramine pretreatment. The extent and duration of the reduction in the biliary excretion of organic anions in response to bile acid depletion were found to increase with their doses. In contrast, the biliary excretion rates of bromsulphthalein-glutathione conjugate (BSP-GSH; 60--240 mumol/kg i.v.) and amaranth (AM; 60--240 mumol/kg i.v.) remained unchanged following bile acid depletion. The hepatic uptake of the cholephilic agents investigated was not affected by bile acid depletion. It is concluded that the biliary excretion rates of ICG, RB, BSP, BCG and EO are dependent on the excretion rates of endogenous bile acids. The hepatic transport rates of BSP-GSH and AM, however, seem to be relatively insensitive to the biliary output of endogenous bile salts.
Direct Measurement of Situation Awareness: Validity and Use of SAGAT

Introduction The Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT), is a global tool developed to assess SA across all of its elements based on a comprehensive assessment of operator SA requirements (Endsley, 1987b; 1988b; 1990c). Using SAGAT, a simulation employing a system of interest is frozen at randomly selected times and operators are queried as to their perceptions of the situation at that time. The system displays are blanked and the simulation is suspended while subjects quickly answer questions about their current perceptions of the situation. As a global measure, SAGAT includes queries about all operator SA requirements, including Level 1 (perception of data), Level 2 (comprehension of meaning) and Level 3 (projection of the near future) components. This includes a consideration of system functioning and status as well as relevant features of the external environment. SAGAT queries allow for detailed information about subject SA to be collected on an element by element basis that can be evaluated against reality, thus providing an objective assessment of operator SA. This type of assessment is a direct measure of SA — it taps into the operator's perceptions rather than infers them from behaviors that may be influenced by many other factors besides SA. Furthermore it does not require subjects or observers to make judgments about situation knowledge on the basis of incomplete information, as subjective assessments do. By collecting samples of SA data in this manner, situation perceptions can be collected immediately (while fresh in the operators’ minds), reducing numerous problems incurred when collecting data on mental events after the fact, but not incurring intrusiveness problems associated with on-line questioning. Multiple “snapshots” of operators’ SA can be acquired in this way, providing an index of the quality of SA provided by a particular design. By including queries across the full spectrum of an operator’s SA requirements, this approach minimizes possible biasing of attention, as subjects cannot prepare for the queries in advance since they could be queried over almost every aspect of the situation to which they would normally attend. The method is not without some costs, however, as a detailed analysis of SA requirements is required in order to develop the battery of queries to be administered.
Grasshoppers , Ants and PreRetirement Wealth : A Test of Permanent Income Consumers

This paper shows that households who enter retirement with low wealth consistently followed non-permanent income consumption rules during their working years. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), household wealth in 1989 is predicted for a sample of 50-65 year olds using both current and past income, occupation, demographic, employment, and health characteristics. Using the residuals from this first stage regression, the sample of pre-retired households is subsetted into households who save ‘lower’ than predicted and all other households. The panel component of the PSID is then used to analyze the consumption behavior of these households early in their lifecycle. It is shown that these low pre-retirement wealth households had consumption growth that responded to predictable changes in income during their early working years. No such behavior was found among the other pre-retired households. Moreover, the low wealth residual households responded both to predictable income increases as well as predictable income declines, a result that is inconsistent with a liquidity constraints explanation. After ruling out other theories of consumption to explain these facts, it is concluded that households who entered retirement with lower than predicted wealth consistently followed near sighted consumption plans during their working lives.
Pathology of Cardiomyopathies in Man (13-Nov-2004)

Definition and Classification The cardiomyopathies are a diverse group of myocardial diseases that are characterized by chronic ventricular dysfunction. The clinical classification of cardiomyopathy is based on hemodynamic and echocardiographic abnormalities, and consists of dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and restrictive cardiomyopathy. Recently, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia has been added to this classification [1] (Table 1). Hypertrophic and right ventricular cardiomyopathies have fairly distinctive morphological manifestations. Dilated and restrictive cardiomyopathies, on the other hand, are a more heterogeneous group of disorders without uniform histologic features. For this reason, the modifier "idiopathic" often precedes restrictive and dilated cardiomyopathy to emphasize that a variety of specific cardiac and systemic illnesses that may mimic these conditions has been ruled out. Secondary cardiomyopathies are termed "specific cardiomyopathies" in the recent World Health Organization classification [1] , and are primary diseases or the valves or coronary arteries, or are systemic illnesses with cardiac manifestations.
Genes and Junk in Plant Mitochondria—Repair Mechanisms and Selection

Plant mitochondrial genomes have very low mutation rates. In contrast, they also rearrange and expand frequently. This is easily understood if DNA repair in genes is accomplished by accurate mechanisms, whereas less accurate mechanisms including nonhomologous end joining or break-induced replication are used in nongenes. An important question is how different mechanisms of repair predominate in coding and noncoding DNA, although one possible mechanism is transcription-coupled repair (TCR). This work tests the predictions of TCR and finds no support for it. Examination of the mutation spectra and rates in genes and junk reveals what DNA repair mechanisms are available to plant mitochondria, and what selective forces act on the repair products. A model is proposed that mismatches and other DNA damages are repaired by converting them into double-strand breaks (DSBs). These can then be repaired by any of the DSB repair mechanisms, both accurate and inaccurate. Natural selection will eliminate coding regions repaired by inaccurate mechanisms, accounting for the low mutation rates in genes, whereas mutations, rearrangements, and expansions generated by inaccurate repair in noncoding regions will persist. Support for this model includes the structure of the mitochondrial mutS homolog in plants, which is fused to a double-strand endonuclease. The model proposes that plant mitochondria do not distinguish a damaged or mismatched DNA strand from the undamaged strand, they simply cut both strands and perform homology-based DSB repair. This plant-specific strategy for protecting future generations from mitochondrial DNA damage has the side effect of genome expansions and rearrangements.
Intercultural conflicts between New Zealanders and Japanese under business conditions : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Japanese at Massey University

Cultural diversity includes many different values and behaviours. This frequently causes intercultural conflicts and communication break-downs. If people do not know these differences, they cannot know the reasons for these communjcation failures. People who communicate \Vith others from different cultural groups, therefore, have to be aware of the different cultural values and communication rules these target cultural groups have. When New Zealanders work with the Japanese people, what are the factors to prevent communication? This dissertation aims to answer this question. An interview survey was held in order to analyse successful cases and unsuccessful cases of intercultural communication between New Zealanders and Japanese under work conditions. The Japanese managers and employees were interviewed to investigate what intercultural aspects these New Zealanders have to be aware of. The research results show that ; ( I ) different styles of work, (2) senses of responsibility individual responsibility I group responsibility -, and (3) different ways of apologising frequently cause problems. All of these three aspects are related to the individualism-collectivism dimension of culture. These results indicate that this conceptual difference, individualism-collectivism, is the biggest cultural dimension which causes intercultural conflicts as a number of researchers argue. This aspect, therefore, has to be taught in Japanese language courses or job training courses to avoid these frequent conflicts and failures of intercultural communication between New Zealanders and Japanese.
Whole Grain Intake and Mortality From All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

Background— Current findings on associations between whole grain (WG) intake and mortality are inconsistent and have not been summarized by meta-analysis. Methods and Results— We searched for prospective cohort studies reporting associations between WG intake and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer through February 2016 in Medline, Embase, and clinicaltrials.gov, and we further included unpublished results from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III and NHANES 1999 to 2004. Fourteen studies were eligible for analysis, which included 786 076 participants, 97 867 total deaths, 23 957 CVD deaths, and 37 492 cancer deaths. Pooled relative risks comparing extreme WG categories (high versus low) were 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80–0.88; P<0.001; I 2=74%; P heterogeneity<0.001) for total mortality, 0.82 (95% CI, 0.79–0.85; P<0.001; I 2=0%; P heterogeneity=0.53) for CVD mortality, and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.83–0.94; P<0.001; I 2=54%; P heterogeneity=0.02) for cancer mortality. Intakes of WG ingredients in dry weight were estimated among studies reporting relative risks for ≥3 quantitative WG categories, and they were <50 g/d among most study populations. The 2-stage dose-response random-effects meta-analysis showed monotonic associations between WG intake and mortality (P nonlinearity>0.05). For each 16-g/d increase in WG (≈1 serving per d), relative risks of total, CVD, and cancer mortality were 0.93 (95% CI, 0.92–0.94; P<0.001), 0.91 (95% CI, 0.90–0.93; P<0.001), and 0.95 (95% CI, 0.94–0.96; P<0.001), respectively. Conclusions— Our meta-analysis demonstrated inverse associations of WG intake with total and cause-specific mortality, and findings were particularly strong and robust for CVD mortality. These findings further support current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommends at least 3 servings per day of WG intake.
A Rare Case of Recurrent Myoid Hamartoma Mimicking Malignancy: Imaging Appearances

Myoid hamartoma is an uncommon type of breast hamartoma and its recurrence is very rare. We report the imaging appearance of an unusual case of recurrent myoid hamartoma of the breast mimicking malignancy in a 43-year-old woman. Although the mammographic and ultrasonographic findings have long been described in the literature, MR finding with a dynamic study has not, to the best of our knowledge, been reported previously.
Gene expression Kalman Filtering for Disease-State Estimation from Microarray Data

Motivation: In this paper we propose using the Kalman filter as a pre-processing step in microarray-based molecular diagnosis. Incorporating the expression covariance between genes is important in such classification problems, since this represents the functional relationships that govern tissue state. Failing to fulfil such requirements may result in biologically implausible class prediction models. Here we show that employing the Kalman filter to remove noise (while retaining meaningful covariance and thus being able to estimate the underlying biological state from microarray measurements) yields linearly separable data suitable for most classification algorithms. Results: We demonstrate the utility and performance of the Kalman filter as a robust disease-state estimator on publicly available binary and multiclass microarray datasets in combination with the most widely used classification methods to date. Moreover, using popular graphical representation schemes we show that our filtered datasets also have an improved visualization capability. Contact: kelli@nucleus.szbk. u-szeged.hu Supplementary information: www.inf. u-szeged.hu/~kfa/kalman06/
Frequency Hopped Signal Interception using Compressive Sensing

In the present scenario there is a huge amount of data transfer around us in every field. It is a primary requirement that the data that is being transmitted is secure and does not land up with unauthorized party. Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum (FHSS) is a reliable communication technique by which data security while the data is under transmission can be guaranteed. FHSS is a technique in which the carrier frequency is hopped or changed continuously. Thus it is more immune to external attack and cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties. It is also desirable if we can minimize the resource needed to sense or intercept the transmitted data at the receiver. By traditional methods we sense the data as a whole and then sample and discard some values that are redundant. This is a waste of valuable sensing resource. Instead of sensing the data as a whole, we try to sense and capture only those samples which are not redundant. This approach is known as Compressive sensing or compressive sampling technique. This paper proposes a method for interception of the frequency hopped signal using latest algorithm in compressive sensing. Keywords—Compressive sensing, frequency hopped spread spectrum sparsity, sensing matrix.
OrganicWaste for Compost and Biochar in the EU: Mobilizing the Potential

While several EU member states have working compost markets, only about one third of the bio-waste, around 35 Mio tons is used to produce compost, and to some degree, biogas. The major part is still incinerated or landfilled together with other waste. This paper proposes the improvement of existing and the creation of new compost markets based on the integration of biochar and the implementation of obligatory recycling targets with flexible implementation approaches. Based on a literature review, the production of compost with biochar reduces some of the nitrogen and carbon losses and accelerates the composting process. This indicates economical benefits for the compost producer and the farmer, as well as reduced greenhouse gas emissions. An obligation to recycle organic waste, may it be on a national or on EU level, together with the implementation of appropriate collection systems, could provide the economic and societal base to mobilize the currently unused bio-waste. Should this scenario be realized, the annual amount of biochar-compost out of bio-waste could be used to serve around 3.7% of all arable land in the EU. This would demand no large-scale application, but instead specific uses for specific soil-crop constellations.
Integrated semiconductor magnetic field sensors

A magnetic field sensor is an entrance transducer that converts a magnetic field into an electronic signal. Semiconductor magnetic field sensors exploit the galvanomagnetic effects due to the Lorentz force on charge carriers. Integrated semiconductor, notably silicon, magnetic field sensors, are manufactured using integrated circuit technologies. Integrated sensors are being increasingly developed for a variety of applications in view of the advantage offered by the integration of the magnetic field sensitive element together with support and signal processing circuitry on the same semiconductor chip. The ultimate goal is to develop a broad range of inexpensive batch-fabricated high-performance sensors interfaced with the rapidly proliferating microprocessor. This review aims at the recent progress in integrated silicon magnetic devices such as integrated Hall plates, magnetic field-effect transistors, vertical and lateral bipolar magnetotransistors, magnetodiodes, and current-domain magnetometers. The current development of integrated magnetic field sensors based on III-V semiconductors is described as well. Bulk Hall-effect devices are also reviewed and serve to define terms of performance reference. Magnetic device modeling and the incorporation of magnetic devices into an integrated circuit offering in situ amplification and compensation of offset and temperature effects are further topics of this paper. Silicon will continue to be aggressively exploited in a variety of magnetic (and other) sensor applications, complementary to its traditional role as integrated circuit material.
Interventional treatment for neuropathic pain due to combined cervical radiculopathy and carpal tunnel syndrome: a case report

The coexistence of median and cervical nerve root damage might hide a complex pathophysiology. Here, we describe and discuss the case of a patient suffering from numbness and painful tingling of the hand, whose symptoms were effectively treated with pulsed radiofrequency and epidural administration of bupivacaine and morphine.
Optimising Camera Traps for Monitoring Small Mammals

Practical techniques are required to monitor invasive animals, which are often cryptic and occur at low density. Camera traps have potential for this purpose, but may have problems detecting and identifying small species. A further challenge is how to standardise the size of each camera’s field of view so capture rates are comparable between different places and times. We investigated the optimal specifications for a low-cost camera trap for small mammals. The factors tested were 1) trigger speed, 2) passive infrared vs. microwave sensor, 3) white vs. infrared flash, and 4) still photographs vs. video. We also tested a new approach to standardise each camera’s field of view. We compared the success rates of four camera trap designs in detecting and taking recognisable photographs of captive stoats ( Mustela erminea ), feral cats (Felis catus) and hedgehogs ( Erinaceus europaeus ). Trigger speeds of 0.2–2.1 s captured photographs of all three target species unless the animal was running at high speed. The camera with a microwave sensor was prone to false triggers, and often failed to trigger when an animal moved in front of it. A white flash produced photographs that were more readily identified to species than those obtained under infrared light. However, a white flash may be more likely to frighten target animals, potentially affecting detection probabilities. Video footage achieved similar success rates to still cameras but required more processing time and computer memory. Placing two camera traps side by side achieved a higher success rate than using a single camera. Camera traps show considerable promise for monitoring invasive mammal control operations. Further research should address how best to standardise the size of each camera’s field of view, maximise the probability that an animal encountering a camera trap will be detected, and eliminate visible or audible cues emitted by camera traps.