Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comprehensive geriatric assessment adds information to Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status in elderly cancer patients: an Italian Group for Geriatric Oncology Study.

PURPOSE To appraise the performance of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) in elderly cancer patients (> or = 65 years) and to evaluate whether it could add further information with respect to the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS). PATIENTS AND METHODS We studied 363 elderly cancer patients (195 males, 168 females; median age, 72 years) with solid (n = 271) or hematologic (n = 92) tumors. In addition to PS, their physical function was assessed by means of the activity of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scales. Comorbidities were categorized according to Satariano's index. The association between PS, comorbidity, and the items of the CGA was assessed by means of logistic regression analysis. RESULTS These 363 elderly cancer patients had a good functional and mental status: 74% had a good PS (ie, lower than 2), 86% were ADL-independent, and 52% were IADL-independent. Forty-one percent of patients had one or more comorbid conditions. Of the patients with a good PS, 13.0% had two or more comorbidities; 9.3% and 37.7% had ADL or IADL limitations, respectively. By multivariate analysis, elderly cancer patients who were ADL-dependent or IADL-dependent had a nearly two-fold higher probability of having an elevated Satariano's index than independent patients. A strong association emerged between PS and CGA, with a nearly five-fold increased probability of having a poor PS (ie, > or = 2) recorded in patients dependent for ADL or IADL. CONCLUSION The CGA adds substantial information on the functional assessment of elderly cancer patients, including patients with a good PS. The role of PS as unique marker of functional status needs to be reappraised among elderly cancer patients.
Is attention necessary in perception

This research was conducted to investigate the phenomenon of inattentional blindness, which, examines the possibility of perception without visual attention. This study also attempted to determine whether certain features of stimuli can have an effect on the degree of that phenomenon. The study comprises three experiments, in which the procedure was exactly the same, but the type of presented stimuli differed. Thirty subjects participated in each experiment. They were randomly divided into three groups, which corresponded to three experimental conditions. The total sample consisted of 90 subjects. The results of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 show that there is no adequate perception without active engagement of attention, while the results of Experiment 3 indicate that certain type of stimuli can be perceived automatically, without visual attention. Analysis of all results suggests that there is the effect of type of stimuli on seeing a stimulus in inattentional conditions, but not on accuracy of identification.
Deadline based network resource management

A novel approach to supporting real time applications in packet-switched networks is proposed. The key element of this approach is the use of a tuple (size, deadline) to characterize the performance requirements of a document. This tuple is mapped to deadline information at the network layer, which is carried in packets and used by routers for channel scheduling purposes. A new deadline based scheduling algorithm is developed. Simulation results show that this algorithm is superior to FCFS (first come first served) with respect to the percentage of documents that are delivered on time. Our scheduling algorithm is also efficient as far as implementation is concerned.
Golimumab for severe asthma

Backgorund: In severe asthma anti-TNF-α therapies might be effective in improving disease control based on preclinical results and on clinical short-term data. However, the long-term efficacy and safety is not known. Objective: To discuss the data on golimumab, an anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibody currently used in various forms of arthritis, evaluated as an add-on anti-inflammatory therapy in severe asthma. Methods/results: Critical appraisal of the efficacy and safety clinical data. Golimumab was not found to be generally efficacious and demonstrated an unfavourable risk–benefit ratio, but in some asthma subsets its better therapeutic effects might support its use provided the long-term safety is acceptable. Conclusions: Although at first sight the safety and efficacy data of long-term use of golimumab in severe asthma might be unsupportive, in some disease subsets it might be really effective.
Self-Assembly in Swarm Robotics Systems

This report describes recent approaches proposed for self-organization and pattern formation, and introduces an evolutionary approach to the pattern formation and selfassembly task. Parallelized genetic algorithms are used in this study to evolve neural network controllers for reactive robots. The robots have probabilistic behaviors through use of random inputs, which improve overall performance.
[Expression and significance of NET-1 protein in hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE This study was designed to investigate the expression and significance of NET-1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and analyze the relationship between NET-1 gene expression and clinicopathologic factors in HCC. METHODS NET-1 gene protein expression was detected by Western blot, fluorescence immunocytochemistry, confocal laser scanning microscopy and immunohistochemistry in 8 cases of HCC tissues, human hepatoma cell line SMMC-7721, and paraffin-embeded sections from 130 cases of HCC. RESULTS NET-1 gene protein expressed in 8 cases of HCC tissues by Western blot. The NET-1 gene protein positively located in the cytoplasm as irregular granules near Golgi apparatus in SMMC-7721cells, detected by fluorescent immunocytochemistry and observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The positive rate of NET-1 protein expression revealed by immunohistochemistry was 96.9% in HCC (126/130). NET-1 Protein expression in HCC was clearly correlative with HCC cytological variants, there were pronounced higher expressions in clear cell type, pleomorphic cell type, and sarcomatous change than that in hepatocytic type (P < 0.05). NET-1 Protein expression in HCC was positively correlative with the histopathologic grading, clinical stages and HCC with hepatitis and cirrhosis (P < 0.05), respectively, and negatively correlated with the presence of patches of necrosis (P < 0.05). But NET-1 protein expression was not associated with AFP level, tumor size and growth patterns, respectively. CONCLUSION NET-1 protein is expressed in cytoplasm of HCC cells as irregular granules near Golgi apparatus. NET-1 gene expression may promote the uncontrolled proliferation and abnormal differentiation in HCC cells.
A hybrid thermoelectric cooler thermal management system for electronic packaging

Conventional cooling techniques, such as the use of heat pipes and forced convective cooling can be inadequate for many high performance electronic chips or when the operating ambient temperature is high. In such cases, there is a need for active cooling of the chip to keep its operating temperature below the design point. Thermoelectric coolers (TEC) provide an attractive option in such instances, and have been developed and used for thermal management in electronic packaging systems. In this paper a hybrid thermal management system is considered that incorporates a TEC system for active cooling in parallel with a conventional passive system. A thermal resistance network model is developed for that hybrid system that takes into account the governing equations for the TEC. The advantage of the hybrid system is that it can be operated with a higher overall system coefficient of performance for partial loads, while extending the range of operating conditions. System performance curves are obtained for change in heat load from the chip and ambient temperature.
Gamma-atrial natriuretic peptide 1–25 is found in bipolar cells in turtle and rat retinas

Immunocytochemistry was used to reveal a population of bipolar cells that contain γ-atrial natriuretic peptide 1–25 (γ-ANP) in turtle retina. This same antibody was also used in rat retina as a comparative control. The retinas were examined by both conventional light microscopy and confocal microscopy with double-labeling to determine whether protein kinase C-α-like immunoreactivity (PKC-α-LI) was colocalized with the γ-ANP-LI. Some thick sections of turtle retina immunostained with only the γ-ANP antibody were also examined by electron microscopy. In rat, a subpopulation of bipolar cells with axons terminating close to the ganglion cell layer was labeled. Double-labeling experiments indicated that the γ-ANP-LI and PKC-α-LI were colocalized in rat retina, and thus all the bipolar cells with γ-ANP-LI were rod bipolar cells. In turtle, the γ-ANP antibody labeled certain bipolar cells that were characterized by bistratified axon terminals arborizing on the borders of strata S2/3 and S3/4 in the inner plexiform layer (IPL). Double labeling with PKC-α antibody indicated that bipolar cells with γ-ANP-LI were not the same bipolar cell types with PKC-α-LI. Thus, γ-ANP-LI appears to be a new marker for a distinct type of bipolar cell in turtle retina. At the ultrastructural level, the γ-ANP-LI was visible throughout the cytoplasm of the bipolar cells from dendrites to axon terminals. In the outer plexiform layer (OPL), labeled dendrites contacted photoreceptor pedicles almost exclusively at narrow-cleft basal junctions, but infrequently formed the central element at a photoreceptor ribbon synapse. In the IPL, axon terminals with γ-ANP-LI made ribbon synapses onto a combination of amacrine and ganglion cells. Since narrow-cleft basal junctions and photoreceptor ribbon-related junctions are known to be associated with ON-center bipolar cells in turtle, and since the axon terminals of bipolars with γ-ANP-LI stratify primarily in the ON-strata of the IPL, we suggest that these cells are likely to be ON-center cells. It is possible that the γ-ANP may be involved in regulating the activity of Na+/K+ ATPase or in the modulation of cGMP levels.
Lamprey Variable Lymphocyte Receptors Mediate Complement-Dependent Cytotoxicity

An alternative adaptive-immune system is present in the most basal vertebrates—lampreys and hagfish—the only surviving jawless vertebrates. These eel-like fish use leucine-rich repeat–based receptors for Ag recognition instead of the Ig-based receptors used in jawed vertebrates. We report that in Japanese lamprey (Lampetra japonica), variable lymphocyte receptor (VLR)B interacts with C1q and C3 proteins to mediate complement-dependent cytotoxicity for bacteria and tumor cells. The immune-based lysis involves deposition of VLRB and C1q-like protein complex on the surface of target cells, activation of C3, and ultimate disruption of cell wall integrity. The demonstration of functional interaction between VLRB and complement components in lamprey provides evidence for the emergence of cooperative innate and adaptive-immune responses at a pivotal point in vertebrate evolution, before or in parallel with the evolution of Ig-based Abs and the classical complement-activation pathway.
3-D MICROMACHINED SPHERICAL SHELL RESONATORS WITH INTEGRATED ELECTROMAGNETIC AND ELECTROSTATIC TRANSDUCERS

This paper presents a new paradigm for design and fabrication of 3-D spherical shell resonators. The approach uses pressure and surface tension driven plastic deformation (glassblowing) on a wafer scale as a mechanism for creation of inherently smooth and symmetric 3-D resonant structures with integrated electrodes. Feasibility of the new approach was demonstrated by fabrication and characterization of Pyrex glass spherical shell resonators with millimeter scale diameter and average thickness of 10-20 μm. Integrated 3-D metal electrodes were used to actuate the two dynamically balanced 4-node wineglass modes. For 1 MHz glassblown resonators, the relative frequency mismatch Δf/f between the two degenerate wineglass modes was measured as 0.63 % without any trimming or tuning. The intrinsic manufacturing symmetry and high aspect ratio transducer architectures of the proposed technology may enable new classes of high performance 3-D MEMS for communications and navigation applications.
Ovarian cancer proteomics: Many technologies one goal

The last decade has seen major changes in the technologies used to identify markers for diagnosing cancer. This review focuses on recent developments on the evolving field of biomarker discovery, and validation techniques using proteomics platforms for ovarian cancer. It is possible now to diagnose various disease conditions using microliter quantities of body fluids. Currently the major developments were made in three distinct areas: (i) protein profiling, (ii) high‐throughput validation techniques, and (iii) solid and liquid phase protein microarray platforms for analyzing candidate markers across subclasses and stages of cancers. The recent addition to the long list of technologies is metabolomics using metabolite profiling and informatics‐based filtering of information for biomarker discovery of ovarian cancer. Emerging technologies need to address ways to eliminate the limitations posed by the complex dynamic nature of body fluids as well as ways to enrich low‐abundance tumor markers if they were to become a successful biomarker discovery tool. These new technologies hold significant promise in identifying more robust markers for ovarian cancer. Since the prevalence of this disease in the population is low, the test must have a high specificity.
TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF LARVAL SETTLEMENT OF DIADEMA ANTILLARUM (ECHINODERMATA: ECHINOIDEA) IN THE CANARY ISLANDS USING AN EXPERIMENTAL LARVAL COLLECTOR

Settlement of antillarum Philippi was measured at two barren ground sites, Abades and Masca (Tenerife), between April 2002 and April 2003, in order to assess the suitability of settlement collectors and to obtain settlement patterns of this keystone herbivore in the subtidal rocky bottoms of the Canary Islands. Three samplers containing small plastic balls (experimental collectors) with a very high exposed surface area (0.04 m 2 ball −1 ) were deployed monthly over 1 yr. Post-larvae and early juvenile sea urchins (newly settled urchins) were recovered from the sam plers by washing individual collectors. Bimodal peaks in settlement were observed at both locations, with a primary peak in late summer/fall (Aug–Oct) and a secondary increase in late winter (Jan–Feb). Samplers collected a monthly maximum of 24–26 (± 2–16) newly settled urchins/sampler. The primary settlement pulse corresponded roughly to the annual pattern of reproductive periodicity (gonad index-GI) of D. antillarum at Boca Cangrejo (Tenerife). GI peaked during spring (Apr–May–Jun) with a secondary peak in December. The secondary increase in settlement may be due to higher larval survival during favorable planktonic conditions.
Synthesis of biochemical applications on digital microfluidic biochips with operation variability

Microfluidic-based biochips are replacing the conventional biochemical analyzers, and are able to integrate on-chip all the necessary functions for biochemical analysis using microfluidics. The digital microfluidic biochips are based on the manipulation of liquids not as a continuous flow, but as discrete droplets. Researchers have presented approaches for the synthesis of digital microfluidic biochips, which, starting from a biochemical application and a given biochip architecture, determine the allocation, resource binding, scheduling and placement of the operations in the application. Existing approaches consider that on-chip operations, such as splitting a droplet of liquid, are perfect. However, these operations have variability margins, which can impact the correctness of the biochemical application.We consider that a split operation, which goes beyond specified variability bounds, is faulty. The fault is detected using on-chip volume sensors. We have proposed an abstract model for a biochemical application, consisting of a sequencing graph, which can capture all the fault scenarios in the application. Starting from this model, we have proposed a synthesis approach that, for a given chip area and number of sensors, can derive a fault-tolerant implementation. Two fault-tolerant scheduling techniques have been proposed and compared. We show that, by taking into account fault-occurrence information, we can derive better quality implementations, which leads to shorter application completion times, even in the case of faults. The proposed synthesis approach under operation variability has been evaluated using several benchmarks.
Recent progress concerning CpG DNA and its use as a vaccine adjuvant

CpG Oligonucleotides (ODN) are immunomodulatory synthetic oligonucleotides designed to specifically agonize Toll-like receptor 9. Here, we review recent progress in understanding the mechanism of action of CpG ODN and provide an overview of human clinical trial results using CpG ODN to improve the vaccines for cancer, allergy and infectious disease.
A Frog-Shaped Linear Piezoelectric Actuator Using First-Order Longitudinal Vibration Mode

A frog-shaped linear piezoelectric actuator was proposed, designed, fabricated, and tested. The proposed actuator only used the first-order longitudinal vibration to generate linear motion, which made the design, optimization, and miniaturization of the actuator more flexible by abbreviating the frequency degeneration. By stimulating the first-order longitudinal vibration, alternate oblique movements are formed on the ends of two driving feet. Meanwhile, an elongating and shortening movement of the whole actuator is generated. When two parallel walls are in contact with the ends of two diving feet and a vertical preload is applied, the vertical components of the alternate oblique movements will overcome the preload, while the horizontal components of the alternate oblique movements and the elongating and shortening movements will together push the actuator into linear motion. Vibration characteristics and alternate oblique movements of the driving feet were investigated by the finite-element method. Experiment tests of vibration characteristics and mechanical output ability were then carried out. The tested resonance frequency and vibration amplitudes agreed well with the calculated ones. The prototype achieved a maximum speed and a thrust of 287 mm/s and 11.8 N, respectively.
Travel for Ambulatory Medical Care

This article describes travel patterns for ambulatory care based on the 1978 National Health Interview Survey. The county where a physician visit occurs has been compared with the county of patient's residence. Nearly 20 per cent of physician visits occur outside the county of residence, with substantial variation according to metropolitan status and proximity to an SMSA. Visits by nonmetropolitan residents are twice as likely to occur in another county as visits by metropolitan residents. The proportion of visits that occur outside the county of residence increases with decreasing population density, both among metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Travel patterns for the usual source of care are similar to those for primary care physician visits. The results are used to estimate adjusted physician-population ratios by allocating physicians to each county type in proportion to their use by residents. These adjusted ratios exhibit substantially less variation than the unadjusted ratios.
Investigations into improved isolation in Co- to cross-polar radiation fields of a single-fed circularly polarized patch antenna

The radiation performance of a circularly polarized (CP) single probe-fed truncated corner square microstrip patch has been enhanced by employing (i) a metal (PEC) ring contouring the patch on the patch side of the CP antenna, and (ii) a multi-section ring defect in the ground plane (GP) of the CP antenna. The concept has been validated by designing a CP patch with a conventional GP, a CP patch with a PEC ring contouring the patch and a ring type defect in the GP of the conventional CP patch. Proposed configurations appear to be ideal for many circularly polarized wireless and satellite communication applications. Simulated results confirm axial ratio (AR) of about (i) 1.1 dB for a CP antenna with a PEC ring contouring the patch and (ii) 0.1 dB for a CP antenna with ring type defect in the ground plane; compared to an AR of 2.7 dB for a conventional CP antenna, indicating an improvement in cross polarized (XP) isolation. AR bandwidth has also been improved by 70% in case of PEC ring contoured CP patch and almost 100% in case of ring type defected ground structure (DGS) integrated CP patch when compared with conventional CP antenna. These improvements have been achieved without affecting any other parameters such as impedance bandwidth and peak gain of the antenna.
Competition over visibility and popularity on Online Social Networks. (Compe'tition sur la visibilite et la popularite' dans les re'seaux sociaux en ligne)

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Competition over visibility and popularity on Online Social Networks Alexandre Reiffers-Masson
Characterization of ligand binding to acyl-CoA-binding protein.

Ligand binding to recombinant bovine acyl-CoA-binding protein (rACBP) was examined using a Lipidex 1000 competition assay and an e.p.r. spectroscopy displacement assay. Of all putative ligands tested, rACBP exhibited a high binding affinity only for acyl-CoA esters. No alternative ligands could be found in rat liver fractions purified on an affinity of column on which ACBP was coupled to Sepharose 4B. E.p.r. data indicate that both the acyl chain and the CoA head group of acyl-CoA are involved in binding and that the 3'-phosphate group on the ribose moiety of acyl-CoA esters plays a crucial role in the binding of acyl-CoA to ACBP. E.p.r. competition binding studies show that the binding affinity of acyl-CoA esters for rACBP is strongly dependent on the length of the acyl chain with a clear preference for acyl-CoA esters with 14-22 carbon atoms in the acyl chain. No correlation between the number of double bonds in the acyl chain and the binding affinity was observed. The experimental results strongly indicate that ACBP specifically binds long-chain acyl-CoA esters with a very high affinity, results that indicate that ACBP is likely to be involved in the intracellular transport and pool formation of these compounds.
Guest Editors' Introduction: Integrating COTS into the Development Process

Building and evolving software systems is an arduous, costly, lengthy, and complex task. The resulting systems are similarly complex. We're thus constantly searching for ways to reduce such costs, time, and complexity while increasing system functionality and quality. One strategy that originally seemed promising was the notion of "buy not build. " Using COTS products is one way to implement this strategy, because software development then becomes the process of "simply" integrating COTS components. However, it turns out that dealing with COTS is a high-risk activity for a variety of reasons.