Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Outcomes of Spatially Fractionated GRID Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Bulky Tumors of the Head and Neck

Objectives The clinical outcomes of patients treated with spatially fractionated GRID radiotherapy (SFGRT) for bulky tumors of the head and neck at a single institution were evaluated retrospectively. Endpoints of interest included tumor response, symptom improvement, treatment tolerance, and adverse events. Methods Institutional review board approval was obtained prior to study initiation. The institutional database was queried for patients with tumors of the head and neck treated with SFGRT between August 2007 and April 2015. Medical records of identified patients were reviewed for treatment details and clinical endpoints of interest. SFGRT was delivered in one fraction of 15 gray (Gy) or 20 Gy; 6 megavolt (MV) or 18 MV photon beams were passed through a multileaf collimator (MLC)-based or brass GRID template. All patients had a planned course of conventionally-fractionated external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) to begin on the day following SFGRT delivery. Results Twenty-one consecutive patients meeting study criteria were identified. The most common tumor histology was squamous cell carcinoma. Median patient age was 59 years (range 13 - 83 years); median maximum tumor dimension was 9.5 centimeters (cm) (range 5.0 - 25.0 cm). Fifteen patients (71.4%) completed their full course of EBRT. Twelve patients were treated with palliative intent for local tumor symptoms, of which 54.5% experienced some degree of symptom improvement. Of nine patients treated with curative intent, 44.4% achieved a clinical complete response (CR). Concurrent chemotherapy was administered in 12 patients, with all patients being treated having definitively received chemotherapy. Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) grade three or higher skin toxicity occurred in five patients; no grade five events were reported. Conclusions Our institutional experience suggests that SFGRT is a feasible treatment option for the palliative or definitive management of large tumors of the head and neck. In combination with EBRT, SFGRT can provide timely symptom management and improve patient quality of life in the palliative setting. In the definitive setting, the addition of chemotherapy to SFGRT and EBRT can result in an excellent clinical response. Treatment toxicity was found to be within an acceptable range. When considering SFGRT for patients with these challenging presentations, careful patient selection is needed to identify those who will likely tolerate a full course of EBRT following SFGRT, as these patients are most likely to receive maximal benefit from SFGRT treatment. More data on the feasibility and efficacy of this radiation modality will be helpful for continued optimization of SFGRT delivery and patient selection.
Protective effect of cilostazol and rosuvastatin on acute kidney injury-induced lung injury using TNF-a and HIF-1 a immunoreactivities TNF-a and HIF-1 a immünreaktivitesi ile silostazol ve rosuvastatinin akut böbrek hasarı ile oluşturulan akciğer hasarı üzerine koruyucu etkileri

Correspondence: Şahin İşcan, MD. İzmir Katip Çelebi Üniversitesi Atatürk Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Kalp ve Damar Cerrahisi Kliniği, 35360 Karabağlar, İzmir, Turkey. e-mail: sahiniscan@hotmail.com 1Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, İzmir Katip Çelebi University Atatürk Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey 2Department of Pathology, İstanbul Bilim University, Gayrettepe Florence Nightingale Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
8.5 A 16nm auto-calibrating dynamically adaptive clock distribution for maximizing supply-voltage-droop tolerance across a wide operating range

System-on-chip (SoC) processor cores experience high-frequency supply voltage (VDD) droops when the current in the power delivery network abruptly changes in response to workload variations, thus degrading performance and energy efficiency. Previous adaptive circuit techniques aim to reduce the effects of VDD droops by sensing the VDD variation with an on-die monitor and adjusting the clock frequency (FCLK) [1-2] or by directly modulating the phase-locked loop (PLL) clock output with changes in the core VDD to implicitly adapt FCLK [3]. The adaptive response time and complex analog circuits limit the benefits of these techniques for a wide range of FCLK and VDD operating conditions. The adaptive clock distribution (ACD) [4-5] exploits the path clock-data delay compensation during a VDD droop to enable a sufficient response time to proactively adapt FCLK. Although the ACD mitigates the impact of VDD droops on performance and energy efficiency, the previous designs require extensive post-silicon tester calibration of the dynamic variation monitor (DVM) to accurately detect the onset of the VDD droop. Since SoC cores operate across a wide range of FCLK, VDD, temperature, and process conditions, the DVM requires a unique calibration for each operating point, thus resulting in prohibitively expensive test time for high-volume products. This paper describes an ACD design in a 16nm [6] test chip with an auto-calibration circuit to enable in-field, low-latency tuning of the DVM across a wide range of operating conditions to maximize the ACD benefits, while eliminating the costly overhead from tester calibration.
Brain Imaging, Cognitive Processes, and Brain Networks

The recent, rapid expansion of the application of neuroimaging techniques to a broad variety of questions about the structure and function of mind and brain has led to much necessary and often critical introspection about what these techniques can actually tell us about cognitive processes. In this article, we attempt to place neuroimaging within the broader context of the cognitive neuroscience approach, which emphasizes the benefits of converging methodologies for understanding cognition and how it is supported by the functioning of the brain. Our arguments for what neuroimaging has to offer are supported by two specific examples from research on memory that, we believe, show how neuroimaging data have provided unique insights not only into brain organization, but also into the organization of the mind.
Outbreak of multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecium with transferable vanB class vancomycin resistance

Enterococcus faecium strains resistant to ampicillin, high levels of gentamicin, and vancomycin but susceptible to teicoplanin (vanB class vancomycin resistance) were recovered from 37 patients during an outbreak involving a 250-bed university-affiliated hospital. Three isolates with vancomycin MICs ranging from 8 to 256 micrograms/ml all hybridized with a vanB probe. Restriction endonuclease analysis of chromosomal and plasmid DNA suggested that all isolates tested were derived from a single clone. Vancomycin resistance was shown to be transferable. Risk factors for acquiring the epidemic strain included proximity to another case patient (P, 0.0005) and exposure to a nurse who cared for another case patient (P, 0.007). Contamination of the environment by the epidemic strain occurred significantly more often when case patients had diarrhea (P, 0.001). Placing patients in private rooms and requiring the use of gowns as well as gloves by personnel controlled the outbreak. These findings suggest that multidrug-resistant E. faecium strains with transferable vanB class vancomycin resistance will emerge as important nosocomial pathogens. Because extensive environmental contamination may occur when affected patients develop diarrhea, barrier precautions, including the use of both gowns and gloves, should be implemented as soon as these pathogens are encountered.
Clinicopathological features and localization of gastric cancers and their effects on survival in Turkey.

BACKGROUND This study was designed to examine changing trends in localization of gastric cancer in Turkey in recent years. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 796 adult patients with newly diagnosed, histologically proven adenocarcinomas, treated and followed up at our oncology center between 2000-2011, were examined retrospectively. In all cases tumor localization were identified and recorded with clinicopathological features. RESULTS The median age was 58 with a range between 22-90 for the 552 men and 244 women. Median follow up was 12 months (1-276) and median overall survival was also 12 months (11.5-12.4). There was a trend for a change in tumor localization from distal to proximal. Survival of patients was low with advanced T and N stage tumours. Positive surgical margins, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, cardioesophageal localization were predisposition factors for metastatic disease in gastric cancer. There was no relation between age or sex and histopathological type of gastric cancer. CONCLUSIONS There is a trend in our country for a change in gastric tumour localization from distal to proximal, with clear significance for treatment choices.
ABCVS: An Artificial Bee Colony for Generating Variable T-Way Test Sets

To achieve acceptable quality and performance of any software product, it is crucial to assess various software components in the application. There exist various software-testing techniques such as combinatorial testing and covering array. However, problems such as t-way combinatorial explosion is still challenging in any combinatorial testing strategy, as it takes into consideration the entire combinations of input variables. Therefore, to overcome this problem, several optimizations and metaheuristic strategies have been suggested. One of the most effective optimization algorithms based techniques is the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm. This paper presents t-way generation strategy for both a uniform and variable strength test suite by applying the ABC strategy (ABCVS) to reduce the size of the test suite and to subsequently enhance the test suite generation interaction. To assess both the effectiveness and performance of the presented ABCVS, several experiments were conducted applying various sets of benchmarks. The results revealed that the proposed ABCVS outweigh the existing based strategies and demonstrated wider interaction between components as opposed to AI-search based and computational based strategies. The results also revealed higher prospect of ABCVS in the aspect of its effectiveness and performance as observed in the majority of case studies.
Adsorption of Lysozyme onto the Silicon Oxide Surface Chemically Grafted with a Monolayer of Pentadecyl-1-ol

The adsorption of chicken egg white lysozyme at the functionalized silicon oxide−solution interface has been studied using the combined measurement of spectroscopic ellipsometry and neutron reflection. The solid oxide surface was modified by coating a self-assembled monolayer of pentadecyltrichlorosilane with terminal hydroxyl groups (abbreviated to C15OH). Neutron reflection measurement at the solid−D2O interface showed that the C15OH layer was 16 ± 2 A thick and the volume fraction was 0.94 ± 0.05, suggesting the formation of a close-packed monolayer. The adsorption of lysozyme was made at pH 4 and 7 with lysozyme concentration ranging from 0.03 to 4 g dm-3. The results were then compared with those from previous studies at the hydrophilic SiO2−water and the hydrophobed SiO2−water interfaces, with the latter formed by coating a monolayer of octadecyl trichlorosilane (abbreviated to OTS). At 0.03 g dm-3 and pH 7 the surface excess was found to be 0.6 ± 0.3 mg m-2 at the C15OH−water interface, as compared.
TITLE At the Crossroads of Phonology and Discourse : Structure and Function in a One-Year-Old ' s " Conduites

A study analyzed three episodes of self-repetition in a 1-year-old's utterances and examined the child's use of self-repetition for exploiting and elaborating on his phonological system in the context of discourse. The subject was a first-born monolingual child in, the Stanford Child Phonology project. The analysis provides clues about how the young child's phonological system is organized, and particularly how he handles the problem of massive formal variation in a systemic context, behaving as a phonological strategist and system-builder. It is argued that the child's phonological behavior in discourse reflects an ability to flexibly and resourcefully exploit available phonological options in the service of short-term and long-term fun'tional objectives, both immediate communication aeeds and the construction and progressive elaboration of a phonological system for the articulation of words. (MSE) ********************************$. ************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS a:e the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************t**
Activation of the hypoxia‐inducible factor pathway induced by prolyl hydroxylase domain 2 deficiency enhances the effect of running training in mice

Hypoxic response mediated by hypoxia‐inducible factor (HIF) seems to contribute to the benefit of endurance training. To verify the direct contribution of HIF activation to running training without exposure to atmospheric hypoxia, we used prolyl hydroxylase domain 2 (PHD2) conditional knockout mice (cKO), which exhibit HIF activation independent of oxygen concentration, and we examined their maximal exercise capacity before and after 4 weeks of treadmill exercise training.
The relative diagnostic sensitivity of different F‐wave parameters in various polyneuropathies

We studied F‐wave minimum latency, persistence, and chronodispersion in the median and ulnar nerves of 70 controls and 75 patients with various polyneuropathies. Prolonged minimum latency was the most frequent F‐wave abnormality in all groups of patients with polyneuropathy. The finding of decreased persistence or absence of F‐responses was comparable in sensitivity to prolonged minimum latency in Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), whereas chronodispersion had a comparable sensitivity only in CIDP. Decreased persistence of obtained F‐responses, and the absence of F‐responses in nerves with low compound muscle action potential amplitudes, were nonspecific findings. F‐wave studies often provide useful additional information in the evaluation of patients suspected of having a polyneuropathy. In patients with axonal polyneuropathies, we found that F‐wave studies are significantly more sensitive than standard motor conduction studies in identifying physiological abnormalities of motor axons. Furthermore, in a patient with an acquired polyneuropathy, the finding of markedly prolonged minimum latency, or the absence of F‐responses in nerves with normal CMAP amplitude, is highly specific for the presence of demyelination. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Effects of Industrial Production, Gold Prices and Oil Prices on Turkish Stock Market

This paper aims to investigate the asymmetric effects of industrial production, gold prices and oil prices on Turkish stock market returns by employing nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model. The monthly data are used for the period from 2003:01 to 2018:08. The empirical findings indicate that the industrial production and gold prices have asymmetrical effects on Turkish stock returns. However, the findings of this study imply that oil prices doesn’t have any asymmetrical effects on Turkish stock returns. The empirical results support the evidence of the significant relation between industrial production, gold prices and stock returns in Turkey. Empirical findings suggest that gold plays important role for portfolio decisions for investors.
Protection against Lethal Encephalomyocarditis Virus Infection in the Absence of Serum-Neutralizing Antibodies

ABSTRACT Although the ability of serum-neutralizing antibodies to protect against picornavirus infection is well established, the contribution of cell-mediated immunity to protection is uncertain. Using major histocompatibility complex class II-deficient (RHAβ−/−) mice, which are unable to mediate CD4+ T-lymphocyte-dependent humoral responses, we demonstrated antibody-independent protection against lethal encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) infection in the natural host. The majority of RHAβ−/− mice inoculated with 104 PFU of attenuated Mengo virus (vMC24) resolved infection and were resistant to lethal challenge with the highly virulent, serotypically identical cardiovirus, EMCV. Protection in these mice was in the absence of detectable serum-neutralizing antibodies. Depletion of CD8+T lymphocytes prior to lethal EMCV challenge ablated protection in vMC24-immunized RHAβ−/− mice. The CD8+ T-lymphocyte-dependent protection observed in vivo may, in part, be the result of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) activity, as CD8+ T splenocytes exhibited in vitro cytolysis of EMCV-infected targets. The existence of virus-specific CD8+T-lymphocyte memory in these mice was demonstrated by increased expression of cell surface activation markers CD25, CD69, CD71, and CTLA-4 following antigen-specific reactivation in vitro. Although recall response in vMC24-immunized RHAβ−/− mice was intact and effectual shortly after immunization, protection abated over time, as only 3 of 10 vMC24-immunized RHAβ−/− mice survived when rechallenged 90 days later. The present study demonstrating CD8+ T-lymphocyte-dependent protection in the absence of serum-neutralizing antibodies, coupled with our previous results indicating that vMC24-specific CD4+ T lymphocytes confer protection against lethal EMCV in the absence of prophylactic antibodies, suggests the existence of nonhumoral protective mechanisms against picornavirus infections.
COMPARISON BETWEEN PARS PLANA VITRECTOMY WITH VERSUS WITHOUT A 360° EPISCLERAL BAND IN THE MANAGEMENT OF GUNSHOT PERFORATING EYE INJURY

Purpose: To evaluate whether omitting the use of the 360° episcleral band in combination with pars plana vitrectomy and silicone oil tamponade had an effect on either anatomical or functional success in cases of perforating eye injury due to gunshot. Methods: A retrospective consecutive interventional study from medical records. Surgeries were performed in the period from January 2011 until the end of December 2013. Patients with perforating eye injury due to gunshots were treated with pars plana vitrectomy and silicone oil tamponade with or without the addition of a 360° scleral band. Results: Two hundred and thirteen eyes of 210 patients were reviewed of which 17 patients were excluded, 5 patients because the vision had no light perception and 12 patients because of the short follow-up period (less than 6 months). The remaining 196 eyes of 193 patients were analyzed. All surgeries were performed by 1 surgeon. The included eyes have been classified into 2 groups; 101 eyes in the first group (360° band was used), and 95 eyes in the second group (without 360° band). The included patients were followed up at least 6 months after the last surgery. By first surgery, anatomical success was achieved in 93 eyes (92.08%) in Group 1, and retinal detachment developed in 8 eyes (7.92%). In Group 2 anatomical success was achieved in 91 eyes (95.78%), and retinal detachment developed in 4 eyes (4.21%). All cases with retinal detachment were reattached by second surgery. In the first group, visual acuity improved in 80 eyes (79.2%), unchanged in 14 eyes (13.86%), and was less than that of preoperative value in 7 eyes (6.93%). In the second group visual acuity improved in 78 eyes (82.1%), unchanged in 13 eyes (13.68%) and less than that of preoperative value in 4 eyes (4.21%). No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups (P = 0.943) in anatomical or functional results. None of the operated eyes developed phthisis bulbi. Conclusion: The abundant use of the 360° scleral band in combination with pars plana vitrectomy and silicone oil tamponade did not change the anatomical or the functional outcomes in the management of perforating eye injury due to gunshots.
Mephedrone: use, subjective effects and health risks.

AIMS To assess the patterns of use, subjective effect profile and dependence liability of mephedrone, supported by corroborative urine toxicology. DESIGN Cross-sectional structured telephone interview. SETTING UK-based drug users associated with the dance music scene. PARTICIPANTS A total of 100 mephedrone users, recruited through their involvement with the dance music scene. MEASUREMENTS Assessment of pattern of use, acute and after effects, DSM dependence criteria and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry urinalysis. FINDINGS Mephedrone consumption results in typical stimulant-related subjective effects: euphoria, increased concentration, talkativeness, urge to move, empathy, jaw clenching, reduced appetite and insomnia. Thirty per cent of the sample potentially met criteria for DSM-IV dependence and there was evidence of a strong compulsion to use the drug (47% had used the drug for 2 or more consecutive days). Self-reported recent consumption of mephedrone was confirmed by toxicological analysis in all of the 14 participants who submitted a urine sample. CONCLUSION Mephedrone has a high abuse and health risk liability, with increased tolerance, impaired control and a compulsion to use, the predominant reported dependence symptoms.
COMPETENCE-BASED APPROACH IN HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AUTOMATION

Employee development planning still remains one of the most complex aspects of human resource management. It traditionally is a manual process as it is assumed that selection of an appropriate solution for employee development is influenced by too many biased factors and could be done only by a human. Tools for human resources development planning available as a part of company resource management solutions available on the international market are often unable to ensure the necessary support due to being based on an approach the principal purpose of which is activity reporting instead of planning. The research was seeking for new alternatives – how to create an automated configurable and scalable human resources development planning system that is adjustable to the needs of the specific organization with the use of competence-based human resource management approach. Competence is a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes for achieving observable results and it possesses a benefit – it could be easily formalized. This fact opens up broad opportunities for IT solutions with new functionality. The mandatory for a modern company human resource management processes was identified while analyzing the architecture of human resources management in large Latvian companies, which were involved in research, and interviews with human resource management experts took place. A study of the information obtained via in-depth analysis was conducted along with definition of issues as well as the further course of the research was set.