Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment Outcomes of Resected Esophageal Cancer

ObjectiveTo assess the evolution of treatment and outcome for resected esophageal cancer at a single institution. Summary Background DataStrategies for optimizing the treatment of resected esophageal cancer continue to evolve over time. The outcomes of these evolving treatments in the context of improved diagnostic staging and changing epidemiology have not been carefully analyzed in a single institution. MethodsOne thousand ninety-seven consecutive patients with primary esophageal cancer underwent surgery during the period 1970 to 2001. Nine hundred ninety-four patients underwent curative esophagectomy and were analyzed for changing demographics. Eight hundred seventy-nine patients who did not have systemic metastases and survived the perioperative period were assessed by multivariate analysis for factors associated with long-term survival. ResultsDuring the study period the overall median survival increased from 17 to 34 months, and combined hospital and 30-day mortality decreased from 12% to 6%. The R0 resection rate increased from 78 to 94%, and adenocarcinoma replaced squamous cell carcinoma as the predominant histology (83% vs. 17%). No change in survival with time was noted for patients treated with surgery alone having the same postoperative pathologic stage (pTNM). An increased proportion of patients had preoperative chemoradiation in the last 4 years of the study (59% vs. 2%). Preoperative chemoradiation was associated with a longer survival and increased likelihood of achieving a complete resection. Multivariate analysis showed that long-term survival was associated with a complete resection and the preoperative staging strategy used, while the use of preoperative chemoradiation was the most significant factor associated with ability to achieve an R0 esophageal resection. ConclusionsThis study shows favorable trends in the survival of patients with resected esophageal cancer over time. The increased use of preoperative chemoradiation, better preoperative staging, and other time-dependent factors may have contributed to the observed increase in survival.
A robust algorithm for ear recognition under partial occlusion

As a promising biometrics, ear recognition is attracting increasing research interest. One challenging problem inevitable in real application is that the ears are often occluded by some objects such as hair or hat. In this paper, a general classification algorithm based on non-negative sparse representation is proposed to handle ear recognition under occlusion. Compared with conventional sparse representation in which the input data is described as a combination of basis features involving both additive and subtractive components, the proposed classification paradigm expresses an input ear signal as a linear additive combination of all the training ear signals, which is more consistent with the biological modeling of visual data. An efficient algorithm which guarantees to find the global minimum is proposed in the paper to solve the coding coefficients of the proposed system. Experimental results reveal that when the ear is partially occluded, the proposed method exhibits great robustness and achieves better recognition performance.
Functional Interaction between the Herpes Simplex-1 DNA Polymerase and UL 42 Protein *

The herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) UL42 protein, one of seven herpes-encoded polypeptides that are required for the replication of the HSV-1 genome, is found in a 1:l complex with the HSV-1 DNA polymerase (Crute, J. J., and Lehman, I. R. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 19266-19270). To obtain herpes DNA polymerase free of UL42 protein, we have cloned and overexpressed the Pol gene in a recombinant baculovirus vector and purified the recombinant DNA polymerase to near homogeneity. Replication of singly primed M13mp18 single-stranded DNA by the recombinant enzyme in the presence of the herpes encoded single-stranded DNA-binding protein ICPS yields in addition to some full-length product a distribution of intermediate length products by a quasi-processive mode of deoxynucleotide polymerization. Addition of the purified UL42 protein results in completely processive polymerization and the generation of fulllength products. Similar processivity is observed with the HSV-1 DNA polymerase purified from herpes-infected Vero cells. Processive DNA replication by the DNA polymerase isolated from HSV-l-infected Vero cells or the recombinant DNA polymerase-UL42 protein complex requires that the single-stranded DNA be coated with saturating levels of ICPS. ICPS which binds single-stranded DNA in a highly cooperative manner is presumably required to melt out regions of secondary structure in the single-stranded DNA template, thereby potentiating the processivity enhancing action of the UL42 protein.
Diels–Alder Reactions of Tetraphenylcyclopentadienones in Nanochannels: Fabrication of Nanotubes from Hyperbranched Polyphenylenes

$ $ % $ % &'# ( ( *+ , $ $ % $ % &) '' (# ( *# $ ( ( , ( & " * + %# , $ % , ( ( . (/ + 1' (/ 2 3+ 1 / 243 + , , $ % , ( '# (/ + (/ 2 3+ (/ + 1 / 243 + ' (/ ,% ( & 5 *+ '# / 23"&"332*&"2 "332* # ( (( , & , %$ $6 *# , 7 ( $ , , $ ' ! " , ( & # 8 2 *# 2 ( ( , %+ , + , ( %# 7 ( , , ( , ( ( # % 9$ % & 59* % ( ( # ( ( ( # , '' ( ( ( , ( :, $ ( + , ; ( ( ( ( $, # , $, ( ( $ < '#. ( , 7 , ,$ % ( ( & % ==#===8+ * 1#. / # , % > 1'' ( ( , < $ ! " , ( # , , ,% ( ''' 2 ( 7 6> % (# " ? 1 1. , , ? # % " % < + % % + , @ # 3 $ , < ( % # < ( % , , / ( 1''' , , ( , ( ( '# (#
Palliative care needs of seriously ill, older adults presenting to the emergency department.

OBJECTIVES The objective was to identify the palliative care needs of seriously ill, older adults in the emergency department (ED). METHODS The authors conducted a cross-sectional structured survey. A convenience sample of 50 functionally impaired adults 65 years or older with coexisting cancer, congestive heart failure, end-stage liver or renal disease, stroke, oxygen-dependent pulmonary disease, or dementia was recruited from an urban academic tertiary care ED. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using the Needs Near the End-of-Life Screening Tool (NEST), McGill Quality of Life Index (MQOL), and Edmonton Symptom Assessment Survey (ESAS) to assess 1) range and severity of symptoms, 2) goals of care, 3) psychological well-being, 4) health care utilization, 5) spirituality, 6) social connectedness, 7) financial burden, 8) the patient-clinician relationship, and 9) overall quality of life (QOL). RESULTS Mean (±SD) age was 74.3 (±6.5) years and cancer was the most common diagnosis. Mean (±SD) QOL on the MQOL was 3.6 (±2.9). Over half of the patients exceeded intratest severity-of-needs cutoffs in four categories of the NEST: physical symptoms (47/50, 94%), finances (36/50, 72%), mental health (31/50, 62%), and access to care (29/50, 58%). The majority of patients reported moderate to severe fatigue, pain, dyspnea, and depression on the ESAS. CONCLUSIONS Seriously ill, older adults in an urban ED have substantial palliative care needs. Future work should focus on the role of emergency medicine and the new specialty of palliative care in addressing these needs.
A Model for Decision Making with Missing, Imprecise, and Uncertain Evaluations of Multiple Criteria

In real‐life multicriteria decision making (MCDM) problems, the evaluations against some criteria are often missing, inaccurate, and even uncertain, but the existing theories and models cannot handle such evaluations well. To address the issue, this paper extends the Dempster–Shafer (DS)/analytic hierarchy process (DS/AHP) approach of MCDM to handle three types of ambiguous evaluations: missing, interval‐valued, and ambiguous lottery evaluations. In our extension, the aggregation of criteria's evaluation takes the following six steps: (i) calculate the expected evaluation interval and the ambiguity degree of each group of decision alternatives regarding each criterion, (ii) from them to obtain the preference degree of each group of decision alternatives, (iii) apply the DS/AHP method to obtain the mass function distribution of each group of decision alternatives, (iv) use the Dempster's rule of combination to get the overall mass function of each group of decision alternatives with respect to all criteria, (v) according to the overall mass function to count the belief function and the plausibility function of each decision alternative, and (vi) set the overall preference ordering of decision alternatives by our regret‐avoid ambiguous principle and then find the optimal solution. Finally, we give an example of real estate investment to illustrate how our approach is employed to deal with real‐life MCDM problems.
Research of a kind of adaptive MIMO transmission and detection

MIMO is a main technique of improving system capacity in wireless communication, but its application is limited by spatial correlation and requirement of traditional VBLAST system about the amount of transmitting and receiving antennas. This paper presents an adaptive MIMO transmission technique. Adopting uniform channel decomposition (UCD), STBC and antenna grouping, the proposed MIMO scheme can work under high correlative channels and with any number of transmitting and receiving antennas. The performance improvement is also testified by simulations.
Influence of thermal properties on microstructure and adhesive wear behaviour of Al/Al2O3 MMCs

Abstract Al alloy and Al/Al2O3 metal matrix composites (MMCs) were fabricated by stir casting. Effect of the thermal properties on wear properties and stir casting parameters on the dry sliding wear resistance of this alloy and Al/Al2O3 MMCs were investigated under 50–350 N loads. The temperature was applied at ambient and elevated intervals (300–475 K), which was controlled by an external heat source. The dry sliding wear tests were performed to investigate the wear behaviour of Al alloy and Al/Al2O3 MMCs against a steel counterface (DIN 5401) in a block on ring apparatus. The Al/Al2O3 MMCs were prepared by the addition of 5, 10 and 15 vol.-%Al2O3 particulates, and the size of particulates was taken as 16 μm. The wear tests were carried out in an incremental manner, i.e.300 m per increment and 3000 m in total. The wear test results were used for investigation of the relation between weight loss, microstructure, surface hardness, friction coefficient, particulate percentage and thermal conductivity of Al/Al2O3 MMCs. Finally, it was observed that Al2O3(p) reinforcement is beneficial in increasing the wear resistance of Al/Al2O3 MMCs. Furthermore, Al2O3 particulates in MMCs tend to reduce the extent of plastic deformation in the subsurface region of the matrix, therefore delaying the nucleation and propagation of subsurface microcracks. On the other hand, it can be seen that the increase in Al2O3 particulates decreased both thermal conductivity and friction coefficient, hence increased the transition load and transition temperature for mild to severe wear during dry sliding wear test.
Effect of the statistical significance of results on the time to completion and publication of randomized efficacy trials.

CONTEXT Medical evidence may be biased over time if completion and publication of randomized efficacy trials are delayed when results are not statistically significant. OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether the time to completion and the time to publication of randomized phase 2 and phase 3 trials are affected by the statistical significance of results and to describe the natural history of such trials. DESIGN Prospective cohort of randomized efficacy trials conducted by 2 trialist groups from 1986 to 1996. SETTING Multicenter trial groups in human immunodeficiency virus infection sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. PATIENTS A total of 109 efficacy trials (total enrollment, 43708 patients). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Time from start of enrollment to completion of follow-up and time from completion of follow-up to peer-reviewed publication assessed with survival analysis. RESULTS The median time from start of enrollment to publication was 5.5 years and was substantially longer for negative trials than for results favoring an experimental arm (6.5 vs 4.3 years, respectively; P<.001; hazard ratio for time to publication for positive vs negative trials, 3.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8-7.7). This difference was mostly attributable to differences in the time from completion to publication (median, 3.0 vs 1.7 years for negative vs positive trials; P<.001). On average, trials with significant results favoring any arm completed follow-up slightly earlier than trials with nonsignificant results (median, 2.3 vs 2.5 years; P=.045), but long-protracted trials often had low event rates and failed to reach statistical significance, while trials that were terminated early had significant results. Positive trials were submitted for publication significantly more rapidly after completion than were negative trials (median, 1.0 vs 1.6 years; P=.001) and were published more rapidly after submission (median, 0.8 vs 1.1 years; P=.04). CONCLUSION Among randomized efficacy trials, there is a time lag in the publication of negative findings that occurs mostly after the completion of the trial follow-up.
On the distribution and revocation of cryptographic keys in sensor networks

Key management has two important aspects: key distribution, which describes how to disseminate secret information to the principals so that secure communications can be initiated, and key revocation, which describes how to remove secrets that may have been compromised. Key management in sensor networks face constraints of large scale, lack of a priori information about deployment topology, and limitations of sensor node hardware. While key distribution has been studied extensively in recent works, the problem of key and node revocation in sensor networks has received relatively little attention. Yet, revocation protocols that function correctly in the presence of active adversaries pretending to be legitimate protocol participants via compromised sensor nodes are essential. In their absence, an adversary could take control of the sensor network's operation by using compromised nodes which retain their network connectivity for extended periods of time. In this paper, we present an overview of key-distribution methods in sensor networks and their salient features to provide context for understanding key and node revocation. Then, we define basic properties that distributed sensor-node revocation protocols must satisfy and present a protocol for distributed node revocation that satisfies these properties under general assumptions and a standard attacker model.
Reducing Diabetes Disparities Through the Implementation of a Community Health Worker–Led Diabetes Self-Management Education Program

Disparities in prevalence of type 2 diabetes and complications in underserved populations have been linked to poor quality of care including lack of access to diabetes management programs. Interventions utilizing community health workers (CHWs) to assist with diabetes management have demonstrated improvements in patient outcomes. Use of CHWs may be an effective model for providing care coordination and reducing disparities, but there is limited knowledge on how to implement this model on a large scale. This article describes how an integrated health care system implemented a CHW-led diabetes self-management education program targeting Hispanic patients and reports lessons learned from the first 18 months of operation.
“Epidemic Clones” of Listeria monocytogenes Are Widespread and Ancient Clonal Groups

ABSTRACT The food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is genetically heterogeneous. Although some clonal groups have been implicated in multiple outbreaks, there is currently no consensus on how “epidemic clones” should be defined. The objectives of this work were to compare the patterns of sequence diversity on two sets of genes that have been widely used to define L. monocytogenes clonal groups: multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and multi-virulence-locus sequence typing (MvLST). Further, we evaluated the diversity within clonal groups by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Based on 125 isolates of diverse temporal, geographical, and source origins, MLST and MvLST genes (i) had similar patterns of sequence polymorphisms, recombination, and selection, (ii) provided concordant phylogenetic clustering, and (iii) had similar discriminatory power, which was not improved when we combined both data sets. Inclusion of representative strains of previous outbreaks demonstrated the correspondence of epidemic clones with previously recognized MLST clonal complexes. PFGE analysis demonstrated heterogeneity within major clones, most of which were isolated decades before their involvement in outbreaks. We conclude that the “epidemic clone” denominations represent a redundant but largely incomplete nomenclature system for MLST-defined clones, which must be regarded as successful genetic groups that are widely distributed across time and space.
A Comparison of Replication Strategies for Reliable Decentralised Storage

Distributed hash tables (DHTs) can be used as the basis of a resilient lookup service in unstable environments: local routing tables are updated to reflected changes in the network; efficient routing can be maintained in the face of participant node failures. This fault-tolerance is an important aspect of modern, decentralised data storage solutions. In architectures that employ DHTs, the choice of algorithm for data replication and maintenance can have a significant impact upon performance and reliability. This paper presents a comparative analysis of replication algorithms for architectures based upon a specific design of DHT. It presents also a novel maintenance algorithm for dynamic replica placement, and considers the reliability of the resulting designs at the system level. The performance of the algorithms is examined using simulation techniques; significant differences are identified in terms of communication costs and latency.
Recognition of Reverberant Speech Using Frequency Domain Linear Prediction

Performance of a typical automatic speech recognition (ASR) system severely degrades when it encounters speech from reverberant environments. Part of the reason for this degradation is the feature extraction techniques that use analysis windows which are much shorter than typical room impulse responses. We present a feature extraction technique based on modeling temporal envelopes of the speech signal in narrow subbands using frequency domain linear prediction (FDLP). FDLP provides an all-pole approximation of the Hilbert envelope of the signal obtained by linear prediction on cosine transform of the signal. ASR experiments on speech data degraded with a number of room impulse responses (with varying degrees of distortion) show significant performance improvements for the proposed FDLP features when compared to other robust feature extraction techniques (average relative reduction of 24% in word error rate). Similar improvements are also obtained for far-field data which contain natural reverberation in background noise. These results are achieved without any noticeable degradation in performance for clean speech.
MECHANICAL RESPONSES OF THE ISOLATED CERVIX AND UTERINE HORN OF PREGNANT RATS NEAR TERM TO DRUGS

1 The responses of circularly cut strips of cervix and uterine horn from rats on days 20 and 22 of pregnancy to drugs were compared in vitro. 2 The cervix exhibited similar responses and sensitivities to acetylcholine, bradykinin, prostaglandin (PG) F2a (day 20) and isoprenaline (day 20) as did the uterine horn but was less sensitive or responded less consistently to isoprenaline (day 22), oxytocin and PGEj. PGE2 was more potent on the cervix (day 20). 3 Before term the relatively inextensible connective tissue of the cervix plus contractions of the smooth muscle would help to prevent foetal expulsion. At term the cervical smooth muscle is sufficiently unresponsive to allow cervical dilatation.
Robust Bubbles with Mild Penalties for Default

Limited enforcement of debt contracts and mild penalties for default can lead to low equilibrium interest rates, to ensure debt repayment. Low interest rates, in turn, create conditions for bubbles. I show that bubbles in unsecured private debt exist when the punishment for default is a permanent or a temporary interdiction to trade. Bubbles are an inefficient source of liquidity, as they lower interest rates and reduce welfare by discouraging saving.
Shotcreting with ECC

Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) is a new class of high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composite (HPFRCC) which exhibits pseudo-strain hardening ductility in uniaxial tension between 4 % and 5 %, over 400 to 500 times that of ordinary concrete. This high ductility has been leveraged in a number of applications to improve the static load carrying capacity, structural durability, impact resistance, or seismic performance for a number of building and infrastructure systems. This paper summarizes the general performance of ECC, techniques that can be used to spray ECC materials, and the specific performance of a number of sprayed ECC structures.
Fast and Accurate Sequence Labeling with Iterated Dilated Convolutions

Bi-directional LSTMs have emerged as a standard method for obtaining per-token vector representations serving as input to various token labeling tasks (whether followed by Viterbi prediction or independent classiﬁcation). This paper proposes an alternative to Bi-LSTMs for this purpose: iterated dilated convolutional neural networks (ID-CNNs), which have better capacity than traditional CNNs for large context and structured prediction. We describe a distinct combination of network structure, parameter sharing and training procedures that is not only more accurate than Bi-LSTM-CRFs, but also 8x faster at test time on long sequences. More-over, ID-CNNs with independent clas-siﬁcation enable a dramatic 14x test-time speedup, while still attaining accuracy comparable to the Bi-LSTM-CRF. We further demonstrate the ability of ID-CNNs to combine evidence over long sequences by demonstrating their improved accuracy on whole-document (rather than per-sentence) inference. Unlike LSTMs whose sequential processing on sentences of length N requires O ( N ) time even in the face of parallelism, IDCNNs permit ﬁxed-depth convolutions to run in parallel across entire documents. Today when many companies run basic NLP on the entire web and large-volume trafﬁc, faster methods are paramount to saving time and energy costs.