Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of the Risk and Prophylactic Treatment of Venous Thromboembolism in the Elderly

Numerous large randomized controlled trials have assessed the benefit of prophylactic anticoagulation for venous thromboembolism in selected patients. However, few trials were conducted in elderly patients, as this issue was not addressed in this specific population,or as elderly patients were excluded of these studies. Therefore, as the risk of a first episode of venous thromboembolism (in surgical and in medical setting) and the risk of a major anticoagulant-related bleeding are both increased in elderly subjects, the results of the main available studies can not be extrapolated to this population. Consequently, in practice, the balance between expected benefit and risk of prophylactic anticoagulation should be carefully assessed for each individual elderly patient taking in account the specific risk of venous thromboembolism in elderly in the absence of anticoagulation, the risk of anticoagulant related bleeding according to the type of anticoagulant treatment and the intrinsic risk of bleeding of elderly subjects and, lastly, the available guideline recommendations. In order to improve such evaluation, it is anticipated that further prophylactic studies are needed in elderly patients. In addition, the development of anticoagulation clinics and new oral anticoagulants should help to reduce anticoagulant related bleeding for an equivalent, or an increased, benefit.
Detecting hoof lesions in dairy cattle using a hand-held thermometer

Developing optimal approaches in the treatment and prevention of lameness is a significant challenge for the dairy industry. A range of clinical treatments are currently advocated for different causes of lameness (Blowey 2007). However, since treating cows requires restraining and lifting the feet of affected animals, it would be valuable to develop new screening methods for the identification of cows that are most likely to benefit from further investigation or treatment. Infrared thermography has potential application in the clinical monitoring of inflammation (Head and Dyson 2001) and within animal welfare studies to identify indicators of stress (Stewart and others 2005). Both Whay and others (2004) and Munsell (2004) reported higher limb temperatures in lame, compared with non-lame dairy cows. Nikkah and others (2005) also reported an increased temperature at the coronary band of 16 early lactating cows possibly associated with sole lesions. Stokes and others (2012) demonstrated that the temperature of the plantar aspect of the hind feet was related to the presence of foot lesions including claw and digital dermatitis lesions. However, the technology used by Stokes and others (2012) was relatively expensive and fragile, making it unsuitable for use in the farm environment. Consequently, the aim of this preliminary study was to investigate the relationship between lesions and the skin temperature of the plantar surface of cows' feet using a low-cost hand-held infrared thermometer. Cattle from six farms that were undergoing routine foot trimming were included in this study. An experienced foot trimmer, employed within a veterinary practice, assessed the temperature of the cow's feet immediately prior to routine claw trimming. Prior to lifting the limbs, but while the cattle were in a crush, the temperature of both hind feet was assessed using a low-cost infrared thermometer. The feet were not washed prior to recording temperature, as previous …
VISUAL SIDE EFFECTS OF SUCCESSFUL SCATTER LASER PHOTOCOAGULATION SURGERY FOR PROLIFERATIVE DIABETIC RETINOPATHY: A Literature Review

Purpose: To review the literature on limitations and adverse effects associated with scatter or panretinal laser photocoagulation (PRP) for diabetic retinopathy (DR). Design: Literature review. Results: Scatter laser photocoagulation is associated with moderate visual loss, some diminished visual field, reduced color vision, and reduced contrast sensitivity. Conclusions: Scatter laser photocoagulation has been shown to reduce the risk of severe visual loss from proliferative DR. However, scatter treatment is associated with some decline in visual function. These effects should be studied more extensively and should be considered when comparing pharmacologic treatments for proliferative DR.
Characterization and Utilization Potential of Wood Ash from Combustion Process and Carbon Residue from Gasification Process

The aim of this research was to study the physical and chemical properties of fly ashes from combustion process and carbon residue from gasification process whilst comparing the results between these two types of solid residues, as well as against literature values. Ashes from the combustion process and carbon residue from gasification process are formed in different conditions, and it can be assumed that they will be best suited to contrasting utilization applications. The most notable differences between these types of solid residues were that the carbon content and loss-on-ignition value was higher for gasification carbon residue, and the liming capacity was higher for combustion ashes. The calculated liming capacity for combustion ashes and the fact that these ashes were strongly alkaline, together with high nutrient concentrations, indicate that combustion ashes can provide a liming effect. As a result, these ashes could potentially be utilized as a soil conditioning agent to substitute for commercial lime. The carbon content in gasification carbon residue was high which indicates, together with high porosity, that carbon residue would be an ideal sorbent and it could also be used as a fuel.
Bursts of nonsynonymous substitutions in HIV-1 evolution reveal instances of positive selection at conservative protein sites

The fixation of a new allele can be driven by Darwinian positive selection or can be due to random genetic drift. Identifying instances of positive selection is a difficult task, because its impact is routinely obscured by the action of negative selection. The nature of the genetic code dictates that positive selection in favor of an amino acid replacement should often cause a burst of two or three nucleotide substitutions at a single codon site, because a large fraction of amino acid replacements cannot be achieved after just one nucleotide substitution. Here, we study pairs of successive nonsynonymous substitutions at one codon in the course of evolution of HIV-1 genes within HIV-1 populations inhabiting infected individuals. Such pairs are more numerous and more clumped than expected if different substitutions were independent and than what is observed for pairs of successive synonymous substitutions. Bursts of nonsynonymous substitutions in HIV-1 evolution cannot be explained by mutational biases and must, therefore, be due to positive selection. Both reversals, exact or imprecise, of fixed deleterious mutations and acquisitions of amino acids with new properties are responsible for the bursts. Temporal clumping is strongest at codon sites with a low overall rate of nonsynonymous evolution, implying that a substantial fraction of replacements of conservative amino acids are driven by positive selection. We identified many conservative sites of HIV-1 proteins that occasionally experience positive selection.
Formulary Management of the Protease Inhibitors Boceprevir and Telaprevir for Chronic Hepatitis C Virus

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most common chronic blood borne illness in the United States. The incidence of acute hepatitis C in the United States peaked near 50,000 cases in the late 1980s but has stabilized since 2003 to less than 5,000 cases annually. The combination of pegylated interferon (peginterferon) and ribavirin has been the standard recommended treatment for HCV. Protease inhibitors telaprevir and boceprevir were approved by the FDA in May 2011 for the treatment of hepatitis C genotype 1 in combination with peginterferon and ribavirin. OBJECTIVES: To review the phase 3 trials for telaprevir and boceprevir and provide managed care considerations. METHODS: A MEDLINE review was performed for articles published and available through September 15, 2011, using keywords “boceprevir” or “telaprevir” with an emphasis on phase 3 trials. The literature search was limited to articles in English, clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, and research conducted in humans. Additional information was obtained from the FDA website. RESULTS: Three phase 3 trials are available for telaprevir, which provided data that were the basis for FDA approval. Boceprevir demonstrated efficacy and safety in 2 pivotal phase 3 trials. Both agents demonstrated statistically significantly higher rates of virologic response compared with the standard of care involving peginterferons and ribavirin. Telaprevir and boceprevir also demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of patients who had previously failed dual therapy for hepatitis C. Safety concerns for both agents include anemia, drug interactions, skin rashes, and gastrointestinal adverse events. CONSLUSIONS: Decision makers have many factors to consider in developing a strategy around hepatitis C. Increased drug costs, patient management, adherence, comparative safety and efficacy, and appropriate utilization management controls are important issues. Payers may consider developing clinical programs to encourage adherence and appropriate use and leverage an appropriate channel to ensure cost-effective therapy.
Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Hydrogels as Possible Multidrug Resistance Associated Protein (MRP) Inhibitors

Multidrug resistance (MDR) has been recognized by the scientific community as one of the major hurdles in the bioavailability of broad spectrum of drugs. This work focuses on the examination of the effects of the variables involved in hydrogel design on the multidrug resistance phenomenon. Hydrogels were synthesized using monomer lengths of 200, 400 and 1000 g/mol and a crosslinker length of 1000 and 600 g/mol. Hydrogels were characterized by the determination of release of model substrate Fluorescein sodium salt (FLUO), a multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) substrate, from the networks, and its transport trough Caco-2 cells. The effect of the hydrogels on the cytotoxicity of the chemotherapeutic agent 5-Fluoracil, an MRP substrate, was also assessed. The release profile of the model substrate FLUO indicated an anomalous release for all the morphologies with both Fickian and relaxation effects playing a role in the release of the substrate, making these hydrogels excellent candidates for controlled drug delivery applications. Preliminary results on the fluorescein sodium salt transport across Caco-2 cell monolayer in contact with 10 mg/mL PEG hydrogels suspensions showed a transport enhancement of up to 152%. Finally, cytotoxicity of Caco-2 cells with chemotherapeutic agent 5-Fluoracil was enhanced in the presence of the hydrogels. This data suggests that PEG hydrogels are acting as MRP inhibitors.
On the optimal Lagrangian parameter for motion estimation: A low-cost and effective method for improving video coding performance

The most recent video coding standards are usually based on a rate-distortion optimization (RDO) process that has been formulated in terms of an unconstrained Lagrangian optimization. The RDO provides outstanding results in exchange for a high computational cost, especially for the Inter frames, which require a computationally heavy motion estimation (ME) process. In particular, for H.264/AVC, this RDO process allows selecting both the MB partition size and the motion vector. However, as the optimum procedure is not feasible for computational reasons, the ME process uses a simplified rate-distortion (RD) cost function. Therefore, two RDO processes are involved, one for selecting the MB partition size and one for ME. Both RDO processes rely on an Lagrangian formulation and, for practical purposes, the corresponding Lagrangian parameters are related by a simple, experimentally obtained relationship. In this paper, some evidences of the weaknesses of such a relationship between the two Lagrangian parameters are given and a simple effective procedure to improve the R-D encoding performance is proposed according to such weaknesses. The proposed method has been comparatively evaluated with respect to one recently published method, showing significant average performance improvements, above 0.4 dB in terms of PSNR.
Report from the Jerusalem workshop on Lynch syndrome-hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer.

A Workshop was held in Jerusalem, Israel, on October 26 and 27, 2009 to discuss the management of Lynch syndrome-hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (CRC), with the primary goal to develop consensus for the optimal management of this disease. A second goal was to identify areas of research with the potential to advance the clinical management of Lynch syndrome. The perspectives and recommendations from the workshop are meant to be a platform for discussion and deliberation. The Workshop was organized by Moshe Shike (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York) and sponsored by The Colon Cancer Foundation. More details of each presentation are available in an on-line supplement.
Goblet cell carcinoid of appendix. Ultrastructural features and histogenetic aspects

Light and electron microscopic examination of a goblet cell carcinoid revealed cells with pleomorphic neurosecretory‐type granules, cells containing mucin some of which also contained these granules and less differentiated cells lacking the aforementioned features. Recent embryologic and anatomic studies of developing avian and mammalian gut, respectively, show that intestinal APUD cells are probably of endodermal origin. Therefore, mixed carcinoid tumors such as the goblet cell variant could arise in crypt base stem cells.
Statistical properties of near threshold responses to brief sounds in the MES auditory cortex of the anesthetized dog.

Evoked responses to near threshold p pulses recorded with a 50-channel cathode ray oscilloscope from the MES auditory cortex were analyzed statistically. Observations were taken at 3-msec. epochs for approximately 180 msec. Density functions of the evoked potential at these epochs were essentially normal. The average potential from a single electrode consisted of an initial positive followed by a negative component. The correlation coefficient between the positive and negative components was zero suggesting independence. Standard deviation increased during the positive component of a response decreasing to the zero crossing or was followed by a secondary component. Spatially, in the anterior-posterior direction, the average potentials decremented to approximately zero in 2–4 mm. The decrement was less prominent dorso-ventrally. Spatially, the standard deviation showed the same pattern as the mean.
STC 2 overexpression mediated by HMGA 2 is a biomarker for aggressiveness of high-grade serous ovarian cancer

High-grade serous cancer (HGSC) is a lethal form of ovarian cancer due to invasion and early metastasis. Gain of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) contributes to the aggressiveness of HGSC. High-mobility gene group A2 (HMGA2), an architectural transcription factor, plays a major role in HGSC through the regulation of EMT gene expression. Based on the gene profiling analysis, we found that the potent EMT gene, stanniocalcin 2 (STC2), was highly correlated with HMGA2 expression. In the present study, we demonstrated that STC2 was directly regulated by HMGA2 at the transcriptional level. Overexpressing STC2 in vitro directly enhanced cell migration and invasion. To investigate the correlation of STC2 and HMGA2 expression and the potential biomarker for ovarian cancer, three independent large cohorts of ovarian cancer (cohort 1=278, cohort 2=150 and cohort 3=95 cases) were examined in the present study. The results showed that the expression of HMGA2 and STC2 was positively correlated. Furthermore, STC2 expression was significantly associated with tumor grade and histotype. HGSC had significantly higher levels of STC2 expression and was inversely correlated with patient survival. These findings suggested that STC2 is an important new biomarker that can be used for HGSC.
Risk of new cancers after radiotherapy in long-term survivors of retinoblastoma: an extended follow-up.

PURPOSE Many children diagnosed with retinoblastoma (Rb) survive into adulthood and are prone to subsequent cancers, particularly hereditary patients, who have germline Rb-1 mutations. We have extended the follow-up of a large cohort of Rb patients for 7 more years to provide new information on the risk of additional cancers after radiotherapy in long-term survivors. PATIENTS AND METHODS We analyzed the risk of new cancers through 2000 in 1,601 Rb survivors, diagnosed from 1914 to 1984, at two US medical centers. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) was calculated as the ratio of the observed number of cancers after hereditary and nonhereditary Rb to the expected number from the Connecticut Tumor Registry. The cumulative incidence of a new cancer after hereditary and nonhereditary Rb and radiotherapy was calculated with adjustment for competing risk of death. RESULTS Subsequent cancer risk in 963 hereditary patients (SIR, 19; 95% CI, 16 to 21) exceeded the risk in 638 nonhereditary Rb patients (SIR, 1.2; 95% CI, 0.7 to 2.0). Radiation further increased the risk of another cancer in hereditary patients by 3.1-fold (95% CI, 2.0 to 5.3). Hereditary patients continued to be at significantly increased risk for sarcomas, melanoma, and cancers of the brain and nasal cavities. The cumulative incidence for developing a new cancer at 50 years after diagnosis of Rb was 36% (95% CI, 31% to 41%) for hereditary and 5.7% (95% CI, 2.4% to 11%) for nonhereditary patients. CONCLUSION Hereditary Rb predisposes to a variety of new cancers over time, with radiotherapy further enhancing the risk of tumors arising in the radiation field.
Resistance Mechanisms in an In Vitro-Selected Amoxicillin-Resistant Strain of Helicobacter pylori

ABSTRACT We investigated the β-lactam resistance mechanism(s) of an in vitro-selected amoxicillin-resistant Helicobacter pylori strain (AmoxR). Our results demonstrated that resistance is due to a combination of amino acid substitutions in penicillin binding protein 1 (PBP1), HopB, and HopC identified in AmoxR, resulting in decreased affinity of PBP1 for amoxicillin and decreased accumulation of penicillin.
Antiglycosphingolipid Immune Responses in Neurology: The Vienna Experience with Isotypes, Subclasses, and Disease a

ABSTRACT: IgM, IgG, IgA, and IgG subclass anti‐GM1, anti‐GQ1b, and anti‐asialo‐GM1 (anti‐GA1) antibodies, respectively, were investigated by ELISA in serum from neurological and other patients. Increased anti‐GM1 occurred mostly in ∼35–15% of the cases without statistical differences; high percentages were found in Guillain‐Barré syndrome (GBS) preceded by gastrointestinal infection and multifocal motor neuropathy. Roughly, IgM anti‐GM1 was most frequent; however, distinct IgG and IgA reactions were found i.a. in GBS. A particular IgM anti‐mono‐ and disialoganglioside pattern occurred in a patient with sensorimotor neuropathy and paraproteinemia. Anti‐GQ1b was elevated in all Miller‐Fisher patients, with some prevalence of IgG2 among IgG subclasses. Cross‐reactivity of anti‐GQ1b was demonstrated with Campylobacter jejuni lipopolysaccharides. Increased anti‐GM1 and/or anti‐GA1 was more frequent in systemic lupus erythematosus with central nervous system involvement than without. Incidence of anti‐GM1 and anti‐GA1 in X‐adrenoleukodystrophy was relatively high.
[Comparison and analysis of pain profiles in women with endometriosis and pelvic congestion syndrome--part II].

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY To compare and analyze the pain profiles of patients with endometriosis /E/, adenomyosis /A/, and pelvic congestion syndrome /PCS/ in order to specify the factors that make closer the profiles of these conditions, and the factors, that make the differences between them clearer. MATERIALS AND METHODS A prospective study was conducted in the Clinic of Gynaecology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical University-Pleven in the period 01.03. 2004-01.02. 2006. It included 98 patients consequently admitted in the Clinic--66 patients suspected of or with proven E, and 32 patients with PCS. For the purpose of the study the following methods were used: pain chart, visual-analogue scale /VAS/, monthly pain calendar, documentary method, R-AFS classification of endometriosis and inquiry method. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The object of interest in this study were the pain profiles of E, A and PCS, and the dependence and association of severity of manifestation of the particular components of the pelvic pain syndrome /dysmenorrhoea, dyspareunia, postcoital ache, etc./ of the conditions mentioned above, on: stage of endometriosis, localization of endometriotic foci, diameter of maximal dilation and location of varicosely altered pelvic veins in women with PCS. It was found that the intensity and specificity of component demonstration of pelvic pain syndrome of women with endometriosis were not dependent on the stage of the disease, but on location of endometriotic lesions. In patients with PCS the severity and specific character of chronic pain syndrome were dependent on diameter of maximal dilation and site of varicose pelvic veins. According to its characteristics, pain profile of women A takes a specific place between the peculiar profiles of patients with E and PCS.
Taming Coverage Criteria Heterogeneity with LTest

Automated white-box testing is a major issue in software engineering. In previous work, we introduced LTest, a generic and integrated toolkit for automated white-box testing of C programs. LTest supports a broad class of coverage criteria in a unified way (through the label specification mechanism) and covers most major parts of the testing process – including coverage measurement, test generation and detection of infeasible test objectives. However, the original version of LTest was unable to handle several major classes of coverage criteria, such as MCDC or dataflow criteria. Moreover, its practical applicability remained barely assessed. In this work, we present a significantly extended version of LTest that supports almost all existing testing criteria, including MCDC and some software security properties, through a native support of recently proposed hyperlabels. We also provide a more realistic view on the practical applicability of the extended tool, with experiments assessing its efficiency and scalability on real-world programs.
Contextualized Latent Semantic Indexing: A New Approach to Automated Chinese Essay Scoring

Abstract The writing part in Chinese language tests is badly in need of a mature automated essay scoring system. In this paper, we propose a new approach applied to automated Chinese essay scoring (ACES), called contextualized latent semantic indexing (CLSI), of which Genuine CLSI and Modified CLSI are two versions. The n-gram language model and the weighted finite-state transducer (WFST), two critical components, are used to extract context information in our ACES system. Not only does CLSI improve conventional latent semantic indexing (LSI), but bridges the gap between latent semantics and their context information, which is absent in LSI. Moreover, CLSI can score essays from the perspectives of language fluency and contents, and address the local overrating and underrating problems caused by LSI. Experimental results show that CLSI outperforms LSI, Regularized LSI, and latent Dirichlet allocation in many aspects, and thus, proves to be an effective approach.